tourism branding strategy

The go-to guide to branding for travel and tourism

By Kevin Tjoe — 14 Mar 2022

destination marketing   tourism branding

Updated March 2024 – Picture this: Your tourism guests from one year ago are standing at a barbeque, and in conversation, they happen to rave about the great experience they had with your company. When neighbor Bob asks who he should book with, will your business be remembered and recommended? This is the power of branding travel and tourism.

Whether you’re building your brand from scratch or wanting to refresh your existing business brand identity, read on for a clear guide to branding travel and tourism businesses.

The importance of branding in tourism

What is tourism branding, exactly? It can encompass the name, visual identity, tone of voice, experiences, brand values, and industry associations of your tourism organization. Branding can also have powerful benefits for your business. Some of these can include:

• Building recognition and familiarity for your business
• Helping your target audience to establish trust in your business
• Encouraging guests to find and rebook with you again
• Empowering you to scale and expand your business to other locations and markets.

So where do you begin as you’re developing a robust, memorable brand in tourism?

Essential elements for your tourism branding strategy

Whether your guests are booking through a reseller, directly on your website, or with a local agent, your brand needs to be unique and consistent. Here’s a tourism destination marketing strategy that can make that happen.

Finding the right brand name

It turns out, there’s a lot in a name. A catchy and unique brand name will increase your chances of recommendations and repeat bookings. This handy article dives into how to create the right name for your tourism brand. In short, aim to:

• Research competitor names
• Keep the brand name short and sharp
• Consider how easy the name will be to search for and find online
• Include the location within the name, and
• Trademark and protect your brand name.

Importantly, your brand name should also reflect the unique qualities and experiences your tour or activity business offers. Amaz’n Kayak Tours sounds fun and friendly, for example, while a name like Pinnacle Cruise Experiences exudes luxury and exclusivity.

Creating a strong visual identity through brand design

Every successful brand needs a strong visual identity and brand image, and it can be worth hiring professionals to help you with this process. Ideally, you’ll set up a ‘style guide’ to ensure consistent visual branding. This might typically include information on your:

• Logo Your logo, or graphic symbol, can be used across web, print, social media, reseller sites, and more. As with your brand name, your logo should reflect your tourism experiences and unique aspects of your business.
• Colors A consistent color palette used across your website, booking form , and other marketing collateral will help build recognition and familiarity. You might like to consider the colors of the landscapes in which you operate as a starting point when developing your brand color scheme.
• Imagery The photos you use to promote your tours or activities can matter a great deal when someone is weighing up whether to book. Focus on crisp, high-quality images taken on a sunny day; include the human side of your business, and be sure to capture happy guests with their permission. You might also plan to use a certain filter or color tint to ensure consistency across all images.
• Fonts and typography Fonts are more than just letters on a page; they are a reflection of your brand’s character and essence. When selecting fonts for your travel business, consider factors such as readability, versatility, and alignment with your brand’s personality. Whether you opt for classic serifs, modern sans-serifs, or playful scripts, ensure consistency across all communication channels to maintain brand cohesion.

Creating your brand story

Think about why your tour company exists: what made you start it and what you started with. Consider what makes your tours or activities special and what makes your team stand out. Think about what made you want to run tours, events, or activities in your local area, and what makes them exciting for you.

Answering these questions can help you form a compelling brand story, which can then be shared on your website, social media, and public platforms. A passionate brand story helps your target audience to form an emotional connection with your brand and makes for a far more meaningful tourism experience for guests.

Developing your brand voice

To develop your brand’s tone of voice, think about who your brand would be as a person. How would they talk? What are the quirks that make them likable? Your brand voice can be used across SEO web content , video content , booking steps, and any other marketing collateral where guests might interact with your brand.

For example, a surf lesson company might get on board with touches of laid-back surfy lingo in their automated emails. Or a company offering high-end, multi-day cruises might use more descriptive words to describe silky white sands and their indulgently soft pillows.

Syncing with your destination marketing

Tourism marketing can be unique in that you’re promoting your location as much as you’re marketing your products or services. Destination marketing , where you work with other operators to promote your location at a certain time, can be incredibly important. In fact, research from one accommodation association found that every $1 million invested into destination marketing could return around $16 million in ROI for the local economy. Destination branding is similar to destination marketing in tourism but focuses more on shaping the general perception of the location. Just consider the very different tourism experiences you’ve come to expect from London, Las Vegas, and Tokyo.

It’s important that your tourism marketing strategy aligns with destination marketing efforts for your area so that guests can build consistent and accurate expectations when booking. It can be really useful to network with other tourism operators and work with local agents , such as visitor information centers in your area. Invest in price monitoring software like Dealavo to better understand your price positioning and market dynamics.

Leveraging social media platforms for brand building

In today’s digital age, social media platforms play a crucial role in brand building for travel and tourism businesses. From Instagram to Facebook, Twitter to TikTok, these platforms offer unparalleled opportunities to showcase your travel experiences, engage with your audience, and amplify your brand message and marketing campaigns. In this modern tourism landscape, it’s important for tour operators to know how to harness the power of social media to create meaningful connections with their stakeholders and attract new customers.

Harnessing the power of testimonials and influencers

Testimonials and influencers can be powerful assets in building credibility and trust for your travel brand. Positive reviews from satisfied customers and endorsements from influential personalities can significantly impact the perception of your business and influence potential customers to book with your travel and tourism business. By exploring strategies for soliciting and leveraging testimonials, as well as collaborating with influencers you can amplify your strong brand reach and engagement.

Make a stellar start with your branding in tourism marketing

A strong, consistent brand can be one of your most valuable assets when running a tour and activity business. If you’re currently building your brand in the tourism industry, then Rezdy makes it simple to create a professional website, gain bookings via your network, and grow your reservations.

A reservation software like Rezdy equips your business with advanced tools such as real-time availability viewer, automatic guest communication, integration to various payment gateways, and further boosts automation within your business’ operations. Furthermore, Rezdy offers distribution solutions that connect you with the industry’s biggest resellers such as OTAs, local travel agencies, or even other tour and activity operators – so you can get your business out there. Rezdy Channel Manager is a distribution platform specifically catered for the tourism industry; connecting operators with access to over 25,000 active resellers worldwide.

Ready to build your brand with Rezdy? Book a free demo , or register for a  FREE 21-day trial today.

If you enjoyed this article then make sure to follow the  Rezdy  blog . There are a lot of marketing tools and tour operator tips designed with businesses like yours in mind.

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The Complete Guide to Branding for Travel and Tourism

By Kyla Steeves

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Your tours and activities shouldn’t be the only unforgettable thing. Guests should remember your tour name , too. That’s where the importance of branding comes into play.

As a marketing tactic, branding personifies your tourism business. It gives you a voice, looks, personality, and values — which makes you more relatable to your guests and other travelers. Ultimately, a well-defined brand helps you appeal to the right audience, as well as leave a lasting impression.

If you want to create a brand identity or tweak your current one, this article is just for you. We outline what you need to know about positioning and differentiating your business — which includes:

The importance of a tourism branding strategy

How to create a memorable travel brand.

• 15 travel branding ideas

So let’s get started:

Frequently, tour and activity operators lose sight of their brand when they rely heavily on Online Travel Agents (OTAs) for bookings. Although these channels help to expand your reach, they don’t necessarily do your brand justice. That’s because you’re just another listing on their site — meaning you get absorbed into their brand identity instead.

Think of it this way. A traveler who books your tours and activities on Tripadvisor encounters the Tripadvisor brand throughout the booking journey — not yours. Consequently, they don’t get much of a chance to become familiar with your business. When it comes to referrals or repeat bookings, they’ll remember Tripadvisor, but will have a harder time recalling your name.

Although this may seem like it isn’t a huge deal — since you can give a glimpse of your brand in-person — it’s not a long-term solution. While listing on OTAs is still a great marketing strategy, it’s important to build your brand outside of these sites. And here are four main reasons why:

1. Branding gets more bookings

When your tour and activity company looks polished and legitimate, guests will be more likely to book with you. That’s because professional translates to trustworthy. With a unique brand voice and beautiful brand design, you’ll make your business stand out as the best option for a safe and unforgettable experience.

2. Branding improves recognition

Without a doubt, your brand is the face of your business. Guests won’t just remember your name, but your logo as well. So whenever they interact with you — whether it’s browsing your website, reading your emails, or seeing your Facebook ads — they’ll be able to recognize your business instantly.

3. Branding makes you memorable

Many think of branding as a logo and a slogan. But it’s so much more than that. From start to finish, a brand is a visual, emotional, and tangible experience that you create for your guests. When you get this right, guests will remember for a long time — not just a couple of weeks after the tour or activity. And those that think of you will be loyal to you.

4. Branding increases your value

Brand equity is the value of your brand name. Having a well-known brand name will help establish your company as a leader in your niche and give your business a boost for further expansion — like opening up a tour office in another location. Since brand equity is all about brand recognition, you can increase your value by building a stronger brand and delivering consistent exposure — which brings us to the next section

If you’re starting your own tour company and haven’t defined your brand yet, make this a priority. Early branding will provide your team with direction, and help customers grasp what your tourism business is all about.

Even if you’re well-established, it’s never too late to fine-tune your brand.  Instead of targeting a huge customer base, try thinking of fresh business ideas in tourism and hospitality, and narrowing your focus on a particular niche. Why? Because it can give you a competitive edge and improve your online visibility.

So follow these steps to build a better brand identity:

1. Craft your brand story

Every business has a backstory. There’s always a reason why a company comes to be. Sometimes, it sparks out of an opportunity, but more often than not, a tourism business starts from passion — passion for adventure , the destination, or the community.

Knowing why you started will help to uncover your brand values — which are the building blocks of a compelling brand story. By writing them out and sharing publicly, you’ll have principles to guide your business decisions, as well as a reference point to build trust and credibility.

To dig deeper into your company’s purpose, ask yourself the following questions:

• How did you start your tour and activity business?
• Where’d you get the idea? What inspired you?
• How is your company different from your competitors?
• What does your tour and activity business strive to do?
• What makes your team outstanding?

Work these answers into your brand story to tell who you are as an operator and what sets you apart. Keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be lengthy — brief is best. Nor does it have to be perfect; authenticity goes a long way.

2. Identify your target audience

It’s easier to match your brand to your target audience than the other way around. Depending on your offerings, you might already appeal to a particular group of people — different types of travelers like different types of travel experiences. So branding before knowing your target audience could lead to something that doesn’t make any sense.

For example, let’s say you run a craft beer bike tour. It’s safe to assume eco-friendly, locavore millennials will want to try this experience. But if you build a brand that speaks more to DIY, suburban mothers, there’s going to be a disconnect, and you’ll have a much harder time reaching those initially interested.

Who’s most likely to book your tours and activities then? Where are they from, how old are they, what’s their lifestyle, interests, and personality? These are just a few examples of demographic, physiographic, and geographic attributes you should consider.

Use this information to create a brand identity that your target audience will strongly identify with. You can also use it to gain insight into their communication style, preferred method of booking, and where they hang out online. All of which can help you with your marketing efforts.

3. Align with your destination brand

What’s a destination brand? It’s a shared vision that aims to generate visitor interest by promising a unique travel experience based on everything a place offers. Usually, a Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) builds the destination brand and provides direction for local businesses to follow suit.

Take Ireland as an example. Most travelers visit the Emerald Isle for the pub culture, castle hopping, and traditional folklore. So Tourism Ireland promotes it as a destination to “fill your heart.”  This brand position makes new visitors believe they’ll have heart-warming moments while also giving tour and activity operators insight into what they want out of their trip.

That’s why it’s a good idea to find a role within your destination brand. Visitors arrive with preset expectations thanks to it, and naturally, book things to do that match. If you deliver on what they’re looking for, they’ll have a positive and memorable experience — which impacts their perception of the destination, as well as your business.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you have to copy and paste the destination brand. You can still express your brand identity while playing a part in the overarching destination story. It just comes down to making a connection between the two. Like with the above example, a bus tour company might make its brand more enchanting to go along with that of Tourism Ireland.

4. Figure out your brand voice and tone

Your personality, attitude, and values shine through when you communicate with others. The same applies to your tour and activity business. Every written message — whether online or offline — reveals your company’s characteristics and mission. That’s known as your brand voice.

A clear and distinct brand voice helps to position yourself in the marketplace and associate with your target audience. However, it’s got to be the same across all channels to be effective. Being sassy on social media but helpful on the blog only makes readers confused — which means they won’t get an accurate picture of your business.

