Tourism as an Aspect of City Branding in Functional Urban Areas [616554]

Tourism as an Aspect of City Branding in Functional Urban Areas

EWA GLIŃSKA
Faculty of Engineering Management
Bialystok University of Technology
45A, Wiejska Street, 15 -351 Bialystok
POLAND

ANNA MATWIEJCZYK
Faculty of Engineering Management
Bialystok University of Technology
45A, Wiejska Street, 15 -351 Bialystok
POLAND

YAUHENIYA BARKUN
Faculty of Engineering Management
Bialystok University of Technology
45A, Wiejska Street, 15 -351 Bialystok
POLAND

Abstract: – Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) are among the main actors of local development planning in the
current perspective of the European Union. One of significant challenges in the management of such areas is the
creation of an image or building of a city brand covering several neighbor ing municipalities. Among other things,
tourist attractions can be used as important factors in defining metropolitan identity. The aim of the paper is to
identify categories of tourist attractions that are used in the process of communicating FUAs’ brands . The paper
is focused on branding activities related to the tourism of selected FUAs in Poland. The research method involved
a content analysis of documents entitled Strategies of Integrated Territorial Investments (ITI) developed for
Polish FUAs. Researc h results show that branding activities of FUAs aimed at developing their tourism function
are more material – than immaterial -oriented and concern only those issues that are dependent on local government
authorities and not tourism companies. The paper con tributes to the development of the city branding theory
focusing on the issue of developing a tourist brand for FUAs. The key limitations of the paper are as follows: it
is based on the analysis just one type of documents – ITI Strategies of Polish FUAs – and the specificity of
content analysis as a research method.

Key-Words: – city marketing, city branding, Functional Urban Area, FUA, city tourism, tourist attraction
Received:

1 Introduction
Currently there exists high competition for tourists,
requiring territorial units to implement the
development strategies with a strong emphasis on the
marketing component [1]. Place marketing is defined
as “the coordinated use of marketing tools supported
by a shared customer -oriented philosophy, for
creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging
urban offerings that have value for the city's
customers and the city's community at large” [2].
Cities are challenged by the creation of competitive
brands. City branding goes beyond traditional
promotion; it focuses on creating a strong brand
image capable of binding together all functional and symbolic meanings towards a more effective
approach [3, 4] . City brand (as well as FUA brand)
consists of elements, some of which cannot be
changed (location), and other ones can be modified
by appropriate measures (development of a modern
infrastructure) [5]. Cities and their functional areas
carry out branding activities to position themselves in
the minds of tourist s [6, 7 cited in: 8, 9].
Another challenge relates to the specifics of
development of modern cities, vague borders
between a city and its nearest communities. FUAs
have gained special recognition in Poland in recent
years. This is especially due to noticea ble activities
within the Integrated Territorial Investments (ITI)

which are being prepared within these areas [10]. The
term “Urban Functional Area” was first used in 2004
by the European Spatial Planning Observation
Network [11]. A FUA can be considered a settlement
system which is spatially continuous but consists of
separate administrative units [12]. Though there is a
number of differences between cities and FUAs, it is
crucial for both of them to create strong brands.
Metropolization as well as multi -directional and
multi -level cooperation with the surrounding areas in
the conditions of increasing territorial competition
seem to be the only solution for large urban centers.
As a result, FUAs appear as a structure that w ill
govern the future functioning of cities [13].
The aim of the paper is the identification of
categories of tourist attractions and facilities that are
recognized and communicated as essential by FUAs’
brands. This objective was achieved through the use
of the empirical content analysis of ITI strategies
developed for selected FUAs in Poland. The study
was of a qualitative nature.
The current manuscript is designed as follows: the
first chapter covers the principal theoretical aspects
of city branding, th e essence of FUAs and tourism in
the context of cities and FUAs; in the second chapter
the adapted methodology is explained; in the fourth
chapter the strategical plans of FUAs are analyzed
with a focus on their tourism component; the chapter s
five and six offer discussion and conclusions.

