The Labyrinth of Sustainable Tourism Development: The Role of Place Branding Through Music

Abstract

This article examines music’s potential to contribute to the co-creative development of sustainable place branding efforts. It highlights how music can brand a place with a specific music identity and provide places with foundations of their resilient futures. The authors explore the case study of Labyrinth Musical Workshop, which gathers musicians from all parts of the world to a small village in Crete called Houdetsi. The study builds on ethnography data (fieldnotes, photos/videos), interviews with musicians, local inhabitants and hotel owners and digital ethnography tools including thematic analysis of hashtags and comments on the official social media accounts of Labyrinth Musical Workshop and the Cultural Association of Houdetsi. Findings reveal the challenges of sustainable tourism development and how music and place branding through co-creation can lead destinations towards resilience. The co-created experiences on offer highlight notions of community and co-belonging that inspire repeat visits, whereas the support of cultural and economic networks prioritize social–cultural and environmental rather than merely economic sustainability pillars.

1. Introduction

Sustainable tourism development and destination branding are both popular terms in scholarly circles, as also exhibited by the number of studies and systematic literature reviews tackling the concept (i.e., a basic Google scholar search performed on 7 October 2025 on the terms retrieved more than 1.6 million and 32,300 results, respectively, whereas there are reviews and studies tackling with both). However, this popularity does not necessarily mean that academia has so far provided practitioners with insightful guidelines in terms of how to pursue and achieve sustainable tourism objectives. Towards this direction, Rasoolimanesh et al. (2020) particularly emphasized (1) how relevant studies largely overlook the role of governance, (2) that tourists are the least engaged stakeholder group and (3) that objective indicators receive more attention compared to subjective ones. This paper addresses these issues and exhibits how place branding through intangible cultural heritage (music in specific) and sustainable tourism development can be two sides of the same coin.

Culture and heritage are particularly popular for place branding and tourism development purposes, yet the way such assets are incorporated in relevant strategies and practices often leads to tensions, reactions and an unsustainable use of resources (e.g., Ashworth & Kavaratzis, 2014; Kladou & Usakli, 2025). The prioritization of resilience and sustainability, the challenges of sustainable tourism development and place branding (Rasoolimanesh et al., 2020; Florek, 2025) and how particularly intangible cultural heritage (ICH) might extend to recognize the aesthetic, historic, scientific, social values of heritage (see Vecco, 2010) imply a need to shift the focus from tangible to intangible heritage.

ICH refers to traditions and living expressions that have been inherited from previous and passed on to future generations (UNESCO, n.d.). Among such elements, music emerges as a significant asset that raises interest, mainly because of its economic potential (e.g., either due to copyrights or music tourism) and its social impact. However, music is far more than a communication asset upon which destinations can build their branding efforts and communicate a competitive advantage which differentiates them from other destinations. Music has the potential to contribute to the co-creative development of sustainable place branding efforts. Still, this is feasible only when music is adequately linked to the identity of the place and when its incorporation in place branding efforts is built on an understanding of the relationship between local culture and place brands and an appreciation of its complexion and reciprocity (Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2015). Traditional music specifically is a dynamic aspect of the ICH of any destination, although in many cases it has been misrepresented as a static, mummified spectacle, performed for the tourist gaze (Urry & Larsen, 2011).

Karachalis and Vlassi (2025) recently investigated the role of responsible tourism for major urban destinations, yet more research into this aspect with a particular focus on rural areas (i.e., given the additional challenges faced by such areas; for details, see Bakas et al., 2024) is necessary. This paper investigates the importance of music for microbranding through co-creation to provide places with the foundations of their resilient futures. To contribute towards this direction, the authors examine the ways Labyrinth Musical Workshop has branded Houdetsi village with a specific music identity. The study builds on ethnography data (fieldnotes, photos/videos), interviews with musicians, local inhabitants and hotel owners and digital ethnography tools including thematic analysis of hashtags and comments on the official social media accounts of Labyrinth Musical Workshop and the Cultural Association of Houdetsi. Findings reveal how music can help destinations navigate the labyrinth of sustainable tourism development and place branding, by offering co-created experiences (Szmigin et al., 2017), by highlighting notions of community and co-belonging that inspire repeat visits, and by supporting cultural and economic networks while prioritizing social and environmental rather than merely economic sustainability pillars.

2. Literature Review

2.1. The Role of Culture and Heritage for Place Branding

Culture and heritage, as a distinct dimension on the nation brand hexagon (Anholt, 2004), typically attract the interest of place and destination brand stakeholders often as a panem et circenses practice, to provide consumable (and saleable) experiences or a resource for economic activity, to attract the ‘creative class’ and/or tourists and to express the locality (Ashworth & Kavaratzis, 2014). Typically, three techniques are combined in different ways while using culture for development and branding: the ‘event hallmarking’, the ‘personality association’, and the ‘flagship building and signature district’ techniques (Ashworth, 2009). The first technique prioritizes the organization of different events, small and large, traditional and progressive, of various art forms, etc. This technique might incorporate heritage features and empower spatial aspects in different ways depending also on how identity is constructed (González-Reverté, 2023). The ‘personality association’ technique is possible when realistic associations link the place with the history of the person’s career, to the artwork themselves or to associated sites (Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2015). Finally, the ‘flagship building and signature district’ introduces elements of a specific building or district to emphasize primarily the idea of a living community of artists which is associated with a contemporary creative potential. The literature also highlights the connection between Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) and the formation of a distinguished identity of a place as a tourism destination (e.g., Papadaki, 2021; Papadaki et al., 2025b), as well as the creativity potential that a place offers in the realm of the creative tourism paradigm (Richards, 2020; Papadaki et al., 2025a).

Regardless of the technique or combination of techniques employed, the use of culture and heritage for place branding purposes often leads to tensions, reactions and an unsustainable use of resources, due to the superficial relationship between culture and place branding, the disconnection between place brands and local culture and conflicting stakeholder priorities (Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2015; Kladou & Usakli, 2025). In order to move beyond this ‘hijacking of culture’ (Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2015), we need to understand how culture acquires its meaning; thus, an interdisciplinary approach is necessary to help study how culture (1) is represented, (2) relates to social identities, (3) is produced, (4) consumed/experienced and (5) how its use is regulated (Du Gay et al., 1997).

