Umpf Destination Marketing
Putting your destination on the map (and in the headlines).
Looking for a destination marketing agency with the experience and results to back it up? You’re in the right place. At Umpf, we create PR and influencer campaigns that don’t just raise awareness of a place – they give people a reason to visit.
Whether it’s attracting first-time tourists, giving locals a fresh reason to return, or launching a new seasonal campaign, we combine creativity, media strategy and local insight to shine a spotlight on your destination.
We’ve worked with some of the UK’s best-known visitor spots, from national attractions and tourism boards to shopping destinations and outlets. Our campaigns blend earned media, social, influencer and experiential activations to deliver footfall, awareness and long-term engagement.
Read more about our destination marketing expertise below, and how Umpf can help you turn PR and influencer buzz into bookings.
Read on for:
- What is Destination Marketing?
- Umpf’s Approach to Destination Marketing
- Our Services
- Why choose Umpf as your destination marketing agency?
- Our 5 Favourite Umpf Destination Marketing Campaigns
- Destination Marketing FAQs
What is Destination Marketing?
Destination marketing is about promoting a location – whether it’s a town, district, visitor attraction or retail destination – in a way that makes people want to go there. It’s not just about awareness; it’s about action. Our campaigns are built to drive footfall, spark engagement and create lasting perceptions.
From regional press trips and national media coverage to local activations and social-first campaigns, we create and deliver multi-channel strategies that are tailored to your goals and audience.
Umpf’s Approach to Destination Marketing
Every place has a story. We help you tell it in a way that feels fresh, relevant and hard to ignore.
- Insight-led
We shape ideas around audience and/or visitor data, media insight and behavioural trends to ensure campaigns land with the right people
- Creative-first
We’re known for bold, headline-worthy ideas that balance cultural relevance with strategic purpose.
- Collaborative
We regularly work in multi-stakeholder environments – from local authorities and BIDs to creative, media and digital partners.
- Results-focused
We measure what matters: from visitor numbers to media impact, reach, engagement, and post-visit behaviour.
Our Services
We support destinations with one-off projects, seasonal campaigns and long-term retained support. Our destination marketing services include:
- Press office and media relations
- PR strategy and campaign delivery
- Press trips and journalist outreach
- PR stunts
- Events & experiential PR
- Influencer and creator campaigns
- Community and stakeholder management
- Social media and digital PR
- Crisis and issues support
Why choose Umpf as your destination marketing agency?
- 15+ years’ experience delivering campaigns for tourism boards, BIDs, attractions, retail destinations and local councils
- Award-winning campaigns, including a 2025 CIPR Excellence Award for a destination footfall-driving campaign
- Multi-stakeholder experience, working with councils, landowners, gldestiobal brands, creative agencies and media buying teams
- An agile, collaborative team with a hands-on, can-do approach
- An end-to-end offering: from creative concepts to flawless delivery and post-campaign reports
Our 5 Favourite Umpf Destination Marketing Campaigns
1. Cook’s Club gets travel media talking
To support the launch of Cook’s Club hotels in Greece, Türkiye and Mallorca, we ran a targeted destination marketing campaign focused on high-quality press trips, influencer visits and media outreach. We hosted national travel journalists, organised bespoke itineraries, and managed everything from travel to post-trip content. We achieved more than 150 pieces of media coverage – highlights included The Sun, Express, Mirror, Metro, Heat and Glamour. Our PR work was supported by social competitions and influencer content to drive further visibility, with a total campaign reach of 159.7 million.
Read more about making a splash with Cook’s Club here.
2. Hangloose Adventure – Making headlines at 100mph
We led the press launches for all major attractions at Hangloose Adventure Bluewater – a thrillseeker’s paradise, home to England’s longest and fastest zipwire, Europe’s biggest swing, and the UK’s only outdoor skydive machine.
Through the PR strategies for the three attraction openings alone, we generated more than 230 pieces of media coverage, including picture-led features in The Times (three times), The Telegraph, i, The Sun, Sunday Express, Sunday Mirror, and Daily Star on Sunday, plus regional and broadcast hits. Each launch was tailored to maximise national media interest, showcasing the scale and spectacle of each new experience.
3. Clarks Village: Pawsome PR puts Somerset outlet on the map
To position Clarks Village as a must-visit dog-friendly destination, we developed the Pawsome Pooch campaign – a playful PR and experiential activation designed to increase awareness, drive footfall and build affinity among dog-loving shoppers.