2 Literature Review
2.1 The Essence of the Functional Urban
Areas
The city and its surroundings have been the source of
many scientific works for several decades. As they
become more connected, their boundaries getting
blurred, FUAs emerge. The terms used previously to
describe FUAs include commercial city, economic
areas, urban complex or urban impact zone [14, p.
237]. According to the OECD, “FUAs consist of
urban cores with a population density greater than
1,500 inhabitants per square kilometer and with at
least 15% of the population working in the urban
core” [15]. Intensification of commuting,
characteristic of accelerated industrialization and
unmet demand for work within the city limi ts has
largely influenced the creation of FUAs [16]. Such
cooperation, as is in FUAs’ case, however, does not
exclude natural competition between the entities that
make up a given functional area. Currently about 3.69
billion people in the world belong to some FUAs,
which represents 53% of the total population [17]. When delimiting the boundaries of a FUA, as can
be seen in the example of Poland, voivodeship
capitals were most often used as the core of these
areas [18]. According to the National Spatial
Development Concept 2030, four basic types of
FUAs were distinguished based on their cores and
surrounding zones: 1) voivodeship centers (consist of
capitals of voivodeships); 2) regional centers (such
FUAs are not created around voivodeship capitals,
howeve r, they play an important role on a national
scale in the administrative, economic and social
sphere); 3) subregional centers (focused on a regional
measure that supports centers with a higher level of
existence); 4) Local Centers [19, p. 179 ].
FUA develop ment in Poland is diverse and
conditioned by various regularities. Concentric
spatial systems are most common here . It can be
noticed that it is in the center where the strongest
development processes take place, and their impact
on the surrounding units results from the diffusion of
distance -dependent development processes [20].
Polish FUAs develop documents called ITI
strategies that are of great importance, which can be
explained as follows: a) they support the sustainable
development of both cores and neighboring units; b)
they promote cooperation and strengthen the
territorialization of the units that make up a given
FUA; c) they facilitate and strengthen financial
programming. In case of Poland, ITI strategies for
voivodeship FUA cen ters are obligatory [10].
FUAs and cities themselves are becoming more
important units at the level of global economy [21].
The proper planning of a FUA can and should be of
real benefit to the areas in which it is located. This
increases the competitivene ss of the area at both
national and international level [22]. FUAs, as
important centers of social activity, follow the path
of sustainable urban development [23].

2.2 The Concept of City Branding
The application of city marketing has become
necessary as a result of technological progress and
increased mobility of people and resources in the 21st
century [24]. Cities, in order to stand out on the
market, must create their distinctive image – strive to
eliminate negative features and expose their unique
resources, such as cultural heritage, architecture,
local skills, etc. [25]. Place marketing has evolved
over time and, according to Kavaratzis, the current
stage of its development is place branding [26]. This
means that marketing efforts of territorial units
increasingly focus on evoking associations with a
specific place of emotional, mental and
psychological nature, as opposed to functional
associations [27, p. 28] .