For place and destination branding to re-unite with its strategic mission, it needs to address challenges which refer to changes in the environment, i.e., the role of technological and digital innovation, and the importance of prioritizing all aspects of sustainability (e.g., in response to overtourism), balancing between globalization and authenticity, and of adequate and timely response to crises (Florek, 2025). As a solution to the problem and risks of ‘hijacking culture’, local residents and the value of co-creation is emphasized, whereas Kavaratzis and Ashworth (2015) specifically propose to use culture as a connecting link between the place brand and locals, treat the place brand as a cultural resource, and simultaneously consider culture in, for and of the place. Culture for the place refers to those cultural elements that recreate and circulate meaning within the community that foster cultural exchange between locals and non-locals (e.g., a building or district that facilitates such exchange). Responsible place branding can embrace such elements as long as they are important for local populations and external audiences alike. Culture of the place refers to features that place-based groups see as ‘belonging to the place’ and linking them together as a community (e.g., it could be the ‘personality association’ technique and Mozart for Salzburg or Hundertwasser for Vienna, provided that the culture either of them represents is still relevant and of value for internal and outside audiences (for instance, see Guachalla, 2023)). Participatory and inclusive place branding practices can help shifting population characteristics re-define their ‘connecting link’ with the place, co-create and sustain their meaning and value (Kladou, 2025). Culture in the place foresees some alignment with the ‘event hallmarking’ technique in offering accessible, inclusive opportunities to experience culture, which can be responsible, sustainable and inclusive as long as it adequately links to the aforementioned aspects of culture for and of the place.

2.2. Music as Intangible Cultural Heritage and Music Tourism

ICH is recognized as an important asset in place and destination branding literature (e.g., Kladou, 2025). The role of such elements and cultural assets, in general, as a source of authenticity in support of differentiation and a competitive advantage (e.g., Lemmetyinen et al., 2025; Vasavada & Gurpreet, 2016) is as important to reflect a possible fifth dimension in the cultural city brand equity model (next to awareness, image, perceived quality and loyalty), namely cultural city brand assets, which significantly contribute to international tourists’ and residents’ favorable evaluations of cultural destinations alike (Kladou, 2025).

UNESCO (n.d.) defines ICH as “inherited and passed on traditions or living expressions, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe of the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts”. ICH is representative, inclusive, community-based, traditional, contemporary and living at the same time (UNESCO, n.d.), thereby underlying its importance for socio-cultural sustainability. As UNESCO (n.d.) defines ICH embraces practices, expressions, and knowledge transmitted across generations—where music, dance and song occupy a central place. ICH includes social practices, oral tradition but also performing arts and music (UNESCO, n.d.), and, among others, has value in terms of copyrights and the experience it may relate with.

Music tourism, as a subset of cultural tourism, involves travel experiences driven by a desire to attend/visit music-dominated events and/or places: a music concert, a music festival, visit the home/ grave/ inspiration places of famous musicians, the studios where songs were recorded, or destinations that are related to a tour of one’s favourite music band or a loved film musical. For instance, Salzburg’s tourism has seen rapid growth after the destination’s connection with the musical film “The Sound of Music”, while the house where Mozart was born has recently taken a place near the most visited museums in the world, establishing Salzburg as a destination for classical music (Guachalla, 2023). Elvis Priesley’s and Bob Marley’s graves in Memphis, Tennessee, USA and Nine Miles, Jamaica, respectively, are included among the 10 most visited graves worldwide, while the Abbey Road Studios in London, where The Beatles recorded some of their well-known songs is included in The Abbey Road Tour, booked by thousands of tourists every year. Recent music events such as Coldplay’s Spheres Tour and Taylor Swift’s Era Tour have invited hundreds of thousands of people to the tours’ venues, causing significant increase in the destinations’ flights and hotel bookings, as a result of the artists’ global fame. Music festivals are among the music events that invite a big number of tourists flows in destinations (Perron-Brault et al., 2020; Kement, 2024), providing musical, but also extra-musical motives (Szmigin et al., 2017), such as socialization and the contemporary tourists’ need for local authenticity (Papadaki et al., 2025b) and extraordinary experiences (Skandalis et al., 2023).

2.3. ICH and Music, Place Identity and Music for Placemaking

Creative expressions (e.g., music and festivals) allow places to construct meaningful identities rooted in local heritage and leverage unique cultural assets (Bakas et al., 2024; Kavaratzis, 2024), while facilitating inclusion and the support and management of a place brand that unites different stakeholder groups (e.g., see Slocum, 2023). Primarily community-led cultural festivals, storytelling and creative industries foster inclusive stakeholder engagement (Papadaki et al., 2025a), showcase how music and other ICH can be integrated into branding efforts and reinforce the unique identity of a place (Kavaratzis, 2024; Lemmetyinen et al., 2025). However, Kavaratzis and Ashworth (2015) also warn of the risk to ‘hijack culture’ and essentialize ICH (including music practices) into homogenized symbols due to what Caprioli et al. (2021) more recently recognize as social media and/or branding practices which strip, commercialize and misrepresent local culture.

In the place branding literature, micro-branding can refer to the development of sub-brands within a destination and emerge as a strategic tool to highlight distinct local identities and heritage narratives, particularly in culturally rich or diverse regions or places that have already been associated with specific attributes because of previous branding efforts or pre-existing destination image perceptions (e.g., Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2015). Micro-branding can be seen as the ideal approach in the pursuit of sustainability, to also help safeguard ICH across generations and co-creation among various resident demographics and local stakeholders. Micro-branding that highlights ICH assets can provide differentiated and experiential brand narratives that reflect the local identity and support its relevance to international cultural tourism and continuous discussion with local stakeholder groups.

The way place branding is often used to achieve economic growth, primarily through tourism development, is often subject to criticism, but co-creation, participatory place branding and stakeholder engagement (Skinner, 2021) can be an answer when linked to niche marketing and micro-branding. In fact, given the challenges of place branding and often conflicting priorities of branding and tourism stakeholders (Kladou & Usakli, 2025), micro-branding might seem the best (and often perhaps the only) tool to adequately incorporate culture and tourism in the pursuit of place resilience and holistic sustainability. Music and music tourism, in particular, can be closely interlinked to micro-branding strategies in an effort to prioritize the sustainable development of the place and adequate, inclusive incorporation of culture in place branding strategies (Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2015). Gibson and Connell (2005) define music tourism as travel motivated by heritage or musical experiences, including festivals, musical pilgrimages, and community-based performances. When viewed through Kavaratzis and Ashworth’s (2015) identity-based framework, music-centered micro-brands support co-creation between communities and visitors, activating cultural capital and enhancing local identity and inclusion. Thus, integrating music ICH into micro-branding might position music as both a symbolic and strategic asset in place branding, support sustainable tourism experiences and also ensure the survival, transmission and expansion of heritage practices.

Music is an ICH element that can strongly connect internal stakeholders (residents in specific) to the branding efforts, thereby influencing residents’ commitment to branding efforts, even in the case of big cities (e.g., Austin, Texas see Kemp et al., 2012), as such host community involvement and participation are crucial to sustaining a place brand and destination brand (Kemp et al., 2012; Skinner, 2021). Especially in the case of smaller destinations, resources are even more constrained and limited (i.e., in terms of both general and tourism infrastructure, e.g., parking spaces/road infrastructure, accommodation, etc.) and pressures on the place identity even greater (e.g., Pedeliento & Kavaratzis, 2019; Skinner, 2021). Therefore, it is urgent to understand how both top-down and bottom-up processes help examine the social construction of the place, and analyze how social structures frame human actions and how socially shared practices in civil society contribute to shaping social structures and make up place culture and identity (Muñiz-Martínez, 2023; Papadaki et al., 2025a; Pedeliento & Kavaratzis, 2019).

