Since its launch, the GREAT Campaign has created a wealth of world-class place marketing campaigns - but what's the secret to their success? Before Andy Pike, Director of the GREAT Britain & Northern Ireland Campaign, joins us at City Nation Place UK, we caught up with him to understand more about the strategy and vision behind the campaign.

Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia is, coincidentally, shaped like a banana. It’s also a hub for creative and digital industries, and Tourismus NRW e.V. have just launched a new strategy to reposition the region internationally. We caught up with Heike Döll-König, CEO of Tourismus NRW e.V. to discover what the impetus was for the strategy and how they’re moving forwards as a region.

The de Bois report set out 12 recommendations to improve the DMO landscape in England – and the UK government has recently published their response, accepting the majority of Nick de Bois’ recommendations. Ahead of City Nation Place UK, we reached out to Patricia Yates, CEO of VisitBritain/VisitEngland, to understand what the broader impact will be across England following these decisions.

With the COP27 climate conference in Egypt shining a light on the climate emergency this month, now seems an appropriate time to reflect on what DMOs can do to build their resiliency and secure their future through climate action.

How can you tell the best story about your place in the best way? We caught up with Alessio Nesi, Creative Director of BBC StoryWorks, and Samantha Adams, VP of Advertising Sales, to talk about what it takes to market a destination in 2022, ahead of their talk at City Nation Place Global on 10^th November.

Here are five of our top takeaways from the conversation at City Nation Place Global and UK, providing a top-line summary of the leading trends shaping place branding, destination marketing, and economic development around the world.

Costa Rica has been recognised as being one of the most sustainable countries in the world. But when the government set a ban prohibiting single-use plastic, the team at essential Costa Rica created a social media campaign to engage the community and push for faster change.

For the past 20 years, Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo’s reputation has been dictated by outsiders, with locals left saying, ‘that’s not us!’ The region needed to start proudly sharing what they were instead of what they weren’t, and so the team at Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo [FMWB] started on the region’s first attempt to proactively manage the region’s identity and reputation.