On the other hand, your tone of voice is interchangeable because it reflects your mood. Its purpose is to have an emotional impact on the reader based on the context of the message. For example, a serious tone works well for a payment request whereas a booking confirmation is better off sounding joyful.

To figure out your brand voice and tone, start by:

• Reviewing your company’s mission statement and values
• Looking at your current content for common themes
• Considering how your target audience communicates
• Evaluating your destination’s brand messaging

Whatever you come up with, break it down into three or four words. These will be your primary voice characteristics for all of your messaging. You can further describe your brand voice in a content style guide with the do’s and don’ts of writing accordingly. As for the tone, you have a little more flexibility with its use, but it shouldn’t stray too far from your brand voice.

5. Give your travel brand a makeover

Here’s where the fun begins. There’s nothing more exciting than putting together a look for your tour and activity business. From a memorable logo to unique typography, you get to make your brand pop while giving your guests a great first impression.

Visual elements also contribute the most to brand recognition. For example, when someone thinks of Google, the first thing that comes to mind is the primary colours. In the tourism industry, Contiki stands out to young travelers with imagery that plays on the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). So what does your brand design need to get noticed?

• Logo: This is the foundation of your brand identity because it goes everywhere —  on your website, social media, merchandise, promotional materials, and more. Whether it’s a logomark or logotype, the design should be simple, memorable, timeless, and accurately symbolize your company’s mission and culture.
• Typography: Believe it or not, fonts come with personality traits. While Serif fonts (Arial, Verdana) come across as reliable and mature, Modern fonts (Impact, Rockwell) give off a bold and progressive vibe. Knowing this, you can use a specific font to influence how guests perceive your business.
• Colour Palette: Similar to fonts, colours have an emotional impact on people. For instance, red means passion, green is natural and blue goes with trust. With the right mix of colours, you can reveal a lot about your business while making your guests feel a certain way.
• Imagery:  Photos and videos show the kind of experiences you offer. But images also engage and inspire viewers — helping them picture having the experience, too. That’s why you should use imagery wherever you can. Just remember that brand images should be cohesive too, so consider using presets to promote uniformity.

6. Build consistency into your tour website

This is where everything comes together. Not only is your website a digital storefront, but it’s also the face of your company. Online visitors go there seeking more information about your tours and activities. While doing so, they get a clear picture of who you are as a business, too.

For this reason, it’s important to have brand consistency throughout. That means every page should resemble the other. From the look to voice to feel, your brand should be apparent no matter where someone clicks.  

There are several ways to show off your brand on your website. So here are a few must do’s to get you on the right track today:

• Create an About Us page: Sometimes, online visitors want to learn more about your business beyond the Booking page. So share your brand story with them in your About Us section. Here, it’s a good idea also to outline your mission and core values. That way, a conscientious traveler can see what makes you an ethical tourism example .
• Use relevant keywords: Once you know your target audience, you can figure out what search queries they frequently use for travel shopping. These terms will dictate what long-tail keywords you should sprinkle throughout to optimize your website — which includes page titles, headers, body text, meta-descriptions, image alt-text, and your URLs.
• Maintain a uniform design: Your brand should be recognizable based on your look alone. So on your website, make sure you use the same colour palette, typography, and imagery on every page. As well, place your logo at the top, and create a branded favicon (the icon next to the URL) to remind visitors where they’re browsing.
• Remember your brand voice: You have written content everywhere on your website. So there’s a perfect opportunity to strengthen your brand by ensuring all of your copy sticks to your brand voice. You may even consider keeping a blog to establish this further. Just remember that whoever contributes should follow your content style guide.
• Customize your booking process: After taking the time to build your brand into your website, it’d be a shame for your Booking page to miss the mark. Online visitors shouldn’t feel like they leave your site when they go to book. That’s why it’s best to use an online booking system that doesn’t lead to a separate domain and allows for some customization.  

15 extra travel branding ideas

Branding your tour and activity business isn’t a one-and-done type of job. The more you do, the more your brand strengthens over time, especially if you make branding part of your strategic planning process . So here are a bunch of additional ways you can help build your brand:

• Hire a professional photographer to take high-quality images of your experiences
• Do the same with a professional videographer
• Partner with a travel influencer that fits your brand
• Create a Facebook contest to create hype for your brand
• Only post content on social media channels that your target audience uses
• Make your tour guides into brand ambassadors
• Contribute guest posts to publications within your industry
• Send out a survey asking guests what they think of your brand
• Come up with different slogans and test which one drives the best results
• Use Answer the Public and Quora to get blog topic ideas that are relevant to your audience
• Customize your booking notifications with your brand voice
• Design templates for your email marketing that follow your brand design
• Come up with a brand hashtag for your guests to use when posting about their experience with you
• Reward your guests for referrals with a discount code
• Let your staff take over social media to show the human side of your business

Need a little help strengthening your tourism brand?

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Ultimate Guide to Travel & Tourism Sector Branding

Ultimate Guide to Travel & Tourism Sector Branding

Tourism marketing is a crucial activity (and increasingly so) in the tourism sector. That is why tourism branding takes particular relevance as a differential and success factor.

Tourists are increasingly demanding, and tourism competition is fiercer. Tourism branding is positioned as an alternative capable of breaking down barriers and attracting, converting, and closing new tourists to destinations.

Marketers distinguish two types of branding in this domain: tourism sector branding and travel business branding. In this article, we will discuss both.

Table of Contents

What is tourism sector branding?

Tourism sector branding is building a tourism brand, from conceptualising the brand and the strategic brand platform to the graphic and visual elements.

Branding in the tourism sector aims to design and associate a tourist destination with a brand that can be marketed and adapted to different formats. It serves as a symbol for disseminating and contextualising the destination's values.

Tourism sector brands (country or city brands) must exploit branding as a critical element in the differentiation and prestige of the destination.

Definition of tourism sector branding

Providing a more specific definition, it could be said that tourism sector branding is the intelligent, creative, and strategic management of the assets (tangible or intangible) that differentiate a destination’s identity. It aims to build a distinctive, relevant, sustainable tourism brand promise and experience over time.

Branding in tourism is, therefore, a strategic and creative approach that aims to create relationships with its stakeholders and increase consumer preference and loyalty.

It is a discipline that arose from seeking a unique and differential identity. It highlights the values of a city or country. It projects its resources and qualities to internal and external audiences, differentiating itself and showing values that make the tourist feel a unique life experience.

Importance of tourism sector branding

Branding in the tourism sector allows the fundamental virtues of a destination to be grouped and communicated, enhancing and increasing the reach of tourism assets.

Branding tourist destinations is essential for companies in the tourism sector, as it influences the benefits they can achieve.

It also allows a tourist destination to be marketed and visualised through more channels, thus reaching more consumers.

It is a job that should not start from the local or national businesses themselves but from a higher institutional body, acting as the branding approach that will protect the tourism assets of the city or country. This is why we also speak of city or country marketing. 

If tourists are not attracted to the place where the business or hotel is located, they may choose another destination. This is where branding in the tourism sector takes on greater importance, as it aims to increase awareness and penetration of tourism brands to improve consumers' attraction and loyalty.

Tourism sector branding strategy

Tourism sector branding develops connections between a destination and a tourist, strengthening the bonds of union and creating a discourse and an identity of its own.

One of the fundamental points to developing a branding approach adapted to the values of the destination is to know the strengths and differential points of the destination. It is necessary to create a strategy that communicates them effectively.

It must also express the values that make the destination unique—promoting the experiences and emotions that the tourist will receive so that the destination becomes the desired option for the consumer.

After all, tourists are no longer just looking to stay and visit a city. They want to be part of it. They want to live an intense and real tourist experience.

The tourism sector branding strategy should involve building an identity and a brand associated with a recognisable, versatile destination that facilitates purchasing.

The strategic approach should include the following points:

• Define the brand platform of the destination.
• Develop the consumer profile to be targeted by the strategy.
• Communicate the fundamental values that will enable the recognition and differentiation of the tourism brand .
• Determine the strategic communication channels and media.
• Design the visual and graphic elements that make the brand tangible.

It is also necessary to strategically involve private, public, institutional, political or citizen entities to achieve the desired positioning. It is a long process that implies changing the conception of the city by the citizens themselves.

Tourism sector logo: the aspects to consider

When creating a brand, it is necessary to have an identifying logo that visually encapsulates the value of the experience promised by the area.

As for any other sector, the creation of a logo for tourism must take certain decisive aspects into account:

• Positioning

Before even talking, you need to know who to target. The target audience is not just couples, families or older people. The area's characteristics or the offer of services and entertainment may appeal to lovers of nature, adventure trips, food and wine tours or cities of art. Activating a tourism marketing strategy means identifying the category of tourists to whom one's territory can offer an unforgettable experience and, secondly, intercepting them through creating a brand that communicates values and emotions.

Relaxation? Carefreeness? Natural beauty? Traditions? Cosiness? Entertainment? What are the values, feelings, and memories a place provides visitors? What makes an experience in that area unique? A clear idea of what makes a destination distinctive and what kind of stay it ensures is fundamental to defining the message conveyed through the logo. The latest trend is, for example, the pairing of sustainable tourism and land branding, to which more and more users are paying attention.

A logo does not necessarily have to depict the territory with its landscapes (indeed, the most popular examples of city branding do not represent it). However, it must lend itself to defining an incisive image that enhances its value and positioning over time.

Indeed, the prospect of a holiday must bring with it promises of fun, joy and serenity. Consequently, the colour palette to strive towards in the design of the logo is characterised by vibrant, cheerful hues. Most travel brands employ bright colours like yellow, red, green or blue. And these are not mere customs but studied communication strategies linked to the psychology of colours.

An adventurous holiday or a relaxing experience requires different graphic configurations and, thus, the choice of distinct fonts . While the former focuses on fun and excitement, the latter relies more on feelings of tranquillity and gentleness. Consequently, a dynamic, entertainment-filled holiday requires more casual and fun fonts, while a rural escape prefers graceful and subtle fonts.

Examples of branding for the tourism sector

Here are presented different countries with different tourism sector branding.

Ukraine Now

Design is the cherry on the cake of the concept. However, branding does not equal design. Branding is a strategy. It is the strategy that Ukraine's travel & tourism sector, presented in May 2018, boasted. The project was commissioned by the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine, and the concept was developed by the international agency Banda for about a year. Also, 27 experts from the commission on the popularisation of Ukraine participated in the project.

Why did Ukraine need a travel brand?

During the brand development, Banda Agency researched “How do foreigners perceive the country?”. It turned out that Ukraine is primarily associated with the words “corruption”, “revolution” and “hostilities”. According to the agency, this image was formed under the pressure of foreign mass media, and it had to be changed urgently.

The slogan “Ukraine Now” was invented to change the country's perception globally. The developers of the concept thought it as if to say: “We have just started to build our nation”.

The design and image of Ukraine were well received in Western countries, and the brand Ukraine Now received the prestigious design award Red Dot from the German Design Center.

Magnetic Latvia

For many years, Latvia has used the tourism slogan “Best enjoyed slowly” in its national branding. However, it negatively impacted the country: investors and tourists perceived Latvia as an insufficiently modern and slowly developing European country.

In 2017, the country started considering changing it to Magnetic Latvia. Employees of the Latvian Investment and Development Agency (LIAA) came up with the idea. The word combination Magnetic Latvia was so successful that they used it in other areas, including tourism.

“In my opinion, the result was simple and beautiful. Such a logo will evolve and fit into various fields,” explains Andris Ozols, director of LIAA.

Lithuania: Real is Beautiful

Nature, culture, food, sports and people are the criteria used to describe Lithuania in the official tourist commercial. This project was developed by the Lithuanian agency New! in November 2016. The national style was created for the Lithuanian State Department of Tourism and focused on the concept's slogan: “Real is Beautiful”.

“It is not easy to get tourists to visit a little-known country in Northern Europe, so we had to create a brand image with a strong communicative impact. Lithuania is where natural and authentic things are of great value: food, nature, architecture, culture and hospitality…

These things may be imperfect, but we are still proud because we see beauty in authentic things. That's why our slogan contains a promise: if you want to escape from fake smiles, concrete jungles, and plastic architectures, Lithuania is the perfect choice,” said Tomas Ramanauskas, creative director of the Lithuanian advertising agency New!

Poland: Move Your Imagination

The logo of the Polish tourism brand was designed by the Polish Tourism Organization (POT) in 2001. Its conceptual design consists of red stylised letters and symbols in the form of a green tree, a dark blue mountain top and waves, referring to the living Polish nature. To this day, the logo is used exclusively to promote Polish tourism in domestic and foreign markets. However, although Poland's national brand was developed in the early 20th century, London-based consultancy Brand Finance valued it at $650 billion in October 2018.

