ABOUT BOOK

Purpose There has been a steady increase in tourism in biosphere reserves necessitating the future thereof to be embedded in sustainability. Communities’ sense of place (SoP) is central to branding destinations within these socio-ecological designations. This study aims to operationalise the branding of a biosphere reserve using a SoP toolkit as the nexus between sustainable tourism and participatory action research. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach using the nominal group technique (NGT) was applied. Findings The results suggest that sustainability should feature prominently in the process of identifying a community’s SoP in protected areas and that place meaning plays a pivotal role in place making, like branding, of protected areas. Originality/value The paper furthers the discourse of practise-academic research in sustainable tourism settings. To this effect, a sense and care of place toolkit is proposed.