Time marches on, the Earth keeps spinning and the world of content marketing continues to evolve. Last December, we shared our team’s content marketing observations and identified trends to guide destination marketers into 2019. As we say farewell to another year of major shifts and changes, we have our eyes fixed firmly on the future. […]
Place DNA (TM)
Place DNA™ airs resident viewpoints to aid tourism planning in Big Sky, Montana
Can you define your destination’s community identity? Do you know your residents’ greatest hopes and fears about tourism, and do they impact your planning? There can be no destination branding without residents. To build lasting credibility and authenticity, a destination needs to work outward from its identity. This means identifying and articulating the core of […]
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
10 U.S. tourism markets ranked by online word of mouth
Data shows that, among 10 major cities, the volume of online conversations about tourism has increased by an average of 40%. This past year, our team working on Tourism Sentiment Index (TSI) has crunched enormous amounts of data – more than a billion online conversations about 420+ tourism destinations. TSI solves a fundamental problem for […]
Case studies
Banff National Park communications plan shifts traveller behaviour amid record-smashing visitor numbers
As more tourism destinations sustain high visitor volumes, some are using innovative strategies to manage visitation. Banff National Park (BNP) is one such place. It is Canada’s oldest and most visited national park, offering scenic outdoor adventures in the Canadian Rockies. The park anticipated record visitation for summer 2017. More visitors would bring in more […]
Sustainable tourism
5 DMO responses to the mass tourism crisis (and a running list)
If you missed it in March, we published our view on the serious risks of pursuing economic growth as the primary goal of tourism. In short, pursuing greater revenue through higher volumes of visitors is a potential path to being overwhelmed. We are not alone in talking about this; many people have sounded the alarm. […]
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
90% engagement? Passionate kiteboarders show what’s truly possible in winter Bermuda campaign
There are nice vacations, and then there are life-altering trips that you can’t resist because they activate your greatest passions. This story is about the latter. This is also a story about marketing dollars well spent. In 2018, a group of destination marketers and professional kiteboarders joined forces to give a specific group of people […]
Shareable experiences
Destinations are shifting to digital-first marketing to improve word-of-mouth promotion
The destination marketing world is changing as consumers use technology to share their experiences online through word of mouth, and organizations are trying to adjust to the shift. This 2003 quote from Harvard Business Review remains relevant today: “…the only path to profitable growth may lie in its ability to get its loyal customers to […]