The brand's creators hope every trip to the country will make travellers turn on their wit and imagination while enjoying Polish sights and architecture. Hence, the slogan of the Polish travel brand is “Move your imagination”.

The Georgian National Tourism Agency (GNTA) took the initiative to create a tourism brand for Georgia. In this way, it wanted to ensure sustainable tourism development and increase the recognition of Georgia as a unique tourist destination. The national branding was created in collaboration with the creative agency Topuria Design.

“Georgia is one of the most unique tourist destinations in the world. We aim to help tourists discover the country's potential, diversity and richness. They, in turn, after looking at our tourism brand and Georgian national flavour, should want to return to the country once again,” GNTA admitted.

Azerbaijan: Take Another Look

Azerbaijan unveiled a new identity for the country in the fall of 2018. When creating it, the Azerbaijan Tourism Board was inspired by the phrase: “Take another look”, motivating international tourists to immerse themselves in the unique stories and secrets of the country. The country's national image was developed by the creative agency Landor.

In this brand concept, the designers combined two forms and transformed them into a central symbol – the first letter of the country's name, “a”. The logo resembles a “lens”, which offers a new look at Azerbaijan. There were mixed reactions to the tourism brand. Many people accused the creators of plagiarising Mastercard.

The story of Armenia's logo for $400,000 became one of the most discussed topics of the summer of 2016. Then, Vazgen Kalajyan, executive director of the American advertising agency GK Brand Tribe Globa, posted the process of working on Armenia's visual identity on his LinkedIn page. The concept caused a storm of indignation among the public: people felt that the brand “has nothing to do with Armenia and Armenians at all” and does not correspond to the country's culture, history and values.

The “Eternal Sun” logo is an opening flower, which, according to the authors, symbolises the contribution of Armenians to the scientific, artistic and business spheres. “Like the sun's rays, the flower's petals diverge, recreating the shape of the symbol of Armenia's eternity. The flower petals are coloured in red, blue and orange, similar to the colours of the Armenian flag,” the designers wrote.

Uzbekistan: Naturally Irresistible

Uzbekistan's Intellectual Property Agency approved Uzbekistan's tourism logo in 2014. The Uzbek National Tourism Company Uzbektourism designed it. The country's national slogan is “Naturally irresistible”.

The Uzbekistan logo contains the inscription “Uzbekistan” in a free font. As in the case of Poland, the mountains and domes on the logo are drawn only symbolically and convey culture, landmarks, and national colours. The colour scheme was chosen following the country's flag: blue, red, green.

What does branding for the travel business mean?

For a travel company, branding means creating, developing and disseminating a set of values to distinguish itself from the competition and position itself in the minds of consumers. It means communicating all aspects of a company or a specific product. 

Branding is a marketing technique , but it is not marketing!

You communicate marketing to the market about your travel business, products, or services. On the other hand, branding is what your consumers say about you and your products.

Branding is not a short-term strategy but a medium- to long-term strategy. Investing in branding allows you to reap the benefits of your efforts over time. A brand can evolve according to market demand or consumer needs, wants or desires.

Why should a travel agency do branding?

Some people say that small online travel agencies can do without branding. Nothing could be more wrong! This belief is partly dictated by the fact that the branding process needs to be managed, and travel agencies often cannot afford the cost of a brand manager. Many travel business owners associate branding with quality or customer satisfaction. This is partly true, but these are only the results of branding. Branding today is no longer a trend-driven choice but also a necessity to stand out in the online tourism market.

Therefore, to the question of whether a travel agency should do branding, the answer is yes, for the following reasons:

• Distinguishes from competitors
• Increases corporate value
• It serves to create a perception in the tourist
• Increases brand awareness in the tourism market
• Generates consumer trust
• Builds customer loyalty

Let's now discuss an example of successful branding.

Bookatrekking – example of a successful branding

Bookatrekking stands as a stellar example of successful branding in adventure travel. With an extensive portfolio of hiking trips to over 60 destinations, the company has strategically crafted a detailed and effective branding strategy that consistently elevates its brand awareness.

One key element of Bookatrekking's successful branding is its ability to convey a strong and cohesive identity across various touchpoints. From its website and promotional materials to social media channels , the company maintains a consistent visual language, logo, and messaging that instantly resonates with its target audience. This uniformity creates a memorable and recognisable brand image.

The company's commitment to customer experience and quality is also reflected in its branding. Positive reviews, testimonials, and captivating visuals from actual trekking experiences like Tre Cime di Lavaredo Hike contribute to building trust and credibility. Bookatrekking effectively communicates its core values and commitment to providing exceptional adventure experiences, fostering a connection with its audience.

Furthermore, Bookatrekking's branding extends beyond the trips themselves. The company has invested in marketing campaigns, partnerships, and community engagement initiatives, reinforcing its presence in the adventure travel niche. This multifaceted approach ensures the brand remains top-of-mind for individuals seeking trekking adventures.

This team leverages social media platforms, content marketing, and online communities to engage with its audience. Using captivating visuals, compelling storytelling, and interactive content helps create a sense of community and encourages user-generated content, amplifying its reach and impact.

By maintaining a well-defined and consistent brand presence , Bookatrekking has positioned itself as a trusted and reputable choice for hiking enthusiasts. The company's ability to convey its unique selling propositions, coupled with a solid online presence, has contributed to the continuous growth of its brand awareness and success in the competitive adventure travel industry.

How do you create a branding strategy for online travel agencies?

When people talk about strategy or strategic actions, they always think of something overly complex that will take a lot of time and resources to define. Hence, they tend to avoid anything resembling a strategy. But strategy is fundamental to determining the tactical actions that enable you to achieve specific marketing and corporate objectives.

If you have never created a branding strategy or want to understand how to make one from scratch, you must first know who you are addressing and your competitors.

Who is your brand for?

You must define every aspect of your target buyer and create a fictitious representation of your ideal customer. You must understand their problems, anxieties, fears, desires or needs, what makes them happy, and how you can help them. In short, it represents how you define everything about your consumer. It is good to remember that since it is a fictitious representation, you have to update it according to the actual characteristics of the buyer personas.

Answer the following questions:

• Who do you want to sell to?
• Who are your consumers?
• What needs or requirements do they have?
• Who are your buyer personas?

Great, move on.

Identify competitor brands

Who is fighting against you for a place in the minds of consumers? Knowing your opponents' brands is indispensable when defining a strategy. What do competitor brands position themselves for?

• High quality or low quality?
• High cost or low cost?
• High quality and low cost?
• Low quality and low cost?
• High quality and high cost?
• High cost and low quality?

It is strategic to understand precisely where a competing brand is to implement a diversification strategy. For this purpose, you need to analyse who your current competitors are in the present and who they might be in the future and examine:

• Brand purpose
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Elements of equality
• Elements of difference
• Value proposition
• Products Offered
• Brand colours

Identify the foundation principles of the brand.

What are the principles that led to the creation and development of the brand? On what pillars does the brand rest? What are the core beliefs? Answer the following questions.

Brand purpose:

• Why do you exist?

Brand vision:

• How do you see the brand in the future?
• Where do you want to go?
• What future do you want to build?

Brand mission:

• How can you realise your vision?
• What are you currently doing?

Value of brand:

• What are the principles and values that guide the company's activities?
• What values do you intend to promote?

Define brand essence

Brand essence serves to express who you are as an entity. To do branding in tourism, especially for online travel agencies, you must understand who you are and how you communicate this to the market. Remember that a brand is an intangible attribute that distinguishes you from others and helps create a perception of the potential customer. Therefore, you must understand who you are and how to talk about you.

• What adjectives would you use to define yourself if you were a brand?
• What are your human characteristics? Make a list of 3-4 adjectives that describe your personality.
• What brand do your potential customers want?
• How do you want to be seen and perceived as a brand?
• What elements would make a potential customer choose you and not your competitor?

Branding involves attracting people's attention, making them feel comfortable, conveying your personality, and communicating through your voice. Tone of voice is one of the branding elements that allows you to reinforce your communication messages and persuade the customer through emotion. It is also one of the most complex elements in its definition because a brand must be able to communicate to the customer in different ways depending on the situation.

For example, the tone of voice of a travel agency brand can be refined and elegant when it comes to conveying emotion but also confident when it comes to booking or purchasing a trip. An appropriate tone of voice can enhance a brand's memorability , depending on the context.

To define it, you always have to resort to an internal analysis:

• How do you want people to feel when they interact with you?
• What adjectives describe the brand?
• How can you differentiate yourself from the competition?
• How would you like to talk about the brand? In what language?

Create the brand message.

How can you convey a message, communicate your value and differentiate yourself from the crowd? To do this, you need to identify an online travel agency's unique value proposition first and second a tagline that identifies you. These are the two brand communication elements when referring to your message. Your value proposition positions you in people's minds for something you do better than your competitors and also answers why a consumer should choose you.

The tagline or slogan is an element of a brand's visual identity and reinforces the brand identity . Creating slogans for tourism is essential if you want to emphasise your company's value and communicate it clearly and simply to your audience. Every self-respecting tourism and non-tourism brand should have a strong tagline that people readily understand. However, some companies in the tourism sector do not do this because they manage to communicate the strength of their brand simply and authentically.

This is the case with Booking.com, which has no tagline in its brand because it does not need to communicate its values. Calling up the booking brand, what comes to mind? Probably:

• Best price guarantee
• Free cancellation
• 24-hour assistance

In 2019, Booking.com created a promotional campaign to launch the brand in the US and adopted a simple but distinctive message, “Be a booker”, to stimulate people to get in touch with the brand.

Define brand identity

A brand identity is the set of visual and stylistic elements that make a brand memorable and associated with a product or service. It represents the first point of contact between people and a company from a visual point of view. A brand identity is distinguished by its logo, tagline or slogan , font and colour palette.

Although it sounds easy, designing a brand's visual identity is complicated. Often, when starting a travel and tourism business, the mistake is to immediately create a graphic representation by creating the brand. But to make it optimal, you must be aware of each of the previous steps. If you are unaware of why you exist, what you do for the market and your values, how can you represent them graphically?

Depending on your values and vision, you must also choose the colours that best represent you because even colours, on a psychological level, communicate certain aspects of a company. When developing a brand identity, nothing must be left to chance because each element has a communicative value for customers.

Travel & tourism sector branding takes time and resources. It is a process that begins with a profound understanding of the people it addresses. However, designing and developing a brand allows both country (destination) and travel businesses to differentiate from the competition, communicate values and culture, and increase prestige and authority.

What role does branding play in the travel & tourism sector in 2024?

In 2024, branding is more crucial than ever in the travel & tourism sector as it is a powerful tool to differentiate destinations, create unique experiences, and build trust among travellers. Effective branding helps destinations and businesses stand out in a crowded market and influences consumer perceptions.

How can a destination establish a strong brand identity in the competitive travel & tourism landscape?

Establishing a solid brand identity involves comprehensively understanding the destination's unique selling points, cultural nuances, and target audience preferences. Successful branding requires a combination of digital marketing strategies, sustainability initiatives, and personalised experiences to create a memorable and positive image in the minds of travellers.

What impact does technology have on branding strategies for travel & tourism?

Technology is a game-changer in the Travel & Tourism sector's branding landscape. From virtual reality experiences to social media engagement, technology allows destinations and businesses to connect innovatively with their audience. Integrating AI for personalised recommendations, mobile apps, and seamless online experiences is crucial to effective branding in this tech-driven era.

How can sustainability be integrated into the branding of travel & tourism businesses?

Sustainability is a critical focus in 2024, and travellers increasingly value environmentally conscious practices. Brands in this sector can incorporate sustainability into their identity by adopting eco-friendly initiatives, promoting responsible tourism, and communicating their commitment to environmental stewardship. This approach attracts environmentally conscious travellers and aligns with global trends in responsible travel.

In the age of social media, how can travel & tourism businesses leverage platforms for effective branding in 2024?

Social media remains a powerful tool for branding in 2024. Travel & tourism businesses can leverage platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and X to showcase visually appealing content, engage with their audience, and create a community around their brand. User-generated content, influencer collaborations, and real-time updates are essential strategies to stay relevant and connect with the digital-savvy traveller.

Author Bio: Conrad is a professional blogger, content maker, and freelance writer. He has written many excellent and valuable posts on a variety of topics. Conrad loves outdoor activities. He believes the fresh air brings him inspiration for new ideas. You can reach him out through gu***************@gm***.com .

Stuart Crawford

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Destination Branding: How To Give Your Destination A Distinct Voice

Every Australian who has traveled internationally has, at one time or another, been hit with the same line… throw another shrimp on the barbie! 🦐

But… Australians call them prawns, not shrimps. So, where did this phrase—one that’s become synonymous with describing Aussie culture—even come from? 🤔

After some Google searching, we were stunned to find the phrase was from a $15 million destination branding campaign by Tourism Australia in the 1980s. Interestingly, the ‘Come and say G’day’ campaign was made exclusively for the North American market and the advertisements only ever ran there. 

Paul Hogan says “I’ll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you” in the iconic destination branding campaign. Image source.

Yet… it worked. 

After the destination campaign launched in the US, Australia shot from #78 on the most-desired holiday list for Americans to #7. Arrivals to Australia from America doubled over the first three years and the growth rate over four years was more than 25% . 

It was a masterclass in destination branding . The campaign captured Australia’s brand personality, it has a specific target audience and most importantly—it increased tourism numbers. 

In this guide, we’re going to dig a little deeper into the power of destination branding, how to build a brand identity campaign, and a few examples that hit it outta the park. 

Let’s get started 👇

What Is Destination Branding?

Destination branding vs. marketing: what’s the difference, why is destination branding so important, how to establish a brand identity, destination branding examples that hit the mark, drive more visitors through an authentic voice.

Destination branding is a unique way to position a city or country to help it stand out and drive more tourism. Instead of a focus on consumerism or attractions, destination branding aims to shape the perception of a destination using culture, brand values, heritage, landscapes, and experiences to help resonate with a traveler. 

It’s driven by a modern-day desire to experience something different. In fact, a GetYourGuide study found 95% of American travelers prefer to spend at least part of their trip on new and unique experiences. By branding a destination as different and unmissable—marketers can help travelers meet that goal. 

Destination branding is sometimes confused with everyday travel marketing campaigns—and it’s easy to see why. Both strategies aim to drive more tourists and increase awareness of a destination, but there are granular differences between the two. 

Destination branding plays a long game. 

Brand development focuses on the personality of a destination and will lean on cultural heritage and unique identity to shape a campaign. This involves crafting a narrative that authentically represents the destination’s uniqueness and allure. It focuses on three main attributes: 

😎 Identity. A strong focus on history, traditions, natural beauty and unique culture is the foundation of any destination branding campaign. 

🤝Connection . It hits potential visitors right in the feels. Destination branding can help a future visitor connect with a country’s culture, food, unique beauty and history through storytelling . 

🥅Long-Term Goals. It shapes the perception of the tourism destination into a consistent image that distinguishes it from other places.

On the other hand, destination marketing casts a wide net using campaigns, advertisements, and promotional activities. It wants to attract visitors through:

📺Promotions. A destination’s attractions and activities along with other perks like accommodation and transport are marketed to potential travelers.

🎯Targeted Campaigns . It focuses on identifying specific market segments and tailoring campaigns to their travel goals. 

✈️Bookings. Destination marketing is all about getting people on the plane (or train… or bus). The main goal is to convert the target audience into paying tourists. 

While marketing can win people over for a weekend break or Summer holiday, destination branding goes a little deeper. It aims to connect deeply with a potential visitor and plant a seed so they yearn to visit and one day experience the place themselves. 

Destination branding is a critical aspect of marketing for any DMO (destination marketing organization). It plays a crucial role in shaping the perception of a destination and influencing travelers’ decisions.

And countries can spend big bucks to brand a destination. 

A decade ago, the United States dropped $150 million on the “Discover America” campaign. It placed television commercials in nine nations, purchased ads on the Tokyo subway, and even had Facebook pages in Portuguese and German. It resulted in an additional 1.1 million tourists visiting the following year, representing a 2.3% increase YoY and an additional $3.4 billion in international visitor spending. 

A branding asset from America’s 2012 campaign. Image source: Forbes .  

The strategy is even more impressive when applied to destinations that were once , as described by the New York Times , “dangerous and conflict-ridden”. 

Just look at the rebranding of Croatia case study. 

Stats show in 2018, nearly 560,000 Americans visited the country. But in 1998, a mere 41,000 Americans made the trek. And it wasn’t just more people from the US visiting—nearly 20 million tourists visited Croatia in 2018, up from 1.5 million in 1995.

So, what happened? 🤔

The country did a lot of work to shed the reputation of the ethnic conflicts of the 1990s and any lingering memories of postwar socialist Yugoslavia. Croatia focused its brand messaging on its natural beauty, traditional cuisine and Mediterranean lifestyle to rebrand itself as a hidden gem of European tourism.

Image Source

Since then, millions more tourists have flocked to the country every year, and HBO even filmed “Game of Thrones” in Dubrovnik in southern Croatia. 

“Nowadays, Croatia is one of the top destinations in the Mediterranean,” Kristjan Stanicic, director of the Croatian National Tourist Board, explained to the New York Times.   

“Our competitors are Spain, Italy, France, Greece and that hasn’t always been the story. People know now that we have great beaches and other things to do.”

Here’s a closer look at why place branding is so important and can turn a country into a must-visit destination 👇 

• A better way to carve a unique identity . Effective destination branding can build a unique picture of how a traveler perceives a place. A focus on specific culture, community or heritage can set a destination apart and tourists will know it’s the only place they can have specific experiences. It’s also a way for a destination to shape a narrative and hit back at any misconceptions or outdated stereotypes visitors may have about a region.
• More competitive against other destinations. The tourism market is crowded, and as emerging countries start to take a piece of the pie, effective destination branding can give a location a competitive edge. For example, data shows millions of Americans choose Europe as their favorite holiday destination, so European countries must compete for these tourist dollars. Croatia is a great example of how to stand out from the crowd by leaning on unique features like natural beauty and tradition to win tourists over. 

Most importantly, a strong destination brand can have a direct impact on the local economy. 

More tourism can lead to more jobs, potential investment and growth of tourism-related businesses, and general prosperity for locals.

Take the example of Australia’s “Come and say G’day’ campaign we talked about at the start of this article. After it was launched in January 1984, it depicted Australia beyond the stereotypes of having dangerous wildlife or just snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Americans were greeted with a sense of humor and warmth, and the campaign made it clear Australia wanted them to visit. 

The economic impact was immediate. 

The Sydney Morning Herald reports there were 70,000 inquiries from Americans about vacationing in Australia after the campaign launched. Holiday visa applications shot up by 54%. And 285,000 calls were made to the campaign’s hotline 📞 

Any city or region can talk about a zoo or a great restaurant. But what is it about the place that will make tourists really want to visit?

Building a destination brand is all about introspection. If you focus on what makes a destination (really) unique, it’s much easier to draw more visitors in. Here’s what to think about when you create a destination branding strategy 👇

1. Celebrate Your Destination’s Unique Cultural Identity

Embracing the unique cultural identity of your destination is essential for creating a strong brand. Leaning on local history and traditions along with cuisine, art and even folklore can help paint it as a one-of-a-kind destination for visitors. 

This strategy is an ideal way to position a destination—even when competition is fierce. 

Tucked in the Nordics, Denmark must compete with popular destinations like Norway, Sweden, and Finland for attention. The team at VisitDenmark uses a mix of user-generated content (UGC) , stunning visuals, and a hint of mystery to paint Denmark as the Land of Everyday Wonder.

It also leans heavily into something only Denmark can offer—Norse Viking mythology and the Danish monarchy. 

This is a simple example of how destination branding can go beyond beautiful scenery and cuisine to tap into truly unique experiences for visitors. 

2. Show and Tell Through Captivating Stories

Most successful destination branding campaigns have one thing in common: a good story. 

A captivating narrative about a country’s history, culture, values or even humor can be enough to grab an audience’s attention. By telling a compelling story, it’s easier to craft a narrative about why a destination is a good choice and more importantly, why it should be the top choice. 

Destination Canada recently took a different approach to storytelling. 

It teamed up with TED to talk about topics that aren’t usually a focus for DMOs. The 14-episode series covered everything from Canada’s extreme climate to the Indigenous communities and even traditional throat singing. 

This approach was a true think-outside-the-box approach to destination marketing. Rather than focusing on why people should visit Banff National Park, the series started a conversation around truly unique parts of the country like its culture, sustainability, and climate. 

3. Think Like a Local

Local businesses and residents can be an untapped resource for building a destination identity. 

These are the people who live, breathe and love the area you want to promote. ( To work with them on unique short-form video, get in touch with our team! ) Put yourself in their shoes and ask: just what is it that makes this place so unique? 🤔

This is exactly what Calgary did with its Basecamp to Adventure campaign in 2017. 

The area has stiff competition from major Canadian cities like Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, but it was desperate to attract younger travelers to the region. So, the campaign targeted some of the most popular attractions like Lake Louise, Calgary ‘Hoods, and Sled Island, and turned them into fuel to brand the entire region. 

Most importantly, the campaign focused on photographs and experiences from real people who had visited the areas in Calgary. 

The branding process was successful, especially for native Canadians living in Vancouver and Toronto. The number of 18-24-year-olds visiting the Tourism Calgary website jumped by a whopping 322%. 

When it comes to successful destination branding, numerous campaigns have managed to put a place on the map. Let’s take a look at a couple that stand out 👇

Think Outside The Box: The Sheep Campaign That Went Viral

Faroese sheep mounted with Google cameras. (Courtesy of Visit Faroe Islands)

Faroe Islands is often overlooked by tourism juggernauts around it like Scotland and Iceland. 

The tiny Danish archipelago has a population of just over 50,000 and it’s so remote that until 2016, it wasn’t even featured on Google Street View. 

So, the country’s tourism board, Visit Faroe Islands, petitioned to get Google to map its roads and created the Sheep View 360° campaign. The grassroots campaign began when local residents strapped 360-degree cameras to sheep on the island to capture video, images and GPS coordinates to get the job started. 

The campaign went viral and along with a 30% increase in visitors after it launched, Google also took notice. 

The best part about the destination rebrand is, despite having no media budget, it generated an estimated $50 million in PR revenue and a staggering 2 billion media impressions 🤯Needless to say it made the tourism board’s stakeholders very happy.

Townsville: Queensland—But Make It Not The Great Barrier Reef

When people think about Australian travel, most will immediately think of destinations like Sydney, Melbourne, and the Great Barrier Reef. 

Townsville, a city in North Queensland and a growing coastal destination in the Northeastern part of Australia, is on a mission to change that. Through its local DMO, Townsville Enterprise , and a team of three marketers, Townsville is repositioning itself by focusing on its five main regions: Magnetic Island, Burdekin, Charters Towers, Hinchinbrook, and Palm Island.

“A major challenge of our destination is actually awareness from across our domestic and international markets,” says Simone Sullivan, a marketing manager with Townsville Enterprise. 

“Destination awareness is quite low for our region, and we know that off the back of our research,  so being able to leverage shared stories of people who have been to our region to use throughout our marketing strategy is really key.”

To stand out from nearby tourism hotspots like Whitehaven Beach and the Great Barrier Reef, Townsville Enterprise focused on marketing its natural beauty, history, and culture. It’s going beyond the wide appeal of every tourist and targeting couples seeking romance, families who want a place to unwind, and even those studying marine science and curious to explore. 

With such a small marketing team, branding the destination has been a challenge. Townsville Enterprise decided to harness UGC using CrowdRiff in their various marketing and social media channels to increase content output and make campaigns authentic. By doing so, the DMO can showcase the region’s natural beauty through the eyes of real visitors. 

The results have been eye-popping. 

Townsville North Queensland has seen a 70% increase in consumers taking action to book a holiday, and there has also been a 116% boost in destination awareness.

“Being authentic and organic is another key component to how we are building the brand of Townsville North Queensland. We want to be real and organic and raw and that’s where social media content and sharing the experiences that visitors have had in real terms comes in.”

• Simone Sullivan

Visitors want to experience something unique. Something different. Something they can’t get anywhere else. 

In the flood of social media posts, viral videos, and constant marketing, destination branding gives DMOs a chance to stand out. But a successful strategy requires numerous initiatives and introspection. Think about what makes your destination truly unique and how you can connect deeply with your audience. 

Using emotion, personality and identity, destination marketing can help potential visitors in the decision-making process and carve out a place as an authentic experience that someone yearns to have. 

And if it comes down to it, don’t be afraid to think outside the box…. Even if it means strapping a camera to a sheep. 🐑 

Own your brand story and attract more visitors.