Nowadays, city brands operate in various forms:
national, regional, city branding. It is now not only a
growing academic discipline, but also an increasingly
common practice used by local governments [28, p.
13-14, 29, 26]. Branding is therefore becoming a
common practice to ‘sell’ certai n characteristics of a
city, e.g. its history, lifestyle, culture in order to gain
new opportunities, prestige or strength in a
competitive environment [30].
The implementation of city -branding policies
aims to support the city to react appropriately to
current societal and economic challenges [24]. City
branding is complex, it must account for many
factors and associations of a given territory [31].
There are many benefits that a city with a strong and
recognizable brand can offer, including increased
inbound tourism rates [32, 33, 34] .
Territorial units aspiring to the tourist function
may base their strategies for distinguishing
themselves on such characteristics as: attractions,
leisure opportunities on offer or high -quality
services, as well as natural , cultural, social resources,
infrastructure, accessibility and quality of transport,
attitudes of inhabitants towards tourists, price levels,
economic and social relations etc. [35].
The attributes of a city brand identity can be
divided into two groups: material and immaterial [36,
37]. Material (or functional) elements are achieved
through spatial development strategies (including the
built environment, public space with urban design,
green areas, architecture) [36]. Immaterial (or
empirical, emotional) elements are achieved by
combini ng symbolic and functional attributes of a
city brand (e.g. the provision of entertainment and
cultural services by the city) [36].
Different territorial units are deeply involved in
the competition for tourists and are actively using
branding tools [38, 39]. The role of cities as territorial
units has been growing over the years, and now there
is a shift from power concentration at the national
level to regional, metropolitan and city levels [3].
Considering that FUAs merge the features of
several territo ries, the approach for its branding
becomes more sophisticated. Metropolitan areas
carry out advanced activities in the field of creating a
territorial brand. Due to the fact that larger cities have
a longer history of connections with neighboring
local go vernments, the level of advancement of their
work on the branding concept is much more
advanced [40].

2.3 Urban Tourism versus City Branding
Concept
The development of tourism has a significant impact
on cities and changes in urban space, hence this issue is more and more frequently addressed in research
[41]. However, the most recent publications indicate
that the subject of urban tourism persists at the
margin of the debate on cities [42]. Urban tourism
should be analyzed in the context of the functioning
and management of cities as a whole. They both are
inevitably studies of urban change, planning and
management, and thus focus on the application of
policies in the urban setting and tourism activity [43].
Urban tourism is a complex phenomenon to
define, which has challenged many scholars. It is
undoubtedly more complex than simply ‘tourism
performed in the cities’ rather than in other sites, and
it is not conceptually homogeneous to expressions
such as ‘sea tourism’ or ‘rural tourism’ [44].
Among the characteristics of urban tourism
Ashworth and Page indicate: a) a multi -purpose
nature of city visits in a multifunctional context; b)
visitors’ use of urban facilities that are not necessarily
built for visitors, c) the diversity of urban economy in
which tourism takes place [45]. The co -presence of
multiple economies in the urban context is
fundamental for city tourism, so that cities with the
largest a nd most varied economy will gain the highest
benefits from tourism [42, 45].
Urban tourism covers a number of topics: heritage
conservation, urban structure and infrastructure of
tourism precincts, festivals and events, cultural,
economic and social impac ts etc. [46]. Currently
researchers emphasize that a growing number of
urban tourists are interested in entertainment, sports,
shopping, gastronomy and other forms of urban life
[41]. Hence , the “5A” model of tourist attractiveness
of a city has appeared, which includes attractions,
amenities, accommodation, access, and atmosphere
[41, 47, pp 125 -126].
Tourism makes a significant impact on the
economy of a city; therefore, researchers investigate
different approaches to city branding for tourism
promotion [48, 49, 50]. Consequently , various urban
areas implement policies and strategies to promote,
market and brand places, and, therefore, improve the
city for the sake of target groups such as visitors and
tourists [4]. Those policies/strategies attempt to
create and communicate the distinctiveness of the
city [51]. The explicit focus of cities on tourist
attraction make some researchers in the area of urban
studies consider that “cities become commodities as
a consequence of their repositioning towards
tourism” [51]. Due to the variety of demands,
interests and possibilities of different group of
tourists, urban tourism can assume different forms.
From the perspective of city branding, the nature
of tourism is complex and multidimensional.
According to Beerli and Martin, factors influencing

