A traveller searching for a hotel in a popular tourist destination is already halfway to making a booking. But what about a traveller who has never considered visiting a particular town, has no idea what to do there and cannot quite picture why it should be the next holiday choice? For emerging destinations, the marketing challenge begins much earlier than the booking.
That challenge is taking on new significance as established hotel chains expand into Tier-II and Tier-III leisure markets where the potential for growth may not always be matched by pre-existing tourist demand. A new property can offer comfortable rooms and attractive amenities, but the destination needs its own identity and reasons to attract visitors.
The discovery process is also changing. Travellers may now find their next getaway through a creator’s video, a local recommendation or an experience that catches their attention online. The question that arises, then, is whether the travel industry can turn these moments of inspiration into a sustained appetite for unfamiliar places. Can marketing make a destination desirable before it becomes popular, and what roles must hotels, OTAs and creators play in that journey?
Can marketing create a destination?
The appetite for unfamiliar destinations is growing, but making a place desirable requires more than a striking campaign. It needs a distinctive proposition that travellers can connect with and an experience that lives up to the promise. According to Manmeet Ahluwalia, Chief Marketing Officer, EaseMyTrip, leisure travel in Tier-II and Tier-III cities now accounts for around 55 per cent of demand. “We are seeing growing interest in destinations such as Jharkhand, Madhapur, Rameswaram, Vellore, Cherrapunji and Pimpri-Chinchwad, while Jorhat and Majuli have seen one of the sharpest rises in destination-specific search interest. The important shift is that travellers are no longer waiting for a destination to become mainstream before considering it. They are discovering places through experiences, social content and recommendations, creating an opportunity for hotels, creators, tourism boards, and OTAs to build demand around destinations that may not yet have a strong tourist identity,” he says.
While marketing can spark interest in an unfamiliar destination, converting that curiosity into sustained demand depends on whether the place can deliver a compelling and accessible experience. This is where the fundamentals of destination-building become critical.
Saba Dhanani, Corporate Head – Marketing & Communications, Sayaji Hotels, elaborates, “The fundamentals must be there—a distinctive experience, connectivity, infrastructure, local culture, natural or experiential assets and the ability to deliver a consistent visitor experience. Once those fundamentals exist, storytelling can be transformative.”
Chetna Negandhi, Group Director, Gozoop Creative, believes the opportunity lies in creating occasions around destinations. A slow weekend, a local food trail, a road trip or a wellness break can provide a compelling reason to travel.
“The question for marketers shouldn’t be ‘how to make this destination famous’, but ‘what can make someone care enough to make the journey’. AI can help identify those micro-motivations and audiences with greater precision, but the proposition itself still must be real,” she says.
Dipshika Ravi, National Creative Director, Schbang, further says, “Every destination needs a strong reason to visit, and that reason doesn't necessarily have to be a tourist attraction. It could be a local experience, a cultural truth, the food, the people or simply the opportunity to disconnect from the usual. The opportunity is to shift the narrative from selling a stay to selling an experience that people may not have considered before.”
The role of hotels and OTAs
Business and brand strategy expert Harish Bijoor, who is the founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc., sees the expansion into less familiar destinations as part of a broader shift in travel preferences. “Hotels are growing and shifting from obvious destinations to the unobvious ones. This is because travellers are now bored of places they have previously been to or usually go to. New destinations are thus becoming increasingly attractive.” This creates an opportunity to help shape demand rather than simply follow it.
In established tourist destinations, hotels can often rely on the location to attract visitors. But as they expand into less familiar markets, they may have to create the initial pull themselves.
“At Sayaji, we see emerging destinations as an opportunity to participate in shaping that narrative early. The objective is to move the conversation from ‘why should I go there’ to ‘I didn’t know this place offered this experience’,” says Dhanani.
This calls for hotels to work with local communities and businesses, curate experiences and bring the destination into their brand storytelling, helping potential visitors picture a complete holiday rather than just a hotel stay.
The expansion of the potential tourism landscape and developments in the discovery journey of a traveller is also changing the role of online travel agencies (OTAs).
“The role of an OTA is increasingly evolving from being a transactional booking platform to becoming a discovery and destination marketing partner. Today, travellers often discover a destination before they decide to book it, and this makes it important for OTAs to participate in that discovery journey by showcasing what a destination has to offer,” Ahluwalia highlights, adding that the brand views destination marketing as working with tourism stakeholders to improve the visibility of emerging destinations and using digital reach, content and traveller insights to build consideration.
The ‘creator’ effect
Creators also play a key role in influencing how travellers discover places that are not conventional tourist destinations. Bijoor reveals, “Hotel marketing companies are already spending as much as 62 pc of their total marketing expenditure on creators.”
Highlighting the value creators can deliver, Ravi says, “A beautiful hotel may not be enough to get people to travel organically. The destination itself needs to become part of the proposition. This is where creators can play a big role. Instead of just doing walkthroughs, they can bring the destination to life through authentic experiences, local stories, food and culture, making an unfamiliar place feel worth exploring.”
Bijoor stresses that collaborating with local creators can be advantageous for hotels. “The credibility of the national creator who is from a metro city such as Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru, and visits remote corners of the country is reducing as people discover that money is often a key consideration there. The new creators that hotel properties must tap into are local creators,” he says.
Regional creators can bring cultural familiarity and a more grounded understanding of the destination, showcasing experiences that might not feature in conventional travel campaigns.
But industry experts stress that no single stakeholder can create destination demand in isolation. Negandhi notes, “Social media creates aspiration, communities create trust and technology helps turn scattered inspiration into a plan. That means hotels, creators, OTAs, tourism bodies and local businesses need to work as one ecosystem. Hotels need to create experiences worth travelling for; creators need to make them culturally relevant; OTAs need to make discovery and booking seamless; and local communities give the proposition authenticity.”
Dhanani backs this, saying, “The strongest emerging destinations will be those where hotels, OTAs, creators, tourism bodies and local stakeholders work together to build awareness, credibility and accessibility.”
Ultimately, the opportunity is not to make every lesser-known destination the next tourist hotspot, but to uncover what makes each place worth visiting. For hospitality brands, that distinction could shape the future of expansion into India’s emerging travel markets.