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The place to be: lessons in branding from the tourism & travel industry

• The place to be: lessons…

Imagine you’ve just spent the day shopping on Oxford High Street. You take a black cab to Mayfair for afternoon tea at Claridge’s. You have tickets to a show at the West End later that evening, but you stop by for a pint of beer at one of the many pubs named after William Shakespeare. The air is just a bit damp from the rain, and the smell of fish and chips wafts through the air.

You don’t need to have visited London to know which city I was describing. The city’s destination brand is universally strong and recognisable.

What is destination branding, and why is it vital to the economic growth of a place?

According to Tom Buncle, former Chief Executive of Visit Scotland and current Managing Director of an international tourism consultancy: “Destination branding is about identifying the destination’s strongest and most competitively appealing assets in the eyes of its prospective visitors, building a story from these that makes the destination stand out above its competitors, and running this narrative consistently through all marketing communications.”

In other words, a destination brand cannot be created . It is up to tourist boards and destination marketing organisations to identify their destination’s best assets in order to invoke certain feelings, values, cultures, and the overall mindset that people experience when visiting a place.

It also means that people in the destination play a part in contributing to the tourism brand values, experience, reputation, and mindset. Particularly, those in the front-line service industry, which is why the tourism industry is so vital to the economy. It creates customer loyalty and trust, rendering travellers an everlasting impression that could make or break a brand, and in turn, it provides jobs to the workforce.

In the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) annual report on the economic and employment impact of Travel & Tourism for 2019, the sector experienced 3.5% growth, higher than the global economy growth (which reported 2.5% growth) for the ninth consecutive year. Other topline results include:

• US$8.9 trillion contribution to the world’s GDP (US$2.0 trillion in Europe)
• 10.3% of global GDP (9.1% in Europe)
• 330 million jobs, 1 in 10 jobs around the world
• 1 in 4 jobs created by the sector over the past five years
• US$1.7 trillion visitors exports (6.8% of total exports, 28.3% of global services exports)
• US$948 billion capital investment (4.3% of total investment)

If place branding is so important, how do destinations successfully market their brand to make an everlasting impact?

To tackle this question, we will explore some examples of brands that have successfully marketed their destinations and differentiated themselves in this highly competitive industry.

Inspired by Iceland

After the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökul volcano in 2010, Iceland’s reputation as a tourism destination plummeted . Unfortunately, the news of this devastating event was so widespread that the economy was not expected to recover without intervention.

To encourage visitors to consider Iceland as a viable tourism destination, the Icelandic government, along with partners and stakeholders in the travel industry, launched the “Inspired by Iceland” brand. The idea involved a rebrand and an engaging campaign to remind travellers that this beautiful destination was still worth visiting . One of the first campaigns to be released soon after the eruption was Iceland Hour. The campaign leveraged Iceland’s best assets, including local residents and celebrities, to help raise awareness and share stories of positivity. Stories erupted on social media (no pun intended) leading to a reported 22 million testimonials within 10 weeks of launching and has allowed the country to emerge from devastation to triumph. The result was so successful that they saw an ROI of 61:1 with a renewed interest in the country as a desired tourism destination .

Now with the pandemic, the brand continues to use various ways of communicating their best assets through humour, positivity and personality with the Joyscroll campaign and LooksLikeYouNeedIceland campaign hashtag so that when travelling can be safe and normalised again, Iceland would be top of mind for travellers.

Visit Britain

When destination marketing organisations and tourist boards are planning their brand strategy, it’s important to look within their offerings and to be consistent with their core values .

The Love Great Britain campaign focused on culture, heritage, sport, music, nature, food, and shopping. It even partnered with the James Bond movie Skyfall for cross-promotion calling it ‘“Bond is Great Britain” leveraging the legacy of the London Olympics in 2012. A separate page was created to showcase all the iconic landmarks and locations in the movie, giving travellers and fans of the movie franchise a complete tour guide. When it comes to tourism branding, team up with something or someone iconic and globally renowned, even if it is a certain fictional, dashing secret agent.

Visit Britain collaborated once again with another celebrity figure’s upcoming movie release in 2014. The “Paddington is Great” capitalised on Great Britain’s loveable bear and invited visitors to “see Britain through Paddington’s eyes.”

Super, Natural British Columbia

For the past 30 years, British Columbia has used the slogan, “Super, Natural British Columbia” in their marketing campaigns. The brand promises that “from massive mountain ranges and windswept beaches to rainforests overflowing with life, discover how BC’s diverse landscapes shape our people and culture.” Since the slogan has proven the test of time and continues to resonate strongly with the brand’s core image as a popular destination for nature lovers , they have only made visual updates to the artwork and font. With nature and the love for the outdoors being at the core essence of their brand, the custom font personifies and invokes their brand promise: “wild at heart”.

Paris Je T’aime

When examining best practices in tourism branding, one cannot forget to mention the city of romance that is Paris. The “City Brand Barometer 2020” conducted by branding consultancy Saffron, showed that even with the global pandemic, Paris still ranks at the top of the list of desired destinations to visit , thanks to the strength of their brand. Further, the ranking showed London and Tokyo following closely behind in top city brands. The study was created to assess which global cities have built the strongest brands to attract tourists and why. According to Jacob Benbunan , CEO of the branding consulting firm Saffron, “This is the perfect time to work on brand. Of course it is a means to an end. It cannot neutralise the effects of Covid, we may very well have to prepare for a longer term reality of life with Covid, and brand can help cities to be relevant to tourists in the new normal.” To achieve such a high ranking, Paris had to not only already be one of the best-known cities in the world, it also had to embrace its existing reputation as a popular tourist destination with attractions and a rich local culture. For centuries, the French capital has been the global hub for culture, travel, fashion, art, and commerce where it continues to be influential. With 41 World Heritage Sites, it scored highly for accessibility to cultural venues seeing 9.2 million visitors to the Louvre and 7 million visitors to the Eiffel Tower each year .

Essential Costa Rica

One of the top destination branding success stories, Costa Rica has propelled itself on to the global stage as the Best Place Brand of the Year by the City Nation Place Global Forum in 2019. The success of the country’s branding has revolutionised the world’s perception of Costa Rica, thanks to their brand strategy that focused on growing awareness and harnessing the talents of the Costa Rican people . Daniel Valverde Bagnarello, Country Brand Director explains that Essential Costa Rica refers “to a small, concentrated country, full of a unique added value through its talented people.” The slogan maintains that the people of Costa Rica are “the essence” . Since the success of the initiative, they continue to focus on growing their economy from within by seeking partnerships with tourism businesses, working with local stakeholders and incorporating skills and talent of its people that align with the country’s brand messaging, which includes their established reputation for eco-tourism and natural beauty .

In difficult and uncertain times, it is vital to these brands to evolve with new tourism trends but to also stay consistent and resilient with brand building.

The travel and tourism sector is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world that contributes significantly to economic growth . In difficult and uncertain times, it is vital to these brands to evolve with new tourism trends but to also stay consistent and resilient with brand building. By continuing to do so, destination brands can build up their personality, voice and perception in the world .

This industry is in it for the long haul. A strong tourism brand can tell us how their place is different from the competition and what unique values they have to enrich your experience.

When travel for leisure can be safe again, I have a few ideas of where I’d like to travel. Do you?

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Author:  Shirley Lui

Shirley Lui works in Marketing, Recruitment and Admissions at ESCP’s London campus. Prior to joining the Higher Education sector, she spent 8 years working as the Manager of Marketing and Creative Strategy at a Destination Marketing Organisation in Canada.

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Destination Branding: Top Tips to Attract Travelers

Written by Emilija Zagere on September 17, 2021 . Posted in Tourism Marketing .

Destination branding – more than just a logo

What exactly is destination branding.

To start things off, it is important to first understand what a brand is: what is the purpose of destination branding, and how it is different from destination marketing? A brand is more than just a logo, a color scheme, and a slogan.

Your destination brand is a reflection of your culture and its people, history and heritage, traditional and modern ways of living, built and natural environments. It wrapped by the totality of perceptions, feelings, and thoughts that your guests have about your destination. It is the foundation of your marketing strategy and your most important marketing tool. 

Destination branding, commonly referred to as place branding, is the process of identifying, crafting, and nurturing the unique identity of a destination. It is building a story around the key elements, values, and the destination proposition, orchestrating consistent messaging that highlights just that and, ultimately, forming a reputation in the eyes of its visitors. In other words, destination branding is all about who you are. It is the focal part of destination marketing that, in turn, defines how you communicate and deliver your message to the right audiences. 

Top examples of destination branding

Tourism Northern Ireland – Winner of The 2020 Travel Marketing Awards, Category Destination Brand of the Decade, image courtesy of Monotype .

‘Northern Ireland – Embrace a Giant Spirit’ brand focusing on experiences, heritage and belonging, courtesy of Monotype and Genesis . 

Courtesy of Lantern .  Estonia’s Repositioning and re-branding strategy focuses on telling a story about a lost paradise and experience-first destinations that allow travelers to make the most of their time. 

Why is destination branding important?

Prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic, travel and tourism was one of the largest and fastest-growing economic sectors  in the world ( UNWTO) . While the global economy and the travel sector aim to recover safely, eager travelers are anxiously waiting for their time to travel again. Though it may still be unclear what exactly tourism will look like after COVID-19 recovery, and when that may take place, industry experts say the tourism sector will be among the last to recover . 

Not only are thousands of destinations planning and preparing for reopening, but undiscovered destinations are also establishing themselves every year joining the competition for the valuable tourist dollars. In such a saturated marketplace, carefully crafting a brand story that will resonate with the key audiences and potential visitors will allow your destination to stand out.

Differentiation is the ultimate objective of branding. Effective destination branding that stands the test of time while remaining competitive, dynamic, innovative, and agile to ever-evolving industry trends and consumer behaviors. It is what holds the key to successful destination development and tourism growth.

How to brand your destination successfully

Building your destination brand should focus on the uniqueness of the place and its surroundings. Consequently, the first step to building a destination brand, according to the World Tourism Organization and European Travel Commission, should be an audit of the destination to include the emotions and perceptions associated with it. Followed by that, it is important to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the destination as well as identify your target market. Understanding your target audience will allow you to effectively articulate and deliver your destination’s unique selling point throughout the various touch points of the customer journey. A thorough competitor analysis should be carried out to identify a possible market gap, while successfully positioning and differentiating your destination.

It is important to mention that stakeholder involvement is an integral part of destination brand development and the branding process. A brand’s success is directly linked to the acceptance and support from local residents, and the public and private sectors. You should consider all these entities as brand ambassadors that will directly impact the perception of your destination in the visitor’s eyes. After completing an inclusive and comprehensive destination audit, you’ll be off to a great start to build your destination brand. 

Practical tools, such as the brand pyramid , can help define the destination and brand identity by considering all core components of your destination. The foundation of your brand pyramid lies in the rational attributes , the characteristics of a destination, and its tourism offer, i.e. the activities, the landscape, or the weather. Next, consider the emotional benefits and think about how the visitors feel about the destination and what feelings they take away from their visit. The third layer of the pyramid is the brand personality , the main characteristics, and attributes of the brand, including the question of how the brand should be perceived and described by the audience. Is your destination calm and charmingly intimate, or is it wild, vast, and rough? Perhaps it is a combination of the two? Furthermore, the brand positioning describes the uniqueness of your brand, led by the question of what makes the destination stand out from its competitors. Finally, the very top of the brand pyramid is the brand essence , the heart of your brand, and what wraps all other components and makes them into one.

After identifying all the components of your unique destination brand, it is time to build an engaging, empowering, and passionate brand story that will resonate with locals and visitors alike. Your story will be the backbone of your tourism marketing plan, strategy, and integrated marketing communications. Choosing the right visual tools and communication mediums will be essential in effectively and consistently communicating your brand promise, reaching the right audiences, and achieving your marketing goals. It also supports building relationships based on trust, and growing your destination popularity. 

Solimar acknowledges the importance of destination branding and provides more insights about this topic within our expert produced Destination Management Organization (DMO) development course . The course provides a deeper dive into the intrinsic components of destination and marketing organization planning, development, branding, and marketing.

Are you a destination who needs help with your destination branding? Contact us today !

Written by Lena Eckert and Emilija Zagere

Tags: destination brand , destination brandinng , destination logos , sustainable tourism , visit estonia , visit northern ireland

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How to create an effective marketing strategy for an adventure tourism brand

You’re posting on Instagram, sharing blog posts on your website, and experimenting with ads on Facebook — yet there’s no real strategy behind it all.

