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Emerging from 20 years of violence and terrorism, the city of Medellin, Colombia, has used social transformation to improve civic culture, leading to a renaissance. The purpose of this study is to explore how social transformation can lead to urban transformation, forming the basis for sustainable, post-conflict tourism.

This case study is based on available descriptive data and direct observation supported by secondary sources.

The results of the research help to provide a better understanding of the conditions needed to develop and manage sustainable tourism in post-conflict environments. In so doing, it should be possible to make better policy decisions, with particular reference to social and urban interventions on planning, design and entrepreneurship.

The transformation of Medellin’s civic culture can be a model for destination with similar histories that present significant destination image and branding challenges – though each will take different paths.

This paper is one of the first on post-conflict tourism that analyzes the impact on a destination and country of internal turmoil due to narco-terrorism and insurgency over a lengthy period.

This introduction seeks to provide a broad review of scholarly developments in the nascent field of destination branding spanning almost 12 years in order to locate the relevance and import of the following nine papers compiled for this special issue on destination branding and marketing.

A general review of literature is undertaken guided by an epistemological approach to knowledge thus far generated by the destination branding field, consistent with the recommendation of Tribe, and in lieu of the common reductionist approach to identifying themes. The background generated by the review is then used to introduce and assess the significance of the articles contained in this special issue.

Three undercurrents of critical issues implicated with the massive body of knowledge generated by the first decade of destination branding research are described and posited relations between them are tentatively advanced. The undercurrents pertain primarily to matters of identity affirmation, inter‐organizational assimilation and an unfolding anarchic environment for destination branding research and practice. The papers in this special issue exhibit profound connections with the different undercurrents.

Rather than summarize and classify achievements in destination branding research over the last decade or so, this editorial argues that current and future research contends with larger issues surrounding the field's core concern of destination branding and marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test the reliability of six tourism scales based on Ap and Crompton's research.

In order to test the scale, the authors examine differences between genders' tourism beliefs, tourism evaluation, and perceptions of the impact of tourism throughout Shandong China. The sampling frame in this study includes residents over 18 years of age and living more than a year in Shandong Province. As an experimental study, a convenience sampling method is employed to select samples. The sample distribution of each of the 17 cities of Shandong Province equals the multiplied products of the total samples (760) and the percentage of its population in the total population of Shandong.

The tourism scale is shown to be reliable. The data illustrate the benefits and challenges of an emerging destination within an emerging national tourism product. In Shandong, residents acknowledged tourism's positive social benefits such as better shopping facilities, while at the same time recognizing the negative impact of tourism on the natural environment.

Residents' perceptions of tourism and its impact to the community has primarily been conducted in the USA. Of the research, limited data exists which examines differences between genders' perceptions of the benefits tourism may bring to a region. This study compares males' versus females' perceptions of the changes tourism development has to the Shandong province in China. This study offers insights into different perspectives by gender and culture.

The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the current special issue of research related to cultural misconceptions during the globalization of tourism.

The four peer reviewed articles presented in this special issue are introduced.

All of the research articles examine the potential or actual result of misconceptions when different cultures interact. Culture identity is a common theme throughout the articles. Sub‐themes include how cultural identity is changed (positively or negatively) when other cultures interact. The data collection sites include: Zakopane, a small village of 30,000 residents located in the Tatra Mountains in the South of Poland; Ubud, a village in Bali, Indonesia; Great Britain and Ireland; Shandong, China; and a framework to compare data collected throughout different cultures in Asia. The first two articles presented examine the influence of tourism on a village. The third article focuses on service providers working in large cities. The fourth article examines what is considered to be the fastest growing tourist destination (i.e. China). Finally, the last article provides the reader with a theoretical framework.

The special issue on misconceptions addresses how the interaction of different cultures, for all the benefits, may also have negative repercussion on the host country and tourist. Instead of the traditional all white American sample, this call generated global insight. This article provides an introduction

The purpose of this paper is to extend the concept of green brands to destinations and to examine the application and limitations of green destination brands for nations adopting this positioning strategy.

The paper identifies characteristics of green destination brands, drawing on established concepts in corporate branding, destination branding and green marketing. The paper demonstrates the application and limitations of the concept through an in‐depth case study analysis of New Zealand's destination brand to explain the possibilities and problems of building green destination brands at a national level.

