Introduction

Place branding (including place marketing and place promotion) is a new umbrella term
encompassing nation branding, region branding and city branding. Place branding is the process
of image communication to a target market. It is invariably related to the notion that places
compete with other places for people, resources, and business. Place branding can also be
defined as the process employed by public administrations to intend to create place brands,
networks of associations in the target groups minds based on the visual, verbal, and behavioral
expression of a place, which is embodied through the aims, communication, values, and the
general culture of the places stakeholders and the overall place design. It therefore aims to
affect the perceptions of a place and position it favorably in the minds of the target groups.
Place branding can even be considered as a governance strategy for projecting images and
managing perceptions about places. Place branding thus suggests that places, cities, regions or
countries could be considered as brands, as long as perceived so. In this regard, many public
administrations are implementing place branding strategies.

Objectives
To build positive perception about Coxs bazar in the mind of both domestic and
international tourists.
To evaluate the relationship between brand image and tourist destination.
To analyze the tourism components which have significant impact for building strong
positive brand image of Coxs bazar.
To identify different attribute of tourism that can be used to build brand image.
To explore the current scenario of brand image of Coxs bazar.
To identify the relation between destination overall image and tourists loyalty.

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Limitations

Data collection was limited to only local community of Coxs bazar and small size of tourists
who visited Coxs bazar. So, the credibility of research findings is based on small selected
sample. Respondents awareness regarding destination image and concept of branding is very
much confusing. Future research will be undertaken using a bigger sample, for a better
understanding of the determinants of the destinations brand image.

Research Gap

Coxs bazar is the tourist centre of Bangladesh. From different literature it is clear that there are
many studies have been conducted on tourism potentialities, tourism development plan,
tourism facilities, problems and prospects as well as socio-economic impact of tourism in Coxs
bazar. There is no studies have been found regarding how to build strong brand image of Coxs
bazar as a tourist destination as well as what is the current scenario of existing brand image of
Coxs bazar as a destination. This is a sharp research gap.

Future Research

For this study, sample respondents were only local people of Coxs bazar and small number of
tourists. For future research researchers can collect huge information from all over the
Bangladesh.

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The research topic is an under-researched issue in Coxs bazar context and while reviewing
literature it is found that previously no research initiative was taken to examine the brand
image of Coxs bazar as a tourist destination. Therefore findings of this research are creating
new literature and for further addition to this body of knowledge, future research scopes are
there. This research has a specific focus on building strong brand image of Coxs bazar as a
tourist destination and there are other potential issues for developing tourism in Coxs bazar
that can be researched in future.

Elements of Place Branding of Coxs

Bazar

Several criteria that make for good place branding, which go beyond just the creation of a logo
and slogan include:

1. Long-term focus:

Too many place branding activities are 'campaign focused' rather than thinking long-term.
Places are difficult things to market and create strong brands for. Branding takes time and a
campaign tends to be a shorter term, one off, event. Part of the issue is that traditional
advertising agencies themselves are very campaign oriented. Traditional advertising agencies
aren't terribly good at dealing with the greater complexity that place branding really demands.

Equally the place or destination itself needs to clearly identify goals with definable long term
strategic objectives. What is the place trying to achieve? What are their goals in terms of
inward investment, tourism or residential growth? Too often these are missing and even when
present, tend to be expressed in generalities. Each place is different and demands a different,
long-term, set of objectives. Coxs Bazar always has a long term focus to attract the tourists,
from home and abroad.

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2. Distinct positioning:

Once these longer term goals and objectives are identified the focus should be on creating a
really distinct positioning. The art of marketing is the art of branding. The art of branding is the
creation of a distinct positioning. It is being number one in the chosen category. It is the hardest
thing to get right. It needs a simple and clear proposition. A distinct positioning means being
just that - distinct. It needs to stand for something and that will probably lead to some people
not liking it. But if it produces wallpaper that doesn't stand out, odds are it won't offend anyone
but equally it won't stand out either. The Bay of Bengal clearly indicates Coxs Bazars distinct
positioning.

3. Communication that really communicates:

Beyond the branding elements, clear communications thinking with a good mix of traditional
media and activities and social media is important. Nearly all places and destinations engage in
some form of social media activity nowadays, but unfortunately too much of it is disjointed and
sporadic. Nowadays customers are in control of what they want to see and experience. They
can get more information, and form opinions about places, and brands, without ever looking at
the website or following the social media posts.

The whole focus nowadays should be built around attracting the right customers to seek the
place out and the way to do that is with great quality content and strong inbound
marketing programs. The key is creating great quality content, without it being overly sales
oriented. The short video on Coxs Bazar and the place of sunset works as a bait of the tourists.

