Fashion Industry and City Branding. An analysis of visitors perception of Florence

The aim of the present work is to investigate the role of fashion and retailing shopping in branding a fashion city and influencing its tourism attractiveness. The work is based on a questionnaire administered in 2015 to tourists around the area of the fashion street, via Tornabuoni in Florence. We analyse the tourists’ and fashion consumers’ perception of the city’s image and its shopping opportunities. The results point out the role that fashion can play in the attractiveness of a global fashion city and in the improvement of competitiveness of local fashion brands and shops. There are some interesting management implications for both the managers of fashion brands and the city marketers, as the brand and the position of a city influence the future success of fashion business.