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CENTROPE conference: Bringing the CENTROPE brand to life
CENTROPE is a region where diversity and richness of local customs meet against the backdrop of a common cultural heritage. Yet making this legacy visible is quite a different question. The Tomášov Summit public conference united a roster of distinguished speakers to search for an answer to this question and discuss the potential of CENTROPE as a tourist destination.
Cultural relations and interregional tourism are key factors in building the common identity of the four-country region but difficult to achieve without heightened visibility. Raising the image of CENTROPE above the image of individual locations may help the region to face the pressures of global competition, as pointed out by keynote speaker Greg Clark, senior advisor on urban issues and former Managing Director at Greater London Enterprise.
But building a single image and a brand brings about other advantages as well. It is not simply about “selling” a region but about supporting the development of the region itself, Clark suggested. The brand helps to foster a stronger common identity and reputation of the region, which is an important factor in attracting investment and people – for, just as in business, a well-known trademark acts as a seal of quality. Thus many concrete examples of cross-border areas, such as the Öresund Region and the metropolitan region of Basel, show how brand building may help a cross-border region to foster integration, the local economy, labour force exchange and common governance.
CENTROPE can draw inspiration from these examples and build on its many positive characteristics. The distinctiveness and rich cultural potential of the four-country region are widely appreciated and harbour enormous tourism potential. However, the development of a fully-fledged, distinctive image of CENTROPE is still in its earliest stages while each of the tourist destinations within the region continues to cultivate its singular trademarks. The panel debate with tourism experts from the region highlighted the fact that any future unique CENTROPE brand needs to be based on enthusiasm invested in the jointly undertaken efforts and on the development of a collective storytelling tradition. The success stories of existing cultural and tourism co-operation ventures in CENTROPE – examples presented in Tomášov included the Bratislava-Vienna catamaran link or “Traces”, the transnational culture and museum route connecting elements of the shared architectural heritage – are thus first milestones towards a visible and well-marketed common tourist destination.
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