Steve’s 2025 Trends
Tourism Marketing Trends from the Lens of a Destination Brander
1) Artificial intelligence. It’s a really good tool. While AI is significant in what it can do, it’s not even close to its potential. It will be one of the greatest technology game-changers we’ve seen since the creation of the internet. It will change jobs and work loads. It will give us intelligence unlike we’ve never seen.
In destination branding we have found it is good at inspiration and editing copy. We use it for idea generation. It’s great for research. It’s equivalent to having an intern that does a lot of research for you then summarizes the key findings. We use it for editing existing graphics and photos. Logos have not evolved enough yet to create from scratch. But I’m sure it’s coming. And of course, there’s the potential of stepping across legal boundaries. AI allows creation to occur with prompting that may include existing creative representation such as writing in the style of existing writers or entertainers. This threat is so much that the State of Tennessee has already passed the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, first-of-its-kind legislation updating Tennessee’s Protection of Personal Rights law to include protections for songwriters, performers, and music industry professionals’ voice from the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI). To those that pushed for this legislation, thank you….thank you very much.
2) Human movement tracking. Mobile device tracking has become very prevalent as a tracking tool by both tourism agencies and municipalities. It’s great for understanding overall traffic in and out of a community or specific to attractions or events. Media companies have learned to use this data for connecting ad campaigns to actual visitor traffic. The adoption of this technology will only grow and become the standard for community traffic measurement.
3) Short term rental evolution. We’ve seen this become a major benefit for growing rural tourism. Rural communities often lack traditional hotel accommodations since the criteria for name brand business-hotels often have population or location requirements. Short term rentals can be developed one-by-one from local entrepreneurs and residents versus seeking major out-of-town developers. In addition, the overall abundance of short-term rentals has created a desire to stand out from others which has resulted in a trend of themed stays. My favorite? The Prince house in Minneapolis! Yes, Wendy and Lisa from the Revolution have purchased and rent his house from the movie Purple Rain. There’s an X-Mansion rental, a Harry Potter rental and a Beetlejuice House. I’ve even seen a Dolly Parton themed-tiny house in Middle Tennessee. Communities that once were left out because they had no lodging are now a destination for their unique stays!
4) Destination branding has become muddy waters. By that, I mean it is becoming more difficult to stand out in a time when there’s more of a desire to stand out.
One of the big results of COVID in the travel industry was the emphasis on the outdoors. This, combined with federal dollars allocated to tourism promotion, created a heavy clutter of outdoor destination advertising. Suddenly not only did everyone promote their outdoor experiences, but smaller destinations had media dollars that previously did little-to-no advertising. Now the question for those smaller destinations is how do they maintain their voice and not go away.
Another contributing factor to the current state of visual homogeny is the emergence of instant graphic design. This largely started back when Instagram included filters that provided immediate tones, lighting and graphics. Since then, new tools have emerged such as Canva, that expands the IG idea into a mini graphic design studio. It’s great for giving efficient ideas and implementation tools for those not well trained in traditional design. In fact, it really has become a standard for municipal communications and managing their brand and graphic designs. The downside to these instant design tools is before you know it, everyone is looking the same. If there are 10 filters (or templates), the designs become familiar very quickly. What started as a jumpstart in professional design, quickly becomes generic and indistinguishable.
So what can we learn?
We’re back to the basics of having a real understanding of your brand and a strategy for living it. In the end, the root of strong branding has not changed.
The basics continue to be –
- Knowing who you are and staying true to that identity.
- Compelling storytelling.
- Telling it in a unique way that makes you memorable. Regardless of technology or tools. Regardless of big ad budgets or social media posts.
AI will challenge this. More tools will emerge. But the managing of a brand must start with the foundation of standing out from others. That is never final as the world never stays the same.
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