Evaluation of Brand Indicators In Branding Of Tangible Tourist Attractions Case Study: Tabriz City

Nowadays, destination marketing strategies are used in cities in order to attract more tourists. One of the most important of these strategies can be mentioned branding using prominent signs and symbols of a city. The aim of present research is investigating importance of branding in development of urban tourism, this research has identified effective criteria and indicators for transformation of an urban symbol into a tourism brand with a descriptive-analytical method. Based on theoretical foundations and literature review, main influential indicators in branding tangible attractions of Tabriz city were identified and extracted. Then, using the fuzzy Delphi method, identified factors were screened. In next step, pairwise comparisons were made and sent to 15 experts and experts in field of tourism to answer. After receiving the experts' answers, 250 available tourists were interviewed and their questionnaires were evaluated using AHP method and weights of criteria were determined. Then options were ranked by TOPSIS method and appropriate element was selected to be introduced as tourism brand of Tabriz. Results of research indicate that according to multiple criteria considered by the experts, Blue Masque is the first place, Arg-e-Alishah is the second place, Maqbar al-Shoara is the third place, Municipal Building is the fourth place, El-goli Building is the Fifth and finally, Yanqin Tower is the last rank with the lowest score.