The method
Compass.
Every destination has a north. My job is to find it and get the market moving in that direction. The Compass is how I think through every project: orientation before movement.
Most marketing mistakes in tourism come from skipping steps: picking a channel before knowing who you're speaking to, or building a campaign before knowing what sets the destination apart. The Compass exists to prevent that. Four cardinal points order the decision, and a needle, active market listening, recalibrates everything every round.
- N North
Market
Where demand comes from. We define the potential and priority source markets before any tactic, both geographic and by profile. Aligned with the leading trends in tourism and consumer behavior, an immersive market analysis.
- L East
Positioning
What makes the destination or business different, competitive, and desirable in the mind of the traveler and the trade. A deep SWOT analysis and definition of the 8 Ps. It comes before the objectives.
- S South
Journey
Who the person is, and where in the journey they stand: dreaming, planning, booking, experience, advocacy. B2B and B2C never treated as one and the same. Factoring in SEO and AI search (LLMO), the journey is no longer linear.
- O West
Execution
Only now channels, content, campaigns, and tools, all derived from the decisions above. A practical, organized action plan, integrated into a Market Intelligence system.
Active listening · a agulha
The needle that recalibrates everything: observatory data and market listening feeding every new round. Without listening, the compass doesn't point.
Clients I've worked with
The foundation of it all
The 8 Ps of Tourism Marketing.
The Compass tells you in what order to decide. The 8 Ps tell you what needs to be standing before you advertise anything. It's the survey I run in every diagnostic, and the problem is almost never in the advertising: it's in one of these eight.
- 01
Product
The experience itself: the itinerary, the room, the attraction, the meal, the service. In tourism the product is lived, not delivered in a box, so it starts with expectation and only ends with the memory. A product that doesn't back up its promise turns marketing spend into expensive advertising for a problem.
What does the traveler take home that they couldn't get anywhere else?
- 02
Price
Positioning translated into a number. Too cheap erodes margin and signals low value; too expensive with no perceived value stalls the sale. In tourism you also have seasonality, B2B rate cards, commissions, and rate parity across channels.
Does your price tell the same story as your positioning?
- 03
Place
Distribution: where and how the customer actually buys. Your own site, OTAs, tour operators, travel agencies, walk-in, WhatsApp. Every channel has its own cost, audience, and level of control over the experience, so channel choice is a strategic decision, never an afterthought.
How much of your revenue depends on a channel you don't control?
- 04
People
Whoever operates is who actually delivers the marketing: front desk, guide, driver, sales, kitchen. Service is inseparable from the person providing it, so training and culture are marketing investments, not just HR ones.
Does your team know what promise the brand made out there?
- 05
Processes
What guarantees the experience repeats the same way on a Tuesday and on a holiday: booking, check-in, itinerary, after-sales, review response. A foolproof process is what turns a good day into a standard, and standard is what sustains reputation.
What happens when a customer complains, and how fast?
- 06
Positioning
The place you occupy in the mind of the traveler and the trade. It's not what you say you are: it's what they remember about you when you're not in the room. It comes before channel, campaign, and content, and it's what gives coherence to all the other Ps.
If you disappeared tomorrow, what would be missing from the destination?
- 07
Performance
Measuring to decide, not for a pretty report. Occupancy, average ticket, demand origin, acquisition cost, reviews, repeat business. Without numbers, opinion becomes strategy, and whoever holds the highest title wins the argument.
Which indicator would make you change course next month?
- 08 where almost everyone starts
Promotion
Only now: ads, content, PR, trade shows, influencers. Promotion is an amplifier, and an amplifier multiplies whatever already exists, including what's wrong. With the previous seven standing, it costs less and lasts longer.
Are you paying to be seen, or building to be sought out?
So where does AI fit in?
In service of strategy, never as decoration. Artificial intelligence, data and tools come in to scale, measure and personalize what the Compass has already pointed to. Technology solves problems; it doesn't replace direction.
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