Destination Management

Last week, we were delighted to welcome over 600 delegates from around the world to join one or more of the events for the City Nation Place World Congress. Whilst this list really doesn’t begin to tap into the wealth of learnings at the World Congress, we’ve pulled together a summary of the overarching themes that resonated most with us

Recovery will have to be a joint effort with your citizens, your government, your local businesses, your key stakeholders. To make real change, everyone must be on board with your strategy. What can you do practically as a place marketing or management organisation to help take those first steps?

The 1992 Olympics were a turning point for Barcelona. 25 years on, the city wanted to identify a new value proposition. How did they leverage lessons from a successful Olympics to further transform the city's image?

Closing the narrative gap between your identity and your perceived identity is a challenge for many places. Nick Hill, Chief Executive, Auckland Tourism, Events & Economic Development, shared with us how they're working to change perceptions with a new brand playbook - and how they're putting sustainable destination management at the core of their strategy.

Just as tourism teams are looking to “reset” with a more sustainable approach, place leaders and economic development teams are reconsidering approaches to placemaking. There is a need to reinvent our public spaces to rebuild the attractiveness of places – and to reconnect communities that have been living in isolation for upwards of three months.

As we adjust to a COVID-19 world, we’ve got a real opportunity right now to rethink our approaches to tourism and embed a sustainable approach into our long-term strategy. How can we create a framework that helps to ensure we make sustainable decisions?

Singapore has been praised for its rapid response to the outbreak of COVID-19. We spoke to Keith Tan, CEO at the Singapore Tourism Board, to understand how they played a key role in supporting the Government's containment strategy and how they're supporting their stakeholders through the crisis and the recovery that will follow.

Is there a danger that we lose focus on sustainability in favour of quick recovery after COVID-19? Or is now the time to make real change, to take this global standstill and use it as a chance to determine how we can build more sustainable tourism and place economies?

While tourism and promotion campaigns have mostly ground to a halt, DMOs and EDOs around the world are reinventing themselves to take a more active role in destination and community management. How are they achieving this?