Beyond Pretty Pictures: Smarter Destination Marketing for Queensland Tourism in 2026
Beyond Pretty Pictures: Smarter Destination Marketing for Queensland Tourism in 2026
Queensland does not have a shortage of beautiful places.
It has a growing challenge of sameness. Scroll through destination marketing and the ingredients can start to look familiar: coastlines, rainforests, local produce, sunsets and smiling families. Each image may be beautiful, but when every destination tells a similar story, distinctiveness disappears – and marketing dollars have to work much harder.
The opportunity is significant. Queensland’s Destination 2045 strategy aims to double visitor expenditure to $84 billion by 2045, while Brisbane 2032 will place the state on a global stage. But increased attention will not automatically deliver longer stays, wider regional dispersal or higher visitor spend. Destinations still need to give travellers a clear reason to choose them.
For Regional Tourism Organisations, Local Tourism Organisations, councils and operators, smarter destination marketing starts with clarity: what can your place credibly own, who is most likely to care and what will move them from inspiration to planning and visitation?
- Stand out. Don't blend in.
- A clear, ownable proposition - grounded in the destination's real strengths, character and visitor experiences.
- A connected visitor journey - using social and video to inspire, search to capture intent, useful website content to support planning and retargeting to bring people back.
- Authentic content - local people, stories and experiences that create an emotional connection without becoming interchangeable tourism wallpaper.
- Strategic media planning and buying - prioritising the right audiences, markets and channels instead of spreading investment too thinly.
- Measurement that informs decisions - connecting reach and engagement with website behaviour, leads, bookings, visitation indicators and campaign learnings.
- What to avoid. Boosting an attractive post is not a media strategy. Trying to reach every market at once is not scale; it is dilution. And reporting only on impressions, clicks or video views can hide the bigger question: did the campaign help more people choose, plan and visit?
Tourism marketing is not generic consumer marketing.
It requires an understanding of seasonality, drive and fly markets, visiting friends and relatives, regional dispersal, cooperative campaigns, stakeholder needs and the realities of public-sector and operator budgets. For more than three decades, dtb! has brought strategy, brand, creative, social, digital, media planning and buying, and reporting together to help Queensland destinations and tourism businesses turn ideas into action.
At dtb!, we connect strategy, brand, creative, social, digital and media buying to build campaigns designed to drive measurable visitation and spend.
Planning a destination refresh, campaign or tender? Let’s get down to business! Talk to dtb! about a practical, measurable approach designed to turn destination interest into visitation.