the assessments of the city image can be classified
into nine dimens ions: a) natural resources, b) general
infrastructure, c) tourist infrastructure, d) tourist
leisure and recreation culture, e) history and art, f)
political and economic factors, g) natural
environment, h) social environment and i)
atmosphere of the city [52].
Within FUAs, tourism can bring significant
benefits, such as new jobs, new investment
opportunities or revenue generation that can be used
to rebuild infrastructure and improve municipal
facilities, to name just a few [53, p.71] . If the city
center has the capacity to grow, it affects the
surrounding municipalities. Therefore, improving the
condition of the center is very important for the
modernization and increasing the attractiveness of
external areas as well [54, p. 41] .
Due to the chosen topic of the article it is
important to pay attention to tourism in the context of
FUAs. The ability to manage this sector in a given
area results mainly from regional programs, adopted
development strategies, spatial development plans as
well as established budgets and received subsidies.
The development of the ITI strategy provides an
opportunity to create one’s own regional tourism
policy, thanks to which a FUA can increase its level
of innovation and competitiveness, while natural and
cultural areas will retain their values through
protective and revitalizing measures [21, 55].

3 Research Methodology
The research method used to achieve the aim of the
article was the document analysis, namely systematic
procedure for reviewing or evaluatin g documents –
both printed and electronic. This method focuses on
data examination and interpretation in order to obtain
sense, understanding and development of empirical
knowledge [56]. It can be used as a basic or a
complementary method to the research process [56].
In this article, the latter approach is used, treating the
results of document analysis as an introduction. As a
result of the empirical material obtained during the
analys is of documents, the authors of the article
gained additional information to support the
formulation of questions for in -depth interviews, the
implementation of which is planned in the next phase
of the research project.
The analysis may cover different ca tegories of
documents, including those in the possession of
public institutions and organizations such as central
or local government [56]. They are analyzed in order
to determine the policies implemented by these
organizations (e.g. [57, 58]). This group of
documents may also cover strategic studies created by entities coordinating the activities of local
government units or their partnerships. These types
of documents have become the subject of analysis in
this article.
The subject of the analysis was th e content of texts
of strategic documents prepared by the offices of
management boards of FUA associations in Poland.
Polish FUAs were used as an example of FUA
presentation due to their uniqueness in the rapid
development and widespread emergence in this
country [12, 59].
According to the data available on the official
website of the Statistical Office of Poland in 2018,
there were 58 separate FUAs in Poland. Of these, 17
such areas were selected for the analysis.
The selection of FUAs as the subject of an alysis
results from three reasons: a) currently, Poland as a
brand has a low position on the international market;
b) the Polish Tourist Organization points out that
voivodeship cities should be treated as brands; c)
urban and cultural tourism should be tr eated as a
priority in the process of building city brands [60].
In detail, the analysis involved 17 documents
called "ITI Strategy for 2014 -2020" prepared for the
purpose of FUAs of voivodeship centers in Poland. It
is a basic document defining developmen t objectives
and directions of activities of particular functional
areas, and the legal basis for its preparation is at
European level: Regulations (EU) No 1301/2013 of
the European Parliament and of the Council of 17
December 2013, No 1303/2013 of 17 Dece mber 2013
and No 1304/2013 of 17 December 2013 [61, 62, 63].
At the national level, however: Article 74 of the Act
of 8 March 1990 on Municipal Self -Government (i.e.
Journal of Laws of 2015, item 1515), relevant
agreements of individual FUAs concerning joi nt
implementation of the ITI of Municipal Functional
Areas and other legal bases applicable in the given
areas [64]. These documents were available in pdf
versions on the websites of the associations
coordinating the activities of the various FUAs. The
list of analyzed documents is represented below:
1. ITI Strategy Białystok FUA for years 2014 –
2020
2. ITI Strategy for Bydgoszcz – Toruń FUA for
2014 -2020
3. ITI Strategy for Gdańsk Gdynia Sopot
Metropolitan Area till the year 2020
4. ITI Strategy Gorzów Wielkopolski FUA for
2014 -2020
5. ITI Strategy of Central Subregion of Śląsk
Voivodeship for years 2014 -2020
6. ITI Strategy Kielce FUA for years 2014 -2020
7. ITI Strategy for Kraków FUA for 2014 -2020
8. ITI Strategy Lublin FUA for years 2014 -2020

