Abstract
Communication is a relevant process at the business level, but it also plays an important role in territorial contexts and in relation to the local community, citizens, and tourists. Territorial marketing is a set of strategic actions planned, aiming to improve the competitiveness of a territory, and consequently contributing to its development, promoting the satisfaction of the residents ‘needs in each territory.' Municipalities tried to keep up with the evolution of the previous concepts, which resulted in their restructuring, emphasizing the search for the expansion of their effectiveness in society at the same time that they establish a bilateral relationship. This conjecture led to difficulties in the process of the message by the residents, especially in specific themes about the Autarchy itself, on the other hand, to the recognition of improvements by the entity under study. This chapter presents insights into territorial management, local development, and contributions to the tourist destination (i.e. Guimarães).
TopIntroduction
People are motivated to visit some destinations for a wide range of purposes such as leisure, seeking for a novelty, experiencing specific objects within the different types of tourism, including special interest tourism or niche tourism trends (Atsız & Temiz, 2022). Among these, literary tourism has become a popular market segmentation over the past decades and has gained significant attention from tourism scholars (Atsız, & Temiz, 2022). Communication develops in a cycle from the sender to the receiver who sometimes encounters barriers that make it difficult to decode the message and change their perception, thus highlighting the relevance of analyzing all the processes suffered. In this sense, companies have been exploring this term in order to achieve better results in two aspects: intrinsic and extrinsic, fostering the relationship with their employees and enhancing the reinforcement of their image externally. It is clear, then, the significance that communication has in the daily life of the entire community, in its various aspects. Bearing in mind that Autarchy encompasses all residents, therefore varied desires and needs while operating with external audiences, in order to encourage local development, be it at an economic or other level, it can be affirmed as an organization. Therefore, communication in this area objectively helps to satisfy citizens, while establishing transparent relationships. Territorial marketing presents its relevance associated with the development of strategies in order to overcome the promotion of a given space to boost a relationship between the various stakeholders’ present (Kotler & Haider, 1993; Sousa & Rocha, 2019; Silva, Sousa & Abreu, 2023). Countries, regions or cities must differentiate themselves from the others by creating a competitive advantage, which allows them to communicate and offer a unique image of the territory in question. Thus, it is crucial to be attentive to all opportunities with a view to establishing strategies that lead to the differentiation of geography and increased competitiveness (Eichinger Schreier & van Osselaer, 2022; Abreu, 2018). Therefore, municipal communication with the local community was defined as a context (i.e. Municipality of Guimarães, Portugal). The creation of an research, firstly in this county, recognized throughout the country as the “cradle of the nation” and the patriotism correlated to its citizens, aroused interest in understanding how its autarchy manages to successfully apply, or not, strategies naturally linked to communication and certain emotions aroused by residents from Guimarães. Furthermore, it becomes relevant to investigate this success in the line of culture and leisure, excluding other areas from the outset.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Place Identity: Symbolic or emotional connection for a location or context. Place identity or place-based identity refers to a cluster of ideas about place and identity in the fields of geography, urban planning, urban design, landscape architecture, interior design, spatial design, environmental psychology, ecocriticism and urban sociology/ecological sociology. Place identity is sometimes called urban character, neighbourhood character or local character.
Place Dependence: Functional connection with a particular place or context. Place dependence is related to the perceived attachment power between the person and the specific place associated with the particular place quality and the other alternative places quality compared to the intended location.
Communication: Communication is a process that involves the exchange of information between two or more interlocutors.
Loyalty: Consideration of the precepts that concern honor, decency, and honesty.
Relationship Marketing: Relationship marketing corresponds to marketing work focused on the relationship with customers and suppliers.
Territorial Brand: a territory brand is a combination of unique qualities, unfading universal values reflecting the originality, unique original consumer characteristics of a given territory and community.