Expertise

Tourism policy & City marketing

Tourism Policy & City Marketing

Providing Direction in a Complex Administrative and Societal Context

This expertise is designed for municipalities, provinces, and destination organizations seeking coherence between tourism policy and city marketing. For organizations that recognize tourism can no longer be managed through isolated plans, campaigns, or trends, but instead requires clear choices, political sharpness, and stakeholder support.

Through Sherpa’s Stories, Isabel Mosk guides destinations in developing and refining tourism policy and city marketing in close alignment. Her work focuses on defining direction: what fits this place, what role should tourism play, and how can that be translated into a distinctive positioning and a story that resonates both internally and externally.

Tourism policy starts with direction and choices

Tourism policy is about more than growth, dispersion, or visitor numbers. It is about making deliberate choices: what type of tourism contributes to the long-term development of a place? Which values take precedence? How do economic, social, cultural, and ecological interests relate to one another?

In practice, tourism policy requires:

  • a clear course for the future

  • political prioritization and decision-making

  • insight into societal and spatial impact

  • choices that remain robust over time

Sherpa’s Stories supports destinations in making these choices explicit and embedding them structurally, ensuring tourism policy provides direction and a solid foundation for further decision-making.

City Marketing as a strategic instrument

At Sherpa’s Stories, city marketing is not approached as promotion or campaign execution, but as a strategic instrument. City marketing makes visible what a destination stands for and translates policy choices into identity, positioning, and narrative.

When city marketing becomes disconnected from tourism policy, confusion arises — internally within organizations and externally among target audiences. By positioning city marketing as an extension of policy, alignment emerges between:

  • identity and positioning

  • strategy and communication

  • ambitions and expectations

City marketing then strengthens direction instead of obscuring it.

When to work with Isabel Mosk

Isabel Mosk is often brought in when tourism challenges have become too complex to be resolved within a single department, discipline, or organization. For example, when:

  • existing tourism policy has lost its clarity

  • city marketing no longer aligns with strategic direction

  • tensions arise between residents, entrepreneurs, and government

  • there is a need for overview and focus

  • decision-making is postponed because everything seems equally important

Her role is that of a strategic facilitator: someone who brings together different perspectives and translates them into clear choices that provide direction.

The Sherpa’s Stories approach

Every destination operates within its own unique context. Sherpa’s Stories therefore does not rely on fixed models or standard solutions. The starting point is always the specific situation of a place.

International tourism trends, technological developments, media dynamics, and changing travel behavior form an important framework — but they are never considered separately from local identity, political realities, and societal challenges.

The approach focuses on:

  • collectively interpreting complex issues

  • making explicit choices

  • connecting policy, positioning, and practice

Analysis is not an end in itself, but a means to determine direction.

Strategic guidance in a complex landscape

Tourism policy and city marketing intersect with diverse interests and perspectives. Government, policymakers, entrepreneurs, residents, and other stakeholders often approach the same issues from different angles. It is precisely within this complexity that Isabel Mosk facilitates strategic processes that provide direction without oversimplifying interests.

Her role is that of a strategic guide: someone who helps unite perspectives, sharpen choices, and ensure strategy translates into practice. Not by prescribing solutions, but by collaboratively building insight, focus, and supported decision-making.

“Our collaboration with Isabel was marked by energy, creativity, and sharp strategic insight. Her professional approach — grounded in design thinking — helped us reach the core of our challenges in an open yet structured way. Through her expertise as a tourism strategist, her sharp trend analyses, and joint explorations, she guided us and numerous stakeholders toward clear direction. Working from stakeholder support remained central throughout, with ongoing attention to broad prosperity and strengthening regional identity. Together, we built a solid foundation for the recreation and tourism policy framework in Gelderland.”

Agnes Holtjer
Senior Policy Advisor Recreation & Tourism, Province of Gelderland

Design thinking and participation as part of the approach

Design thinking and participation play a key role in these processes — not as goals in themselves, but as methods to explore complex issues openly and structurally. By actively collaborating with administrators, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders, assumptions are challenged and choices become explicit.

Participation is not consultation after the fact; it is an integral part of the strategic process. Thinking and choosing together leads to tourism policy and city marketing that are recognized, supported, and sustained.

Identity and positioning as the foundation

A clear identity forms the foundation of both tourism policy and city marketing, not as a marketing concept, but as a strategic anchor. From this identity, it becomes clear which stories fit a place, which choices are logical, and how tourism can develop credibly.

From this foundation, the translation to city marketing naturally follows not by “packaging” identity, but by making it tangible in narratives, campaigns, and tools that align with how a place sees and experiences itself. That is when marketing becomes meaningful: when residents recognize themselves in it and feel proud of how their place is presented.

This connection between identity, strategy, and outward translation forms a key distinguishing element of Sherpa’s Stories. By consistently linking strategic choices to strong narratives and careful execution, city marketing becomes impactful, supported, and sustainable.

The effectiveness of this approach has also been recognized through multiple international awards — not as a goal in itself, but as confirmation that strategy, translation, and execution together can lead to marketing that is meaningful for residents and credible externally.

Why Choose Sherpa’s Stories

Clients engage Isabel Mosk when they are looking for:

  • strategic clarity without abstraction

  • guidance in complex decision-making processes

  • alignment between tourism policy and city marketing

  • insight into trends, technology, and changing behavior

  • strategy that works in practice

Sherpa’s Stories does not operate as a traditional consultancy nor as a branding studio, but as a strategic guide — thinking alongside clients, challenging perspectives, and helping define direction within a dynamic landscape of interests and change.

Who this expertise is for

This expertise is relevant for:

  • municipalities and provinces

  • DMOs and city marketing organizations

  • regions and destinations in transition

  • tourism organizations seeking focus, alignment, and stakeholder support

For places that understand tourism policy and city marketing are not about doing more, but about choosing better.

Interested in exploring further?

This expertise is intended for destinations that want to accelerate by first making the right choices. For organizations looking beyond isolated trends, plans, or campaigns — and seeking strategic guidance that provides direction while remaining practically applicable.

Isabel Mosk supports DMOs, municipalities, and provinces in refining tourism policy and city marketing, developing a clear vision, and making choices that directly impact policy, positioning, and narrative.

If you would like to explore whether this approach fits your organization, challenge, or development phase, feel free to get in touch at isabel@sherpasstories.com for an introductory conversation or strategic exploration.