9. Strategy of Development of Łódź Metropolitan
Area 2020+
10. Strategy of FUA of Olsztyn for years 2014 –
2020
11. ITI Strategy of Opole Agglomerations for
years 2014 -2020
12. ITI Strategy of Poznań FUA for years 2014 –
2020
13. ITI Strategy Rzeszów FUA for years 2014 –
2020
14. ITI Strategy of Szczecin FUA for years 2014 –
2020
15. ITI Strategy for Warszawa FUA 2014 -2020+
16. ITI Strategy Wrocław FUA for years 2014 –
2020
17. ITI Strategy Zielona Góra FUA or years 2014 –
2020
Each of the analyzed strategies had a si milar
structure, in which the diagnostic part and the
strategic part can be identified. In each of the
documents, the latter part was analyzed in detail, with
an emphasis on analyzing records of objectives,
priorities and actions of particular FUAs planned in
the years 2014 -2020.
Data on city branding goals and activities related
to tourism planned in each of the FUAs were
retrieved from the corresponding ITI documents.
Each of the 17 documents contained information on
tourism in the form of formulated obj ectives.
Additionally, some FUAs with a more developed
tourism sector (e.g. Gdańsk -Gdynia -Sopot) had
separate subsections devoted to tourism -related
activities,.
The document analysis involved skimming
(superficial examination), reading (thorough
examinati on), and interpretation [56]. The research
results were analyzed with consideration for the
exploratory and interpretative character of the
research material [65]. The analytic procedure
consisted of finding, selecting, appraising (making
sense of), and synthesizing data contained in
documents. The document analysis provided data
(excerpts and quotations) that were then organized
into major themes, categories and case example [66].
The authors of the article, in carrying out research,
tried to demonstrate objectivity (seeking to repre sent
the research material fairly) and sensitivity
(responding to even subtle cues to meaning) in the
selection and analysis of data from documents [56].
The analysis of ITI strategies for particular FUAs
consisted of the following steps: a) identification of
development goals of FUAs related to their branding
activity, b) identification of areas of performance of
particular functional areas related to tourism, c)
creation of categories of tourist attractions and facilities that are recognized and communica ted as
essential by FUAs’ brands.
The aims of the article were achieved through
directed content analysis in which, during the coding
process, researchers make use of both codes
formulated on the basis of the existing theory as well
as the ones which they develop themselves, relying
on obtained results [67, p. 1281] .

4 Research Findings
As it was mentioned above, a growing number of
cities create and develop their brands. City brands
serve different purposes, and attracting tourists is
among the dominant ones. The same can be stated for
FUAs. All the examined FUAs recognize tourism as
an essential aspect of development and included
tourism -related goals into the plan. Based on the
findings of previous researchers, who recognized the
importance of city branding for tourism promotion,
the following 12 areas of interest were distinguished:
natural resources (frequency: 11), infrastructure (10),
heritage and urban regeneration (9), bicycle routes
(7), unique features of the city (7), all -year-round
attractiveness of a region (5), ICT applications and
services related to culture and tourism (5), business
tourism (2), festivals and other cultural activities (2),
culinary aspects (1), international communication
(1), rural areas (1) [48, 49, 50, 52].

Where: – all-year-round attractiveness of a region,
– bicycle routes, – business tourism, –
culinary aspects, – festivals and other cultural
activities, – heritage and urban regeneration, –
international communication, – ICT applications
and services related to culture and tourism, –

infrastructure, – natural resources, – rural
areas, – unique feat ures of the city.
Fig. 1: Tourism -related branding goals from ITI
strategies of FUAs
Source: compiled by the authors.

