Michael Eisner, ex-CEO of Disney, once said, “A brand is a living entity – and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures”. Destination brands live and breathe through ongoing collaboration. Thousands of small actions and conversations shape the larger story that makes a place what it is. […]
Brand and Identity
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
RTO4’s unique destination marketing approach
Back in 2014, Destination Think! worked closely with Regional Tourism Organization Four Inc. for the Province of Ontario, Canada (RTO4) to define their Place DNA™ as a catalyst towards sustainable destination development and regional collaboration. Several years on we thought we’d check in. In this guest column, RTO4’s Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Operations Officer […]
Do your visitors trust you? Educate them with honesty
Your visitors spend months dreaming about their vacation. They research online, they see promotional material on websites, they read reviews, they plan, and they book. After weeks of increasing anticipation, they finally get on the plane, train, or car and try to have the experience they’ve been waiting for. Will expectations match reality? Every destination […]
Boutique destinations are making a massive impact
In 2015, the Skift travel magazine declared “The Rise of the Boutique Destination” as a trend to watch. This mirrors the message put forth by urban expert Richard Florida, author of “The Rise of the Creative Class”. Florida has predicted the rise of the distinctive city and the people that support its identity, saying, “How […]
Does your brand lack impact? Consider commercial partners
The stories of your destination are the essence of its promotion. Visitors, residents, stakeholders, and your organization shape visitor perception through word of mouth. Collectively, these stories form a key component of your destination’s brand. Commercial brands are also a powerful source of stories about a place. Brands that clearly originate from a place, or […]
Don’t fear democracy: Learn from Vancouver’s logo woes
The City of Vancouver, Canada has been taking heat for its new wordmark design. An open letter signed by over one hundred members of the local design community has derided the “misguided process” that led to the logo’s approval. The letter represents that sector’s passionate viewpoint that the logo does not reflect Vancouver’s unique culture, […]
You’re not as famous as you think
You might be the king or queen of your castle. You’re passionate and creative about your destination’s branding, its unique experiences, its messaging, and the reasons why it is a fantastic place to visit. You work hard to share that message with visitors. But how far does your fame reach? Some destinations truly are world […]
What would planet Earth miss if your destination didn’t exist?
It’s a difficult but important question. In an extremely competitive tourism industry, differentiation is vital as destinations envision a valuable end-to-end experience for their visitors. Frank Cuypers offered a bold vision for the future of destination marketing (along with some important and sometimes existential questions) at the Social Media Tourism Symposium held in New Orleans […]
Unique partnership with National Geographic helps Pocono Mountains residents tell local stories
People of the Pocono Mountains know the value of tourism. One in three residents has a connection to the travel and hospitality industry, and this four-county region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania plays host to 25 million visitors per year. Locals recently became even more connected to tourism through an innovative campaign in partnership […]
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. […]
Destinations: Beware the better mousetrap fallacy
“Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” This quote attributed to the American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson illustrates a common misconception in business. The “better mousetrap fallacy” is the mistaken belief that a superior product will automatically generate customers, which would remove the need for building that “path […]
Don’t drown in the sea of sameness: A destination branding paradox
Destination marketers tend to believe that good branding is about standing out in the crowd. This is understandable, as traditional marketing training encourages new marketers to create unique, compelling messaging that simply must be heard due to its creativity and emotional resonance. This creates a problem and a classic branding paradox: If everyone tries to […]
Lifeline in the Pacific: Palau’s pristine vision for success means managing tourism expectations
The Republic of Palau is a small island nation with remarkable tourism experiences, and the world is taking notice. Palau is a magnet for divers searching for the some of the world’s best conditions, and boasts many more natural wonders like the astounding Jellyfish Lake, Milky Way lagoon and the Rock Islands Southern Lagoon. The […]
3 essential elements of the place brand formula
How does the rest of the world see your destination? Shift perceptions in your favour by defining and communicating your authentic place brand that flows outward from your destination’s DNA. The outer layer of place branding has three essential elements that can help your destination become known for the right reasons. These elements are so […]
Learn about Seville’s vision to collaborate with residents, rebrand and join the top tourism cities in Europe
Welcome to Seville, where the streets are full of life, cultural wonders, and an increasing number of visitors. The city now seeks new ways to manage its destination. How can Seville manage tourism growth in a healthy way to avoid the overcrowding of Barcelona and other cities like it? The new path forward for Seville […]
Does a brand make a difference? Nashville refined “Music City” to the tune of 60+ straight months of growth and counting.
