Imagine you\u2019ve just spent the day shopping on Oxford High Street. You take a black cab to Mayfair for afternoon tea at Claridge\u2019s. You have tickets to a show at the West End later that evening, but you stop by for a pint of beer at one of the many pubs named after William Shakespeare. The air is just a bit damp from the rain, and the smell of fish and chips wafts through the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You don\u2019t need to have visited London to know which city I was describing. The city\u2019s destination brand is universally strong and recognisable.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Tom Buncle, former Chief Executive of Visit Scotland<\/a> and current Managing Director of an international tourism consultancy: In other words, a destination brand cannot be created<\/strong>. It is up to tourist boards and destination marketing organisations to identify their destination\u2019s best assets in order to invoke certain feelings, values, cultures, and the overall mindset that people experience when visiting a place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also means that people in the destination play a part in contributing to the tourism brand values, experience, reputation, and mindset. <\/strong>Particularly, those in the front-line service industry, which is why the tourism industry is so vital to the economy. It creates customer loyalty and trust, rendering travellers an everlasting impression that could make or break a brand, and in turn, it provides jobs to the workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) annual report on the economic and employment impact of Travel & Tourism for 2019, the sector experienced 3.5% growth, higher than the global economy growth<\/a> (which reported 2.5% growth) for the ninth consecutive year. Other topline results include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n To tackle this question, we will explore some examples of brands that have successfully marketed their destinations and differentiated themselves in this highly competitive industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the eruption of the Eyjafjallaj\u00f6kul volcano in 2010, Iceland\u2019s reputation as a tourism destination plummeted<\/strong>. Unfortunately, the news of this devastating event was so widespread that the economy was not expected to recover without intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To encourage visitors to consider Iceland as a viable tourism destination, the Icelandic government, along with partners and stakeholders in the travel industry, launched the \u201cInspired by Iceland\u201d brand. The idea involved a rebrand and an engaging campaign to remind travellers that this beautiful destination was still worth visiting<\/mark>. Now with the pandemic, the brand continues to use various ways of communicating their best assets through humour, positivity and personality with the Joyscroll<\/a> campaign and LooksLikeYouNeedIceland<\/a> campaign hashtag so that when travelling can be safe and normalised again, Iceland would be top of mind for travellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When destination marketing organisations and tourist boards are planning their brand strategy, it\u2019s important to look within their offerings and to be consistent with their core values<\/mark>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Love Great Britain campaign focused on culture, heritage, sport, music, nature, food, and shopping. It even partnered with the James Bond movie Skyfall<\/em> for cross-promotion calling it ‘\u201cBond is Great Britain\u201d<\/a> leveraging the legacy of the London Olympics in 2012. A separate page was created to showcase all the iconic landmarks and locations in the movie, giving travellers and fans of the movie franchise a complete tour guide.What is destination branding, and why is it vital to the economic growth of a place?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDestination branding is about identifying the destination\u2019s strongest and most competitively appealing assets in the eyes of its prospective visitors, building a story from these that makes the destination stand out above its competitors, and running this narrative consistently through all marketing communications.\u201d<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\nIf place branding is so important, how do destinations successfully market their brand to make an everlasting impact?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Inspired by Iceland<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
One of the first campaigns to be released soon after the eruption was Iceland Hour.<\/a> The campaign leveraged Iceland\u2019s best assets, including local residents and celebrities, to help raise awareness and share stories of positivity. Stories erupted on social media (no pun intended) leading to a reported 22 million testimonials within 10 weeks of launching and has allowed the country to emerge from devastation to triumph.
The result was so successful that they saw an ROI of 61:1 with a renewed interest in the country as a desired tourism destination<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVisit Britain<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to tourism branding, team up with something or someone iconic and globally renowned, even if it is a certain fictional, dashing secret agent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n