Americans are loud. Amsterdam equals sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Mexicans are lazy and Germans are boring, but punctual. Paris is romantic, Wuhan infectious, Ukrainians heroic, and New Zealand untouched. This is the way people around the world think about cities, regions and countries and the communities that live there; through cliches and stereotypes. It can be frustrating and hindering trade, diplomacy, investment, tourism, or talent attraction. Many believe that such image problems can be resolved with advertising campaigns, but the classic tourism promotion model is broken and insufficient. This book explains what works and what doesn’t when it comes to improving the reputation of cities, regions, and countries. It does so without the use of jargon and with reference to numerous case-studies. The book primarily aims to inspire readers and offer them a broad overview of an issue in modern society that is of interest and relevance to all of us: the reputation of our communities.
Tables and figures: download from www.imaginativecommunities.com/tables
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Since 2009 Robert Govers has co-edited and authored four books on the topic of community reputation with Palgrave Macmillan publishers. His award-winning book Imaginative Communities is his first book published under his own imprint and has been translated into Portuguese and Spanish.
Robert Govers is a Senior Partner at Anholt & Co. where he has worked on numerous assignments with the Governments of Chile, Iceland, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan and Qatar. He has also advised many other administrations worldwide including the national and regional governments of Luxembourg, three provinces in the Netherlands, and the cities of Ghent, Ostend and Bruges.
Dr. Govers is founding chairman of the International Place Branding Association and has been an adjunct or visiting scholar in Beijing, Hyderabad, Leuven, Rotterdam, London, Milan, Torino and Dubai.
Robert Govers has held positions in South Africa, the Netherlands, Belgium and Dubai and has a PhD and Master’s degree from Erasmus University, Rotterdam School of Management.