As the figure 1 sho ws, tourism -related goals are
diverse and selected in accordance with regional
specifics. In particular, the Rzeszów FUA intends to
promote the region as an agri -tourism attractive
environment, popularize regional gastronomy, invest
in the business -tourism development. However, there
are some common areas. The protection and use of
the natural resources is the most frequently
mentioned goal (11 FUAs); the second most popular
targets are related to the improvement and
maintenance of infrastructure (10 FUAs).
The areas of interest were distinguished based on
the information regarding tourism contained in the
ITI Strategies of individual FUAs. All -year-round
attractiveness of a region is a category that explains
its purpose by its very name. It was especially
concentrated around such regions as Lublin (not very
popular destination for tourists, hence the creation of
the John III Sobieski Route) or Szczecin (focus on
water tourism, which is not available all year round).
Bicycle routes have been singl ed out separately from
the infrastructure itself due to the high frequency of
replacement activities related to the construction of
new bicycle paths or bicycle parking lots in many
FUAs.
Business tourism was mentioned in the context of
creating a favorabl e environment for local
entrepreneurs and those travelling to a given FUA.
Rzeszów was the only FUA to mention culinary
aspects as an important area of interest. According to
its strategy, it is important to promote the
Podkarpackie Flavors Culinary Route. The
municipalities that make up the Rzeszów FUA have
proper resources and traditions in this area that allow
them to develop this branch of tourism. Festivals and
other cultural activities are closely linked to the
previous category and relate to organize d cultural
events, such as St. Dominic's Fair in the Gdańsk –
Gdynia -Sopot FUA or the Opera at the Castle
organized in the Szczecin FUA.
Heritage and urban regeneration are one of the
most common goals. It refers to the revitalization and
development of exis ting buildings, which are
considered monuments in the areas concerned.
International communication appeared at the FUA of
Gorzów Wielkopolski and referred to the possibility
of cooperation with Germany to create cheap public
transport between the two regio ns. ICT applications and services related to culture
and tourism which in the Szczecin FUA, for example,
means the development of digital competences such
as the creation of technical infrastructure of generally
accessible wireless networks or, as in Warsa w,
applications enabling foreign tourists to access the
most important information about attractions or
public transport. Infrastructure in FUAs in which
they occurred meant primarily the renovation or
construction of roads as well as railway and tram
lines.
Natural resources are the most common area of
interest among the FUAs and means e.g. the
maintenance of bird protection areas and habitat
protection areas (Wrocław FUA) or simply ensuring
access to natural heritage by creating new tourist
trails, tourist spots and advertising campaigns
(Katowice FUA). Rural areas mean the development
of rural areas and the use of the internal potential of
all territories; the Rzeszów FUA stressed the role of
high-quality rural space for living, working and
recreati on. Unique features of the city, such as textile
industry or narrow -gauge trains in Łódź or health
resorts in Lublin, are used for the creation of the
regional tourist brand.

5 Discussion
Modern tourists are not interested in a sole building
or a heritag e attraction; they rather evaluate the offer
as a complex, considering as well accommodation,
trip, overall experience and side services available
[68]. All this creates closer links between branding
and tourism activities. Content analysis conducted in
the framework of the current study facilitated
identification of the following aspects of tourism
attractions and facilities that are within the focus of
FUAs: all -year-round attractiveness of a region,
bicycle routes, business tourism, culinary aspects,
festivals and other cultural activities, heritage and
urban regeneration, international communication,
ICT applications and services related to culture and
tourism, infrastructure, natural resources, rural areas,
unique features of the city. Those findings go in line
with the research of Zmyślony, who combined
propositions of Page and Hall and Mika and
distinguished the most common and parallel forms of
tourism in the city (emphasizing that the list is not
exhaustive): cultural and cognitive tourism, leisure
tourism, visits by relatives and friends, individual
business trips, conference and fair tourism,
educational visits, religious tourism, sports tourism,
entertainment tourism, event tourism (participation in
events), shopping tourism (trade), health tourism ,