3. Materials and Methods

Crete, as a popular tourism destination (Statista, 2025) with distinct cultural characteristics, is in urgent need of adequately facing the challenges of its tourism success and branding (as outlined in Florek, 2025). Thus, this article builds on the case study of a small village in Crete, Greece, which, according to the 2021 census, is home to around 700 permanent residents, mainly occupied with agriculture (Hellenic Statistical Authority, 2025). Houdetsi is the village where the Labyrinth Musical Workshop has hosted music events for the last 43 years (Labyrinth, 2025), contributing to the village identity and its audio brand (Fahey, 2014), and, we argue, presents a case of resilient destination development through music, whereas its influence on similar musical workshops internationally offers insights that extend beyond the local and national context.

3.1. The Labyrinth Musical Workshop

The Labyrinth Musical Workshop started as an idea in 1982, guided by the Irish musician Ross Daly’s vision to gather a group of musicians to explore different musical traditions of the world. Houdetsi has hosted the headquarters of Labyrinth Musical Workshop since 2003. Athens was the first city to host Labyrinth seminars in 1997. Two reasons led Ross Daly, the artistic director of Labyrinth Musical Workshops, to transfer his music school from Athens to Crete. Firstly, there was a need to enrich cultural activities around Heraklion at the time, vividly expressed by local authorities, that warmly invited the musical team to the island. Secondly, there was an old mansion with a big garden in Houdetsi village which seemed ideal for the music gatherings and concerts. After an earthquake in 2021 destroyed part of Labyrinth’s main premises, the Labyrinth had to find new ways to remain active, such as organizing events outdoors or in other villages in Crete (e.g., Anogeia, close to the city of Rethymno). Since 2023, the Labyrinth Musical Workshop has been based in a renovated industrial building in Houdetsi. The new building, offered by the Municipality of Archanes–Asterousia, now provides Labyrinth three additional rooms to house its activities.

The new building also houses an exhibition of musical instruments from around the globe. These instruments introduce visitors to instruments they may have never heard of before, but they might also be used during the seminars by musicians who need them, in case, for example, airline restrictions did not allow them to travel with their own instruments to Crete.

For more than 40 years, the workshop, its seminars and concerts have continued to attract musicians from around the world to the village of Houdetsi in Crete. The fact that the focus of study in Labyrinth Musical Workshops is modal music, which is geographically spread in North Africa, Western China and every country in between, reveals the different ethnicities and backgrounds of musicians coming to Houdetsi.

3.2. Data Collection

For the purposes of the specific research, the authors examine the ways Labyrinth Musical Workshop has branded Houdetsi village with a specific music identity. In order to investigate in-depth the specific rural area and the role of music and micro-branding for resilience in a way that is beneficial for other rural areas facing similar challenges (e.g., see Bakas et al., 2024; Florek, 2025), an interdisciplinary approach and a combination of data was deemed necessary. In line with Adams’s (2024) call to integrate social and planetary justice agendas into ethnographic studies, fieldwork at Houdetsi helps the critical analysis of first-hand experience of the atmosphere in the village during Labyrinth Musical Workshop’s events and of the relationships formed between organizers, musicians, local people and visitors. More specifically, data build on (1) field notes and observation in field work, (2) semi-structured interviews, and (3) digital input on official social media. Observation allows the authors to fully focus on the ways that the Labyrinth community is organized, communicates and connects with its audience and the local community (Babbie, 2016) in the place that houses it. The semi-structured interviews offer direct access to the subjective knowledge, preferences, feelings and beliefs of musicians and their audience (Creswell & Creswell, 2017) regarding both their interconnection and the impact on the village.

At the time of data collection, the authors had been closely following the Labyrinth Musical Workshop and Houdetsi development for over a year. The research team, which hereby facilitated data collection embraced university students who visited the village during the first Labyrinth Festival in July 2025 and several times before and after the event, took notes, talked to participants, and collected data through experiential observation (Eriksen, 2015; Jorgensen, 1989). During November and December 2024, the research team conducted interviews with Labyrinth’s artistic director Ross Daly, the president of the Cultural Association of Houdetsi, Stathis Gialitakis, as well as 12 residents of the village, 3 hotel owners, 5 music instructors and 10 students of the seminars and masterclasses. The sampling of the interviews for this study was purposive, as only certain people could provide important information about the specific aspects of Labyrinth Musical Workshops (Taherdoost, 2016; Cohen et al., 2018).

In addition, using digital ethnography tools, the authors studied the digital presence of Labyrinth Musical Workshops, by recording the posts and stories posted through the workshop’s official social media accounts, as well as the comments written by workshop students and visitors underneath. Labyrinth Musical Workshop holds a website, as well as official accounts on many social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. In order to show its digital presence, the authors recorded its Facebook, Instagram and YouTube posts for one year, from 1 August 2024 to 31 July 2025 and studied the interaction with its users, including all the modalities (likes, shares and comments). In addition, in order to examine the overall digital visibility of Labyrinth Musical Workshops, including the messages uploaded by musicians—both music instructors and students—local people of Houdetsi and visitors, the authors followed the hashtags #musiclabyrinth and #labyrinthmusicalworkshops and studied the uploaded visual and linguistic messages of the collected data. The authors were also interested to study whether, apart from the reference to the musical activities of the workshop, people also mention the place that houses it, i.e., Houdetsi village.

3.3. Data Analysis

The official website of Labyrinth Musical Workshop (https://labyrinthmusic.gr/en/) provides an environment of constant connection and interaction, with regular redevelopment of content and services. The website hosts information on the philosophy and the seminars provided by the workshop, and addresses targeted audiences, i.e., the past, potential and future students and/or visitors of the workshop, as well as anyone interested in the activities offered. With 2.938 followers on Instagram, 13.000 followers on Facebook, 4.670 subscribers and 819.532 views on YouTube as of August 2025, the Labyrinth Musical Workshop has created a vivid digital community, with which it shares audiovisual content and a lot of music instances. The authors recorded the workshop’s posts for one year, from 1 August 2024 to 31 July 2025, in order to study the kind of content shared and the engagement with the audiences (see

Table 1. Labyrinth Musical Workshop’s content on its official social media accounts ¹.