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Four Ps of Coxs Bazar

Tourism Destination Management to develop tourism industry has a key impact on economic
growth in developing countries. In Bangladesh tourism is the only sector which is growing very
fast. So to gain the maximum benefit from tourism sector, there should be some good
strategies developed to survive in competition in this competitive area.

Product:

Tourism is a growing industry in Bangladesh. Recently, Coxs Bazar of Bangladesh has been
recognized as a rising tourists spot among the fastest growing destinations in the world.
Presently, it holds important position in the competition of worlds natural beauty.

Cox's Bazar is a district in the Chittagong division of Bangladesh. It is named after Cox's Bazar
town. It is one of the fishing ports of Bangladesh. At Cox's Bazar is one of the world's longest
natural sea beaches. It is located 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Chittagong. As the world's
longest beach, Cox's Bazar has yet to become a major tourist destination in Asia. Cox's Bazar is
also known by the name Panowa ("yellow flower"). Another old name is Palongkee.

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There are many tribal people living in Coxs Bazar district those who have their own tradition
and life style. There are many attractive religious and historicalevents make the city colorful
andjoyous to the tourists.

Price:

At present tourism is being a very competitive business. Now the customers demand to a
service provider is more than before. Only providing the basic things and service is not enough
because someone will provide something extra. So, tour operators are conscious about some
additional factors like comfort, safety, entertainment and environmental issues along with the
services available to them. On the other hand, customers expect something more than usual.
They always look for the service which is better in cheap price.

Place:

The main attractions of Coxs Bazar are-

Laboni Beach:Laboni Beach is the main beach of Cox's Bazar. At here we can easily enjoy
the scenic beauty of Bay of Bengal. Its a place for enjoyment; many people come here
including the foreigners. The beach is well appreciated during sunsets and sunrise,
where people can witness the sea as it changes its colors twice in a day. Visitors can
sunbathe, surf, jog, cycle, and swim. It is best for swimming and relaxation. Close to the
beach, there are a lot of small shops selling souvenirs, locally made cigars & beauty
products.

Kolatoli Beach:Kolatoli beach is another attractive beach for the tourist. Every year
different ages people come here to take the real taste of taking sea-bath. Vistor's can
taking sea bath, driving sea ski boat, can take fresh and appealing various kinds of sea
foods. Walking beside the sea shore on moonlit night is always pleasant for all aged
tourist.
Inani Beach: It is the south of Cox's Bazar. With green hills to the east, the golden beach
of Inani casts a music spell on anyone stepping on to its fine golden sands. The clean

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 blue waters of the Bay are ideal for swimming. It is considered the world's longest and
broadest beach: 180m at high tide and 300m at low tide.
Himchori: Many attractions are for the tourists around Cox's Bazar. It's Waterfall, this is
famous for waterfall, though in the winter season it dwindles but during the rainy
season it's really a fabulous and full waterfall can be enjoyed.
Teknaf:Teknaf, a romantic old-world border township in the southern tip of Bangladesh
territory looking up to the Myanmar high hill ranges across the river Naf. Teknaf is 85
km from Cox's Bazar by road and 120 km by the beach along the sea.
Saint Martin:St. Martins Island is the most beautiful Coral Island. Its only 30 km from
Teknaf. This small coral island about 10km (6mi) southwest of the southern tip of the
mainland is a tropical clich, with beaches fringed with coconut palms and bountiful
marine life. There's nothing more strenuous to do than soak up the rays, but it's a clean
and peaceful place.
Moheskhali:It is another attraction for the tourists who go to Cox's Bazaar. An island off
the coast of Cox's Bazar. Through the center of the island and along the eastern
coastline rises, a range of low hills, 300 feet high; but the coast to the west and north is
a low-lying treat, fringed by mangrove jungle. In the hills on the coast is built the shrine
of Adinath, dedicated to Siva.

Promotion:

Now tourists are more conscious about security, safety, environmental issues, and quality of
services, available information and expenses rather than visiting a place without proper
information. As Coxs bazar in Bangladesh is not known as tourism brand in international
market, first it needs to work to rebuild its tourism sector to introduce it as a tourism brand in
the international market. Because branding in tourism not only attract tourists but also attract
international investors to invest money. To make a tourism brand appropriate infrastructure
development, proper management and marketing is essential.

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Advertising is the best way for initial publicity of tourist attractions. The result of advertising
may be short term or long term and it is very difficult to get feedback from the customers
instantly. This promotion tools is used to generate publicity and it gives basic idea of goods and
services.

