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| Andrea Braunstein |
America is having a moment. Since the start of the year, cities all over the United States have played host to major events and milestones. From Route 66’s 100th anniversary to the World Cup and America’s 250th birthday, the scale of these events is massive. As PR people, these types of moments can feel challenging to plan for, but an essential component to their success is a proactive and robust community engagement plan.
Community engagement is one of the most powerful tools in tourism marketing. To start, it transforms residents from passive stakeholders into active ambassadors for a destination. Secondly, engagement fosters dialogue, transparency, and trust, which can help to mitigate issues before they arise. Giving local businesses a platform to shine also creates avenues for the kind of authentic storytelling journalists hunger for. And, lastly, when you already have the community invested in the success of the event, they are much more likely to take note of the positive impact the visitor economy has on residents and local businesses.
Destinations International recently highlighted several other reasons community engagement is important for destination organizations in its 2025 DestinationNEXT Futures Study. The report notes, “With many destination organizations facing funding risks, centering residents' quality of life and getting community buy-in is vital to securing resources.” It also states that destination organizations are “evolving from traditional marketers into advocates for destination alignment development and community alignment,” and that “success metrics now prioritize resident sentiment and community well-being over raw visitation numbers.”
| This article is featured in O'Dwyer's Jul./Aug. '26 Travel & Tourism PR Magazine |
MMGY has recently led several campaigns where fostering community engagement has positively impacted results and has led to increased awareness and visitation. One of these campaigns is the promotion of Route 66’s 100th anniversary for the Illinois Office of Tourism. Through Illinois tourism grants, local organizations have created murals, public art installations, statues, exhibits, and events that reflect the unique character and history of their communities. On behalf of the Illinois Office of Tourism, we amplified these grassroots efforts through strategic marketing and earned media outreach, spotlighting people, places and stories that might otherwise be overlooked. Events such as the Big House Ballgame and Route 66 Centennial Kickoff in Joliet demonstrated how community pride and participation create authentic experiences that resonate with locals and visitors, generate media interest and strengthen the overall tourism campaign.
Another client, Visit Williamsburg, was seeking a standout idea for the nation’s 250th birthday that would help differentiate the destination from other historic destinations like Washington, D.C., Boston, and Philadelphia. We conceptualized an idea for Visit Williamsburg that aligned the current trend of picking up old-fashioned crafting hobbies, combined with the Revolutionary War–era craftsmanship people flock to as part of the Virginia Historic Triangle experience. We ultimately landed on creating a massive birthday quilt that would be woven together from contributions from people all over the country and publicly displayed.
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| Visit Williamsburg's Great American Birthday Quilt Project was embraced by and celebrated by the local community. |
| Photo Courtesy of Visit Williamsburg |
While this was ultimately a national campaign to attract tourism, it started with grassroots community engagement. Letters were written to schools, social organizations, scout troops, sewing circles and other groups inviting them to contribute quilt blocks. We also partnered with an artist who worked at a local museum to serve as a spokesperson and instructor for leading quilt-making events. This community engagement early in 2025 created extensive buzz and excitement for the project, which carried over to a huge turnout of local volunteers at a ceremony revealing the final quilt this spring. People took immense pride in their quilt blocks, and crowds gathered to see them on display. As a result, the destination received local, regional, and national media coverage and saw an increase in website visitation, YOY visitation, and engagement on its social channels.
There are times when community engagement is more critical than others and can directly impact the destination’s reputation. Events like the FIFA World Cup, the Olympics and the Super Bowl are cause for a great deal of excitement, but not everyone always sees it that way. These major events can cause disruptions to everyday life for residents and often spark labor disputes among hospitality and public transportation workers. To assist Los Angeles Tourism with its crisis communications preparations in the lead-up to the World Cup, we conducted a risk assessment and measured brand sentiment to identify issues early and develop strategies for mitigating any possible negative impacts it could have on the city’s reputation as a tourism destination. These efforts also led to ideation on ways to train hospitality and transportation industry workers to be homegrown brand ambassadors ahead of Los Angeles hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics.
In summary, having a strong community engagement plan for your brand’s next major initiative is a wise investment in both time and resources. Whether you’re doing it independently or you’re partnering with other community groups or elected officials, the goodwill it generates and the positive hospitality experiences it leads to will fortify your brand’s reputation.
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Andrea Braunstein is SVP, PR & Director of Crisis Communications at MMGY.
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