	Facebook	Instagram
Program/registration announcements	12	1
Concert/project announcements	37	20
Seminar/concert photos/videos	20	15
Reposts (music instructors/students/locals)	22	5
Seminar announcement	70	45
Rehearsals/behind the scenes	30	6
Music instructors’ music/repertoire	64	-
Project/series presentation	3	2
Festival 2025 posts (before, during, after)	32	26
Collection of instruments	2	1
Other announcements	3	-

^1. There are 133 videos and 48 playlists on YouTube. The videos’ content varies from seminars and concerts to other Labyrinth’s activities (e.g., Music Fridays and Music Sundays, as well as tributes (e.g., to certain music instructors and the 40 years of the workshops).

).

The data—collected through fieldwork, interviews and digital ethnography—was analyzed by thematic content analysis. During the research team’s visits to the village, certain observations guided the research to specific themes. Those themes were tested through interviews with the organizers and participants of the workshops, as well as local residents and tourism stakeholders. The repeated—and confirmed—themes and schemata found formed the basis for the digital ethnography. All posts and modalities of the workshop’s digital presence were recorded and inserted into an excel file. Common patterns, identified through field notes, observation, interviews and digital data, drove thematic analysis. The key points of the research data were organized and analyzed into meaning units (Boyatzis, 1998; Braun & Clarke, 2006). The main variables of our narratives (organizers, local people, visitors) revealed results for two thematic units. The first is related to Labyrinth Musical Workshop’s performative choices and includes three sub-categories: (1) choice of seminars’ and concerts’ content, (2) networking and (3) sustainability practices. The second one connects to the village, local residents and visitors—both from Crete and abroad—with three sub-categories: (1) response to Labyrinth’s practices, (2) impact on the local community and (3) impact on the village as a music destination (Figure 1).

The findings are presented according to the above thematic analysis categorization. The real names of the music instructors, the workshop students and the local residents were replaced with numbers (e.g., MI1, MI2, etc. for music instructors, WS1, WS2, etc. for workshop students, LR1, LR2, etc. for local residents and HO1, HO2, etc. for hotel owners).

4. Results and Discussion

4.1. Performative Choices of the Labyrinth Musical Workshop

Based on historical and morphological similarities, musicians from all over the world nowadays gather in the small Cretan village to play music together, perpetuating networks of synergies that are, in fact, a core element for the development of music through the centuries. These communities of musicians, stable at their core but constantly reformed and reshaped, adding new members/participants in every workshop, expand the notion of creative tourism, as Richards (2020) envisages it: their active participation in local culture and local engagement through creativity and hands-on activities while at the destination, in practice, addresses Rasoolimanesh et al.’s (2020) concern on non-engaged tourists’ impact on destination sustainability.

Seminar teachers and students/participants in Houdetsi bring their musical skills, their instruments and music traditions and, while practicing in various public spaces in the village, allow local people to witness foreign music practices, get acquainted with different instruments and repertoire and finally “borrow” elements of these music sounds and incorporate them in their music. “Every night we listen to music from Afghanistan, Cretan music played with rubab, or music from Azerbaijan, China, wherever someone can imagine… We just have to open the door of our house…Essentially, it is an obligation for us, musicians, to assimilate these sounds… we end up learning these musics; these musics pass through our performances to the local community. Even if Cretan music is the core of our performances, one can find ‘loans’ from other musics, as well”. (interview with Stathis Gialitakis, 2024). Music tourists, in this respect, leave an influential music mark in Houdetsi and help locals re-define the dynamics of their music tradition. During a concert in Labyrinth’s Garden, one might see an Indian music instrument, for example, accompanying a Cretan lyra performing a traditional Cretan song. These music “loans” and “interconnections”, that is, the music dialogues between instruments of various parts of the world, have created a distinct atmosphere in Houdetsi, “a music identity that cannot be found anywhere else in Crete”, as many interviewees mentioned (LR3, MI2, MI4, WS5).

4.1.1. Choice of Seminars and Concerts’ Content

Most of the seminars organized in the premises of Labyrinth Musical Workshop are weekly fast-paced seminars, exploring modal music traditions from various parts of the world such as the Balkans, Middle East, Central Asia, India, North Africa, etc. In some instances, there is the possibility for a student to attend three-week seminars, mostly associated with the full circle of music creation and production: composition, orchestration and recording/production. Mainly, however, two types of weekly seminars are on offer: “Open” and “Master Classes”, both of which cost less than EUR 400 in 2025. All students that attend an Open seminar or a Master Class are awarded a certification for their attendance (Labyrinth, 2025).

Although Rasoolimanesh et al. (2020) found that tourists are the least engaged stakeholders when it comes to sustainable tourism development and recognize the risk of prioritizing objective over subjective indicators; this does not appear to be the case when prioritizing music workshops. In particular, the participants in Labyrinth Musical Workshops—both teachers and students—are encouraged to act autonomously and take initiatives. Music improvisation—the spontaneous composition of music without pre-written sheet music—is an important part of modal music traditions and is highly encouraged during the workshops (WS13).

Open music seminars welcome students from various music levels. Master Classes are taught by high-level musicians/music instructors. There is a strict procedure and certain criteria to allow someone to attend Master Classes: performing videos are sent to the organizers, who decide who will be eligible to attend. Around 400–500 students from 40 different countries visit Houdetsi every year to attend one of Labyrinth Musical Workshop’s seminars. Apart from European countries, musicians from the U.S.A., Asia, China and Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East have been hosted in Houdetsi. Among them, many Cretans join the seminars every year. These figures formed the reality until 2024, when the workshop could organize residencies and seminars only during the summer. Yet, as interview data reveal, the numbers are deemed to rise in the next few years, as the workshop started to use three more rooms in the new building that houses it and, therefore, organize residencies and seminars throughout the year.

During the summer, there are concerts every week in Labyrinth Musical Workshop’s Garden, situated in front of the mansion that used to house the workshop’s activities prior to the earthquake and right across the street of the building that functions as its new premises. Almost all the residents of the village attend these events. All concerts have free entry, attracting big flows of visitors.

The year 2025 marked the beginning of Labyrinth Festival, a three-day musical event, hosting nine concerts, three per day. The concerts were held in three outdoor areas inside the village: Labyrinth’s Garden, an open stone theater called “Spiliada”, which was designed for the festival (and completed just one week before the event), and a small village square called “Hatzine”. Houdetsi’s entrance street is closed after a certain hour during the festival, to limit the number of cars that enter the village from nearby cities (i.e., mainly Heraklion, the capital city of Crete) and to minimize the risk of attracting bigger flows of audiences than the ones the village can accommodate.

