Nation Branding and Tourism. Case Study: Croatia

Nowadays the world can be seen as a huge potential market as a result of globalization. Countries try more and more to find niches in order to gain competitive advantage. In this context, nation branding became an important tool used by many states to build and manage their reputation, to drive sustainable development and competitive parity. As to Anhalt [1], the most significant brand communicator is tourism and, on the other hand, tourism is the sector that benefits the most from a good branding campaign and a positive image. The image of countries is often represented with touristic landscape, which proves the power of tourism in influencing a country image. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to disclose how tourism can build a national identity and how this national identity can become a nation brand. In order to achieve this objective, the case of Croatia will be studied more in depth, as the service sector has a 70% share of Croatia's GDP, with tourism accounting for roughly 20%, meaning that tourism plays a significant role in Croatia's development [2].