"urban leisure tourism" (including various forms of
one-day activity by visitors) [69, p.61, 70, 71].
In order to explain the motivation of tourists to
choose urban tourism, the “4A concept” is frequently
recalled. The concept covers ‘attractions’,
‘amen ities’, ‘accommodation’, ‘access’ [47, p. 125 –
126]. In the extended 5A version, ‘atmosphere’ was
added [41]. Tourism -related goals identified within
the current study represent four out of five groups
according to the modified 5A strategy, combining
both the categories suggested by Hughes and
Kowalczyk: ‘attractions’, ‘amenities’, ‘access’,
‘atmosphere’. It worth mentioning that the division
between the categories is rather arbitrary because the
achievement of each goal serves diverse purpos es
[41, 47].
The main attention of FUAs is placed on the
attractions. ‘Attraction’ and ‘attractiveness’ describe
the attributes of a city that make it interesting for
tourists and force them to choose this destination
[72]. Polish FUAs focus on attraction -related goals
that can be shared into the following groups: a)
business tourism, b) culture and traditions (culinary
aspects, heritage and urban regeneration), c) nature
tourism (natural resources, rural areas), d) unique
features (creation of the tourist brand of the region).
It shows the development of multidirectional tourism
and the adaptation of tourism goals according to the
demands and opportunities of a particular area.
The second biggest group is ‘access’ and it aims
to improve communication access ibility of tourist
reception areas [73]. It includes bicycle routes,
infrastructure, international communication, which
shows that FUAs consider both how the tourists will
arrive at the travel destination and how they will
travel around the location. Goals referred to
‘amenities’ include services for tourists [41]. The
content analysis allowed to identify the following
groups of services: all -year-round attractiveness of a
region, ICT applications and services related to
culture and tourism.
Goals referred to the ‘atmosphere’ category
include festivals and other cultural activities.
‘Atmosphere’ as a goal is essential for the emotions
and impressions received by tourists. Nevertheless, it
is natural for emotion -related tasks to appear in
branding strategies [74, 27]. In case of FUAs, a minor
focus on the atmosphere can be explained by the fact
that some areas are at an initial stage of implementing
branding strategies, and brand -related emotions and
associations have not been explicitly discussed yet.
Thus, i t can be observed that at the current stage the
goals of FUAs are rather material -oriented.
The aspects of ‘accommodation’ is excluded from
the strategies of development, which points out a certain gap in the tourism management approach
used by Polish FUAs . The lack of the
accommodation -related goals does not go in line with
the majority of modern researches, because
nowadays it is believed that the places to stay are of
basic demand for tourist [72, 41]. However, the
above mentioned observation can be expl ained by the
fact that the analyzed strategies focus on public
objectives, while accommodation belongs to
activities accomplished by the private sector.
In general, all the identified tourism attractions
and facilities can be divided into material – and
immaterial -oriented [36]. In most cases, FUAs are
concentrated rather on material -oriented. The most
common direction for FUAs is the maintenance and
appropriate exploitation of natural resources. The
second most common direction is the development of
infrast ructure. The third activity is related to heritage
and urban regeneration. All of them belong to the
group of material -oriented attractions and facilities.
The dominance of material -oriented
accomplishments can be explained by the emergency
of city brandin g by Polish FUAs. Therefore, their
current aim is to build a solid background for
attracting tourists, and when the most essential issues
are solved, there will be a space for the elaboration
on the immaterial components of a city brand [49].

Where – the borders of 4A groups; the
closer to the particular border – the more features of
a given aspect this group has. The closer the group is
located to the right – the more material it is; the more
to the left – the more immaterial.
Fig. 2: Connec tions between material and
immaterial city brand elements and elements of
tourist attractiveness
Source: compiled by the authors .

