Beautiful images can show people what a destination looks like. A strong tagline can give them something to remember. But sometimes, changing how people see a place means giving them a chance to experience it for themselves.
That’s where experiential marketing can be especially useful for destination marketers.
An experience can take something people associate with a destination, or something they haven’t discovered yet, and make it tangible. Instead of simply telling an audience there’s another side to a place, you can invite them to interact with it, taste it, hear it or step inside it.
When the goal is to shift perceptions, that creates an interesting opportunity: What could people experience that might give them a reason to see the destination differently?
Start With the Perception You Want to Shift
Experiential marketing can take a lot of forms, from pop-ups and installations to events, food experiences and collaborations. But the format shouldn’t be the starting point.
Start with what you want people to reconsider.
Maybe audiences know the destination for one season but not another. Maybe they have a narrow picture of its culture, landscape or people. Or maybe they simply don’t know enough about the place to have a strong impression at all.
Getting clear about that perception can help you decide what kind of experience is worth creating.
The goal isn’t necessarily to prove an existing perception wrong. It might be to add something people haven’t encountered before and give them a fuller picture of the destination.
Turn the Destination Story Into Something People Can Experience
Once you know what you want people to reconsider, think about how you could make another side of the destination tangible.
That might mean tasting food from local makers, interacting with an installation, hearing music from local artists or stepping into a space inspired by the destination itself.
The experience should still connect back to something true about the place. A creative activation might be memorable on its own, but the bigger opportunity is to give people a way to discover something about the destination they didn’t know, expect or fully understand before.
Instead of asking only, “How do we tell people what this place is like?” consider asking, “What could we create that lets them experience some of it for themselves?”
Give People Something New to Discover
Experiential marketing becomes particularly interesting when there’s a gap between what people think they know about a destination and what they could discover about it.
For Travel Manitoba’s Portal to Manitoba, we brought pieces of the province, from the Northern Lights to honey dill sauce, directly to a Toronto audience.
Rather than simply telling people there was more to discover in Manitoba, the activation gave them a chance to encounter some of those experiences for themselves.
The results also gave us a way to look beyond attendance. Nearly 80 per cent of survey respondents reported a strong positive change in how they viewed Manitoba, while 88 per cent said they learned something new.
One activation can’t tell us everything about how destination perceptions change over time. But those results point to something worth considering: experiential marketing can give audiences new information about a place in a form they can actually experience.
Make the Experience Specific to the Place
An experience doesn’t become meaningful simply because it’s interactive. The details still need to feel connected to the destination.
Local artists, makers, restaurants, musicians, businesses and community organizations can bring perspectives and experiences that a destination marketing organization may not be able to create on its own.
We’ve seen that through our destination marketing collaborations. Working with Manitoba artisans, cafés, bakeries, musicians and other local partners gave audiences different ways to encounter the province through the people and businesses already contributing to its culture.
The opportunity isn’t just to put a local logo on an activation. It’s to ask what collaborators can bring to the experience that makes it more particular to that place.
That can also mean making room for partners to bring their own ideas and voices to the work rather than asking everyone to repeat the same campaign message.
Design for Participation, Not Just Attention
A visually striking activation might get someone to stop. What happens next matters just as much.
Can they interact with it? Is there something to explore? Does the experience give them a role beyond taking a photo? Can different people comfortably participate?
Travel Manitoba’s heart-shaped warming hut on the Nestaweya River Trail offers one example. The mirrored interior and collage of faces turned the heart behind the destination brand into a physical space people could enter and experience.
The project also shows why experiential design has to work in the real world. An idea has to account for the physical environment, accessibility, safety, materials and how people will actually move through and interact with the space.
That’s part of what separates an experience from an advertisement people happen to walk past. You’re designing for what someone will do, notice and feel once they’re there.
Think About What Happens Beyond the Experience
An experiential campaign may happen in one physical place, but its reach doesn’t necessarily have to stop there.
People might share photos or videos. Local partners might bring the story to their own audiences. Journalists might find an angle worth covering. Someone who encounters the experience online might discover something about the destination even if they never attend in person.