The one-day event featured canine competitions, giveaways and photo moments, supported by national and regional media relations, influencer content and social engagement. The campaign secured widespread coverage and was praised by judges at the national CIPR Excellence Awards 2025 as a “clever, feel-good campaign that delivered a creative and engaging experience with a limited budget.”
As well as scooping Gold in the ‘Best Beauty, Fashion and Lifestyle Campaign’ category, the activation delivered a 30% uplift in footfall, helping Clarks Village stand out as a destination with unique appeal.
Finally, following the success of our campaign, Clarks Village won the award for the UK’s most dog-friendly shopping centre at the DogFriendly Awards 2024.
See how we made Clarks Village top dog for destination shopping.
4. Visit Malta
We worked with Malta Tourism Authority for four years promoting the country through its official website, Visit Malta. From our Leeds office we promoted the islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino to a UK consumer audience via social media, influencers, PR and paid.
As well as running their official social media channels, producing content across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, we managed all influencer engagement, fam trips, award entries, as well as digital social media spend.
Our work included an ‘Influencer Island’ content creator campaign, a national photography contest, we managed collaborations such as Isle of MTV Malta and we worked with the media to place competitions.
5. St David’s Cardiff: Oasis ‘Wonder Wall’ bucket hat stunt
To celebrate Oasis’s much-anticipated reunion tour – and position St David’s Cardiff as the go-to destination for music fans – we created a headline-grabbing PR stunt rooted in nostalgia, creativity and visual impact.
We commissioned Welsh artist Nathan Wyburn to build The Wonder Wall: a giant 16ft x 20ft portrait of Noel and Liam Gallagher made entirely from 3,000 black and white bucket hats. The artwork was unveiled in the centre’s Eastside dining area, creating an unmissable installation that drove footfall, media coverage and social sharing in the lead-up to Oasis’s Cardiff gig dates.
To maximise impact, we teased pre-launch interest, secured on-site media attendance, and distributed photography, video and timelapse content within hours of reveal. The result was more than 65 pieces of coverage across national, regional and music press – including the Daily Mirror, The Independent, Manchester Evening News, Wales Online, NME and Hot Press – as well as significant traction on TikTok and Instagram.
Read more about how we built this nostalgic masterpiece from bucket hats.
6. Gunwharf Quays – Influencer staycation campaign
To tap into the rise of domestic tourism and position Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth as a premier UK staycation destination, we launched an influencer-led campaign that combined shopping, leisure, and regional discovery.
We teamed up with 8 travel and lifestyle influencers across Instagram and TikTok to showcase Gunwharf Quays’ dining, shopping, and scenic waterfront appeal. Influencers were paired with partners such as The Queens Hotel, Beckett’s, and The Spinnaker Tower to create authentic, local staycation packages that blended retail with regional highlights.
The campaign delivered 140 pieces of influencer content with an average engagement rate of 3.79% and one stand-out reel created by @amyenvoyage generating more than 1.4 million views. The success of this campaign paved the way for repeat executions during Christmas 2021 and Summer 2022, alongside inspiring a similar campaign for a Somerset shopping centre client.
See how we anchored Gunwharf Quays as a staycation destination.
7. Harry Potter – Diagon Alley on Google Street View
Back in 2013, Google announced that businesses could take their own images and add them to Google Street View. We worked with Warner Bros and their inhouse marketing team who’d had the idea to put Diagon Alley on Google Street View.
We secured a raft of media coverage internationally including the likes of ABC News, Mashable, Huff Po, Buzzfeed, Wired and IMDB, securing a reach of well over 100m.
Today, Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley remains one of the most famous – and most visited – Google Street View destinations in the world.’
Destination Marketing FAQs
What kind of destinations does Umpf work with?
We work with a wide range – including towns, cities, BIDs, tourism bodies, retail destinations, leisure attractions and cultural events.
Can Umpf work with local authorities or councils?
Yes. We’ve worked with tourism teams and councils in Cardiff, Kent, Essex, Oxfordshire, Somerset and Yorkshire, often in partnership with creative, media and internal stakeholders.
Does Umpf offer influencer campaigns as well as PR?
Absolutely. We’ve run influencer campaigns across travel, lifestyle and family sectors, both as one-off projects and at scale.
Can Umpf manage campaigns across multiple partners?
Yes. We’re used to working in multi-agency and multi-stakeholder environments, including national brands, international licensors, councils, landowners, creative agencies and media buying teams.