The Labyrinth Festival in July 2025 attracted a big number of people who came for one or more of the concerts. The village was cleaned and decorated for the concerts, while the vivid atmosphere during the festival could not be compared to the village’s quiet nights. People continued to enjoy the festive atmosphere until late at night. The outdoor music scenes were full of people sitting in chairs (in Hatzine) or chairs and the grass (in the garden), and in the stone stairs (in the theater), while others were dancing to the music’s rhythm at the back. Yet, complying with Ross Daly’s request for respect, people did not wander around, nor were they noisy, but only “energetically” (Eco, 1964) listened to the music. Thus, the value of music as an art form that requires the audience’s full attention and unites various stakeholders emerges (Rasoolimanesh et al., 2020). At the same time, the energetic listening to music refers, according to Umberto Eco, to the emotional and social functions of music. In this framework, listeners actively participate in creating meaning—according to their needs, knowledge, beliefs and aspirations. Music works are “open works” (Eco, 1964; Fiske, 2010), needing energetic engagement rather than passive consumption. In parallel, audiences recognize themselves as social entities, as music can be seen as an identity sign and can therefore be perceived in similar patterns by certain “interpretive communities” (Fish, 1980). The applause was loud, warm and lasting.

4.1.2. Networking

Musicians from the Labyrinth Musical Workshop appear in performances throughout Greece, while the projects created by Labyrinth are performed in various venues across Greece, including highly esteemed ones, such as Megaron Concert Hall and Odeon of Herodes Atticus (Herodium) in Athens. Performances also take place abroad; so far, they have been hosted in Canada and the USA, various European countries, but also in Morocco, Taiwan and Australia. Following the example of Labyrinth Musical Workshops in Crete, the Labyrinth of Catalonia was founded in 2016, the Labyrinth of Italy followed in 2017, the Maze in Ontario and Labyrinth in Nicosia in 2018 and the Labyrinth in Turkey (Istanbul) in 2019.

Labyrinth Musical Workshops have organized student residences and seminars in Anogeia, i.e., one of the most music-oriented and tourism-visited villages in Crete (see Visit Greece, 2024). Anogeia is branded as a “musical village”, a village with a long music tradition, having given birth to some of the most known Cretan musicians of all time and maintaining their music tradition in every possible way. There is a museum dedicated to Nikos Xylouris, an emblematic music figure in Cretan music tradition, while the village hosts music events regularly. The legacy of Nikos Xylouris is passed on to the next generations of local musicians. Greeks travel to Anogeia to listen to local lyra players and well-known Cretan performers. The cooperation of Labyrinth Musical Workshop with Anogeia village came as a need to host the many activities planned, after the 2021 earthquake. The Primary School of Houdetsi welcomed the music events during that time, but Anogeia village also welcomed some of Labyrinth’s seminars and concerts, forming a network that will be sustained.

Labyrinth Musical Workshops are seen as a good example of future resilience for a place, as two more villages in Crete have followed the example: Meronas village in Rethymnon and Hamezi village in Sitia (Lasithi). Musical workshops have gathered students for a week-long residency in Meronas during the first week of August for the last 15 years, while Hamezi Festival has welcomed musicians for a week’s stay in the village in mid-July for the last 3 years. All the events’ organizers mention Labyrinth Musical Workshops as the “mother-idea”, the inspiration behind all of their practices. Many musicians attend more than one—or even all—of these workshops in Crete, as each one focuses on the local music traditions of the place that hosts it.

4.1.3. Sustainability Practices

Labyrinth Musical Workshop’s relocation to Houdetsi seems to have helped the village’s resilience in all possible levels. Economic, socio-cultural and environmental sustainability is of vital importance to the workshop’s organizers. In response to Rasoolimanesh et al. (2020), governance appears central in the case of Houdetsi and the Labyrinth, since, based on Ross Daly’s initiative and through the cooperation with local authorities and the Cultural Association of Houdetsi, the workshops’ practices have improved the economic well-being and the quality of life in the village.

Houdetsi is a vibrant village, where many young people prefer to remain and ignore contemporary urbanization trends. “There is no need for someone to move to Heraklion”, a female resident (LR3) told the research team. “We have everything we need here, in our village. We even have a pharmacy now” (LR3). An elderly man (LR11) proudly mentioned that his children decided to come back to Houdetsi, after living several years in the city (Heraklion), to raise their children and are now building their new home in the village. There were, in fact, many newly built and several buildings under construction at the time as the research team’s latest visit in Houdetsi.

Business owners in the village have seen their revenue rise. “Houdetsi has welcomed tourists for many years”, a hotel owner argued. “People love our village, the narrow streets, the atmosphere. But during the last decades most of our rooms are reserved by Labyrinth’s students, especially during the summer.” (HO1). The village’s cafes are transformed into restaurants during the music events, as the restaurants in Houdetsi cannot serve all visitors. Souvlaki is offered by itinerant roasters; the mini markets sell snacks and drinks. The economy of the village is strengthened in many such instances during the year, fostering economic sustainability.

Socio-cultural sustainability is one of the main cores of the musical practices in the village. Cohesion and inclusion are evident in every musical event, both during its organization, the event itself and its aftermath: local people are present at every stage. Following the Cultural Association of Houdetsi’s guidance, volunteers help prepare the village’s musical scenes, while others decorate the streets and central square or clean the village. Local residents seem to enjoy contact with international visitors, are familiar with different appearances, practices and linguistic difficulties, and they all unite and proudly make conversations with the visitors on various subjects, such as the history and music traditions of their village. Most importantly, residents feel proud of what is happening in their village. “Houdetsian people always had a love for music. It is in our blood. Now that we are older, we are very happy to see young people coming to our village and playing music. Pure joy. I live for that”. (LR11). They form a devoted audience, one that focuses on listening to music energetically, with particular attention, as if following a ritual.

There are other music events, which are organized by the Cultural Association of Houdetsi, parallel to Labyrinth’s activities. Since 2016, the Houdetsi Festival took place, a big festival that attracted 50,000 visitors during its final year. Those former big flows of visitors turned the festival non-sustainable for a village of 700 people, and the Cultural Association of the village decided to pause it, as ‘the visitors were too many and the festival unsustainable, taking the village resources and people’ (Stathis Gialitakis). The strong brand name of the Labyrinth Musical Workshop among global circles of musicians might still link to the risk of attracting more visitors than the carrying capacity of the village and the workshop, especially during public events and/or the festival. Yet, the common vision of the workshop, village authorities and locals who prioritize socio-cultural sustainability and co-planning help minimize such risks.

Since 2024 small-scale summer events are organized, including ‘Music in Houdetsi’ and ‘Music Alleys’, where small music bands play mainly Cretan music outdoors, in designated areas located in and around the village, such as squares, staircases and small openings, allowing the musicians to directly interact with their audience. “There is a strong music sorcery in Houdetsi”, according to Stathis Gialitakis, “so it is easy for us to organise music events”. “Music Alleys” intentionally retained a small number of visitors, 400–500 people every night, spread in three different music “scenes”. “It was not advertised”, Stathis Gialitakis stated, “I was invited to various TV and radio shows and said no. It was almost incomprehensible to others”. Environmental sustainability and safety seemed like non-negotiable notions for the organizers of such more recent events.

