If its projected image doesn’t match its Place DNA™, your tourism destination risks a fierce backlash from residents. Your destination’s image is formed by thousands, if not millions, of stories people tell. In Byron Bay, Australia, those stories are getting out of hand, thanks to a gaggle of influential Instagrammers, their hundreds of thousands of […]
Topic: Place DNA
The ultimate place brand reading list for destination marketers
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 brands that lack substance are doomed to disappoint
Like many industries, place marketing has weathered some notorious brand disasters. This 2010 brand video for Downtown St. Louis received criticism for portraying itself as the next über-trendy scene for hipsters and fashionistas – a new New York, perhaps? Or consider Las Vegas. In the 1990s, city marketers tried to rebrand Sin City as a […]
Why 70% of destinations say involving stakeholders is a major branding challenge
We asked our readers to tell us their destination’s biggest branding challenge. (The poll remains open.) So far, about 70% chose “involving our tourism industry to educate and align with our brand” as a significant obstacle, ranking it either four or five out of five in difficulty. Some of you will feel validated to find […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Gold Coast Tourism rebrands by unearthing its Place 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, […]
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 […]
Why destination marketers need to understand Place DNA™
What is the DNA of a place and why is it important? Why is a destination’s DNA relevant to place making, place marketing and destination marketing? Defining Place DNA™ Simply stated, a destination’s Place DNA™ is the definition of its intrinsic character, the meaning that people ascribe to it, or more often, a mixture of […]