Giving brand image to a nation

Adapting Keller's brand image theory (1993), this paper presents an exploratory framework for giving brand image to a nation. Utilizing unstructured interviews, the result suggests that tourism and hospitality attributes can be used for giving brand image to a nation and behavioral intention. Specifically, the result denotes that the perceived brand image of a nation is formed according to tourists' cognitive and affective beliefs, which at the end; influence the action to recommend to others and/or for repeat visitation. In addition, the “pretentious” nation brand campaign and national identity found in this exploratory study should be focused upon as variables for further research and testing the framework