Associate Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Place Branding and Public Diplomacy (Click for FREE ACCESS to my editorials and gauge my views)

Robert Govers (PhD) is an independent place branding advisor for national, regional and city government administrations and a visiting scholar at the Rotterdam School of Management, The Netherlands, IULM University Milano, Italy, and several institutes in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He also teaches Place Branding on the UNESCO World Heritage at Work Master programme in Torino, Italy and is co-editor of the quarterly journal, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy.

Together with Prof. Dr. Frank Go, Robert is the author of: Place Branding: Glocal, virtual and physical, identities constructed, perceived and experienced (2009) and editor of the International Place Branding Yearbook Series (2010, 2011 and 2012) all with Palgrave Macmillan. He also co-authored over forty journal articles, book chapters and conference papers in the field of place branding, tourism, reputation management, e-commerce and marketing research. Robert has delivered numerous public speeches and business publications.

Robert typically advises in areas such as economic competitiveness, place identity and image, tourism policy and strategy, educational policy, regional sustainable development, tourism and investment promotion, and major international events, often in exclusive partnership with Simon Anholt. Hence, much of this is approached from a strategic reputation management perspective referred to as competitive identity.

In the past, Robert has held positions in South Africa, The Netherlands, Belgium and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. As a project manager, he has been involved in many consultancy projects for reputable organisations such as the International Air Transport Association, the European Commission, the Flemish Government and various ministries, tourism promotion boards and regional and city administrations.

Robert has both a Doctoral (2005) and Master’s Degree (1995) from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, The Netherlands. He is also a member of the jury for the Dutch City Marketing Innovation Award.

Place Branding books: