No matter the scope of your destination branding project or your specific role, there’s a treasure trove of brand strategy gold here for you. Over the last few years, our destination marketing strategists have drawn from their collective decades of experience to write volumes about what makes today’s destination and place brands work. From strategy […]
Place DNA (TM)
What is Place DNA™? Here’s your essential reading list
Destination marketers need to understand the different types of value that a place can offer. This understanding starts with clearly defining a place’s intrinsic character, also known as Place DNA™. DMOs that build their branding on a true community identity will be able to improve the experience and the value they bring to their stakeholders. […]
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 […]