On the marketing Implications of place narratives

Acknowledging that locals are recognised as an important (yet neglected) dimension of place marketing and following critiques of places as products , the purpose of this paper is to give voice to local people . Drawing on local narratives of Santorini, Greece, we call attention to places as culturally significant and discursively produced and consumed. Local narratives provide multiple meanings constructed around the diverse and contested experiences of living and making a living in a place. Our analysis employs the metaphors of harsh beauty , service business and home to capture these perspectives. The paper has implications for the development of generative metaphors of place and local within place marketing and contributes to the dialogue over the continued relevance of our discipline to the public sphere.