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A Study of Place Branding of Macao

Macao is stereotyped as a gambling city and its unique cultural connotation is often ignored. Branding Macao effectively may deliver a concise but different image to the world. This research is a quantitative study that attempts to investigate Macao's city characteristics, to explore the importance of place branding, and to assess the influence of place branding on competitiveness and sustainable development. A theoretical framework is established to explain the relationships. Data were collected from 393 respondents in the greater China region. Reliability, correlations, and regressions are run to test various hypotheses. The research findings reveal that Macao is “Exquisite and Exalted,” “Fantasy and Passionate,” and “Calm and Relaxed.” Place branding of Macao is essential to enrich cultural life of residents inside, and to promote good image outside. Moreover, place branding turns out to be the most significant predictor of competitiveness and sustainable development. Discussion, limitations, and implications are presented.