Abstract: In nowadays competitive tourist market, it is important for a country to differentiate itself from its competitors through management of its identity. Its target identity should be conceived on basis of its inherent advantages and potentials, as well as competitive market situation. If the identity management strategy is to yield results in terms of consumer attention, market share and profits, the new identity should reflect also in new image that the target audience should have of the country.

The country's identification system is a configuration of verbal and visual signs that identifies its marketing communication. It performs a double function in identity management. It unifies the appearance of country's communications to make them easily recognizable as messages of this country. At the same time, the inherent meaning of elements of country's identification system must offer mental support for the image that want to targe audience to have of our country.

The paper proposes a tentative theoretical framework for solving problems which this double task imposes on marketer. The second part of the paper puts this theory to work, illustrating it with the final phase of research on which the selection of elements of the new identity system of tourist service of Yugoslavia was based.

Vodopivec Blaž, Kline Miro, Damjan Janez: "Selecting elements of identification system to support management of country's tourist identity: the case of Yugoslavia," Paper presented at Symposium Marketing in the Tourist Industry, Portoroz, Slovenia, October 5-7, 1988.