There are many different promotion or advertising methods that organizations can choose
according to their needs and demands. These methods are printed media, broadcasting media
and online. Printed Medias are magazine, newspaper, journal, billboard etc. These are used
mainly for faster marketing and to give a quick message to the people.

A properly designed web site can facilitate the travelers planning, helping to ensure they make
the right choices and have an enjoyable experience. It can also serve as the distribution point
for all the services they will need as they plan their vacation.

Some tour operators telecast their own television shows about traveling to different
destinations like coxs bazar, while participating in activities.

Nowadays, the Internet has become a part of our life. People spend a big portion of their time
everyday using the internet, chatting with friends and acquaintances and always want to be
connected with them by different social media like Facebook, YouTube, and different blogs and
so on. Again the number of internet users is increasing day by day. Hence, for tourism
marketing, social media can be effective tools. We can already see that most of the tourism
organizations have their videos or online advertisement in YouTube, similarly they have
different pages on Facebook to connect people and give up-to-date information about their
services.

This electronic media like websites, emails, YouTube, Facebook etc. are very useful for
promotion now and these kinds of marketing tools are used highly in this modern age. These
are also some effective ways of international marketing.

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SWOT Analysis of Coxs Bazar

The SWOT analysis comprises of the internal strength and weakness and external opportunities
and threats. SWOT analysis gives an insight of what they can do in future and how they can
compete with their existing competitors. This tool is very important to identify the current
position of the organization relative to others, who are playing in the same field and also used
in the strategic analysis.

Strengths:
Strength is a resource skill or other advantage relative to competitors and the needs of the
markets a firm serves or expects to serve.

The strengths of Coxs bazaar are given below-

It has the largest sea beach in the world

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 It has unique natural beauty and greenery.

It has the large Burmese Market.

It has large dry fish market.

It has rich cultural heritage and religious harmony.

It has the accommodation facilities available throughout the city. Various kinds of
transportation facilities and hotels are available here.

Weaknesses

A Weakness is the limitation of deficiency in resources skills or capabilities that seriously

impedes an effective performance. Like these, Coxs bazaar also has some Weaknesses.

The weaknesses are given below-

Tourism sites are not properly explored, extracted and managed.

Lack of investment.

Low quality services.

Lack of safety, security and hygiene.

Lack of infrastructural development.

Absence of sales plan and public relation activities.

Lack of private initiatives in tourism development.

It cannot offer tourist products and destination packages exclusively to local and foreign
tourists.

As a result, tourists have to go back to their home with low level of satisfaction.

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 The number of supply chain member in the tourism industry is not sufficient to build up
a strong base.

Small number of tour operators, inefficient national airlines, and insignificant role of
travel agencies.

Shortage of professional guides.

Price of some tourism components like the star and standards hotel rooms, food items,
package tours and river cruise programs are much higher than those of neighboring
countries like India and Nepal.

Lacking of promotional and marketing activities of tourism by both public and private
sector.

Opportunities:

It has vast opportunities in development are as follows-

Due to globalization scope for dissemination of information and communication media.

Scope of making the tourist spots more attractive.

Research and development to attract more tourist and making favorable tourism policy.

Development of tourism culture.

Threats

It also has some threats are as follows-

Political Instability of the country.

Harassment by the police and the broker in the airport for tourist.

Lack of awareness among the mass people regarding the benefits of both locally and
internationally.

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 Illegal fishing creates loss in the economy.

Absence of sufficient trained safe guards in the beaches to aware and save the tourists
in case of emergency.

Shortage of sufficient accommodation and other amusement services.

Tourists presently hold misconceptions about Bangladesh as a tourists destinations.

Foreigners now know Bangladesh as a country of poverty, baggers, flood, political

unrest and corruption.

Absence of proper tourism policy.

Political collision between tribal and Bengali people.

PEST Analysis of Coxs Bazar

A PEST analysis is an analysis of the external macro-environment that affects all firms. P.E.S.T. is
an acronym for the Political, Economic, Social, and Technological factors of the external macro-
environment. Such external factors usually are beyond the firm's control and sometimes
present themselves as threats.

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 Political

PEST
Technological Economic
Analysis

Social

Political environment

The political system of Bangladesh is followed by representative democracy. Despite of

being a democratic country the safeguards of democracy are not being exercised
properly which has negative impact on tourism. Political unrest is almost a daily
occurrence. Foreign tourists are feared to come in Bangladesh due to political unrest.
Security and safety are not adequate.

