The making of a global destination : narratives of innovation and urban regeneration in the city branding of Milan

In an increasingly competitive and globalized world, it has become common practice for cities that wish to stand out on the international scene to entrust their promotion to Destination Management Organizations (DMOs), i.e., public-private partnerships working to attract foreign tourists, talents and investors in order to boost the growth of a city and its surrounding region (Gretzel, 2021). The peculiar nature of these organizations highlights the blurring of boundaries between the public and the private sectors typical of contemporary society whereby the former has become imbued with corporate ideology and discourse, with institutions often appearing to value profit and business over the social needs of the urban community (Koller, 2008). This convergence of the public and private sectors under the overarching principles of business efficiency and profit generation is also reflected in the communication strategies deployed by public institutions, which are often borrowed from the marketing tools traditionally used in the private sector, with branding being a prominent one. City branding has in fact become a staple practice that allows public administrations to design the identity of the city in the eyes of local and international audiences (Paganoni, 2012). Branding – and often re-branding – has a strong transformative potential and is especially tied to urban regeneration projects whose perception it can inform (Eshuis & Edwards, 2012). This study investigates the discourse of selected tourism development organizations with major urban regeneration-related projects in European cities to observe which role innovation, technology, and urban regeneration in its multiple aspects play in the promotion of such cities to international audiences. In particular, the social, environmental and digital dimensions of city branding will be evaluated within the framework of regenerative tourism (Paddison & Hall, 2024) to explore which place sustainability occupies in DMOs promotional discourse. Qualitative analysis will be conducted on reports and selected campaigns by Milan’s DMO, YesMilano, within the time period 2019-2024 to identify their promotional strategies and goals and to assess how these principles and intentions have been operationalized. Similar campaigns by London and Amsterdam – two trailblazers both in city branding and in urban regeneration – will also be analyzed to provide a comparative outlook on a European level. Linguistic analysis focusing mainly on framing (Jones, 2018) and metaphors (Nientied, 2016), as well as visual semiotics (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2020), will provide insight into how regenerated urban areas designed to be innovation hubs may be used in city branding as selling points to attract foreign audiences and how the social factor is presented in relation to narratives of technological innovation.