The best marketing starts with an exceptional experience, that people love, make pictures and other content of and share with their family and friends. In the world of tourism, these are irreplaceable foundations for growth. When travelers have memorable experiences, they naturally become ambassadors for your destination, spreading the word through word-of-mouth marketing—the most powerful and cost-effective tool in the industry.
To grow faster, destinations and tourism businesses can amplify the love shared by happy customers with marketing. Spreading those great experiences to a broader audience. By being visible when travelers are searching for ideas or planning trips, you make it easier for them to find you and fall in love with what you offer.
To reach an even bigger audience you can also think about pushing your message out and be visible at places you think travelers that would love your destination gather and inspire them with the best you have to offer.
The most cost effective way to do that is by first making a strategy, based on which you can make plans that can guide travelers from inspiration to booking or bring them into contact with those tourism companies that provide the great experiences in your destination.
To create aligned and consistent content that guides a traveler step by step through this so called customer journey its wise to state the vision, values, and unique selling points (USPs) of a destination.
In this article, I’ll outline how to create an effective destination marketing strategy. You’ll gain practical tips, easy-to-follow frameworks, and actionable templates that will empower your destination to grow without requiring extensive resources.
We will also use some help of AI tools to craft a well-defined strategy, that will attract more of those visitors the destination and its citizens love to see and will lead to more welfare in the destination.
Lets dive in and thrive.
Why a Strategy is Essential for Destination Marketing
A strategy is your roadmap to success. It defines what you want and needs be in place to achieve your goals. A strategy defines things like which travelers to target, which experiences to promote, and which promotion channels to focus on. It also clarifies why you do what you do, connecting your destination’s stories and values with the needs and desires of your audience.
Before determining what you need to do, visualize your destination’s future success. How many visitors will you attract? What type of travelers do you want to host? What unique experiences will define your destination? Visualizing these details makes it easier to map out the steps needed to achieve your goals.
Staying Focused in a Competitive Landscape
With so many opportunities at our hands and tools to use it easy to get lost. A clear strategy ensures your destination and team stay aligned with your overarching goals. Here’s how you can start:
- Define Your Vision
- Your vision represents the ideal future you’re working towards. For instance, your destination might aim to become a hub for eco-tourism or the go-to spot for travelers searching for cultural immersion. A strong vision creates trust and unity among your team and customers.
- Establish a North Star
- A North Star is a long-term achievable goal (e.g., attracting 1 million annual visitors in 10 years). Unlike a vision, which is much aspirational, a North Star provides a clear and achievable milestone that drives progress.
- Set Strategic Goals
- Break your North Star into actionable steps. For instance
- Expand immersive travel experiences by partnering with local communities.
- Increase number of adventure-seekers from Western Europe
- We increase measure and track the economic impact of tourism generated for local businesses.
- Break your North Star into actionable steps. For instance
Creating a vision
To create a vision as a destination you probably will have first a series of interviews with several stakeholders. Ask them where they ultimately want to be, what is it you should realize to make the destination a great place to live, work and receive guests in ?
Getting to your vision is a matter of keep on asking why are we doing this ? Directed by the strengths and values of your destination and how tourism should contribute to the welfare of its citizens. Are there issues tourism can solve, also good to think what negative side effects should be prevented.
When developing or reviewing a Vision, there can only be one vision holder who guides the process. After the series of interviews you can invite small groups to sharpen i vision you created based on the interviews. Please note that AI is a great tool to compile different opinion's.
Put your vision on a white board and let the team react through several rounds;
- Round 1 Questions; Do they have any questions about the vision (so everyone understands the vision)
- Round 2 What is missing; all team member state what is missing nobody reacts nothing is wrong we just ask for ideas
- Round 3 The Manager adapts the vision based on what was missing and explain why is chosen for this vision
- Round 4 Question Round about the new vision
- Round 5 Objection round - every team member shares if they agree or not agree, those who not agree explain why, when there is an objection it needs to be clear why the vision is harmful for the organization
- Round 6 The Manager integrates all valid objection where possible and adjust the vision
- Round 7 New Objection Round
- Continue until a new vision is defined.
Above process sounds very long, but in my experience and sessions with governments on national and local level, and businesses from big to small this process is actually much faster and definitely more inclusive then other processes i'm aware of. The model is based on integrated decision making from Brian Robertson.
You can also use AI to help you assist you during this process.
Crafting Your Niche and Target Audience
Defining your niches is critical for success in destination marketing. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone, focus on specific traveler segments that align with your strengths. For example, you might target families looking for eco-friendly adventures or solo travelers seeking cultural authenticity.
When developing your niches:
- Start with passions and values: What makes your destination unique? What kind of specific experiences and or activities do we offer you can't find anywhere else.
- Research your audience: Use data and feedback to understand what visitors value most and what type of visitors would be interested in the niche experiences offered by the destination.
- Create detailed personas: For instance, “Nature-loving millennials from the Netherlands who enjoy sustainable travel.”
Once you’ve defined your niche, craft content that speaks directly to your audience’s interests, preferences, and concerns. Use AI tools to analyze trends and fine-tune your messaging for maximum impact.
See underneath video for a quick way to create a persona with the help of your website and CBI.eu
Defining Top Products & Upcoming Experiences & Places
What is the best you have to offer; are they magnets to attract new audiences or are they already overcrowded and need to be managed in such a way that tourism is still beneficial for all the stakeholders in the destination.
Which upcoming experiences and places do you want to actively market, are there innovative ideas and local products travelers must know about.
Building Unique Selling Points (USPs)
Your USPs differentiate your destination from competitors. These could include:
- Sun, sea and mountains within a 2 hour drive
- The only place in Europe to see big groups of whales from land
- A wide range of zero net sustainable tourism experiences
Translate your USPs into customer benefits. For example, instead of simply stating you have only certified guides, emphasize how they provide deep, authentic and safe experiences that travelers will remember for a lifetime.
Practical Tools and Templates for Destination Marketing
To help you get started, download the strategic framework used by destination marketing organizations. This template will guide you through:
- Defining your vision, North Star, and goals.
- Building audience personas.
- Crafting a content strategy aligned with your niche and USPs.
Access the Strategy Template Here
Measuring
To be able to understand if your strategy works you need to define KPI's Key Performance Indicators you can track to measure your success.
Maine in the north east of the United States, created a measuring framework that follows the customer journey
Set, Act, Measure, and Reset
Finally, remember that marketing is an ongoing process. Regularly review your strategy using this cycle:
- Set your goals and plans.
- Act on your strategy with consistent execution.
- Measure results to identify what works and what doesn’t.
- Reset your approach based on insights, scaling what works and discarding what doesn’t.
With these steps, you can transform your destination’s marketing efforts, attracting more travelers and creating lasting memories for them. By focusing on strategy, vision, and values, you’ll position your destination for sustainable success.
