Baixada Santista or Costa da Mata Atlântica? That is the question: visitor’s perception of identification on the Costa da Mata Atlântica brand

Abstract

Baixada Santista is composed by nine cities and, as a marketing strategy, a tourist brand – Costa da Mata Atlântica – had been created to more easily identify the region. The descriptive and exploratory research aimed to identify the visitor’s knowledge about Costa da Mata Atlântica brand, as well its relation to the usual terminology “Baixada Santista”. Through the application of 130 semi-structured questionnaires, and based on the theoretical framework of the brand’s reputation, the identified result was that the term “Baixada Santista” is more recognizable among the visitors than the brand Costa da Mata Atlântica. Therefore, actions related to marketing and tourism competitiveness strategies must be reviewed. The study aims that the results can effectively contribute to all stakeholders involved in tourism, enabling actions to the repositioning of the tourist brand.