Destination governance and internal branding as antecedents of destination brand development: an exploratory study on Edinburgh

Destination governance, DMO coordination of stakeholders and internal branding can be considered as pre-conditions necessary for the development of a successful destination brand. Nevertheless, how the DMO coordinates stakeholders and the relationships existent between destination governance and branding have been topics neglected so far. Adopting a supply side perspective, this paper highlights the mechanisms that a DMO can use for coordinating stakeholders and make an attempt to explain how internal branding and coordination have an impact on the destination brand. In order to study these topics a case-study methodology based on qualitative methods was applied to the city of Edinburgh.