Систем на територијален маркетинг – стратешки елемент на развојот

Abstract

Increasingly territorial cohesion becomes topic of great importance to national and supranational authorities. This importance has its roots in the unexpected growth of spatial imbalance of economic development. Thus, urban and more developed areas successfully attract people and economic activities, while much of rural and peripheral areas appeared to sink into oblivion. Such an image requires a need for application of usual business marketing techniques, tools, and methodologies on the territory whose main goal is the development and highlighting the specifics it owns and their promotion on the national and international markets. From here, the marketing as an essential category in the market is a topic that is becoming increasingly important within the governmental activities for the territory, given the growing importance of territorial development policies that are acquired in the processes of social and economic growth at all administrative levels. Nowadays, the increased competition between territories resulted in defining new models of local territorial systems and models of territorial planning which main objective is assessment of the territory and creation of territorial image through its promotion on the national and international markets in order to achieve sustainable economic development. From here, the doctoral thesis analyzes the territorial marketing, viewed through the prism of a model of territorial planning, as part of the development of a whole portfolio of products and services related to environment, social, cultural, .... characteristics of the territory, which is jointly coordinated and marketed by the involved parties, whose aim is to promote the product, in this case territory. The use of marketing tools nowadays is more of a need for all local authorities, primarily due to globalization which has led to competitive struggle not only among the global companies but also among the countries, with the aim of attracting Foreign Direct Investments, tourists and residents while promoting their comparative advantages in the global market territories. Thus, the global environment cannot be sustained if countries fail to highlight and promote their local specificities. From here, territorial marketing is a present-day strategic tool whose task is promotion of the territory on the global market through emphasizing local values. The territory is located in the epicenter and represents an entity that changes the perception for the country towards the new model of Glocal action. Considering the territory as a product that is traded and promoted the objective of this doctoral thesis is to use the marketing tools by applying a bottom-up approach, where the core entity that will be strategically promoted is exactly the territory. The main emphasis is the analysis of the case of Macedonia, i.e. the analysis of the regions, thereby identifying appropriate territorial marketing strategies as a strategic element for competitiveness and development. Guidelines and recommendations are presented through analysis of the Vardar region in terms of development of wine as a product with comparative advantage and wine tourism as a specific type of tourism whose development and promotion are crucial factors of economic stability and prosperity for the Republic of Macedonia.