“According to the Guinness World Records, the Bible is the most printed book in history, with over 5 billion copes. Despite the variety of stories and messages in it, it still has only Ten Commandments. And most of us cannot name all ten. It is the leading thought when making a brand strategy- it needs to be short but still say all the important thing everybody will remember about the destination.” said Mr. Aleksandar Dejanović, professor at the High School of Modern Business in Novi Sad, one of the authors of the brand strategy elaborated for Vučje, RS and Kratovo, MK.
The last couple of years changed our lives significantly. Most of us accepted that we need regular time off from the benefits of modern living: the weekend escapes, travel to nearby destinations, enjoying nature that is just a couple of hours away, simply- getting away from it all.
However, we are still looking for a unique and memorable experience. It seems easy in the world where every information is just a “click away”. That means also that the competition among destinations is growing and it is important to stand out in the maze of tempting offers.
For this reason, brand becomes an important factor for added value and promise to potential visitors of a unique experience. We are very pleased to present that within the project “Rural tourism a new perspective of youth mobility” two partners in the project developed the first brand strategies for Vučje and Kratovo.
Branding of a tourist destination has impact on economy: increase of a number of tourists, employment and attracting new investments. The brand strategy was presented to the stakeholders in Vučje and Kratovo on 29th February/1st January 2024. This is one of the activities of the project “Rural tourism- a new perspective of youth mobility”, that aims to contribute to the results of the CBC Programme Serbia- North Macedonia by mobilizing cultural and natural resources for joint development of sustainable tourism products and destinations.
We expect to see the established and equipped students hostels and school tourist companies, a new tourist product – tourist program for young people, the “Outdoor Tourist Guide” application for smart devices and a tourist digital portal among other planned results of the project.
And this is what CBC does- it puts partners, two high schools, Svetozar Krstić- Toza from Vučje and Mitko Pendžukliski from Kratovo- work together to tackle shared challenges and it connects people, institutions and different stakeholders in the CBC area to tackle common challenges.