In 2017, I wrote a titled 鈥淗ow to Market a Damaged Destination.鈥 Unsurprisingly for those who know me, I didn鈥檛 hold back. I鈥檇 been working through one of the more complex stretches in T眉rkiye鈥檚 tourism landscape and poured all of my frustration 鈥 and hope 鈥 into that piece. I believed that with enough transparency, consistency, and pride in place, we could rebuild trust. We could bring people back.
Eight years later, I still believe in much of what I wrote. But I鈥檝e also had to adjust my lens.
I鈥檝e come to realise that destination marketing isn鈥檛 just about overcoming adversity or polishing perception anymore. It鈥檚 about reframing what 鈥渁ppeal鈥 even means.
Buyers are more informed. Planning teams are more risk-conscious. And with the explosion of social media and real-time access to every headline and whisper, perception is shaped long before a proposal hits a client鈥檚 inbox. Add in global complexity, internal company politics, and shifting values, and suddenly destination choice becomes less about beauty shots and more about trust, clarity, and fit.
This shift is showing up in the data too. According to 麻豆传媒鈥檚 Destination in麻豆传媒s research, planners are rethinking the type of destinations they prioritise. Nearly 70% expect to use destinations they鈥檝e never used before, while close-by locations and all-inclusive properties are trending upward. It鈥檚 not about playing it safe鈥攊t鈥檚 about balancing fresh ideas with manageability. That鈥檚 a nuanced difference, but an important one.
However brilliant a marketer you are 鈥 and I say this as someone who has tried 鈥 you can鈥檛 out-market complexity. But you can encourage people to engage with it, and maybe even develop a deeper understanding of the place and people behind the program.
Over time, I鈥檝e stopped trying to make destinations 鈥渕ake sense鈥 to everyone.
Instead, I try to communicate their full story with care, with context, and with the passion I feel for them. When that鈥檚 done well, clients don鈥檛 feel like they鈥檙e being sold to. They feel like they鈥檙e being invited into something meaningful: something designed with intention, not just aesthetics.
So maybe the real question isn鈥檛 鈥淗ow do I reposition my destination?鈥 but instead: What do I want people to understand about it that they couldn鈥檛 find on Google? That鈥檚 where I think we, as destination professionals, still hold a lot of value 鈥 not in controlling the narrative, but in humanizing it.
That鈥檚 the shift I鈥檝e made. And if I鈥檓 the only one who needed eight years and a lot of grey hairs to figure that out, so be it.
