The Structure of Destination Brands: Leveraging Values (Tourism Analysis, Special Issue on Destination Branding. 12, 2007) Dr.Juergen Gnoth Department of Marketing University of Otago PO Box 56 Dunedin New Zealand Ph: (+64)3-479 8446 Fax: (64)3-479 8172 e-mail: Juergen.Gnoth@ otago.ac.nz Abstract: This theoretical contribution details how a destination’s capital is comprised of the values and meanings as expressed in the cultural, social, natural, and economic dimensions of people’s lives. Unlike in product brands, these values and meanings form a living and constantly evolving relational system existing between people. On this basis, selection criteria for the functional, experiential, and symbolic dimensions of destination brands are developed. The final model is designed to link the performance of the brand to its capital so that brand development becomes an integral part of sustainable destination management that can be appreciated by tourism operators. The major threat to destination brands is the disregard of the effects of aggregation and time in the commoditization of destination values. Keywords: Destination, Brand, Place, Capital, Values, Time, Commoditization INTRODUCTION The recent uptake in destination branding as a special category of place branding (Kotler and Gertner 2002) by localities, regions and entire countries makes it opportune to contribute towards an appropriate theory that may help analyze and guide the management of branding processes. Brands are with us, if one likes it or not; they are a means by which many companies have created value for themselves and others. While communities and destinations may now also wish to exploit this commercial tool of asset creation, it needs to be considered that destination branding appears at odds with common branding practice; first, in most cases there is no clear