Tourist Destination Promotion

Hotels are betting on longevity. Let’s break it down: High-end hospitality is evolving. Guests aren’t just coming for rest, they’re also coming for optimization. The rise of "wellness tourism" means the top hotel brands are becoming centers for diagnostics, recovery, and peak performance. But creating a true health destination takes more than just a "sauna" or "juice bar". Here’s the real model: ✅ 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿 Bloodwork, biological age testing, VO2 max, microbiome kits. Low infrastructure, high insight. It’s the unlock for personalization, and loyalty. ✅ 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝗻-𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 MDs, NPs, and functional health pros alongside movement and nutrition experts. Guests don’t want a list of services, they want a plan that makes sense. ✅ 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 Hormone therapy, hyperbaric, NAD+ IVs, red light, breathwork. From luxury to longevity, this is what turns guests into long-term clients. ✅ 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱 Generic retreats are out. Tailored protocols based on biomarkers and goals? That’s what brings them back. ✅ 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗼𝘂𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗰 Offer re-testing, app-based progress, supplement delivery, remote consults. Guests leave with a roadmap, not just a short-term experience. 🏨 Early movers: → SHA → Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas → Lanserhof Group → Aman → Equinox Hotels The future of hospitality isn no longer just about five-star service. These are places to recharge. Longevity isn’t a trend. It’s becoming the new standard for wellness travel. And the best hotels are getting ahead of it. 👉 Which brand do you think will get there first? ♻️ Repost if you see this shift coming, and follow Delphine Le Grand for more on where hospitality meets healthspan.

Can Saudi Arabia build a globally dominant and locally flourishing sports industry in just a few short years? ✳️ Here's what’s been happening in sports investments and programs: → TKO: Launching new boxing promotion in partnership with General Entertainment Authority - GEA Chairman, Turki Alalshikh and Sela | صلة as a partner → SURJ Sports Investment and Enfield: Launching a $4B global sports investment fund, with Enfield operating out of KSA offices → Club Atlético de Madrid and Riyadh Air | طيران الرياض A: €250M–€300M naming rights deal, renaming Atletico’s stadium to Riyadh Air Metropolitano until 2033 → Professional Fighters League and SURJ: Launched PFL MENA, the first regional MMA league in the Middle East, with plans to expand across Dubai, Qatar, and beyond in 25 → Formula 1: Announced new Qiddiya Grand Prix circuit set to be ready by 2027, expected to see drivers hit 325 KM/H, elevated 70M → Ma'aden and Aston Martin F1 Team: Joining aramco in a multi-year partnership → Public Investment Fund (PIF): Acquired نادي الهلال السعودي - Al-Hilal Saudi Club, شركة نادي النصر - ALNASSR Club Company, Al-Ittihad Club Company, and Al-Ahli Club Company, privatizing the clubs → aramco: Acquired Al-Qadsiah Saudi Club نادي القادسية السعودي → Diriyah Gate Development Authority: Acquired Diriyah Saudi club → Riyadh Season | موسم الرياض and LALIGA: Three-year sponsorship deal, another European football partnership alongside AS Roma → NEOM and Mahd Sports Academy: Launched a sports journalism program to develop Saudi talent in covering major sporting events --- ⏺ These are the headline investments. But these efforts are not without attention to grassroots development ⏹ Saudi Arabia allocated $453M for sports initiatives between 2024 - 2025 as part of the Clubs Support Strategy, focusing on five initiatives: ‣ Governance ‣ Sports variety ‣ Direct support ‣ Fan attendance and ‣ Digital transformation ⏺ The results? → 2.5M sports tourists in four years, hosting 80+ major events, → Investment in 11 new stadiums and renovation 4 others for the Saudi Arabia FIFA World Cup 2034™️ underway → Projected market growth of 8.7% by 2026, outpacing the global average of 3.3% → 20-year motorsports development program, aiming to train Saudi engineers, drivers, and teams, build a car manufacturing hub, and establish a Saudi racing team Just to name a few. Will all of this translate to the economic, cultural and social impact we hope.. Time will tell. What do you think? --- Find this interesting? ♻️ Repost it to your network and share the insights

