E-branding of rural tourism in Carinthia, Austria

The aim of this paper is to create an e-branding model which could also be applied for place branding in small central rural regions of Central Europe based on the innovative methodology of rural tour marketing. It was based and went beyond the European program of transnational cooperation, INTERREG IIIB CADSES. The region of Carinthia, Austria was set as a case study for the application of interrelating scientific theories of marketing, place branding and place identity in relation to and in connection with national identity. The paper succeeds in making a practical and theoretical contribution on the process of the creation of branding, which consists of a holistic approach of the management of every business operating in the region. Virtual reality was promoted since it may provide a direct and international impact via the creation of a virtual community appealing to a broad number of potential visitors. This latter, is the contribution of this paper since it proposes a model of creating e-branding, first applied to the virtual community; as the virtual space /time precedes the real one and is used to implement and succeed in the design of the rural marketing of the European research programme in this region