Abstract

Visual identity elements, which play an important role in city branding, can enable cities to be recognized beyond local borders and to receive a higher share from tourism revenues. The factors that serve the purpose of marketing cities as a touristic product are among the important targets of both political authorities and tourism sector stakeholders. However, in achieving this goal, it is essential that the city residents have sufficient knowledge of the city they live in. The aim of the study from this point; It is to reveal the knowledge level of tourism sector employees about urban visual identity components as the people with whom foreigners coming to the city communicate the most. In the case of Edirne province selected for this purpose, the city visual identity inventory of Edirne was created firstly by making a literature review. In-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview form in order to determine how the inventory components are perceived by tourism sector employees. The data obtained from the interviews held with a total of 80 tourism sector employees in April and May 2019 were analyzed using content analysis method. The fact that Edirne tourism sector employees have limited knowledge of the city to the most well-known visiting points are negative, and their perception of the prominent problems in urban tourism is among the results that can have a positive effect on city branding.