Regional experience in developing a brand of territories: Ambition “Omsk Region is an attractive region for tourism”

Modern approaches to the development of territory brands are built on the assumption that not only corporations but also territories are competing for resources. In the last 10–15 years, the branding of territories has been intensified not only abroad, but also within Russia. The article examines the experience of developing a strategy for the development of a regional brand in Omsk Region. The main direction of the research is based on the content and mechanism for implementing Omsk Region brand platform, presented in June 2011 as a program “One hundred ideas how to make Omsk region better”. The author studies the general objectives of the program that are focused on the investment, tourism, public opinion, and describes the main directions of the brand development strategy of the region, designated as 10 ambitions. The article analyzes the aspects of ambition “Omsk Region – an attractive region for tourism”, including 10 different initiatives. Increasing the tourist flow, attracting investors to the tourism industry, creation of new jobs, raise awareness, additional income for industry participants (production of souvenirs and tourism infrastructure) are the expected effect of implementation. The conducted research shows that the practice of developing territories brands weakly takes into account the position of residents in the face of the most active stakeholders, the position of the customer is strongly influenced by the objectivity of the results, the change of the territory management (acting as the customer) leads to the curtailment of the program. Regional experience in the formation of brand territories is of interest, as it allows to see all aspects of this process, considering general trends and local characteristics. A comprehensive analysis of this experience will make it possible to more effectively create and implement the brand programs of the territories.