For tourism in Nashville, Tennessee, music is the sound of success. The city’s latest “Music City” branding efforts have helped amplify and augment Nashville’s identity as a creative hub, which starts with music but also includes areas like cuisine and entrepreneurship. (“Silicon Valley of the music business,” anyone?) This creative combo has struck a […]
How Game of Thrones helped tourism invade Ireland
“Views To Die Horribly For.” It’s not your typical tourism slogan, but when a major television show is filmed in your destination, your DMO needs to throw typical out of the window. 75 percent of scenes from Game of Thrones are filmed in scenic Ireland, and the team at Tourism Ireland has turned the global […]
Can destinations reconcile competing logos and brands?
Changing a logo is like a divorce. It can be messy, painful and take years to complete. It’s no wonder that some of the most successful destination logos (like those of New York, Paris, Berlin and Spain) have been left untouched for decades – because fundamentally, a whole community must feel ownership of the destination’s […]
Need better visitor stories? Improve your place product
“How was your trip?” The answers to this question are the stories your destination’s visitors and residents tell. Travel has infinite variety, but the resulting stories all have one thing in common: memorable experiences. This means that if your destination marketing organization (DMO) really wants to grow awareness and visitation by telling the right stories […]
Building a brand that people want to share
Effective storytelling is the key to building a powerful and coherent city brand that people connect with and share. So how can destination marketers tackle this challenge and create a branding campaign that people naturally want to tell their friends about? Amsterdam Marketing’s Digital Media Manager, Charel van Dam spoke at the 2015 Social Media […]
Don’t build your destination’s brand through advertising
Andrew Hardeman of the media and marketing site Mumbrella advises that marketers “need to focus more on improving the customer experience rather than emotional storytelling at scale, […] because – despite what we may think – most consumers don’t care about having an emotional connection to brands.” A strong destination brand isn’t built through advertising […]
A logo is not a brand
Think about your favourite or most unforgettable logos. Whether it’s the Nike swoosh or “I Love NY”, we know logos are important because we remember them and begin to identify with them over time. For destinations, new marketing is about making connections with those specific people who might be interested in exactly what your destination […]
Gold Coast Tourism rebrands by unearthing its destination DNA
In an extremely competitive and ever-changing travel industry, destination marketers know the importance of developing their brand in a way that resonates with its target audience. Gold Coast Tourism is no exception and recognized the need to update their brand after seeing a fundamental shift in their audience. Since the launch of its “Gold Coast, […]
Letting go of brand control: Why the Swedish Tourist Association empowers residents to speak for themselves
Destinations are beginning to realize that there can be no destination branding without residents and that improved collaboration with their community is one of today’s key challenges. If you could harness the stories your locals are telling about your destination and its brand, what would that look like? Destination marketers and members of the Swedish […]
For Cape Breton Island, becoming a “true tourism destination” means forming strategic partnerships
Destination Cape Breton Association (DCBA) may look back on 2016 as a banner year. Visitation is increasing, new developments are in place, and the surprising “Trump Bump” campaign has drawn international (and particularly U.S.) interest to Cape Breton Island, located in Nova Scotia, Canada. Thanks to the unprecedented attention, the organization is receiving more inquiries […]
The tourism “Trump Bump”: How a Canadian destination acted fast on a controversial opportunity
What do you do when the international spotlight suddenly shines on your destination? Carpe diem – seize the day, as Destination Cape Breton Association (DCBA) will tell you. Located on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, Cape Breton Island continues to reap the rewards of an unorthodox campaign that began by encouraging U.S. residents […]
Customer service wins: How Alaska Airlines chased an eclipse
There’s a community for almost everything, including eclipse chasers. And members of niche communities love to travel for their passions. So what do you do if you’re an airline, scheduled to traverse the “path of totality” (basically the best international seats for eclipse-watching) and a bunch of astronomers approach you to see if there’s anything […]
Use Place DNA™ to define your destination’s core identity
Place DNA™ is at the core of the three layers of place branding that help destination marketers understand how residents, visitors and potential visitors perceive a place. By articulating the intrinsic character of your destination, Place DNA™ provides an authenticity test for all marketing activities that follow. Identifying the elements of Place DNA™ will help […]
How Destination Cleveland reimagined community and collaboration
Battling negative perceptions – among visitors and locals alike – has never been easy for any destination. And when those negative perceptions result in low visitation, how is a destination meant to change minds? For the city of Cleveland, it meant standing up, squaring its shoulders and facing its detractors head on. By encouraging, facilitating […]