With the new decade looming large on the horizon - and technology continuing to develop rapidly - how will place branding need to evolve to face the new challenges? Jos Vranken, Managing Director at NBTC Holland Marketing, shared a few of his predictions for the future of place branding.

In 2011, Vibe Israel began the task of igniting new conversations that would challenge the international perception that Israel was little more than a site of conflict. Before the City Nation Place Global conference, the CEO of Vibe Israel, Joanna Landau, explained to us what they mean by "bottom-up country branding" and how they worked to implement such a monumental image change.

We can all agree that tourism promotion is an essential component of a city, nation or place’s economy, right alongside a solid economic development strategy. In 2018, travel and tourism generated 10.4% of all global economy and created 319 million jobs – that works out as a global average of 1 in every 10 people whose daily income is reliant on tourism.  And yet for some reason, when the going gets get tough and budgets need to be cut, everyone seems to turn their eyes to the place promotion budget.

At the start of September, over 80 delegates representing over 25 countries across the LatAm and Caribbean region made the journey to San Jose in Costa Rica for the first City Nation Place LatAm & Caribbean conference.  It’s always such a pleasure to bring place branders together – the willingness to collaborate and share ideas defies the assumption that place branding is all about competitiveness. 

Promoting a destination can be a challenge when its overshadowed on the world stage by another city. But for Kim Heinen, International Press Officer at Rotterdam Partners, embracing your differences – and even your “quirky and ugly sides” can be the key to reaching an audience who truly appreciate your place. We caught up with Kim before the City Nation Place Global conference to get a quick sneak preview of the work that Rotterdam have been doing.

Sustainability is increasingly seen as an intrinsic element of a place brand strategy - both in terms of managing your environmental impact and the longer-term impact of policies and strategies on your community. With the deadline for the #CNPAwards approaching, we asked Leigh Dawber, Chief Marketing Officer for Cape Town Tourism, how she feels that places should work to embed a more sustainable approach into their place brand vision.

Creating your place brand strategy is complex at best - and implementing it is no easier. Given the challenges that place branders face, we asked Cat Leaver, Director at Brand Scotland to share her insights around what makes an award-winning campaign in 2019.

The industry of travel and tourism thrives on information and data – it’s what ensures the right plane is filled with the right passengers eating the right meals going to the right destination with the right baggage ending up in the right hotel room. Today, there are over 1.4 billion tourists travelling worldwide to more destinations and places. With accessibility and proliferation comes greater demand - travellers want more than ever before; we want speed, authenticity, security – we want it all and, crucially, we want it now.

New Zealand have one of the most admired place brands in the world. But what goes on behind the brand? Rebecca Smith, Director of the New Zealand Story, shared some of New Zealand's key areas of focus with us before she delivers our international keynote at City Nation Place Latin America & the Caribbean.

Following the dissolution of Mexico's Tourism Promotion council, the private sector of Los Cabos stepped into fill the gap. Rodrigo Esponda, Managing Director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board, shared details of the collaboration with us, along with the work that they're undertaking to challenge negative stereotypes in the media.

With so much on offer, how do people choose where to go on their next vacation? According to the 2014 Google Traveler study, 65% of leisure travelers search the Internet as a trusted source of information when choosing a destination for travel. In many ways, the digital perception of place brand is the prospective tourist’s only reality.

So what is the digital appeal for countries in Latin America & the Caribbean?

With just two weeks until our inaugural City Nation Place Latin America & Caribbean conference and with a line-up of place branding leaders set to share their expertise, we’ve gathered eight of the best quotes to give you a quick sneak preview of the ground-breaking discussion planned for Costa Rica. Of course, many of the issues they raise will be relevant around the world….

Collaboration is the key to a success of your place brand vision. Bettina Garibaldi, Senior Vice President at Ketchum, shared some of her insights with us around how collaboration can be leveraged to maximise the impact of your communication strategy and ensures that you're able to make the best use of your resources.

As our understanding of the complexities of what we mean by “place branding” [vs “place marketing”] grows, so does our awareness of the challenges that place branding and place marketing must face. And as we head towards our fifth annual City Nation Place Awards, we hope to see an increase in strategies which can demonstrate a ‘sustainable approach’.

But what do we mean by that?

There are numerous examples of places that didn’t listen to their community and launched communications campaigns which were then lambasted by citizens who disagreed with them (Vilnius’ ‘G-Spot of Europe’ campaign springs to mind quite quickly), and of places who are facing a citizen backlash to the success of their tourism attraction strategy, or even – as the case of Long Island in the USA and the rejection of the new Amazon HQ plan – a rejection of successful investment attraction and economic development. So how do you ensure your community are engaged with your place brand strategy?