The elements of the modified 5A model in tourism
can be aligned with the material and immaterial
elements of a brand infrastructure, which is
visualized in the figure 2 [47, 41]. Such elements as
‘access’ and ‘amenities’ are rather of a material

nature; the ‘atmosphere’ is rather of an immaterial
nature, and ‘attractions’ combine both material and
immaterial aspects. However, the boundaries
between the materiality of the majority of these
categories is hard to define because the elements are
of a complicated nature and all of them comprise both
material and immaterial features [75, 76].
The current study allows to observe that tourism
is an important component of the development of
FUAs and it focuses both on the primary and
secondary elements of t he attractiveness of those
areas. Primary elements are the main objectives for
visiting a city [72] and for Polish FUAs they are the
most widespread ones: business tourism, culinary
aspects, festivals and other cultural activities, natural
resources, rural areas, unique features of the city,
heritage and urban regeneration. At the same time,
secondary elements support the main attractions and
contribute to the tourism development of a city are
also of great importance: bicycle routes, international
communic ation, ICT applications and services
related to culture and tourism, infrastructure [72].

6 Conclusion
Modern cities grow and go beyond their formal
borders, constructing new territorial units such as
FUAs. ITI Strategies are among key documents
predeter mining the directions of development of
FUAs in Poland. They cover the most important
aspects, including marketing, branding and tourism.
In the field of tourism in a FUA one can
distinguish 12 types of attractions and facilities that
can be shared into fo ur (out of five) groups according
to the modified 5A concept, combining the categories
suggested by Hughes and Kowalczyk: ‘attractions’,
‘amenities’, ‘access’, ‘atmosphere’ [47, 41].
‘Accommodation’ is excluded from the strategies of
development which points out two main findings:
FUAs focus rather on the ‘material’ component of
their offer that can be explained by the fact that some
FUAs are at the initial stage of development and
implementation of branding strategies. Secondly,
plans of FUAs do not co ver the activities fulfilled by
the private sector. In general, the research allows to
notice that there is no common pattern for Polish
FUAs regarding building a city tourist brand. Each
area considers its resources, capabilities and target
group expectat ions. However, a few most common
trends can be distinguished: maintenance and
appropriate exploitation of natural resources,
improvement of infrastructure as well as
development of heritage and urban regeneration
facilities. The conducted research, based o n qualitative
studies, provides solid ground for the proposal of a
research hypothesis, the verification of which is
planned in subsequent stages of the research:
Tourism as an important direction of branding
activities of FUAs should take into account in itiatives
contributing to the shaping and promotion of an
integrated tourism product, covering all communes
that form a functional area, with particular emphasis
on aspects related to building emotional associations
with a city that translates into the FUA atmosphere .
The significance of the study can be followed in
the subsequent aspects. The first implication comes
from the fact that city branding is becoming an
increasingly popular governance practice. The results
of these studies may be useful for muni cipalities to
estimate what aspects of tourism as elements of a city
brand are explicit enough in their strategies. From the
perspective of academic literature, the paper
contributes to the development of the city branding
theory focusing on the issue of d eveloping a tourist
brand for FUAs. The results of the above studies may
be useful for associations being units managing
FUAs of the largest cities in Poland.
The key limitation of the paper is that it is focused
on one type of documents, namely ITI Strat egies of
Polish FUAs only. That can be explained by the
uniqueness of such bodies. In the opinion of the
authors, the results of research presented in this paper
opens further research opportunities. Another
limitation is related to the specificity of the method,
which is the analysis of document content. One
should remember that documents are produced for a
purpose other than the research goal; they are created
independently of a research agenda [56]. These are
the potential flaws rather than major disadva ntages.
Given its efficiency and cost -effectiveness in
particular, document analysis offers advantages that
clearly outweigh limitations [56].

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Contribution of individual authors to
the creation of a scientific article
(ghostwriting policy)

Ewa Glińska, Anna Matwiejczyk , Yauheniya Barkun
– Conceptualization, writing and editing .
Yauheniya Barkun was responsible for figures .
Percentage contributions are EG: 33,3%, YB: 33,3%,
AM: 33,3%. All authors read and approved the final
manuscript.

Sources of funding for research
presented in a scientific article or
scientific article itself
This study was funded by Bialystok University of
Technology (WZ/WIZ -INZ/2/2020, WI/WIZ –
INZ/3/2020)

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