If it sometimes feels like you’re throwing spaghetti on the wall just to see what sticks, you might need to take another look at your social media strategy.

You just spent half your marketing budget on digital channels like social media and search engines — but you have no idea how to measure their success. Does this sound familiar?

In this guide, you’ll learn how to form the best marketing strategy for adventure tourism brands.

Whether you’re confused about which channels to focus on or what metrics to track for your ongoing campaigns, this post will make you feel a lot more confident about your marketing plan .

What’s a marketing strategy? 

A marketing strategy is a comprehensive business plan to promote your business, attract customers, and grow your revenue. For tour operators, this includes developing a brand and advertising on the right channels.

Every marketing strategy for adventure tourism brands should cover the 4 Ps:

• Product: You should have a clear understanding of the product (your tours or attractions), how it serves your customers, and what makes it unique.
• Price: Your pricing should be carefully calculated, taking company revenue and market prices into consideration.
• Place: Identify where your guests can book your tours or attractions.
• Promotion: Determine the channels you’ll use to promote your adventure tours.

Most adventure travel brands use a combination of digital marketing strategies like social media and paid search advertisements to bring in more website bookings.

Is your marketing strategy effective?

All your marketing efforts may fall flat if you don’t know how to measure them. You should identify your key performance indicators (KPIs), or success metrics, for every campaign you launch.

Your KPIs will depend on the marketing channel you’re prompting your tours on, and the result you’re hoping to achieve.

Here are seven ways you can evaluate your marketing strategy:

• Unique visitors: Is your website traffic going up? Unique visitors is a Google Analytics metric that refers to the number of people that visit your site during a given period of time. It’s a more accurate representation than page views since each visitor is only counted once. In other words, this metric can tell you whether you’re marketing strategy is effective in bringing new guests to your site.
• Page views: Your page views refer to the total number of individual pages your website visitors have viewed. If your page views are higher than your unique visitors, this means that your guests are clicking on more than one page on your site. This is a good indication that your guests are enjoying the content on your website.
• Search engine traffic: You can also check how much of your web traffic is coming from Google. This metric specifically measures how well your SEO and paid search ads are performing.
• Conversion rate: The percentage of visitors who take a specific action like signing up for your newsletter or booking a tour. This is a key metric to measure the overall effectiveness of your email opt-in and website content — both of which should be encouraging visitors to take an action.
• Social media followers and engagement: Are your social media accounts growing? Are your followers liking and commenting on your posts? Are they tagging you in user-generated content? Are they converting? These are key indicators to watch for a social media campaign.
• Online bookings: If you’ve built a robust digital marketing strategy to drive more bookings through your website, you should be tracking your bookings over time and the channels they’re coming from.
• ROI: Keep an eye on the gains and costs of your marketing investments. Look at revenue reports to see if your marketing strategy is not only bringing in more bookings but also making your business more profitable.

What are the key variables of an effective marketing strategy? 

There are several factors to consider when building your marketing strategy. From your audience to your marketing budget, here are six key variables to keep in mind:

Knowing your audience is key to building an effective marketing strategy. When you understand your guests, you’re able to create campaigns that directly appeal to them. Every business should know what makes your customers excited, what doubts they might have, and what channels they use to get their information.

Here are a couple of questions to keep in mind when thinking about your audience:

• Have you created customer/buyer personas yet?
• Do you know where your audience is hanging out?
• Have you dug into your audience data on social media or Google Analytics to better understand their demographics?

Marketing channels

Part of knowing your audience is identifying where your guests go for information. Today, most travelers begin their trip research on Google. Many also find inspiration through photos on Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok. Adventure tour operators should focus on the marketing channels their guests use most.

Consider the following questions:

• Have you tried asking your guests how they found your company?
• Did you take a look at the platforms your competitors are active on?
• Have you looked at your booking software insights to see where most bookings are coming from?

Your budget will determine the channels you market your tours on. Content marketing, social media initiatives, and email campaigns are three cost-effective marketing strategies that tour operators can get started with. 

Think about the following:

• Are you a new company that needs to get your name out there, or do you already have an established audience?
• How much has your business grown over the past year?
• How much of your revenue do you feel comfortable spending on marketing efforts?

Time investment 

Some marketing tactics like paid search marketing can generate results right away. You pay to rank on the first page of Google for specific search terms, which increases your site visibility and, hopefully, conversions right away. SEO (search engine marketing), on the other hand, is the process of organically ranking in the top 10 results on Google. It generates long-term results rather than immediate exposure. Most tour operators benefit from using a combination of both. 

Consider this:

• Is your current marketing strategy costing you more time and money than necessary?
• Could spending more time on SEO now bring you more future bookings?

Seasonality

Take your destination’s tourism seasons into consideration when planning marketing campaigns. Your promotions will likely vary depending on guest demand, holidays, and the seasons.

Ask yourself the following:

• When could you benefit from more bookings?
• How much of your marketing budget should you set aside for those slow periods?
• How can you make up for the lost revenue from discounted tours throughout the rest of the year?

Brand reputation

How established is your brand? Well-known travel brands can leverage their reputation to produce unique marketing campaigns that directly appeal to their customers. If your brand has many social media followers, for example, you would push that marketing channel more than others.

Consider the following:

• Do your customers walk away from your tours remembering your brand?
• Could your customers recognize your brand if they ran into one of your tour groups?
• What are your customers saying about you on social media?

Key marketing strategies for adventure tourism brands 

Ready to improve your marketing? Travel tour operators should use a combination of strategies to create a solid marketing plan that sells.

• Know your audience: Your marketing plan will depend on the type of guest you want to attract to your tours. Experiment with different messaging and visuals to find out what makes them excited.
• Optimize your website: Make sure there are calls-to-action on your site that entice guests to book and that the customer experience to be seamless.
• Zero in on your branding: Use social media to engage with past customers and make new guests familiar with your brand.
• Develop an SEO strategy: Search engines account for about 55% of all traffic for travel and tourism websites. You can leverage SEO by creating a section on your website for a blog, where you write about topics in your niche.
• Experiment with paid search: Use a combination of SEO and paid search tactics to market to travelers that are specifically searching for the experiences you’re offering.
• Partner with your local tourism board: Find out if your company fits within one of their upcoming campaigns.
• Sell your experiences on OTAs: Make your company visible to the millions of users that book through online travel agencies like Expedia.
• Target customers at the right time: Target travelers who are already traveling in your destination through Facebook’s targeting features.
• Start an email list: Email marketing is a cost-effective way to build a relationship with your customers, upsell your tours, turn one-time guests into repeat customers, and build guest loyalty.
• Leverage guest reviews: Showcase reviews on your website and even use them in your marketing campaigns to influence potential customers to make their final booking.
• Claim your business on Google My Business: Your Google business listing includes your contact information, hours, and other essential information.

How to get repeat bookings by marketing to past guests 

Think about a time you became loyal to a brand. It could be a shoe brand or an airline, but the reasons that drove you to buy from them repeatedly are likely the same.

You connected with the brand and what they stand for. You enjoyed the customer service, and you loved the product or service. Overall, your customer experience was a pleasant and memorable one.

How can you repeat this with your own customers?

You can start by establishing a clear brand both on and offline. Social media lets you use images, videos, and captions to personify your brand, which makes it easier to connect with customers. For example, you use an app, like Fotaflo , to capture and share user-generated photos and videos of happy guests on social media. You can also use these photos and videos in personalized email campaigns throughout the year. 

This brings us to another tactic – email marketing. 

One of the simplest things you can do is ask guests to leave a review on Tripadvisor or your website. 

In addition, if you are using digital waivers, like Xola Waivers, you likely have all of your guests’ email addresses, names, birthdays, and ages. You can add this information into your CRM or email marketing software, like Mailchimp. You can then send personalized birthday campaigns to all guests on their birthday — a simple yet memorable gesture.

However, all of these loyalty marketing efforts won’t get the job done if your customer experience is lacking. Make sure your tour is everything you promised the customer it would be.

In conclusion, your marketing strategy is the blueprint you’ll follow to promote and grow your business.

You may use several different tactics to get there, including a combination of SEO, email, and social media marketing. Whichever channels you choose, make sure to set and measure your KPIs as you go.

If your goal is to increase website traffic, for example, track your website’s unique visitors and page views. And always track your bookings and the revenue they’re generating compared to the amount you’re spending on marketing.

You should focus on the platforms that bring you the highest ROI.

Writer Carla Vianna

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• Destination Branding: Strategic Insights for Economic Development Experts

In our quest to explore the intricacies of branding for economic development, we delve deeper into destination branding, building on our previous our previous two parts: Place Vs. Destination Branding: Their Vital Role In Economic Development and Unpacking the Place Branding Process.    

In this final segment, we take a closer look at what goes into successful destination branding campaigns, from start to finish.  

Core Elements of Destination Branding  

Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world, directly contributing over 7 trillion U.S. dollars to gross domestic product (GDP) globally in 2022. In this highly competitive industry, destination branding has become essential in tourism marketing.  

Destination branding forms the bedrock of all promotional initiatives in the tourism industry. It artfully showcases specific geographical entities such as cities and resorts, creating a unique identity that sets it apart in the fiercely contested tourism market.  

Three fundamental elements power successful destination branding: reputation, identity, and perception.  

The reputation of a destination is a collective of beliefs or opinions people have about it. Maintaining a good reputation requires ongoing effort – cultivating positive experiences, ensuring consistent quality, and managing the destination efficiently. A positive reputation not only enhances the destination’s appeal but also builds trust among potential travelers.  

Identity takes into account the unique set of characteristics, values, and attributes that distinguish a destination. Driven by authenticity, and unique selling propositions, a strong identity leverages the destination’s unique aspects like cultural heritage, local traditions, and natural beauty. Not only does a defined and genuine identity amplify the appeal, but it also helps differentiate the destination in the cluttered tourism market.  

Perception  

Perception is the set of beliefs, attitudes, and emotions that people hold towards a destination. Strategic marketing campaigns and communication efforts can shape this perception. The primary goal is to align the audience’s perception with the desired image of the destination – underscoring positive aspects while addressing potential misconceptions.  

Building a Successful Destination Brand

Developing a destination brand is undoubtedly complex. The process aims to create a lasting image that guides all subsequent marketing efforts.  

Unlike other branding processes, destination branding isn’t linear – it has multiple sub-processes and involves numerous stakeholders. It requires extensive involvement from local tourism organizations, necessitating their participation and support to create a compelling brand.  

Local economic development organizations can successfully implement place branding. However, the emphasis destination branding places on tourism necessitates heightened involvement from local tourism agencies.  

Developing a destination brand requires a clear understanding of the unique offerings your destination brings to the tourism market. This task might seem daunting as it involves a comprehensive dissection of various aspects of your destination.  

Consequently, local tourism boards, entrusted with the promotion of tourism, should play a pivotal role in crafting the destination brand. These agencies typically devise strategies to attract visitors, underscore the unique features of the destination, and collaborate with multiple stakeholders in a brand creation effort. Hence, their active participation and support are indispensable in destination branding.  

Using a Branding Pyramid in the Destination Branding Process

While complex, the destination branding process can be simplified using a brand pyramid. It breaks down the key benefits that visitors can derive from the specific destination and provides visual framework outlining a destination’s identity and market positioning. The Institute for Sustainable Destinations by Solimar Internation breaks down the brand pyramid model for destination branding in their Destination Management Organization (DMO) Development Program.     

The brand pyramid consists of five tiers: rational attributes, emotional benefits, brand personality, the positioning statement, and brand essence. Each tier amplifies the unique attributes, aligns marketing efforts, and creates a persuasive narrative that resonates with the target audience.  

(Brand Pyramid model to build a powerful destination brand – Solimar DMO Development Program)

Tier 1: Rational Attributes:

The first tier, rational attributes, encompasses the tangible and observable features of a destination, such as unique services, local cuisines, or landmarks. These attributes are evident to visitors through direct experience.  

Tier 2: Emotional Benefits

The second tier, emotional benefits, merges tangible attributes with the emotional experiences of visiting the destination. Successful destination brands identify these emotional benefits and ensure all visitors share a similar positive emotional takeaway.  

Tier 3: Brand Personality:

The third tier, brand personality, describes how the target audience perceives the destination using a few essential words. Effective destination branding leverages the existing image and builds upon it. Recognizing the current brand helps determine the attributes to emphasize and how to influence target audience perceptions effectively.  

Tier 4: The Positioning Statement:

The fourth tier, the positioning statement, delineates the unique attributes specific to the site. At this stage, brand developers examine characteristics that are exclusive to the site. This step holds a significant position in the brand development process. Understanding what differentiates the site lends form to a robust brand identity.  

