Making places that boom - diving deep to understand place

This article first appeared in Australian Design Review, Issue 163, 2020

Premier Mill Hotel Katanning by SpaceAgency Architects.
Photography by Allan Myles.

Two little-known ingredients – anthropological research and authentic storytelling – can help designers to “create places that boom”, according to an event held in Perth.

Chances are you’ve heard of the international tourism explosion that, prior to the impact of COVID-19, transformed Tasmania from a sleepy backwater to one of the world’s hottest destinations. Overseas arrivals jumped 15 percent to September 2018, and Tasmania was the only Australian destination listed in National Geographic’s Best Trips List for 2020.

The emergence of MoNA (Museum of Old and New Art) in 2011 coincided with place-brand expert Guy Taylor starting to consult to Tourism Tasmania (he was later employed by the organisation, and has since launched Place Brand Agency). Since then, tourism operators have launched new offerings ranging from farm-gate experiences to gin distilleries, adding to the array of wilderness walks and pristine landscapes options available for tourists. Together with on point marketing messages, these factors have produced a major upturn in tourism numbers and spend.

Taylor spent a year examining similar offerings from around the world before developing a unique selling proposition for Tasmania, and he outlined that ongoing research and process at Making Places that Boom, an event hosted by the Property Council of Western Australia in August 2019.

Taylor asserted that place-branding – also known as destination marketing – must stand out in a crowded media landscape, where individual attention spans dropped from just 12 seconds in 2012 to a mere eight seconds three years later. He added that research in cognitive neuroscience found that people now hold four to five separate thoughts in their working memory at any one time.

You can read the full article here.