Turizem ustvarja odlicˇne pogoje za marketing. Turist ima na voljo mnogo destinacij in na to, za obisk katere se bo odlocˇil, lahko vpliva tudi marketing. Zato je marketing destinacij sˇe posebej pomemben za majhne, manj znane ali novejsˇe destinacije, kakrsˇna je Slovenija. Da bi se pozicionirala kot zanimiva za obisk in se distancirala od konkurencˇnih destinacij, je tudi Slovenija posegla po marketingu destinacij. Ker je bila v preteklosti opravljena raziskava o tem, kaksˇno podobo ima Slovenija pri tujih predstavnikih turisticˇne dejavnosti, smo se odlocˇili, da pripravimo raziskavo, ki bo med drugim preverila, kako se je podoba do danes spremenila, kako na podobo vpliva blizˇina ali oddaljenost anketirancev od Slovenije, kaksˇen vpliv ima na podobo o destinaciji predhodni obisk in kaksˇno prepoznavnost dosega znamka Slovenije. Raziskavo smo osnovali na anketnem zbiranju podatkov na predstavnikih turizma znotraj drzˇav Evropske unije. Ugotovili smo, da Slovenija kot turisticˇna destinacija danes dosega boljsˇo, pozitivnejsˇo podobo. Izkazalo se je, da se v vecˇini raziskovanih znacˇilnostih podoba Slovenije v sosednjih in ostalih drzˇavah ne razlikuje prevecˇ, je pa zanjo bistvenega pomena to, ali je posameznik v preteklosti Slovenijo zˇe obiskal. Znamka Slovenije je opazna predvsem ob obisku drzˇave, s katerim se izboljsˇa tudi strinjanje z identitetnimi znacˇilnostmi znamke.Tourism creates excellent conditions for marketing. Tourist can choose between several destinations and their choice can be influenced by marketing. Therefore, destination marketing is especially important for small and less known or newer destinations, such as Slovenia. In order to position itself as interesting for visit and distant itself from competitive destinations, Slovenia has also used destination marketing. In the past, a survey regarding the Slovenia’s image among foreign representatives of tourist activity was carried out. Therefore, we decided to conduct a survey which will check a change in the image to the present day, how the image is influenced by the distance of the participants from Slovenia, influence of a prior visit on the destination’s image, and recognisability achieved by the brand of Slovenia. A survey was based on collecting data from a questionnaire distributed among tourist representatives in the European Union’s countries. We established that presently Slovenia is achieving a better and more positive image. It turned out that in most of the characteristics studied, the image of Slovenia in neighbouring and other countries is not very different, but it is crucial whether an individual has visited Slovenia in the past. The brand of Slovenia is notable mainly during a visit of the country, by which agreeing with identity characteristics of the brand is improved
