Crisis Management

In many ways, cities are living, breathing entities – and they’re evolving just as we are. We reached out to Jonathan Woetzel, Director of the McKinsey Global Institute, to understand how the crises of the 21^st century are shaping the development of our cities.

One of many unexpected aspects of 2020 has been the urgency of creating a solid foundation of domestic tourism. We reached out to Olga Gončarova, Head of the Domestic & Inbound Tourism Department at Lithuania Travel, to understand how they’ve pivoted their strategy to suit the pandemic-era.

COVID-19 has encouraged us all to find new ways of working, but can we ever lose the personal touch in investment promotion? Sirpa Tsimal, Director of Investment Promotion at Switzerland Global Enterprise, shares her insights on the digital vs the human approach to investment attraction.

There's a fine line between soft power and sharp power. How can we reconnect our values into our soft power approaches in a post-COVID-19 world? Can cities, regions and nations, promote a more global mindset in their citizens?

How can destinations begin their recovery? With the summer season looming for many destinations, and business-almost-as-usual resuming, we reached out to our panel of place branding experts to understand what the next steps should be for places looking to restart their economies.

Tourism destinations are anxious for the return of international travellers during the second half of 2020. As we begin planning for the future, we’re happy to share new research looking at post-COVID attitudes of Chinese travellers.

In late 2017, Cape Town announced that the city was facing ‘Day Zero’ – or the day when Cape Town would become the first major world city to have to turn off the taps. We reached out to Tim Harris, CEO at Wesgro, the trade and tourism promotion body for the Western Cape, to discover how the region is responding to the pandemic and to understand how their experience of the drought has influenced their response to COVID-19.

Collaboration is the name of the game and Philadelphia are nailing it. From launching a new place narrative to driving their recovery after COVID-19, Sylvie Gallier Howard, the Acting Commerce Director at Philadelphia's Department of Commerce, shares how strategic collaboration has been central to their success.

In 2018, Discover Harlow were shortlisted at the City Nation Place Awards for their comprehensive place brand strategy that was overturning decades of negative perceptions. We caught up with Sharon Summerfield, Place Brand Manager at Discover Harlow, to understand how their strategy has evolved over the last years - and how it's underpinned their COVID-19 response.

What was apparent during last week's Americas conference is that places across the USA and Canada are rising to the challenges created by COVID-19. Here are six of the most common challenges faced by place branders in North America, and how cities, states and regions are pivoting to tackle these challenges.