4.2. Labyrinth and Its Connection to the Village, Local Residents and Visitors

The workshop, aligned with Rasoolimanesh et al.’s (2020) urges to prioritize subjective and not only objective indicators in the pursuit of sustainability, organizes music seminars, mainly on modal musical traditions of the world, as well as concerts with free entry. As mentioned above, many musicians (Greek nationals and international ones) arrive at the village throughout the year, to attend one of the seminars and devote some time in the Cretan village. Unlike other villages with similar population and characteristics, Houdetsi retains its population and is a conscious choice of residence for its young population. A number of small hotels have been built in order to facilitate artists’ visits, while some local restaurants also attract people from the nearby capital city of Crete, Heraklion. In order to examine the connection of Labyrinth Musical Workshop to the village, local residents and visitors, the response to the workshop’s social media messages was studied.

4.2.1. Response to the Practices of the Labyrinth

Seminar participants’ and visitors’ responses to the Labyrinth are inspiring; there are many “thank you” notes, as well as heart applause emojis under the workshop’s posts on all social media. Words such as “beautiful”, “fantastic” and “amazing” are largely preferred to describe the music, the seminars, the musicians, the people of the workshop, and the overall experience. Other comments from visitors include phrases like “It was great!”, “Evenings of gorgeous music”, “Congratulations for the music feast”, “We had a wonderful time”, “A magic night. This is what we live for”, and “A big thank you to all musicians. Thank you, Ross and Kelly!”. The fact that people mention the names of the workshop’s founder and artistic director and his wife highlights an atmosphere of familiarity, a community shaped between the musicians, Houdetsi’s local residents and visitors that share the same music interests. One of the comments underneath a photo of a Labyrinth Festival concert praised the workshop: “Good job Labyrinth! Incredible experience in our beloved Labyrinth Garden. It is a new phase for Labyrinth Musical Workshop: apart from excellent music, the sounds of which were heard throughout the village, we saw an authentic, spontaneous participation from the audience. This reminded us that through music’s collectivity, the world can change”.

Music instructors and students, when commenting underneath a Labyrinth Musical Workshop’s post, describe the workshop as “a great music community”, “a great family”, “the place where everything begins”, “where cultures meet other cultures”, “a deeply fullfilling experience”, where one “reconnects with artists and friends”, “surrounded by incredible practitioners of modal music”. Both music instructors and students also refer to the music instructors and the organizers with their name, implying a connection and intimacy created during their stay in Houdetsi.

The hashtags #musiclabyrinth and #labyrinthmusicalworkshop guided the authors to another group of posts. These were uploaded from three groups of people: workshop students (45% of the posts), music instructors/musicians who participated in concerts/festival (35%) and local residents/visitors (20%). There were also posts from other Labyrinth Musical Workshops, from Ontario or Catalunya. The most common image was a photograph taken during a seminar/concert. Several music instructors post messages such as “I thank Labyrinth Musical Workshop with all my heart for inviting me into this wonderful community of musicians”. Others state that they are “grateful for this opportunity” or that they felt “exhilarated”, as they come out of the seminar sessions. Almost all the music instructors that post messages online praise their students for the hard work they did, “seven hour per day”. Some students post photographs from the seminar they attended, accompanied by messages such as “we are grateful to the amazing teachers for their generous teaching”, “such inspiring people”.

Many comments refer to the “learning experience” and the “creativity” encouraged in Labyrinth Musical Workshop. Music tourism and music learning, especially in Labyrinth Musical Workshop’s case, can offer both playful and rich experiences. The workshops in Houdetsi propose an innovative learning model in music practice, balancing between educational and creative tourism. Musicians arrive in Houdetsi as teachers or students, in order to teach or be taught an instrument’s techniques and/or a certain repertoire. Their aim is to participate in a music learning environment and that motive alone can be seen as the framework of educational tourism (Franco et al., 2022). At the same time, creativity and co-creation—core elements of the Labyrinth Musical Workshops—are the main characteristics of creative tourism (Richards, 2020). Ross Daly, however, argued that he prefers to see the participants in the Labyrinth Musical Workshops as travelers or flâneurs (rather than tourists) who come to Houdetsi in order to learn musical practices and repertoires (interview with Ross Daly, 2024).

4.2.2. Impact on the Local Community

The practices of the Labyrinth appear so embedded in local residents’ everyday lives that people do not recall their village before the Labyrinth Musical Workshop (LR10). Local people have been a great audience, as most of the organizers pointed out. They have been characterized as “having music culture” and “great aesthetics”. Some of the locals—among them many young people—have shown special interest in the Labyrinth Musical Workshop’s activities, as Ross Daly mentioned, “People in the village feel close to what we do”. They also visit the building that houses the workshop and the exhibition of musical instruments. Many local musicians have shown interest in musical instruments that are not common to Cretan music tradition and have started to attend seminars and year-long courses, and even travel to the instruments’ countries of origin to learn local techniques and practices.

Stathis Gialitakis, the 28-year-old president of the Cultural Association of Houdetsi is a musician himself. “For many years I thought that the decision to become a musician was mine, but it was rather that Houdetsi in a way imposed this desire on me… every time I opened the door of my house, I would see musicians forming groups and playing music… it was inevitable for me to follow that path”. Mr Gialitakis remembers that he was five years old when he heard the first concert in the garden, outside the mansion that housed Labyrinth Musical Workshops. More than 60 children in Houdetsi are learning how to play a musical instrument nowadays, a rather big number in relation to the population of the village (700 people), highlighting the dynamics of a resilient music tradition that will probably grow for years to come in Houdetsi.

During the 2025 Labyrinth Festival, the contribution of local people was evident in every possible way. Local products were offered to visitors in the central square of the village. A handwritten sign stated “villagers’ treat”. Handmade rags were thrown on the seats of the stone theater, so that people could sit more comfortably. The restaurants offered local cuisine menus and certain cafes offered limited food choices so that every visitor could find a place to sit. A big number of the village’s residents attended the concerts during the Labyrinth Festival, regardless of age, class or music taste. Old women dressed in traditional black clothing with their grandchildren on their laps seemed to enjoy Cretan, as well as Persian music. The authors witnessed many elderly villagers attending Persian concerts during the Labyrinth festival and a number of local musicians instructing visitors how to learn the lyra. The residents of the village have been musically educated by now and have appreciated music (Eco, 1964); they have been listening to many musical idioms for many years, and witnessed many different musical instruments played by many different people coming from all parts of the world. They are aesthetically and musically trained, as to welcome all musical sounds that “feel nice” (LR8).

4.2.3. Impact on the Village as a Music Destination

Crete is known for its music tradition and music-loving people, so there was fertile ground for the endeavor (interview with Stathis Gialitakis). Houdetsi has a long music tradition, dated back to the mid-1800s, according to Stathis Gialitakis, when the first known musician appears in the village. He sees Labyrinth as a natural musical sequel, since music in Houdetsi has a long history. “There were always foreigners that came to Houdetsi for its music. Some decades ago they would come to buy the famous instruments that Lefteris Vlassakis crafted; now they are coming for the Labyrinth Musical Workshops” (HO1). The importance of music for Houdetsi is evident to any visitor strolling through the village, even when no event or festival is taking place (see Figure 2).

