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Кобрендинг как фактор туристического потока в города
The reorientation of Russian tourist flows to domestic destinations under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the aggravation of the geopolitical situation creates opportunities for expanding the supply in the domestic tourist market. Cooperation between regions and cities in the development and promotion of new tour routes and brands, as well as the joining of new participants to existing formats of joint branding, is becoming relevant. Meanwhile, the issues of the influence of branding on tourism development indicators in the literature are still insufficiently covered. And there are practically no studies measuring the effects of co-branding cities. The purpose of this study is to study the impact of the participation of cities in the co-branding association on tourist flows to these cities. The authors focused on the activities of brand managers in creating and communicating city brands, while the tourist flow indicator evaluated the activities results. In the framework of the empirical study, a quantitative comparative analysis of two groups of cities was carried out (group 1 – cities included in the Golden Ring co-branding association, group 2 – cities with similar characteristics, but branded independently). The analysis showed a significant correlation between branding and tourist flows in group 1. At the same time, no such relationship was found for group 2. Thus, the results of the study suggest that there is a real influence of co-branding strategies on the tourist flows of cities. The results of the study may be a tool to substantiate the feasibility of cities' participation in co-branding associations, which makes it possible to increase the effectiveness of promoting tourist brands of all participating cities.