Carolin Winter

Branding Finland on the Internet: Images and Stereotypes in Finland''s Tourism Marketing Carolin Winter

In today''s globalized world, countries compete on all levels and try to built and activly shape their image. Country branding is still a rather young dicipline and lacks connection to other fields of research. This study links intercultural communication to country branding by showing theoretical connections between stereotypes and country images. Due to the largely overlapping definitions of stereotypes and country images found in literature, the combined term of stereotyped images is introduced. The aim of this study is to explore what images of Finland are presented in tourism marketing activities and how marketing specialists evaluate the image of Finland. In a qualitative content analysis it was investigated which pictures of Finland were presented on the website of the Finnish Tourist Board. Furthermore, a qualitative expert survey with employees of the Finnish Tourist Board was conducted, asking them to evaluate the image of Finland and the importance of the website as marketing tool. This study should help understand better connections between intercultural communication and country branding and is aimed at professionals and researchers in these areas.