If you've ever sat down to write a marketing plan and ended up with a 40-page document that nobody looks at again, you're not alone. We see it all the time. Destinations and tourism organisations put real effort into planning, but the document ends up in a drawer while the team goes back to posting on Instagram and hoping for the best.

The problem isn't the plan itself. It's that most destination marketing plans are written to be impressive rather than useful. They're full of goals that can't be measured, strategies that aren't connected to real budgets, and audience descriptions so broad they could apply to anyone. Here's how to build a plan that your team will actually use — one that drives real results for your destination.