Destination Branding

One of my favourite subjects for branding are destinations. After all, we have many choices when it comes to spending a few days away from home in Asia.

What will it be? A weekend of shopping and pampering in Bangkok, complete with a stay at The Metropolitan, and crowned with a 90 minute massage at their excellent Como Shambala spa?

A few days of relaxation at The Legian in Seminyak, Bali, with a trip to Ubud's rice paddies and maybe a blessing with Tirta, holy water, by one of the island's high priests?

Or diving in the pristine waters of Manado, where everything under the sea is impressive, but everything above - from airport to the city to available accomodation - is, well, in need of improvement?

I probably should not say this, given the work that I do, but I am actually not sure how much the branding of a destination influences of choice for travel. With the places we've been to, it's probably more the brand that we create for ourselves - consisting of our favourite choices of hotel, restaurants, shops and activities - that determines how we see the place and which one we choose for our next getaway.

So for Hong Kong - where I am writing this - it's probably less whether it is advertised as 'City of lights' or 'Asia's world city' but rather 'my Hong Kong' which consists of the airport express experience (still fresh after 11 years), the Mandarin Oriental (recently refreshed), the KEE club (with a new, fantastic menu), the small streets of Soho, and some new quirky accessories from G.O.D.

But how about places we haven't been yet? For those, we rely on third party information: how the destination positions itself (unique or all things to all people? Very tempting for tourism officials to make the wrong decision) and how that positioning is conveyed to us through communication, PR, word-of-mouth, online presence.

Untimately, as in most brands, it's all about the experience: the one promised and the one delivered. For any brand, but especially for destinations, it's always hard to control all touchpoints, particularly when these are people whom we see as representing the brand.

Or as my friend Andrew would say: It's all about stories. Hopefully your story would take place in an intimate restaurant, a comfortable hotel room with a great view or a relaxing spa - instead of an immigration detention room, a traffic jam or a bathroom, dealing with an attack of food poisoning.

Jorg