TERRITORIAL MARKETING IN THE BALTIC SEA REGION PORT CITIES

Abstract

Today in the Baltic Sea region, territorial marketing plays a substantial role both for tourist attraction and local young families, a quality workforce and students’ retention to the region, which is not easy due to the wide scope of work and travel opportunities in the European Union Member States. Territorial marketing aims to increase the prestige of a territory by attracting local and foreign subjects to the territory by creating an expressive image, maximal use of the territory’s natural, material and technical as well as financial, labour and social resources. The Baltic Sea region countries have a lot in common: historical heritage of Soviet Union influence until 1991, which has left its impact both on their architecture, city planning and on peoples’ mentality; joining the European Union in 2004 and since then struggling with common market side effects that force these countries to look for new ways to sustain their regional competitiveness. The current research focuses on exploring the experience of territorial marketing use in four Baltic Sea region port cities: Parnu (Estonia), Ventspils (Latvia), Klaipeda (Lithuania) and Szczecin (Poland). The research aimed to compare the territorial marketing approaches used in the four Baltic Sea region port cities and specifics of brand positioning for the cities. In the research work, desk study and the comparative method were applied to aggregate and interpret secondary data on the four cities’ development trends. Analysis and synthesis methods were applied to investigate the elements of territorial marketing.