Although the branding literature commenced during the 1940s, the first publications related to destination
branding did not emerge until half a century later. A review of 74 destination branding publications
by 102 authors from the first 10 years of destination branding literature (1998–2007) found at
least nine potential research gaps warranting attention by researchers. In particular, there has been a lack
of research examining the extent to which brand positioning campaigns have been successful in
enhancing brand equity in the manner intended in the brand identity. The purpose of this paper is to
report the results of an investigation of brand equity tracking for a competitive set of destinations in
Queensland, Australia between 2003 and 2007. A hierarchy of consumer-based brand equity (CBBE)
provided an effective means to monitor destination brand positions over time. A key implication of the
results was the finding that there was no change in brand positions for any of the five destinations over
the four year period. This leads to the proposition that destination position change within a competitive
set will only occur slowly over a long period of time. The tabulation of 74 destination branding case
studies, research papers, conceptual papers and web conte