Tier 5: Brand Essence

The final tier, brand essence, consolidates elements from all the previous tiers to forge an integral brand identity. This identity embodies the core values and unique qualities of the destination, encapsulating the authentic and memorable experiences it offers to visitors. In effective destination branding, the brand essence aligns marketing efforts with the key attributes, crafting a persuasive narrative that resonates with the target audience and ultimately influences their perception and choice of the destination.  

Examples of Successful Destination Branding

Iceland: “inspired by iceland” campaign  .

In the wake of a volcanic eruption in 2010, Iceland launched the “Inspired By Iceland” campaign to shift global perceptions and boost tourism. The country portrayed its otherworldly natural beauty using engaging videos and interactive social media campaigns.  

 Key Takeaway: Iceland successfully used an unfortunate event to attract attention, then capitalized on this attention with a creative, engaging campaign that portrayed the country in a new, positive light. They showcased the uniqueness of their destination to create a strong brand identity.  

(“Inspired By Iceland” Campaign) 

New Zealand: “100% Pure New Zealand” Campaign  

Launched in 1999, this campaign highlights the diverse, unspoiled landscapes of New Zealand. It targets tourists seeking real experiences in beautiful, natural environments.  

 Key Takeaway: New Zealand’s consistent messaging and focus on authentic experiences show the power of a well-defined unique selling proposition (USP) in destination branding. They managed to create a distinctive identity in a highly competitive market. 

(“100% Pure New Zealand” Campaign )

Final Thoughts: The Destination Branding Process

Although place and destination branding can be confusing as they are sometimes used interchangeably, they indeed refer to different concepts. The choice of branding type should depend on the region’s unique features and specific goals, thereby providing a tailored strategy for supporting economic growth.  

By diligently applying the principles outlined here, economic development professionals can effectively utilize destination branding to market their region to potential investors. Factors like quality of life and the unique appeal of a location often serve as essential considerations for investors.  

These intangible aspects can make the crucial difference when costs, infrastructure, and financial incentives are comparable across multiple locations. A region boasting a high standard of living and distinctive charm can resonate more profoundly with investors, rendering it more attractive for business development or relocation endeavors.  

Moreover, highlighting the region’s unique characteristics, such as cultural heritage, or exceptional recreational and leisure facilities can substantially increase its appeal to investors. Thus, the strategic and well-considered implementation of destination branding principles can effectively position a region as a more competitive and enticing investment option.  

By building on the insights gleaned from this mini-series, economic development professionals can efficiently strategize the application of both place and destination branding in their investment attraction and marketing plans. This approach elevates their region’s visibility, competitiveness, and charm, ultimately fueling economic expansion and prosperity.

• Unpacking The Place Branding Process
• Place Vs. Destination Branding: Their Vital Role in Economic Development
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Destination Branding

In destination marketing, branding is not about logos, it involves a holistic 360 degree approach to crafting, developing and nurturing a unique identity for the destination according to key elements such as the destination proposition, heritage and values.

In destination marketing, branding is not about logos, it involves a holistic 360 degree approach to crafting, developing and nurturing a unique identity for the destination according to key elements such as the destination proposition, heritage and values. Once established, the destination brand is the foundation of all marketing activities designed to promote the destination and attract new visitors; content and messaging should always be aligned with this in mind. The destination brand is absolutely pivotal to what is communicated to the world.

It is important to acknowledge this concept before starting to talk about the brand because branding is not only about giving a name and colour to a product or place, it is the sum of multiple elements all converging into one narrative which we call the brand.

Destination branding is driven by three main factors, which represent the fundamentals of a destination brand: reputation, identity and perception.

• ‍ Reputation is the sum of the beliefs or opinions about the destination, it needs to be built, protected, maintained and changed, if needed, over time. ‍
• Identity has to be driven by authenticity, unique selling points of the destination, consistency and strong personality. ‍
• Perception is mostly made of immaterial experiences, even though material experiences matter as well, and it is subjective, in the mind of consumers.

We explore this in further detail in Stage 4 of our Transformation Series: Shaping the Brand .

In terms of destination marketing, it is all about the brand story and creating one that really resonates with your core audience. First and foremost, this is to secure competitive differentiation in an already saturated marketplace. As the travel industry continues to change at an unprecedented pace, alongside constantly evolving traveller behaviour, the impact of sustainability and living in a hyper-connected world, a strong brand means destinations have the ability to stand the test of time and remain competitive, while still being innovative, dynamic and agile in their approach.

There are many fantastic examples of destinations that have established a compelling brand narrative through different means from powerful storytelling and destination-wide collaboration to a complete destination re-brand.

Ticino Turismo - Rebrand

In 2018, Ticino Turismo , the official DMO of the canton, embarked on a great innovation journey that led them to a complete rebranding after 36 years. The new brand considered many different elements and the process of design thinking was used as a means to co-create the new narrative and branding, collaborating with stakeholders from all the provinces of the region. This was a total digital transformation, and the many different micro-experiences, stories and emotions within the destination are reflected in the new brand you see today.

Check out the full case study.

Destination canada - brand evolution.

Gloria Loree, Vice President of Global Marketing at Destination Canada , joined us at #DTTTCampus this year for a truly fantastic talk about how the DMO has evolved from a destination brand to a passion brand , with insights into the brand journey of this transformation, alongside how to successfully keep up with the speed of change and ever-changing traveller. The strategy shifted from telling people what to do via online ads, to matching target travellers’ personal passions to Canadian experiences, focusing on signature experiences and storytelling.

Watch the talk here .

Singapore - brand stories.

Here at the #DTTT, we consider Singapore Tourism Board as one of the DMOs that continuously innovate its brand with a strategy that focuses on local people, their stories and passions, delivering these powerful messages through effective digital strategies.

Singapore Tourism Board also shifted its strategy to focus on promoting passion, creating passion ambassadors and tribes. A visitor-centric approach, connecting visitors to the destination through personalised, authentic stories based on strong brand values.

Here’s the full case study .

Eindhoven - brand collaboration.

Traditionally, most companies involved in the travel space operated in silos, whereas now we are seeing really strong collaboration across the board, with the customer journey at the very core of this. Whether that is a collaboration with airlines, locals or the whole entire city.

At #DTTTGlobal in 2018, Eindhoven shared its dynamic, all-inclusive strategy, where the DMO created one, open-source brand meaning the brand logo was available and free to use and adapt by anyone in town!

Using the city's strategic advantage of creative and tech talent, and focusing on three key domains of technology, design and knowledge, Eindhoven brought together a team from all different industries within the city to create a truly dynamic identity, one that resonates with key audiences and everyone who lives there.

You can watch the full talk with Peter Kentie, Managing Director of Eindhoven365 here .

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Branding Strategy for Specialist Tourism Products

• First Online: 14 November 2012

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• Neven Seric 4 &
• Mate Perisic 5  

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Branding strategy is very complex on the field of specialized tourist products. Each specialized tourist brand need to be more differentiated on the global market. Applying of the branding concepts to the touristic business could be different from product to product. But few of them treat in a wider sense branding strategy toward the brand management. Choosing a right branding strategy for the brand management is paramount for achieving a substantial growth that ensures a steady future development of the national income of tourism. Some specialized tourist products are nearby crowded tourist route, some others are far from there. The branding strategies for each of them need to be different. Specialized tourist product is a promise for a kind of the magical vacation, sometimes on very attractive destination. Branding strategy needs to interact with the brand identity of such destination. It is suggested the evaluation of the brand from the standpoint of the marketing strategy. Right branding strategy of the specialized tourist product is the only way for the commercialization on the global market. The main premise of such brand is creating added value for the specialized tourist product. For that reason the right branding strategy has become the biggest intangible asset of the tourist brand. If tourist has not enough time to search for exact tourist product, he judges it by its brand. It is very difficult for a brand to convince tourist what to think about. The paper deals with issues that define how branding strategy can protect and preserve the integrity of the specialized tourist brand through the effective evaluation of the brand implied by the chosen branding strategy. The success of the tourist brand depends on the application of the branding strategy. The main hypothesis is that efficient branding strategy for the specialized tourist product need to be primarily influenced by the perception of potential demand.

• Intangible Asset
• Brand Equity
• Brand Image
• Brand Management
• Tourist Product

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Neven Seric

Plovput d.o.o. Split, Split, Croatia

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, Cruise Tourism Management, Bremerhaven University of Applied Scienc, An der Karlstadt 8, Bremerhaven, 27568, Germany

Alexis Papathanassis

University of Dubrovnik, Branitelja Dubrovnika 29, Dubrovnik, 20000, Croatia

Tihomir Lukovic

of Applied Sciences, Bremerhaven University, An der Karlstadt 8, Bremerhaven, 27568, Germany

Michael Vogel

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Seric, N., Perisic, M. (2012). Branding Strategy for Specialist Tourism Products. In: Papathanassis, A., Lukovic, T., Vogel, M. (eds) Cruise Tourism and Society. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32992-0_4

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TOURISM BRANDING

The team at Evolve Tourism Cairns have been preparing Tourism Brand Strategies and Plans more than 20 years across all corners of Australia.  Brand Strategies, Activation Tools and Programs, Brand Creative and Guidelines have been prepared for Regional Tourism Organisations, Tourism Industry Associations, Regional Councils, tourism operators large and small.

Tourism Branding Approach

Step 1: Opportunity Assessment

Both Destination or Operator Brand Strategies require a solid and current base of traveller insights.  Evolve Tourism reviews existing documents from the client and related bodies, conducts original research to explore brand awareness, perceptions and barriers, performs an audit of brand and marketing assets and activations. A series of workshops, surveys and stakeholder interviews with industry and key stakeholders round out the gathering process. External studies include a review of the competitive environment and exploration for global benchmarks. 

Step 2: Strategy Development 

Preparing brand strategy is the critical step of translating insights gathered in stage one to the formation of strategy and program direction.

Branding is the art of story telling and your experience or destinations unique character and style will be uncovered.

Brand Strategy will detail your brand DNA or essence; brand personality and character; experience attributes of competitive advantage and value propositions to each target traveller. 

Brand Strategy will also cover key stakeholders, influencers and programs to engage with and facilitate cooperative partnerships where appropriate. 

Step 3: Activation Planning

In this final step we detail action plans, budgets, resources and timelines to bring agreed brand strategies to life.

Your brand activation plan will highlight key performance indicators, metric systems and processes to ensure continuous learning and tracking of Brand Equity.

Some projects as per the brief will move into creation of Brand StyleGuides and Guidelines.  Others will continue into creative ideas and campaign directions.

Today's strategies and action plans will be highly adaptable to the rapidly changing landscape and have already considered scenario responses.

Tourism Marketing Projects

The following provides a few examples of Brand Strategy to life through video.  This collection of video includes branding for new touring routes and master plans, indigenous tourism operations, new cruise boats and destinations.

In the past few years alone the Evolve team have delivered Brand Strategy for destinations such as East Kimberley, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island, Stanley and Tarkine Tasmania, Heron Island and for businesses such as Apple Thief Cider House, Talaroo Hot Springs, Out There Travel Care and Cruising Car Rentals.

Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre by Cumulus Studio

Yagurli Tours Fishing Charters

Yagurli Tours Star Gazing

Western Wilds - Touring Tasmania's west

Cradle Mountain Master Plan

TasVacations - Tailored Touring Holidays

Experience the wilderness of the Gordon River - The new Gordon River Cruise

Quiet cruising on Tasmania's Gordon River

Reflections in Time - The Gordon River Cruise aboard Spirit of the Wild

Meet the fisherman

Stanley and Tarkine. Salt of the earth "Rainman"

Branding & marketing tips for the Heritage Tourism sector

Tom Bradley

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The heritage, culture and tourism sectors have been hit hard by the pandemic but with light at the end of the tunnel, how can you prepare for the year ahead.

In this article we’ll be looking at the best ways to market a heritage site from storytelling to experiences, marketing tools and sustainability.

What makes heritage tourism marketing interesting compared to other sectors is that often a site’s non-financial objectives such as education and conservation are just as important, if not more so, than its financial goals. 

One thing that is clear is that to attract the right audience a heritage site must focus on its audience and their experience of both the heritage attraction and its brand. Through engaging content and by sparking imagination you can attract visitors who are invested in your brand, your story and your vision.

