And 3 DMO lessons from experience development in Bay of Plenty For New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty region, tourism is about more than economic growth; it means striving for a better quality of life. To this end, Tourism Bay of Plenty has a bold, 10-year destination management strategy that balances environmental, social, cultural and economic […]
Place DNA (TM)
Fight your DMO’s identity crisis with Place DNA™
Who do you think you are and why does it matter? In the contemporary destination marketing landscape, the best destination marketing organizations (DMOs) not only have a solid understanding of their destination’s identity but know how this foundation intricately shapes the value they offer. Misalignment can lead to the wrong expectations from visitors and residents […]
White papers
Now available: 4 RFP questions your destination brand agency must answer
Is it time to update or rebuild your destination brand? This work is not for the faint of heart. A place branding project will expose your destination marketing organization (DMO) to public criticism from residents, politicians, news media – anyone with a stake in the place you represent. It’s difficult to find the right agency […]
Measuring success
625,000,000 conversations across 100 destinations: Get the first (free) Global Tourism Sentiment Index report
Your destination’s reputation rises and falls based on the experiences people have and the stories they tell. But how do you know exactly what people are saying? Destination marketers often measure public perception through surveys that provide useful but limited data samples. It’s difficult to consistently track your tourism destination’s performance at scale and build […]
Case studies
Case study: How Campbell River rebranded itself from the inside out
Successful destination branding stems from the identity of the people who make a place what it is. Over time, people and communities change, places and travel habits change, and destinations need to ensure that brand strategy evolves along with them. Campbell River is a coastal city of some 35,000 people nestled within the stunning landscapes […]
Sustainable tourism
How do your residents feel about tourism? Visit Flanders studies local perceptions of carrying capacity
Visit Flanders is taking resident opinions about tourism seriously. The Belgian destination management organization (DMO) has released a report written by Vincent Nijs that describes resident perspectives about carrying capacity and the perceived value of tourism in the city of Bruges. Nijs conducted this study as part of his MBA thesis at MODUL University in […]
Visitor centres
Are DMO visitor centres making a Blockbuster mistake?
“I’ve been frankly confused by this fascination that everybody has with Netflix […] Netflix doesn’t really have or do anything that we can’t or don’t already do ourselves.” -Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes, in a 2008 interview with CBS News In the mid-2000s, Blockbuster Video was the world leader in movie rentals. The famous blue and yellow stores […]
Always-on content
Why emoji are a 🎁 for your DMO’s content marketing
Jing Ge is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Anthropology Department and Co-Chair of the Tourism Studies Working Group at University of California, Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. in marketing and communication from the UQ Business School at the University of Queensland, Australia and has close to 10 years of online communication industry experience. Her […]
Shareable experiences
How destinations can increase word-of-mouth promotion by designing socialgenic experiences
Recognizing that visitors are social and that travel-bragging is a primary motivator for travel, modern destinations and tourism operators can improve promotion by designing “socialgenic” experiences. Social: That which includes a connection and an exchange between two or more people. Genic: That which produces or causes something. Social + Genic = Socialgenic: That which produces […]