From a marketing perspective, the answer to “where do I start?” is always with your target market. For many small tourism businesses that can be a hard thing to do – after all – your product is right there in front of you – and it is beautiful. Over summer I had the great pleasure of visiting tourism product in the area of San Juan de Arama in the Meta region of Colombia. As the ink dries on the peace treaty that ends the war in Colombia, the people...

01 October, 2016 /

There is an excitement about the power of social entrepreneurship. Unleashing the power of entrepreneurial thinking on social problems provides “out of the box” solutions  after years of "standard" responses these challenges. However, some of the most vocal advocates for social entrepreneurship only extoll the virtues of scalable solutions and game-changing approaches. There is more to social enterprise than a few large organizations and I want to take a moment to celebrate social entrepreneurs that are working in their own small corners of the world, making real and positive change...

06 July, 2016 /

The rise in "Local" is making an impact. One of the three big trends shapingmarketing today - So Mo Lo ( Social, Mobile and Local), "local" tends to be an afterthought in conversations that focus on the rise of mobile and the impact of social networking and marketing. But "local" is a big deal to tourism marketing and is changing the way the industry does business. The focus on local has a couple of great benefits for tourism: Local product and services build a "sense of place". "Local" tends...

28 May, 2015 /

"A brand is no-longer what we tell consumers it is. It is what consumers tell each other." Scott Cook - Founder of Intuit. While Cook's experience as a software developer may seem far removed from tourism, this insight is having profound impact on Destination Marketing. At a time when destination branding is becoming more important, there is a greater realization that branding is not just a function of "Promotion" - great advertising, PR, online advertising, etc -  another of the 4 P's of marketing is taking its place in...

26 May, 2015 /

The idea that tourism is a system has been around for a while. Morrison and Mill wrote the first edition of The Tourism System in 1985 - and they weren't the first to recognize the concept. Since then there have been advances - Louise Twining Ward - added that tourism was a Complex and Adaptive System and Noel Scott and his colleagues have done great work on understanding the dynamics within these networks. So - if we know its a system - why don't we treat it like one ?...

22 May, 2015 /

So what do the destinations of the future look like ? It's a great question. Too often it seems that as destinations become more popular - they become less appealing. We love our destinations to death. That is why it is great that DMO managers are stepping up and engaging in the planning, developing and management of their destinations. No-longer are DMOs just promoting their destinations - they are actively involved in "product development" and "destination experience". DestinationNext, DMAI's strategic planning initiative, highlights DMOs important role in creating the destination communities of the...

20 May, 2015 /

When we talk about sustainability's triple bottom line - people, planet, profits - it can sometimes seem vague. But DMOs work on practical sustainability issues everyday. Visitors come to see out environment and experience our culture.  Celebrating, promoting and preserving the culture and heritage of a destination is a task that DMOs can get behind. That is why the Arts Destination Marketing Award -  awarded to DMOs and Local Arts Agencies using arts to support destination marketing - is sustainability at its best. Well done DMAI and Americans for the Arts...

19 May, 2015 /

"Sustainability" has been described as one of the most "jargony-ist" words of recent times. Because I talk about sustainability a lot, I get this feedback from everyone - students, hoteliers, tour operators and DMOs.  I agree ! The word "sustainability"  is used way too frequently and too carelessly - and it's too bad - because lost in the "I'm so over this word - sustainability" attitude is the important fact that DMOs are important agents of sustainability. Imagine working to make the destination the best place it could be -...

15 May, 2015 /

Tourism is the largest industry in the world - and yet it is still called the "invisible industry". Well - maybe it isn't invisible - but it is hidden in plain site. Tourism and the visitor economy is right under our noses - but we don't recognize it. In some ways this lack of awareness starts in school. For example, as a school kid, we went on field trips and camps and we often seemed to find ourselves at farms set up to welcome students and show them agriculture. While I...

14 May, 2015 /
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