Destination branding is a hot issue nowadays. There is more and more effort focused on attracting tourists, professional visitors, investors and entrepreneurs, talent, events, clients for the products and services of particular destinations to a particular location and destination marketeers do their best to first differentiate and second promote their locations.

Here, Gruppo La Meridiana presents to you key building blocks of today’s destination branding:

1.Destination branding is about taking a destination and establishing a sense of place there. Then,  drawing consumers in through a brand that differentiates it from other destinations. Thereafter, nurturing and evolving the brand to give relevance and longevity, as you would with a product brand.

2.The main challenge with destination branding is to create a shared future vision for the place and how to engage the different destination (place) stakeholders in the branding and promotion of the place. Think here of government, businesses and community that shall all focus their energy around that branding effort.

3.Paid social media seems to be the biggest current opportunity for destination branding. On a number of social platforms ‘holiday’ is the largest shared and talked about topic. These platforms are innovating with new and exciting ways to target, engage and measure results of destination campaign activity.

4.One of the main challenges today for place (destination) brands is how to engage citizens and stakeholders with the brand so that they become brand ambassadors. As opposite to product and services brands, in the case of destinations the main difference comes in the amount of different actors and touch points with the brand, most of which you cannot control. This is why when building and managing your destination brand you need to engage the destination stakeholders from the very beginning and establish an effective mechanism to manage the brand.

5.Same as in every industry, places (destinations) need to develop a deep understanding of the consumer trends and the demands and behavior of their target audiences. Big Data opens a world of possibilities for places to define their strategies, policies and promotional strategies based on tangible information about their target audiences.

6.Innovation shall always be a must for any destination to keep being unique, attractive and competitive. This innovation may come by designing a new product offering, using innovative tools, or changing the way we can engage the different stakeholders with the place. A good example of this is how tourist destinations are increasingly using smart technologies not only to promote the destination nut also to interact with their visitors.

7.The trend of “traveling like a local” will be very important going forward. Visitors want to experience local food, neighborhoods, and shops. Guests are looking for something niche and undiscovered. They want to feel like they have experienced the entire city – both the traditional tourist attractions, as well as the local way of life.

Destination branding is and will remain a relevant matter in the travel industry. If you would like to gain more information on creating and maintaining a strong place identity, place differentiation, sustainability, citizen engagement and making your location an attractive place for different target audiences please contact Gruppo La Meridiana. We are glad to support you your destination branding efforts with our team of knowledgeable experts.