This paper adopts an ecological perspective to analyze the practices and processes inherent in encounters between residents and tourists. The study contributes to the literature on performance and performativity, seen as a novel theoretical approach in tourism studies, by proposing the concept of performative field, which enables a holistic and ecological consideration of the performances and relationships in tourism. This is in contrast with the binary logic emerging from the available studies, where confrontation between "hosts" and "guests" as two well-distinguished performative forces appear to be the norm. The study draws on non-representational theories and illustrates its arguments through an investigation, through participant observation, of the "Pink Night" (La Notte Rosa), an annual festival staged along the Romagna coastal region -one of the most renowned Italian mass-tourism destinations.

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The present paper takes the empirical phenomenon of place branding as an appropriate point of view to understand the communicative process of brand governance in the realm of the public. The paper explores the modalities through which a brand governance emerges as a negotiated and contested mechanism reproduced through language. By drawing on the analytical approach of interpretative repertoires, the analysis demonstrates that a process of governance can be seen as a 'text' in a constant state of negotiation in which the level of involvement in the brand building process can be discursively contested, with language illustrating the ways in which different actors express their positionalities (hegemonic or subalternate). The analysis suggests that this can be seen as a power political process in which politics of space and time are expressed linguistically by the different actors involved in brand governance.

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This city profile on Leicester focuses on the representation of ethnical diversity in city branding. Through a historical approach, the paper discusses how the local authorities have taken advantage of the arrival of different migration flows into the city, in order to redefine its post-industrial identity in terms of multiculturalism, tolerance and inclusivity. In so doing, the paper emphasises the combination of deliberate marketing communicative activities, the provision of services for attracting and retaining foreign businesses and the creation of an open urban milieu where various ethnic groups are free to express and celebrate their own cultures through festivals and events. The paper identifies the alignment between place communication and place 'offerings' development as the crucial element underpinning Leicester's model for multicultural cooperation and critically assesses the recent challenges that are being posed to the sustainment of a multicultural city image.