The Potential of the Western Silk Road
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The Potential of the Western Silk Road Co-funded by the COSME programme of the European Union Copyright © 2017, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). Licensed to the European Union under conditions. The Potential of the Western Silk Road – Working paper ISBN printed version: 978-92-844-1917-3 ISBN electronic version: 978-92-844-1918-0 Published and printed by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) First printing: December 2017 All rights reserved. Publication prepared in the framework of the cooperation between UNWTO and the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) of the European Commission (Grant Agreement SI2.729496) with the funding from the European Union’s COSME Programme (2014-2020). The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinions whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the World Tourism Organization or the European Commission concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The sole responsibility for the content of this study lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Communities or the World Tourism Organization. The European Commission and the World Tourism Organization are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Calle Poeta Joan Maragall, 42 28020 Madrid Spain Tel.: (+34) 915 678 100 Fax: (+34) 915 713 733 Website: www.unwto.org Citation: World Tourism Organization (2017), The Potential of the Western Silk Road, UNWTO, Madrid. 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For all remaining countries as well as for other permissions, requests should be addressed directly to the World Tourism Organization. For applications see http://publications.unwto.org/content/rights-permissions. 2 The present publication has been prepared by UNWTO’s Silk Road Programme, in the framework of the cooperation between UNWTO and the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) of the European Commission (EC) – Grant Agreement SI2.729496 – and has received funding from the European Union’s COSME Programme (2014-2020). 3 4 Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ 5 Table of figures ................................................................................................................ 7 List of tables .................................................................................................................... 7 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 9 2 Background and Overview ........................................................................................ 10 The Silk Road ................................................................................................................. 10 The Western Silk Road .................................................................................................. 12 The modern Silk Road ................................................................................................... 12 Methodology .................................................................................................................. 15 The questionnaire ......................................................................................................................... 15 Focus groups................................................................................................................................. 17 Academic national SWOT studies................................................................................................. 17 Semi-structured interviews ............................................................................................................ 18 Western Silk Road SWOT Analysis .............................................................................................. 18 Online survey results .................................................................................................... 18 Part 1 – Survey participants .......................................................................................................... 18 Part 2 – The Silk Road .................................................................................................................. 21 Part 3 – The Western Silk Road.................................................................................................... 28 Part 4 – Creating a Western Silk Road Brand .............................................................................. 31 4 Untold stories and destinations – the Western Silk Road audit ............................. 34 4.1. Armenia and the Silk Road .................................................................................... 34 4.2. Bulgaria on the Silk Road ...................................................................................... 37 4.3. Greece and the Silk Road....................................................................................... 38 4.4. Italy and the Silk Road ........................................................................................ 49 4.5. The Russian Federation and the Silk Road ....................................................... 53 4.6. Spain and the Silk Road ..................................................................................... 56 4.7. The Vikings as Silk traders ................................................................................ 65 5. The Western Silk Road as a brand ............................................................................ 68 5.1. Introduction to Western Silk Road brand creation and implementation ............ 68 5.1.1 Branding objectives ....................................................................................................... 68 5.2. The current perception and existing usage of the Silk Road brand.................... 69 5.2.1 Current perception of the Silk Road identity ................................................................. 69 5.2.2 Existing Silk Road Brand Positioning amongst Western Silk Road Countries ............. 70 5.3. The Western Silk Road – understanding the differences, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats .......................................................................................... 71 5.3.1 Differentiation between Classic and Western Silk Road ............................................... 71 5.3.2 The results of the WSR-SWOT assessing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a Western Silk Road Brand .................................................................................... 73 5 5.4. Creating a Western Silk Road Brand identity ....................................................... 79 5.4.1 Key factors to be considered in Western Silk Road brand development. ..................... 79 5.4.2 Positioning regarding existing destinations and other brands ...................................... 80 5.4.3 Building the brand ......................................................................................................... 82 5.4.4 Western Silk Road brand pyramid ................................................................................ 82 5.4.5 Western Silk Road brand assets template .................................................................... 84 5.4.6 Creating the visual brand identity – The Western Silk Road visual identity .................. 86 5.4.7 Western Silk Road brand handbook ............................................................................. 87 5.5. Making the Western Silk road brand strong: Managing the brand......................................... 88 5.6 First stages in promoting the brand .................................................................. 88 6 Creating a sustainable management structure for the Western Silk Road ............ 91 6.1. The potential of the Western Silk Road Cultural Route ....................................... 91 6.2. The benefits of Cultural Route certification .......................................................... 93 6.3. The Western Silk Road as Cultural Route model ................................................. 94 6.4 Governance structure of the Western Silk Road ................................................... 96 7 Conclusions ..............................................................................................................