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.

A clear place brand strategy is more than a nice accessory - it creates a framework for how your destinations should respond to unexpected challenges. Clare Barnett, Director of Economic Development & Culture for the City of Brampton, explains how they have centred their place brand identity at the heart of their COVID-19 response, and how a clear communication strategy and policy advocacy is enabling them to support their private sector through the crisis.

A global recession is unavoidable. UNCTAD [The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development] are estimating that global FDI could drop by as much as 40%. And with companies likely to look towards regionalising their supply chains, a comprehensive Aftercare strategy has never been more important. But how has Aftercare evolved to meet the demands of a COVID-19 world?

In late 2018 it was announced that the Mexican Tourism Promotion Council would be disbanded. A year and a half on, we spoke with Carlos Alberto González González, Director General of the newly relaunched Visit Mexico, to understand how they’re collaborating with industry partners as well as how data is enabling a low-budget promotion strategy during COVID-19.

We’ve been keeping an eye out for destination marketing and investment promotion approaches that walk the line between remaining true to their place brand identity and acknowledging the sensitivities of the COVID-19 crisis. These are nine of our favourites…

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?

While there’s no certainty on when COVID-19 lockdown measures will be relaxed across the globe, one thing destination marketers can control is how we prepare to move forward post-crisis. How can you shore up your domestic tourism strategy to promote long-term recovery?

What will the investment promotion landscape look like post-coronavirus? We reached out to Sirpa Tsimal, Director of Investment Promotion at Switzerland Global Enterprise and a creative thinker in FDI promotion, to understand what kind of response might be needed after COVID-19.