Deutsche Bahn's “No Need to Fly” campaign is a rare example of climate-positive marketing that doesn’t scold or scare. Airlines hated it and yet I admire it. Instead of moralising, the campaign relied on smart, data-driven creativity. It paired real-time location data with striking local visuals, then layered in price comparisons and hyper-personalised ads. The message was simple and clever: you don’t need to fly to Arizona when a train ride to Saxony offers landscapes that look just as dramatic—for a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the emissions. The campaign was a massive success, driving a 24% increase in sales revenue, selling two million train tickets, and achieving the brand's best-ever ROI. Travellers discovered they could choose a lower-carbon option without giving up adventure or beauty. The genius of the campaign lies in how it reframed sustainability. It didn’t make it feel like a sacrifice. It made it feel cooler. Smarter. More personal. This is what powerful marketing does: it moves people—emotionally and physically. We need more campaigns like this, where meaning and performance reinforce each other instead of competing. P.S: Of course, it remains to be seen how many of these trains arrived on time =p #marketing #travel

During my recent stay at Novotel Hotels Vijayawada Varun, I saw firsthand how hospitality brands are beginning to embrace sustainability. While I know these steps don’t yet make the hotel fully sustainable, it’s good to see meaningful action being taken. From biodegradable dental kits and refillable dispensers to glass water bottles, and cloth napkins, their commitment to reducing waste was clear.  They even provided sterilized reusable footwear - a practical and sustainable alternative to the typical disposable white slippers. Here are the three most impressive sustainability efforts that stood out during my stay: 1️⃣ Green Building: Powered by solar energy and equipped with LED lighting, sustainability is built into its foundation. 2️⃣ EV Charging Station: The first in Vijayawada, encouraging greener travel. 3️⃣ Composting & Herb Garden: Onsite composting and a vertical herb garden reduce waste and support local sourcing. These initiatives have earned Novotel Vijayawada Varun a Bronze Level in Accor’s Planet 21 initiative, a recognition of their efforts to support environmental stewardship. Accor, the parent company, has also committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and significant emissions reductions by 2030. While there’s still a long way to go, it’s encouraging to see brands I’ve grown up with starting to integrate sustainability into their operations. Every step counts, and it’s these thoughtful initiatives that can inspire broader change in the hospitality industry. What small sustainable changes have you seen recently that made an impression? Let’s share ideas! #Sustainability #GreenHospitality #EcoFriendly #ResponsibleTourism

Become an Expert: How to Use Google Ads to Capture Seasonal Demand 1. Targeted Advertising: Google Ads allows businesses to target their ads to specific audiences based on a variety of factors, such as demographics, location, interests, and search queries. This means that businesses can tailor their ads to reach consumers who are most likely to be interested in their products or services during specific seasons. 2. Increased Visibility: By using Google Ads, businesses can increase their visibility on search engine results pages and reach potential customers who are actively searching for products or services related to seasonal events or holidays. This can help businesses stand out from the competition and attract more traffic to their website. 3. Flexible Budgeting: Google Ads offers businesses the flexibility to set their own budget and maximum bids for their ads, allowing them to control their advertising costs and optimize their return on investment. This is especially important during seasonal peaks, when demand and competition may be higher. 4. Real-time Insights: Google Ads provides businesses with real-time data and insights on the performance of their ads, allowing them to track key metrics such as click-through rates, conversions, and return on ad spend. This data can help businesses make informed decisions and adjust their advertising strategies to maximize results during peak seasons.  Follow these key steps: 1. Plan Ahead: Research and identify key seasonal trends and events that are relevant to your business, and create a seasonal advertising calendar to plan your campaigns in advance. 2. Create Seasonal Ad Campaigns: Develop targeted ad campaigns that align with seasonal themes, promotions, and messaging to attract and engage your target audience. 3. Use Seasonal Keywords: Incorporate seasonal keywords and phrases into your ad copy and landing pages to optimize your campaigns for search engine visibility and relevance. 4. Monitor and Optimize: Continuously monitor the performance of your seasonal ad campaigns, test different strategies, and make adjustments to optimize your ads for maximum impact. Summary:  Google Ads is a powerful tool for businesses looking to capture seasonal demand and drive targeted traffic to their websites. By leveraging the benefits of targeted advertising, increased visibility, flexible budgeting, and real-time insights, businesses can effectively reach and engage consumers during peak seasons. #GoogleAds, #SeasonalMarketing, #PPC, #MarketingStrategy, #OnlineAdvertising, #DigitalMarketing, #AdWords, #Advertising, #SEM, #MarketingTips, #SeasonalCampaigns, #DemandGeneration, #ConversionRateOptimization

