City Nation Place Awards 2023

9th annual awards


Join us in celebrating the winners of the 2023 City Nation Place Awards!

The City Nation Place Awards celebrate and benchmark the very best in strategic thinking for places – the only specialist global awards designed to showcase the best approaches to building and managing the reputation of destinations, towns, cities, regions, and nations of all sizes.

We’re delighted to announce the 2023 winners – chosen by our independent, international jury of place brand and marketing practitioners. The quality of entries was so high this year, that there are also highly commended entries in most categories.


A group of people on stage with trophies and certificates


SEE THE 2023 WINNERS!


Subscribe to the Place Brand Portfolio to learn from and be inspired by City Nation Place Award winners and finalists

You can read the winner’s case studies [and indeed all the finalists’ entries from the past five years] by subscribing to the Place Brand Portfolio, a searchable directory of excellence in place branding and place marketing. With individual, team, or enterprise subscriptions available, your investment will provide access to over 330 case studies. You can search by geography, by population, by category, by year, by strategic focus – you can even search by credited agencies. Whether you are searching for inspiration, checking out places in your competitor set, or looking to see what a prospective agency has delivered in the past, the Place Brand Portfolio is a new resource designed to support the people behind places.


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2023 Winners


Check out the highlights from our 2023 Awards finalists

City Nation Place Awards 2023 | Best Citizen Engagement Strategy

This category is all about the people factor: a place brand is all about its people and requires the support and endorsement of the citizens.

Congratulations to our 2023 winners,The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Aviation and Investments, highly commended Brand Tasmania and all our finalists: Visages Régionaux, SERY* Brand Communications, Choose Chicago, City of Williamsburg and Brand Ukraine NGO

City Nation Place Awards 2023 | Best Communication Strategy Economic Development

This category celebrates great place brand storytelling and  campaigns with the strategic aim of attracting investment, or attracting talent.

Congratulations to our 2023 winner, Go Vilnius, our highly commended  Copenhagen Capacity & Copenhagen Convention Bureau and Envision Saint John: The Regional Growth Agency, and all our finalists: New Zealand Story, Kansas City Area Development Council, Québec International and Scottish Enterprise/Scottish Development International

City Nation Place Awards 2023: Best Communication Strategy Place Brand

This campaign celebrates great place brand storytelling and holistic campaigns with the strategic aim of promoting place attractiveness across all audiences - citizens, visitors, business, talent, and investors.

Congratulations to our 2023 winners Brand Ukraine NGO, our highly commended Brand Scotland and all of our finalists: Luxembourg - Let's Make It Happen, Cymru Wales (Welsh Government), Wesgro

City Nation Place Awards 2023: Best Communication Strategy: Tourism

This category the celebrates the campaigns with the strategic aim of attracting visitors and growing your tourism economy.

Congratulations to our 2023 winner, Tourism Fiji, our highly commended Business Iceland, and all our finalists: VisitAarhus, Cape Town Tourism, Visit Greater Palm Springs, London & Partners, Visit Mandurah, Meet Minneapolis, Switzerland Tourism, Tel Aviv Global and Visages Régionaux.

City Nation Place Awards 2023 | Best Placemaking Initiative

This new category is designed to celebrate the best projects implemented to create and enhance public spaces, foster community interaction and build the attractiveness of a district, town, or city – involving urban design or landscaping, and/or cultural programming.

Congratulations to our 2022 winner Brixton BID , highly commended Marketing Sheffield and our finalists: FOR Cardiff, Choose Chicago, LEEDS 2023 & The WOW Foundation, Ottawa Tourism, Visit Stockton and Envision Saint John: The Regional Growth Agency

City Nation Place Awards 2023 | Best Use of Data

This category is all about the strategic use of data and how a place has refined and shaped place brand and/or marketing strategy through insights.

Congratulations to our 2023 winner, Glasgow City Council , our highly commended Visit Salt Lake and all our finalists: Explore Asheville, Cape Town Tourism and Sojern & Tourism Western Australia

City Nation Place Awards 2023: Best Use of Design

Our Jury were looking for evidence that the development of design around brand identity is rooted in the process of research and planning for place brand strategy and for a creative approach that works for the long term and across key audiences.

Congratulations to our 2023 winners Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority, our highly commended CivicBrand, and all our finalists: Visages Régionaux, message Marketing- & Communications GmbH, Development Counsellors International, VisitPITTSBURGH, Anatomy

City Nation Place Awards 2023 | Place Brand of the Year

This category is intended to recognise the achievement of place branding teams who bring everything together effectively – who are able to demonstrate a committed approach to building team structures to support a long term strategic approach to managing and promoting the place brand, who have established a clear framework and both short and long term objectives.

Congratulations to our 2023 winners Leiden&Partners and all of our finalists New Zealand Story, Resonance Consultancy, ChristchurchNZ, Switzerland Tourism and Visit Ventura.