The village has maintained its traditionality—both as a community and as a visual image. There are narrow alleys, as in all Cretan villages, certain stone arches, and vernacular architecture. A statue of a lyra stands as a memorial for the well-known Houdetsian musician and instrument-maker, Lefteris Vlassakis, while lyras and lyra players are seen in wall drawings around the village (Figure 2). Could Houdetsi be defined as a musical village? “I think Houdetsi has earned this brand identity, after centuries of creating music and/or hosting music events, bringing together musicians from all parts of the world in order to exchange ideas and musical practices and creating music synergies” (Stathis Gialitakis, 2024).

The importance of music, the Labyrinth and synergies for the local community and the village becomes more ‘human-centered’ through the big canvas which the visual artist Konstantinos Grivakis painted in 2024 (Figure 3). This canvas is installed in the village, depicts the old mansion and Labyrinth’s Garden at the center, while small village houses appear at the left and right sides of the painting. In front of the houses, people are standing, wearing traditional Cretan clothes, with women on the left and men on the right holding traditional Cretan instruments—lyra and lute. A semiotic reading of the painting would recognize the Labyrinth—right at the center of the image—as the sign and symbol of the village, embraced by the local community, which stands right beside it, simultaneously representing (as if holding and bringing forward) the local music tradition.

The Labyrinth’s focus on music tradition and its dynamics/interconnections with other music traditions sees tradition as a dynamic entity moving forward, not a dead body as Ross Daly argues, which has led an inclusive, co-created brand identity for the village, as it has been transformed over the years to embrace the music activities and host workshop students, even allowing them to (re)define the place’s musical tradition (Sedmak et al., 2020). Cultural tourists (music tourists, in this case) are often more demanding than mass tourists, as they seek local differentiation and traditional elements in the visited land, Ross Daly told the research team. As mentioned before, small hotels were built in the village, traditional Cretan cuisine restaurants were opened and small cafes welcome local women that cook and offer food during the events, as the restaurants cannot serve all the visitors at all times.

According to Ross Daly, the local community’s warm welcome of Labyrinth and its music events was another advantage that Houdetsi village offered. Local people embraced the initiative from the beginning and were willing to cooperate and help in any possible way both during the preparation and the implementation of the musical events that took place in their village over the years. Ross Daly added that the fact that the village is not along the coastal line but rather in mainland Crete turned out to be another advantage: the students are not distracted by anything and can focus during their stay on the study of the repertoire and the techniques taught during the seminars.

The hashtag #Houdetsi is in most cases seen next to #labyrinthmusicalworkshop, as one cannot imagine the village without the workshop. Lots of comments refer to the place as a “breathtaking venue” or “the enchanting island of Crete”. Some students mention that they had “an amazing time in Houdetsi, where Labyrinth Musical Workshop takes place”, while they upload photographs of the village, alongside the music images. The village is mentioned in the posts and the comments, interconnected to the music practices of the Labyrinth Musical Workshop. The official social media accounts of both the village and the Cultural Association of Houdetsi repost most of Labyrinth Musical Workshop’s digital messages, highlighting a connection to and pride in its practices.

5. Conclusions

Analysis of the Labyrinth, Houdetsi and their in-between relationship built on the foundations of ICH and music reveals how co-creation among stakeholders who share a common vision and priorities can support sustainability for all. Figure 4 below helps us reflect on how the performative choices of the Labyrinth Musical Workshop (i.e., choice of content for seminars and concerts, networking and sustainability practices) connect to the village, local residents and visitors and create a positive response to Labyrinth’s practices and impact on the local community and Houdetsi as a music village destination.

Music holds a key place in the ICH of humanity (Broclain et al., 2019) and can be seen as a strong local identity element, fostering connection and engagement both for musicians and members of the audience. Although there are tangible elements in music performances (e.g., instruments, microphones, recordings, etc.), music practices are transmitted as oral traditions between generations, preserving a community’s history and values. Music is developed within communities and therefore provides insights into cultural identity and social innovation. As a dynamic and living tradition, its nature and role is constantly evolving to adjust to people’s contemporary needs and desires. This fact highlights both its intangibility and its unbreakable connection to local and international cultural practices.

The workshops’ participants are learning musicians, but at the same time visitors and travelers who wish to get acquainted with new places, traditions, and people. As a cultural bricoleur, the Labyrinth Musical Workshop’s participant—and music tourist in Houdetsi, at the same time—combines music performances, instruments, repertoire, to craft a unique music experience. Musicians that take part in Labyrinth Musical Workshops could be compared to music researchers or music flâneurs, explorers of different musicscapes, studying the distinguishing characteristics of each workshop’s music, getting familiar with modal traditions of the world. The music of the place, Cretan music, is only one piece of the modal traditions’ puzzle, along with Arab-Persian and Indian music, as well as other music traditions worldwide. The Labyrinth Musical Workshops can therefore be seen as a music research center, a music hub that gathers performers of modal music, in an attempt to establish bonds between musicians and sustain a creative linkage between local music tradition and other modal music practices.

In this regard, Houdetsi has been distinguished from other Cretan villages with a rich music tradition. It is the place where Cretan music finds its place next to other modal music of the world, where traditional Cretan compositions might be played with an Indian sitar, and a Persian music performance might follow a traditional Cretan orchestra and where the most skilled musicians of the world gather to play music together (MI5).

Non-tourism and non-commercial stakeholders often turn against place branding because of the risk of linking such strategies to possible negative social side effects (e.g., Miles & Paddison, 2005; Gospodini, 2009), social divisiveness (e.g., Swyngedouw et al., 2002), gentrification (e.g., Zukin, 2010) or overtourism (e.g., Florek, 2025). According to the ‘Montmartre effect’ (Ashworth & Kavaratzis, 2014), spontaneous creation of districts may lead to the development of creative colonies which are then discovered by the cultural cognoscenti, then by those who desire an association with such an artistic atmosphere and then by cultural tourists who are guided by specialized books and magazines (Ashworth & Kavaratzis, 2014). This process subsequently prompts authorities to initiate plans and regulations that encourage the ‘creatives’ to leave for the next ‘creative colony’, living this ‘lingering ambiance’ to the tourists (Ashworth & Kavaratzis, 2014). However, as illustrated by the case of the Labyrinth, it is a matter of strategic priorities and a common vision, co-creation with internal audiences and the village, and prioritization of adequate and resilient place and destination management techniques (e.g., local authorities turning down invitations to talk and write about the festival and the workshop in an effort to regulate visitor figures).

