What makes a place brand strong enough to withstand global crises, shifting traveller trends and the constant pressure of competition? That was the challenge when Cape Town Tourism set out to evolve the city’s identity into a unified narrative worth billions.

Simplify

A destination’s strength is not based on having one voice, but in many voices telling the same story from different perspectives. Bridging internal perception and external perception requires two distinct strategies for very different audiences, who want different things from the same place. Yet these must work hand-in-hand.

Clarify

Working with Brand Finance, we determined that Cape Town Tourism’s brand value stood at R1.896 billion. This gave us not only a credible valuation, but also deep insight into where to prioritise investment for immediate impact and long-term growth. The key was identifying the connection points where traveller expectations and local business offerings overlap, the spaces with the greatest potential to drive both tourism and commercial value. We distilled these insights into a Brand Handbook and a series of certified masterclasses, giving local businesses practical, accessible tools that didn’t prescribe their messaging, but showed them how to align with Cape Town’s broader narrative in a way that strengthened their own.

Amplify

Strengthening a unified place brand is a long-term commitment, but with a billion-rand valuation and tangible business success stories in hand, Cape Town quickly attracted high-value global partnerships, including the UNWTO, World Bank, New York Tourism and visitBerlin. This further reinforced that a brand is built through the stories of others, and that the alignment of traveller needs with local business offerings is what sustainably evolves a brand’s value.

→ Masterclass Series

→ Read the article: Bizcommunity – World Bank Partnership

→ Read the article: City/Nation/Place – Sustainable Place Brand Strategy

Please note that this was developed during my tenure as CMO of Cape Town Tourism. I now share the work through travelstitcher to demonstrate the kind of future-ready solutions I continue to develop today.