Switzerland built tiny hotels for bees 🌍 Switzerland Tourism has created nine miniature structures designed specifically for bees, birds, hedgehogs, and other pollinators. These structures are placed next to real hotels across the country and are inspired by the architectural designs of their full-scale counterparts. Each installation was selected through a national architecture competition. The initiative is more than a creative concept. These mini-hotels are functional, built with sustainable materials, and maintained by professionals. They provide safe nesting spaces and contribute to biodiversity conservation in both urban and rural areas. Bees and other pollinators are essential to ecosystems and global food systems. They contribute to the reproduction of nearly 90 percent of flowering plant species and over 75 percent of the world’s food crops. Their role in supporting healthy ecosystems is fundamental. Pollinators are under significant threat. Intensive agriculture, pesticide use, habitat loss, climate change, and disease have contributed to dramatic population declines. More than 40 percent of insect pollinators are now facing extinction risks. The decline in pollinators directly impacts food availability. One in every three bites of food depends on pollinators. Their reduction has already led to a measurable drop in the availability of fruits, vegetables, and nuts, with broader consequences for food security and nutrition. This Swiss campaign is a concrete example of how tourism can be used to support conservation. By integrating biodiversity into the hotel experience, it offers a model that other destinations can adopt to promote environmental responsibility. Public installations like these serve as educational tools. Visitors are encouraged to learn about pollinators, observe their behavior, and understand the value of protecting them. Awareness is a first step toward action. The campaign reminds us that conservation does not always require large-scale interventions. Small, well-designed actions can contribute meaningfully to protecting biodiversity and inspiring long-term change. Design, tourism, and sustainability can work together to create spaces where nature is welcomed and supported. This campaign invites us to rethink how we design environments that serve both people and the planet. #sustainability #business #sustainable #biodiversity

🚫 Customers don’t like negativity. There is always a way to focus on a positive message. This is how Copenhagen did it. Tell customers “don’t do this” or “here’s the problem” and you risk the opposite effect. Most companies communicate problems. Companies and governments talks about restrictions. But nobody likes it. 🌍 Great brands (and cities) flip the script. They turn challenges into opportunities. Take Copenhagen. The city faced overtourism. Instead of saying “we need fewer tourists”, it asked: “how can we make visitors part of the solution?” 👉 The result: CopenPay. Tourists earn free meals, boat rides, bike rentals, or museum discounts when they make sustainable choices — like taking the train, helping in an urban garden, or exploring less-visited neighborhoods. The impact? ✅ Relieved pressure from crowded areas ✅ Boosted local small businesses ✅ Strengthened sustainability & community ✅ Created happier visitors ✨ This is CX at its best: no restrictions, no negativity — just new opportunities for everyone. 🚀 The lesson: if you want people on board, don’t focus on the problem. Invite them into a chance to make things better.

In 2017, we sent over 5 million cold emails, bought Instagram accounts with 700K followers, and partnered with hundreds of influencers—all to answer one question: Can we build an email list of 500,000 subscribers in less than a year? The answer: Yes. Here’s what worked, what didn’t, and the unconventional strategies that helped us scale: 1. BE STRATEGIC WITH YOUR COLD EMAIL: We didn’t blast random people. Instead, we used data from Instagram to target the right audience. → Hashtags like travel and wanderlust. → Geotags from Bali to Iceland. → Accounts they followed, like National Geographic. This allowed us to write hyper-personalized emails that felt authentic. Best subject lines: - “Your hashtag photo” - “Came across your Instagram” The result? - 200K subscribers. - 45-50% open rates. - 10-15% click-through rates. Big lesson: Cold email isn’t spam when it’s done right. Personalization is everything. --- 2. TURN GIVEAWAYS INTO A GROWTH ENGINE: We gave away what our audience loved most: free travel (flights and hotels, paid for with rewards miles). Every giveaway included a viral referral system: - Participants got bonus entries for sharing with friends. The results? → 5K-15K new subscribers per giveaway. Tools we used: Gleam, ViralLoops, and DojoMojo for co-branded efforts. Big lesson: People don’t just want free stuff—they want relevant free stuff. --- 3. BUY YOUR WAY INTO ORGANIC SOCIAL: Instead of building from scratch, we bought Instagram accounts in the travel niche for $10K. We rebranded the accounts and created a network of pages tailored to different travel styles: - Van life. - Luxury travel. - Budget backpacking. This grew into 2.2M followers, sending consistent traffic to our landing pages and giveaways. Big lesson: Sometimes, the fastest way to scale is to skip the hard part. --- 4. SCALE WITH COMMUNITY: We launched an ambassador program with hundreds of micro-influencers, giving them points for every email they helped us collect. Some earned free flights and hotels. Most didn’t—but they still added thousands of subscribers. Big lesson: People love rewards, but they also love being part of something bigger. --- Here’s the truth about growth: It’s not about being conventional—it’s about being creative. - Use data to find your audience. - Automate the parts that don’t scale. - Build a system that feeds itself. In the end, your email list is the one asset you own. Treat it like gold.