That makes amplification worth considering during planning rather than after the experience is already built.
Think about what people might naturally want to capture or talk about. Give partners useful ways to participate. Consider what context someone encountering the activation through a social post or media story would need to understand why it matters.
The aim isn’t to manufacture a “viral moment.” It’s to give a strong experience more ways to travel.
Measure Whether Perceptions Changed
Attendance can tell you how many people showed up. It can’t tell you everything about what they took away from the experience.
If perception change is the goal, measurement should connect back to that goal.
Depending on the campaign, you might look at:
- Perception before and after: Did the experience change or add to what people associated with the destination?
- What people learned: Did audiences discover something they didn’t know before?
- Engagement: What did people choose to interact with, ask about or spend time exploring?
- Sharing and earned media: Which parts of the experience travelled beyond the people who attended?
- Qualitative feedback: What did visitors, partners and community members actually say about the experience?
You don’t need every experiential campaign to measure all of these things. The important part is deciding what evidence would help you understand whether the experience did more than attract attention.
What to Consider When Planning a Destination Experience
Experiential marketing doesn’t need to start with the biggest or most elaborate idea. It needs to start with a clear reason for creating the experience.
A few questions can help:
- What perception are we trying to shift or expand? Be specific about what you want people to reconsider.
- What could people experience instead of simply being told? Look for ways to make the destination story tangible.
- Who should help shape the experience? Consider which local partners, creators or community voices can bring knowledge and perspective to the work.
- How will people participate? Think about accessibility, comfort, safety and what visitors will actually do once they’re there.
- How could the story travel? Plan for partners, earned media and audience sharing without making those things the sole purpose of the experience.
- How will we know if perceptions moved? Choose measures that connect to the change you’re hoping to create, not just attendance.
These questions won’t produce the same answer for every destination. That’s the point. The experience should come from what’s distinctive about the place, the audience and the perception you’re trying to change.
Key Takeaways
Experiential marketing gives destination marketers a way to move from describing a place to letting people encounter it for themselves.
That doesn’t mean every activation will change how someone sees a destination. The experience still needs to be grounded in a clear insight, connected to the place and designed around how people will actually participate.
Start with the perception you want to shift. Build from something specific and credible about the destination. Bring in partners who can add their own perspective. Then measure whether people walked away knowing, feeling or considering something they didn’t before.
Sometimes a new perception starts with a new experience.
FAQ
What is experiential marketing for tourism destinations?
Experiential marketing creates opportunities for people to interact with a destination story rather than only encountering it through advertising. That could include events, installations, pop-ups, food experiences, performances or other activities that make aspects of a place tangible.
How can experiential marketing change destination perceptions?
Experiential marketing can introduce people to aspects of a destination they may not know or expect. By giving audiences something new to experience, destination marketers can create opportunities for them to reconsider or expand their existing perceptions of a place.
Why are local partnerships important in experiential destination marketing?
Local artists, makers, restaurants, businesses and community organizations can bring knowledge, stories and experiences that make an activation more specific to the destination. They may also help the experience connect with audiences the destination organization wouldn’t reach on its own.
How do you turn a destination brand into an experience?
Start with the idea or feeling at the centre of the brand, then consider how someone could encounter it through a physical or interactive experience. The goal isn’t to reproduce the branding at a larger scale. It’s to find a meaningful way for people to participate in the idea behind it.
What makes a destination marketing experience memorable?
There isn’t one formula. Relevance, participation, specificity and thoughtful design can all contribute. An experience is more likely to have something meaningful to offer when it’s connected to a real insight about the destination and gives people something worth discovering.
How should destination marketers measure experiential campaigns?
Start with the campaign’s objective. If the goal is perception change, consider measuring changes in destination perceptions or what audiences learned alongside attendance, engagement, earned media, social sharing and qualitative feedback.
What should destination marketers consider before launching an experiential campaign?
Get clear on the perception or idea you want to address, the audience you’re trying to reach and why an experience is the right approach. From there, consider local collaborators, accessibility, safety, participation, amplification and how you’ll measure the response.
