Your destination already has the good stuff. The buzzy new ramen shop. The Saturday farmers market. The artsy neighborhood with all of the murals. The annual festival locals never miss. The tiny deli that has become everyone’s favorite stop. The challenge? Showing it all off to visitors. Destination marketing today is about more than convincing someone to book a trip. It’s about helping them decide what to do when they arrive, encouraging them to explore beyond the obvious, supporting local businesses, and creating experiences they’ll want to come back for (and tell their friends about).
That’s where Vibemap comes in. Our tools help districts and destinations turn everything that makes a destination great into an interactive experience. Here are five ways districts and destinations can use Vibemap to give their marketing strategy a little more oomph.
1. Turn events into a tourism tool
Many travelers plan entire trips around one specific event they want to attend. Think of iconic festivals like Coachella, The Taste of Chicago, Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, and many, many more. A specific event brings new faces to a place, and that’s an opportunity to be capitalized on. For districts and destinations, this is a golden ticket to encourage visitors to explore a destination longer by arriving early and sticking around longer after the event.
That’s where Vibemap’s events calendar steps in. With our Events Calendar, districts and destinations create a centralized hub where visitors easily discover events alongside the businesses, attractions, and experiences that make up the rest of the destination. For example, a new visitor looking for something to do on Saturday might discover a concert or comedy show, then find a nearby restaurant for dinner or a local makers market to hit up the next morning. Instead of one event being the entire reason for visiting, it becomes the starting point for exploring the destination. Whether someone is coming to your destination for a specific event or is a local trying to find Friday night plans, the Events Calendar makes planning their experience easy, as everything they need to know is in one place.
2. Make exploring a destination a game
Getting visitors to your destination is one awesome accomplishment. Getting them to explore beyond their initial horizons is another. Many tourists head to a destination with one or two specific things to see and do in mind. Outside of those planned activities is a big opportunity for districts and destinations. As destination marketers, we want folks to step outside the beaten path and see the deeper things a place has to offer. To help make that process less intimidating, Vibemap created digital passports.
With our digital passports, districts and destinations create custom challenges that encourage people to visit participating businesses, discover new neighborhoods, attend events, and simply experience more of the destination. Passports can include gamified experiences such as Restaurant Week passports, cocktail crawls, art walks, scavenger hunts, civic initiatives, and a whole lot more. The possibilities are pretty much endless.
Instead of just suggesting where someone should go, you give them a reason to get out there and experience it for themselves. For local businesses, it’s a chance to get in front of new customers. For visitors, it’s a fun way to discover places they might not have found otherwise (and maybe even earn prizes!). For districts and destinations, it’s another way to get more people interacting with your community
3. Put your destination on the map (literally)
There’s something extremely satisfying about looking at a map and seeing all the things to do laid out right in front of you. Where’s the best place to grab brunch? Which neighborhood has the coolest shops? What’s around the convention center that your conference is at? And, perhaps most importantly, what’s that one little spot that the locals love?
Using Vibmap’s interactive maps, districts and destinations can showcase all of these things in one centralized location. Better yet, these maps can be organized around the way people actually explore a destination. Create a foodie map for hungry travelers, a public art map for culture lovers, a family-friendly map for parents, or a “things to do within walking distance” map for visitors staying downtown. The coolest part is what a traveler might find along the way. Those who open the map looking for a coffee shop might discover a nearby craft store. Someone searching for a hiking trail might find a brewery worth visiting afterward. Suddenly, their one activity has turned into an entire afternoon of exploring. That’s the real power of mapping a destination: you’re showing people more than where things are. Instead, you’re showing them what’s possible. For districts and destinations, that means another opportunity to tell a better story about your destination.
4. Spotlight your local small businesses
A destination is only as great as its locally-owned businesses. These often small shops make up the heart and soul of a place. They’re the mother-daughter-owned coffee shop, the two brothers running a winery, or the group of pals who opened the town’s best brewery. Your destination may already have a major tourist draw, such as an important landmark, an event, or access to a national park. However, there’s an opportunity for districts and destinations to use their platforms to shine a light on the small businesses, entrepreneurs, and real community staples that give a destination its personality.
Enter business listings. With Vibemap’s business listings, restaurants, salons, galleries, breweries, coffee shops, and more can all become part of the visitor experience. Just like with interactive maps, it’s about helping visitors find their next stop. A visitor looking for a local restaurant might discover a nearby art gallery. Someone searching for a place to grab coffee could stumble across a beloved independent bookstore, and so on. With business listings, districts and destinations create a centralized place for visitors to discover the businesses that make their destination truly unique. As a result, visitors get a more authentic experience, and local businesses get more exposure. This is all a win-win for districts and destinations. As you know, the best destination marketing gives travelers a real reason to care about the places they find along the way.
5. Utilize a year-round marketing strategy
Destination marketing doesn’t stop when someone books a trip. In fact, some of the best opportunities for districts and destinations happen long before a visitor arrives, and continue long after they’ve gone home. A strong marketing strategy is the answer to this call. Vibemap’s marketing solutions help districts and destinations turn their destination’s experiences into engaging campaigns that reach people at different stages of the travel journey.
Think beyond the traditional “Visit us!” campaign. Maybe you want to get travelers excited about a fall festival, nudge visitors to explore a particular up-and-coming neighborhood, or encourage shopping small during the holiday season. Your destination already has the stories and experiences. You just need creative ways to package them.
Vibemap helps districts and destinations build campaigns around those moments. As destination marketing is rarely one-size-fits-all, campaigns will be tailored around different audiences, interests, seasons, and your goals. The result is a destination marketing strategy that feels less like advertising and more like an invitation to explore. Instead of relying on the same destination guide or annual campaign, districts and destinations can continually give travelers new reasons to discover what’s happening in their community. Ultimately, the best marketing campaigns don’t just convince someone to come once. It gives them a reason to keep coming back.
Final thoughts
Vibemap gives districts and destinations the tools to create more of those moments. Whether you’re building an interactive map, launching a digital passport, promoting local events and businesses, or creating a year-round marketing campaign, you can turn the things that make your destination special into experiences visitors can actually interact with.
Ready to bring your destination marketing goals to life? Book a call with Gabriella, Vibemap’s Director of Strategic Partnerships, to start the conversation.
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