After two years of engaging deeply with the subject, I'm thrilled to finally publish a study that I hope will make tourism businesses pause and re-evaluate their response to climate change! "Future-Proofing Tourism" - published as a collaboration among Regenerative Travel, Aurora Collective and Climate Conscious Travel - offers actionable insights and strategies on climate adaptation and community resilience for travel businesses, as well as key recommendations for DMOs and policymakers. 👉 It’s abundantly clear by now that the tourism sector is highly vulnerable to climate impacts. This year again, we've seen extreme weather events like floods, cyclones, droughts and heatwaves, and erratic weather patterns, disrupt tourism across the globe. 👉 As natural, cultural and community assets get impacted, tourism destinations become less appealing to travellers. Businesses need to understand the climate risks facing them, and build resilience in their supply chains, itineraries, assets and target markets. This is not just about survival, but also about unlocking new opportunities. 👉 Local communities are essential as guardians of their living culture and natural resources. They’ve contributed the least to planet-warming emissions, yet are the most vulnerable to climate impacts. A climate justice approach can enable businesses to truly centre local communities through more equitable and less extractive tourism models. 👉 Against this background, we analysed 30 case studies of tourism businesses adapting to the impacts of a warming planet. These span 6 destinations (Maldives, Kerala, Peruvian Andes, Swiss Alps, Bangkok and Amsterdam) across coastal, mountainous and urban terrains. 👉 The paper offers a climate adaptation framework and key strategies for tourism businesses of all shapes and sizes - including tour operators, hotels and community-run initiatives. These strategies will enable businesses to secure their revenue models through resilient tourism products, targeted communication approaches, and close partnerships with local communities and the wider industry. Download the report here —> https://lnkd.in/dZg6atV3 I’m deeply grateful to my co-author O'Shannon Burns for helping me turn my academic research into a valuable resource for the industry, and to Amanda Ho and her team for anchoring this white paper. My whole-hearted gratitude also to my research advisors Michaela Thompson and Richard Wetzler, as well as my fellow DCE capstonians at Harvard University for supporting this journey. And to everyone who generously shared their valuable insights and resources for this research. #climateadaptation #climatechangeandtourism #sustainabletourism #tourismadaptation #tourismwhitepaper #tourismresearch #climateresilienceintourism

In 2024, Visit Oslo released a campaign that went viral with nearly 20 million views. The message? “Don’t come here.” On the surface, it looked like reverse psychology. But the brilliance of the campaign was that it tapped into our fatigue with glossy, generic tourism ads that deliver a safe, predictable sea of sameness.. I see so many tourist boards around the world make the same mistake right now: still investing all their budgets into spotlighting only the popular landmarks and tourist traps, creating content that makes their destination indistinguishable from another. Visit Oslo did the opposite. They connected back to an idea blogger Elena Paschinger created years ago: “life-seeing”  instead of “sightseeing”. Enjoying travel for what it should be - real cultural experiences that make your life richer and connect you with a place that is different to your home. This is the kind of shift we need to see more of in travel marketing. Authenticity over aspiration. Depth over gloss. Destinations that give people a taste of the real experience, not just a curated version. As consumer behaviour evolves, the destinations that will win are the ones brave enough to go against convention, just like Thea Gunnes and the VisitOSLO team have done here.