Programme

Destinations are increasingly making strategic pivots that respond to emerging traveller psychographics that prioritise meaningful immersion. Slow travel narratives play a significant role in cultivating these deeper emotional connections. Maxine Hands, Head of Global Media and Digital at Tourism Ireland, will examine how the 'Ireland Unrushed’ campaign perfectly demonstrates this new approach that fundamentally challenges the old way of just promoting tourist attractions.

‍

The session will explore how 'Ireland Unrushed' uses evocative language around simple pleasures and unhurried activities to create a new identity for the country. This positioning makes Ireland’s slower pace feel like a premium experience. Maxine will break down how Tourism Ireland translates this philosophical positioning into concrete marketing strategies that encourage extended exploration.

‍

Attendees will discover how to develop effective campaigns that transform time from being a perceived barrier into a core value proposition. Maxine will reveal how the marketing approach emphasises experiential depth over breadth by avoiding the promotion of rigid itineraries. She will also highlight how the campaign leverages digital platforms and content partnerships to construct curated journey narratives that model slow travel behaviours.

‍

This session will cover important practical questions, including finding the right balance between aspirational positioning and practical accessibility. Maxine will also share methods for keeping the campaign’s authentic nature, even when promoting it across diverse international markets.

Planning family trips needs a fresh approach that considers everyone in the group. This session focuses on how combining trip planning and immersive gamification represents an emerging opportunity. You'll hear from Jon Erik Skaret, Creative Lead, and Nina Mariann Øvergård, Project Manager, from Visit Norway, who will share the strategy behind the Fairytale Finder app.

‍

Jon and Nina will examine Fairytale Finder's dual-functionality design, demonstrating how the platform enables parents to discover destinations, customise itineraries and seamlessly transfer planned routes straight to their car's GPS — all whilst providing their children with a parallel entertainment layer. This transforms a practical planning tool into an extensive family travel ecosystem that addresses the notorious "are we there yet?" phenomenon.

‍

Through this session, attendees will explore how DMOs can leverage gamification as a strategic mechanism to shape visitor behaviour and create memorable family adventures that strengthen destination affinity. Jon and Nina will also delve into the creative methodology behind embedding Norwegian folklore into the gamification layer, illustrating how cultural storytelling can enhance destination authenticity.

‍

Discover the secrets of how to develop integrated travel tools that balance practical utility with experiential engagement. This is poised to be an enlightening keynote on how destination apps play a vital role in creating value for international travellers and maintaining engagement across diverse age groups.

Effective visitor dispersal represents a significant logistical challenge for destinations. Patrick Torrent, Executive Director of the Catalan Tourist Board, will unpack the pioneering '(+) Catalonia, better tourism’ marketing strategy, which positions a more conscious approach to developing the visitor economy across the entire region.

‍

Patrick will outline the strategy's distinctive 4+4 milestone approach. This model shows how the four main goals of reducing seasonality, spreading visitor flows, offering more varied activities and boosting economic impact all connect with satisfied visitors and locals, a sustainable legacy, visitor loyalty and a stronger destination brand. His insights will reveal how these eight strategic pillars work together to shift destination marketing from volume-focused metrics toward real value creation.

‍

Attendees will discover how this ambition is going to be achieved through six key actions. Patrick will explore the transition away from event-based marketing to more personalised content marketing. He will explore the role of hypersegmentation and how AI guides visitors toward less-visited locations. This is combined with redesigning experiences to improve community impact and encouraging residents to become destination advocates, creating a better approach to tourism promotion and management.

‍

This session promises to provide an actionable framework for enabling marketing approaches that ensure that community wellbeing is prioritised alongside the visitor experience. This helps to balance destination and visitor impact for true brand authenticity.