Residents who are committed and loyal to the place brand, “may feel such a strong connection to the branding efforts of the destination, that the brand becomes aligned with their self-concept, and that they (…) actively promote the destination via word of mouth. As a result, a civic consciousness is created that helps to strengthen the destination’s brand management system, especially as it is introduced to external constituents, such as potential tourists” (Kemp et al., 2012, p. 121). This exactly appears to be the case for the residents of Houdetsi, who, through their interaction with the Labyrinth, feel a stronger sense of belonging and pride. Yet, they join their forces with the workshop not only in terms of the narrative (i.e., music) but also in terms of prioritizing a niche approach at a local level, conscious of the risks of tourism (over-)development (i.e., as residents of Crete, they experience the stress on infrastructure and resources due to mass tourism development at a regional level).

Music and the Labyrinth Musical Workshop, in this sense, have helped Houdetsi develop, protect and sustain the links between its culture, identity, image and brand through the support of a dynamic economy, developed in parallel with a cultural identity based on social interactions and co-creation (Pedeliento & Kavaratzis, 2019). Just like Cali in Colombia was in need of place branding in an attempt to restore its image in the aftermath of drug wars (Muñiz-Martínez, 2023), various destinations around Greece, and Crete in specific, are in need of inclusive, participatory place branding strategies that will sustain the connection of the place with authenticity, its identity and internal stakeholders, and safeguard them from tourist herds.

5.1. Theoretical Implications

This study feeds into the areas of place branding and sustainable tourism development as it reveals how to use Kavaratzis and Ashworth’s (2015) recipe to understand how culture and place branding inter-relate and co-develop in order to address the challenges of both sustainable development and place branding (see Florek (2025) and Rasoolimanesh et al. (2020), respectively). In line with Kavaratzis and Ashworth’s (2015) framework, the focus on micro-branding through music allows culture for the place to refer to the cultural music exchange between locals and non-locals, as well as the Labyrinth, its building, garden and the village at large, where meaning is recreated and circulated within the community. In extent, micro-branding appears as the response to the challenge of prioritizing all aspects of sustainability (economic, environmental, socio-cultural) in place and destination branding as recognized by Florek (2025): even when the extended regional areas still suffer from overtourism, co-planning and co-creation among place authorities, private stakeholders, residents and visitors are feasible and manageable in context and complexity.

The culture of the place (see Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2015) that is hereby branded refers to the musical features that place-based groups see as ‘belonging to Houdetsi and the world’, linking them together as a community. In response to Florek (2025), micro-branding through music allows stakeholders to balance between globalization and authenticity and to respond timely to crises: The music of the Labyrinth extends beyond local, ethnic, regional, continental borders, builds on traditions and amplifies them. As such, it develops in different locations (within Crete or beyond Greece), in response to crises (e.g., earthquake) and the need to balance between carrying capacity and increased interest. Still, the Labyrinth–Houdetsi branding practices, addressing Rasoolimanesh et al.’s (2020) concerns, allow tourists to become a more engaged stakeholder group that actively participates in the preservation and amplification of musical features.

Culture in the place (see Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2015) foresees some alignment with the ‘event hallmarking’ technique and the festivals and events organized. Yet, the participatory nature of different tourism experiences on offer by the Labyrinth feeds into the role of spatial empowerment and the construction of identity discourses beyond festival organization (González-Reverté, 2023). The offer of accessible, inclusive opportunities to experience and expand music tradition and culture develops in response to stakeholders’ co-planning, and remains responsible, sustainable and inclusive as long as it adequately links to the aforementioned aspects of culture for and of the place. Rasoolimanesh et al. (2020) may have emphasized the role of governance, but, in fact, what emerges as the cornerstone of sustainable place branding and development is the alliance of governance—local actors’ co-creation and co-planning (i.e., as embodied by the Cultural Association of Houdetsi) (Florek, 2025): this is how to set visions and boundaries to which all stakeholders are committed (e.g., the number of visitors acceptable during a music festival and the way the local community will engage to host and enjoy the experience with them).

5.2. Practical Implications

The Labyrinth and Houdetsi have so far efficiently applied micro-branding in order to co-support the music identity and co-create their music tradition, in a way also reflecting the challenges of identity and culture. Their reach may not have reached ‘popular culture’ in the way Salzburg and Vienna have proliferated from Mozart or Jamaica from Bob Marley, but this is also not their intention. Their approach aligns more with the resources and profile of the place. In response to increased interest, they have not only extended the period in which the workshops are available, but they have also applied solutions that prioritize sustainability across all pillars. Governance and solutions implemented in response to crises and increased interest, respect locals and engage with them; for instance, instead of additional built infrastructure (e.g., restaurants, hotels), the priority is to enrich the use of available infrastructure (e.g., by offering street food or light meal alternatives at traditional coffee houses) which aligns with the village culture.

Moreover, the initiatives to inspire local and international audiences together and alike more accurately reflect the need to (1) go beyond ethnic borders when co-creating and branding an experience based on ICH, (2) help the place (re-)discover and (re-)connect with its (musical) past and perhaps (3) pave resilient futures valuing cross-cultural and cross-border similarities more. For example, other villages across Crete and places around the world facilitate the ‘Labyrinth experience’, thereby releasing pressure on constrained local resources, and facilitating musical exchange that helps preserve tradition and authenticity while responding to global characteristics.

5.3. Limitations and Future Research

This study explored the Labyrinth at Houdetsi village in Crete, Greece using a combination of qualitative data. More in-depth investigations, with interviews and focus groups across different stakeholder groups (e.g., workshop students, entrepreneurs) across different locations can help assess how well-rooted the Labyrinth vision is. It also remains to be seen how micro-branding through music develops and connects with sustainable development in non-rural areas (e.g., Nicosia or Istanbul, where a Labyrinth was also founded in 2018 and 2019, respectively). Future research could, therefore, look into all such cases in more detail and conclude with an even more detailed Figure 4 and initiatives within music or other ICH expressions which could act as a roadmap. Such research should also delve into the role of technological and digital innovation, as also identified by Florek (2025), and attempt scale development to regulate and validate subjective and objective indicators (Rasoolimanesh et al., 2020).

As often is the case in place-branding-related studies, this paper builds on the case of the Labyrinth Musical Workshop and Houdetsi in Crete, Greece. However, the focus on this single yet multi-dimensional case makes it possible to achieve an interdisciplinary approach and combine different data and mixed methods for data collection and analysis. Thus, it was possible to respond to Du Gay et al.’s (1997) request to understand how culture is represented, relates to social identities, is produced, consumed/experienced and how its use is regulated when a sustainable place brand is the focus. Thanks to the nature of music as ICH, the Labyrinth community and structure allow the Labyrinth vision to be ‘materialized’ in other locations too. Findings might not be directly generalizable in all places, yet micro-branding seems to help places navigate the labyrinth of sustainable development as long as it builds on a joint vision of value to stakeholders.