The marketing benefits of digital and social media channels are a fact at this point. You’re not the only one telling your story though. Anyone with their own Twitter, LinkedIn or TripAdvisor account is sharing your story too – and it might not be a story you're proud of. So how do you manage your digital place reputation?

Azerbaijan took the world by storm with their 2018 “Take Another Look” campaign which encouraged travellers to see the nation’s wonderful diversity. We reached out to Fidan Aliyeva, Azerbaijan Tourism Board, to understand the key to their successful design identity and how an organisation that is still forging its path adapted to the new challenges of COVID-19.

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.

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.

If there are any silver linings to the COVID-19 pandemic, the renewed spirit of global collaboration and creative innovation would be one. As one of the few EDOs to collaborate with the private sector in the UN's Global Hack, Locate in Kent share advice for EDOs looking to ensure their organisations are sufficiently resourced and agile to survive and thrive through the crisis and the recovery period.

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.

Our understanding of place branding is rapidly evolving. Below are our top reading suggestions from the last few years for those looking to expand their own knowledge and insights…

A new threat is emerging for place marketers – the recession. How can you advocate for your marketing budget in the midst of pandemic? And what can we learn from brands who have mastered their COVID marketing?

How can you leverage economic data to drive a comprehensive web strategy as an investment promotion agency? Stéphane Paquet, President & CEO at Montréal International, shares how data, story telling and a sector-specific approach have been central to their success.

DMOs in every continent are pulling campaigns, re-evaluating their role in their community and creating strategies to support the tourism sector when travel bans are lifted. But how can we ensure that sustainability is still a key to our thinking? Nanna Thusgaard, Senior Manager for Sustainable Tourism Development at Wonderful Copenhagen, shared how they are embedding sustainable goals at the core of their strategy.

What does it mean to be a destination when visitors can no longer travel? Far from obstacle or paralysis, COVID-19 should be a call-out for innovators to create new and timely solutions. How can you utilise this time to make your destination seem so desirable that it's the first place people want to visit when the travel restrictions are lifted?

In our recent survey looking at Place Branding for the 2020s, we asked our respondents whether their storytelling was rooted in place values or focused primarily on place assets – the answers suggested a slightly stronger focus on assets. The COVID-19 pandemic has given us an opportunity to pause and think about whether we want to continue on the same tracks we've been running along for the last five decades or if there's time for real change in the way that we think about what we are doing, and what our places stand for.

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?

There are echoes from the recent past in what the global economy is facing today. The SARS epidemic, two Gulf Wars, the bursting of the dot-com bubble, 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis, although different, were external shocks that required swift and focused action. From first-hand experience during those times, and reviewing some of the best initiatives IPAs around the world are already taking today, here is a battle plan for what to do.