The findings suggest that a holistic, strategic approach to building a green destination brand which emphasizes and qualifies the green essence of a nation's brand is required to avoid the pitfalls, cynicism and criticisms of greenwashing.

The research findings are embedded in the context studied – New Zealand's destination brand. Additional case studies at multiple levels – nations, regions, cities – would offer a rich database to gain a better understanding of the concept and the implications of green destination branding.

Barriers to executing a credible green destination brand position are identified and the implications for destination marketing organizations and their stakeholders are discussed.

A conceptualization of green destination brands is provided and the application and limitations of the concept are demonstrated through an in‐depth case study of a nation that has adopted this positioning strategy. Rather than taking a snapshot research approach, a historical perspective enabled the development of the destination's brand positioning strategy to be captured.

The purpose of this study is to identify Western travelers' image of Zhangjiajie, China as a tourist destination, drawing on data from contents of web travel blogs.

The study taps the rich content of travel blogs as an alternative research instrument to measure and understand negative and positive images of destinations formed by travelers. Analysis of content drawn from travel blog data followed qualitative methodology techniques and utilized NVivo software.

The study shows that travel blogs can form a good basis for measuring Western travelers' image of destination. This was the case for Zhangjiajie, where analysis of travelers' blogs indicated that they were impressed overall by the destination's beautiful natural scenery and were highly satisfied with nature‐based tourism attractions. The study also expounds on certain aspects of the destination that can be improved to satisfy Western travelers.

The majority of destination image studies rely on structured surveys developed from the researchers' point of view. This study attempts to explore tourists' own perspectives on the nature of a tourist destination by using travel blogs.

The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research.

The paper outlines the primary objective of IJCTHR.

The journal is designed to serve as a valuable platform for new theory and research articles that integrate multidisciplinary perspectives in describing, explaining, predicting, and influencing tourism and hospitality behavior within and across cultures.

The editorial describes the objectives of IJCTHR and, as the principal publication for the International Society of Culture, Tourism, and Hospitality Research, invites membership to the society, which is open to all scholars and individuals with professional or personal interests in acquiring knowledge on topics relating to culture, tourism, and hospitality.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed description of the various activities and processes undertaken by a particular national tourism organization (NTO) in carrying out its goal of developing a destination brand.

A single qualitative case study is primarily employed, though the study draws on data from multiple sources of information.

The study affirms the co‐creation and stakeholder viewpoints from having modeled the branding process and outlining the complex interaction of destination‐branding activities in the country‐level context. The study provides a critical discussion of the different approaches to branding, and the adoption of branding philosophies, in the destination context.

Though this paper is based on a single country case study, it provides a strong and empirically grounded framework for identifying, in‐depth, several key destination branding processes and activities in great detail.

The co‐creation view of brands and branding is a neglected area in destination‐branding literature. Destination‐branding research, in particular, lacks grounded models that profoundly describe branding activities. This study contributes to the lack of empirically grounded knowledge of destination branding.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the state of sustainable tourism certification in developing countries and to present methodological and practical critiques and improvements.

The study uses methodological refinements of fuzzy logic and comparative analysis based on fieldwork in seven countries.

Sustainable tourism programs should be locally designed with local logos, largely performance‐based, and aggregation should be based on fuzzy logic concepts of necessary and jointly sufficient attributes of sustainable tourism.

The paper uses political science concepts of state capacity and methodological advances of fuzzy logic to provide keys for successful sustainable tourism certification programs in developing countries.

This paper aims to recommend a two‐step approach to destination segmentation that incorporates the views both of multiple stakeholders and of tourists.

Step one applies a case study approach incorporating semi‐structured interviews with 13 destination stakeholders. Step two involves segmenting tourists to the destination based on a questionnaire survey developed from the semi‐structured interviews. The study compares and contrasts the result with the current DMO approach.

The two‐step approach produces three segments for the destination under study using four segmentation bases and ten variables. The DMO approach also utilizes all four segmentation bases but produces six segments with five different variables. The DMO approach captures fewer tourists visiting the destination.

This study considers one regional Australian destination. Future research is recommended in a range of alternative destinations to further understand the two‐step segmentation approach. It is recommended that the two‐step approach should be extended to destination branding and positioning.

Segmentation guides positioning and branding strategies and the proposed two‐step approach may assist destination stakeholders to reach more of the types of tourists who are likely to visit the destination.