Government may establish a have a high-powered independent tourism authority

(National Tourism Board) to guide tourism development in the country.
For campaigning activities, government can employ trained manpower countrywide
who continuously will work to include all scenic beauties, prospective tourism products,
and update previous tourism sites including Coxs Bazar.

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 Visa policy of government is one of the main reasons behind the foreign tourists'
unwillingness to visit Bangladesh. No tourism development will bring any good, if visa is
not relaxed; Government can introduce an online visa tracking system by bringing all the
land ports and airports connecting through internal network and can monitor visitor's
entry and exit date and time automatically.
Government should ensure proper security and safety system in the country in general
tourism spots in particular.

Economical Environment

The economic system of Bangladesh is characterized by mixed economy in Bangladesh

certain sectors of the economy are left to private ownership and free market
mechanism while other sectors have significant state ownership and government
planning.
A good presence of FDI is seen in many sectors (like IT, Garments, Medicine,
Communications etc.) of Bangladesh except tourism. Government should provide
special facilities to both local & foreign investors to invest in this industry considering its
economic growth and development. For instance, Sri Lanka encourages, 100 % FDI in
the tourism sector development of their country.
Government may give Tax holiday to more and more development of tourism industry
and set up hotels and restaurants in the tourist areas all over the country. As a result
foreign investors will be interested to invest in this industry

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 Social Environment

Bangladesh is a conservative Muslim country. People used to live a more religious. The
young were more respectful to the old and superior. Smoking in front of the superior
was forbidden. People used to believe in joint families.
But now people are getting more and more liberal.
They follow religion in a more relaxed way.
Men and women now mix frequently.
Our social values are changing fast. There is a clear western influence on our culture and
values. Many people now accept western values.

Technological Environment
Basically, at this moment the business people are much more aware about technology
because they know technology can enhance their operation. ICT is an umbrella term for
a range of technological applications such as computer hardware and software, digital
broadcast technologies such as radio and television, telecommunications technologies
such as mobile phones, and electronic information resources such as the World Wide
Web.
Cox's Bazaar definitely needs to be advertised properly on the popular tourist related
web sites.
There should be coordination of information and services between these websites and
popular hotels, restaurants, shops and travel services of Cox's Bazaar and other tourist
spots of Bangladesh.
We need to take pragmatic steps to develop and update our websites to increase
international tourist flow. For instance, Cambodia has its tourism websites in eight
languages; Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia in 12 languages, and we have ours only in one
language, English.

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Recommendations

For building strong brand image of a destination several tourism stakeholders will need to
play significant role spontaneously. Their roles and responsibilities will be different but they
will need to work hand to hand.

A model fit to Destination/Brand loyalty

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 Figure 1. Destination chain from brand to brand loyalty

When a place has attribute such as natural, historic, or manmade; lodging and dining facilities,
favorable environment, satisfactory level of security system, entertainment and amusement
activities, shopping facilities, standard accessibility system is treated as attractive destination.
The plus sign of a figure indicates that if all of these are adequate enough than it will be treated
as a brand destination. A destination need to branding through different promotional tools
such as advertisements, media, social media as well as need to engage all the stakeholders of
tourism such as tourists, host community, Destination Management Organization (DMO),
government, tourist guide, hoteliers, etc. When the promotion is effective and stakeholders are
spontaneous to their roles it helps to create brand image. It is important that both
stakeholders spontaneity and promotional effectiveness must be balanced and moved in a
same direction. If the brand image becomes positive it will lead the tourist to become loyal to
the brand or destination. And the result of brand loyalty will create the opportunity for repeat
visit, positive word of mouth, tourist referral and that will ensure sustainability of the
destination. The consequences will be income increase, employment opportunity, improve
quality of service. And the final beneficiaries will be the stakeholders of the destination. So they
need to play significant role in creating brand image through ensuring quality and availability of
the tourism components and be spontaneous to create effectiveness of the promotional
program.

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Conclusion

There is not a single resourceful research report regarding building a strong brand image of
Coxs bazaar as a tourist destination. To make a destination popular and well known worldwide
there is no alternative than building brand image. The study emphasize on the different
attributes of the Coxs bazaar tourist destination which help to build positive brand image of
Coxs bazaar as a tourist destination. Different statistical methods also used to identify the
significant attribute as well as to find the nature of relationship between overall image and
tourism attributes. From this study it is found that for building strong brand image of Coxs
bazaar quality-price ratio is most significant. On the other hand several recommendations are
given to several stakeholders of tourism to play positive role for building positive brand image
from their sphere.

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