'Heritage tourism' isn't the same as 'place marketing'

This is an important point to consider when planning out your marketing strategy. A study of Heritage Tourism Marketing outlined this distinction in an intriguing way: with heritage tourism marketing, the place isn’t the only product on offer but rather it's the history and story of that place that are the main attractions for visitors. To put this in real terms, it’s not necessarily the fabric of the building or ruins that are the main interest for visitors - instead it’s important to bring its history to life through storytelling.

The importance of storytelling

Powerful storytelling has long been the secret to any successful brand. Meaningful and relatable stories connect people and allow your messaging to resonate more strongly.

Focus on people: people love to hear stories about other people, it’s as simple as that. Social history provides a fascinating look into another world. It speaks of emotions, relationships and drama - a recipe for an encapsulating experience. 

By offering real-life tales of how your historical site impacted on or influenced the lives of different members of society it provides a valuable context for your audience. These stories can be brought to life through your writing, photography, illustrations and interpretation displays. It can also take the form of video and audio or even something more interactive like re-enactments or role playing. 

The blueprint for an engaging story includes compelling characters, emotion, tension and describing a scene from a particular viewpoint to build up a multi-sensory picture of what life was like at the time . It’s also important to consider your audience and adjust the language you use accordingly.

Experiential marketing

Another thing that visitors are looking for are experiences . Memorable life experiences are becoming more and more important in the decision making of younger generations in particular so effectively communicating the experiences that you’re able to offer at your heritage site is a must.

According to Forbes , experiential marketing (sometimes referred to as ‘live marketing’) creates lasting impressions on consumers that they want to share with others and has the ability to transform and elevate the connections that brands build with their consumers. Essentially if you’re able to immerse your visitors in a fun and memorable experience then you’re onto a winner.

This can take the form of a PR stunt or guerrilla marketing strategy where you bring the experience to the customer or you can focus on boosting the experience for visitors when they arrive on site. There are some great examples of experiential marketing campaigns on the HubSpot website if you’d like to dig deeper.

One interesting approach for this is to create what is called a  ‘memory map’ . This involves analysing your heritage site carefully to consider which exhibits visitors are photographing (more importantly what will they want to stand next to in their selfies or family photos?) and what will they proudly post on social media for their friends to see? What will they talk about fondly when they return home and in years to come?

With these points marked out, think about how can you can enhance these memories it might be something as simple as reminding visitors of an experience through email, social media or within the copy of your next ad: ‘Remember what is was like to….?’.

Building an emotional attachment through branding

It’s important to remember that a brand is more than just a logo , it’s more about experiences and establishing a personality for your organisation. Creating a strong and identifiable brand is a great way to achieve loyalty and understanding amongst visitors and a focus on brand awareness can evoke a sense of trust, perceived quality and personality.

A good example of this would be to compare heritage sites that are promoted with and without a UNESCO World Heritage site title and logo. By association, a visitor is likely to have a heightened sense of expectation for the quality of this destination. The same could be said for English Heritage or National Trust sites and visitors will come to expect a similar experience at one destination to that which they received at other similar locations. Of course, if you aren’t associated with one of these badges that doesn’t stop you from building up your own strong and professional brand.

If you fully understand your audience and their values and are able to appeal to them in a deeper way, you will build a stronger emotional attachment. In order to achieve this there are some influential factors that need to be considered, namely: your brand's personality (or voice) and your tone . By considering your audience, their likes and dislikes you can tailor your content to appeal to them more directly rather than appearing like another generic brand that speaks to no-one.

Your voice is like your brand’s personality, it should be consistent across all of your materials from signage and printed literature to your website, social media or video content. A person’s personality doesn’t change overnight (if it did you certainly wouldn’t trust them!) the same should apply to your brand. Your tone however is contextual and can differ depending on a particular situation (for example it can be happy, excited or sad) it’s the same ‘person’, different ‘emotion’.

Defining your offering

A good starting point to defining your offering would be to perform a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, for each of these headings create a list for your organisation - this is also a great way to focus on any issues that might need resolving.

What do you do well? What is unique about your site? What would others see as your strengths?

What could you improve upon? Are there any areas in which you are lacking compared to other similar sites? What would others see as your weaknesses?

Opportunities

How can you turn your strengths into opportunities? What trends can you take advantage of?

Who are your main competitors and what are they doing differently to you? Which of your weaknesses pose a potential threat? What could harm you or the areas you’ve highlighted as strengths?

Following this, it’s vital that you have some input from your existing visitors. Ask them - what they love about visiting your site, why they chose to visit, how they think it could be improved and what other similar sites they’ve visited and what they enjoyed most about those too.

Finally, world-renowned author and inspirational speaker, Simon Sinek encourages businesses to create their ‘why statement’. He argues that your WHY is the purpose, cause or belief that drives you. In his book ‘Start with Why’ Sinek explains how ‘people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it'. And what you do simply proves what you believe.

So, the aim of creating a definition of your offering is to not only highlight your USP (unique selling proposition) but to understand your ‘why’ (not just your ‘how’).

Defining your audience

Just as important as defining what makes you tick is to consider the same for your audience to ensure that your brand remains relevant. If you’re aiming your marketing at everyone and anyone you’re making life very difficult for yourself and are making it almost impossible to resonate with anyone on a deeper level. The simplest way to approach this would be to ask the four W’s: Who, What, Where and Why.

Who are your visitors, where are they coming from and where else do they go? What do they value, what do they want and why would they want to visit a heritage site like yours?

It might be that you have multiple categories within your overall audience, these are called ‘segments’ and by segmenting your audience you provide the opportunity to dig deeper into values, pain points and influences allowing for more targeted marketing campaigns.

Creating a user journey map

We’ve been advocates for the importance of creating a user journey map for a few years now and nobody explains it better than Customer Experience Consultant, Paul Boag . So what is a customer journey map? In short, it’s a representative of a typical visitor experience over time.

An example user empathy map and user journey map we created for LOROS Hospice

Whilst creating your user journey you’ll consider the various questions, tasks, difficulties and influences that they are likely to be experiencing. The eventual road map that you create will become a valuable blueprint for your marketing team, customer experience team, management, designers and so on.

Sustainable tourism

A study on sustainable tourism marketing strategies at Unesco Heritage sites questioned whether measuring the success of heritage and cultural marketing should be judged solely on the merits of increased visitor numbers when this could in fact prove detrimental to these heritage sites should this increase put a strain on site preservation.

This is an interesting dilemma - increasing visitors to a heritage site and introducing its historical importance to a wider community is of course a major goal but it’s important that there is a balance between this visitor impact and site maintenance.

A true sustainable model takes into account a delicate balance between three factors: society, environment and economy. A good example of how difficult this can be to achieve would be the city of Venice. The entire city has been designated as a World Heritage site and it’s history is open for all to see but if you’ve ever visited you will be aware of the challenges that its popularity brings and how detrimental this is not only to the experience of this unique place but also to the conservation of its streets and architecture which is unable to cope with the volume of visitors it receives year on year.

The other issue is that many of these visitors aren’t actually contributing to the local economy - they visit for the day on a cruise or stay outside the city and they tick off the city on their bucket list without paying to visit attractions - all the while putting a strain on the local resources.

Introducing ‘demarketing’

There are a number of ways in which the study proposes that heritage sites can achieve a more sustainable model and they call it ‘demarketing’. Demarketing is not the opposite to marketing as you might think, instead it’s a process for decreasing the overall volume of visitors by discouraging a certain audience in order to increase preservation.

Many heritage sites already have these measures in place and you’ll be able to recognise them. Methods include selective and targeted marketing to the most desirable audience rather than blanket marketing to the whole population (this is common for all businesses), promoting the importance of preservation to visitors before they arrive, publicising other sites as alternatives, limiting visitors seasonally, making more fragile exhibits more difficult to access and increasing the entrance fees to ensure that only the most interested and respectful of audiences are visiting.

Price strategy

There can be a temptation to decrease or remove entry fees altogether in order to attract a wider audience and make your exhibits available to all - this does however raise a question of sustainability (as we touched on earlier). Interestingly, there are arguments before and against fees, benefits to increasing admission prices include the obvious increase in revenue but also allows you to capture more information about your visitors whilst decreasing the number of casual, less invested visitors, both of which have a positive impact on continuing to preserve the heritage site for future generations. 

On the flip side charging for admission may detract certain audiences such as families and locals that could potentially visit briefly several times throughout the year should the admission be free or inexpensive. It's a difficult decision but one that should put the customer experience at its heart - if for instance, charging for entry allows you to improve your facilities and protect the quality of the exhibits then this has real value however if your ethos is to make your heritage site accessible to all then free entry may be more appropriate for your brand.

One assumption might be that visitors who have been charged an admission fee are then less likely to spend in gift shops or on-site cafes and restaurants. Actually, evidence has emerged showing visitors to charging museums are actually more likely to spend than those visiting a free-entry museum.  Studies by the Association of Independent Museums have found that those visiting a free attraction are unlikely to spend in secondary areas like shops and cafes so from a financial perspective this dip in footfall shouldn’t have much of an impact. This is illustrated by PricingSolutions.com showing that as price levels increase and volume of visitors decreases the overall revenue of the attraction continues to rise. 

Other studies like this one by MORI suggest that more than half the visitors to free museums aren't spending anything during their visit (taking 'free entrance' to mean 'free trip'). They also concluded that, though there was an increase in the number of visits overall when making a museum free entry, the increase appears to have come from the same audience that would traditionally visit museums anyway (so it didn't actually encourage different audiences). 

Many suggest however that this could all be subject to the quality of the facilities on offer (the shop, the cafe/restaurant etc.) and that if these areas are improved then visitors are likely to spend more regardless of the entry fees. 

So, whilst it’s likely that moving from free to charging will result in a decrease in overall visitor numbers, the financial position of the museum will be much stronger building up a more sustainable model to maintain the artefacts for years to come. BUT as we mentioned in the introduction to this article - is financial gain the priority for your brand?

Graph for illustrative purposes only

Things to consider within your pricing strategy are your ‘offering’ and your ‘audience’. Think carefully about your heritage site’s cultural significance within the local area and the experiences you have to offer and price accordingly.

Marketing tools

There are a wide range of opportunities for you to spread the word about your heritage site from the more traditional paper-based marketing, to digital marketing and experiential options. A good marketing strategy should include a mixture of the following:

Printed Marketing

Social Media, Influencer Marketing & Video

Website, SEO & Content Marketing

Pay-per-click Ads

Email Marketing

Networking & PR

Word-of-mouth

Guerrilla and Experiential Marketing

Outbound vs Inbound Marketing

Radio & TV

A digital experience

Even though your attraction celebrates the old-fashioned there’s no reason why your marketing should be stuck in the dark ages. We say embrace digital to enhance customer experiences and brand connection.

A wider digital experience of your offering could start with your website. This should be responsive (mobile optimised) and focus on bringing your content to life by adding drama and providing an extension of the same atmosphere that visitors would experience at your physical site. Website features could include interactive exhibits, animated games, maps and virtual tours. It could also include live discussions and webinars, video content, even 3D content.

The website we produced for St Barnabas Hospice captures the atmosphere of their annual torchlit procession through animation, video and an immersive design.

Digital doesn’t stop at home though, when people visit your heritage site they can use augmented reality to add an extra layer of information to your exhibits and QR codes can direct them to video or audio content that adds another dimension to the site’s history and the stories you’re trying to share.

Monitoring & evaluating your marketing

One thing you must do is plan, measure, refine and repeat. Marketing of a tourism site never ends, it’s a constant cycle of design and iteration that will see your organisation go from strength to strength.

Things you should be measuring include your website’s analytics to measure the quality of your visitors (not necessarily the quantity) and how engaged they are with your content, sales figures through your ticketing or CRM system, customer services and overall customer satisfaction and brand awareness. Of course there are many more attributes that you can be measuring and the more data that you have to build an overall picture of your success the better. Another vital statistic is your ROI (Return On Investment) - if you find that you’re attracting great numbers of visitors but the costs of your campaign are astronomical then your marketing approach isn’t sustainable.

When planning a campaign it’s also important to focus on how you can measure its success (typically referred to as KPIs or Key Performance Indicators). Establish a baseline or average expected rate and project targets that you feel are achievable through the campaign. When you analyse against these KPIs think ‘why did we get this result from this campaign?’ and ‘how could we improve this further next time?’.

In conclusion

As with any business, successful marketing for a heritage site requires research and planning, strategy, creativity and evaluation. There's no simple checklist that will work for everyone but there are a wealth of tools and approaches available to ensure that your brand appeals to the right audience and highlights what makes your site truly unique. If you'd like any assistance with your marketing plan or would like to discuss a project with our design team we'd love to hear from you!

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