Destination branding has emerged as one of the most influential strategic paradigms in contemporary tourism marketing, particularly for complex, heterogeneous, and culturally layered nations such as India. Over the past two decades, the discourse surrounding destination branding has evolved from simplistic image-based promotion to sophisticated, multidimensional frameworks that integrate brand equity, brand architecture, stakeholder alignment, and consumer self-congruity. This research article develops a comprehensive, theoretically grounded, and critically engaged examination of destination brand architecture and customer-based brand equity in the Indian tourism context. Drawing strictly on established branding, marketing, and tourism scholarship, this study synthesizes insights from place branding theory, destination image research, brand equity models, and comparative international cases to interrogate how India’s centralized and state-wise tourism branding efforts interact, conflict, and co-evolve. The article situates Indian tourism branding within broader global debates on place marketing, corporate branding analogies, and postmodern consumer behavior, while critically evaluating the structural, institutional, and communicative challenges faced by developing and emerging tourism destinations. Methodologically, the study adopts an interpretive, literature-integrative research design that systematically analyzes foundational and contemporary academic contributions to destination branding, with particular emphasis on brand architecture models, consumer-based brand equity constructs, and governance mechanisms in tourism promotion. The findings reveal that India’s destination branding landscape is characterized by fragmented brand narratives, asymmetrical equity distribution across states, and unresolved tensions between national umbrella branding and localized identity articulation. At the same time, the analysis demonstrates significant latent potential for a coherent brand architecture model capable of leveraging India’s diversity as a strategic asset rather than a branding liability. The discussion advances theoretical contributions by extending destination brand equity frameworks to multi-level governance systems and offers nuanced managerial implications for policymakers, destination management organizations, and tourism marketers operating in complex destination ecosystems. By integrating branding theory with destination-specific realities, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of how emerging tourism nations can build resilient, authentic, and competitive destination brands in an uncertain global environment.

Destination branding, Brand architecture, Customer-based brand equity, Place marketing

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