When scarecrow festivals evolve from school fundraisers into full-blown village takeovers - and people start competitively eating watercress - you know you’re not in a generic tourism marketing seminar.
In the series finale of Destination Unknown: A Destination Website Podcast by DestinationCore, host Neil Prentice is joined by Will Wright and Jay Pratt to focus on the one thing that quietly underpins everything else you do online: content. They argue that while design, UX, AI and booking tools all matter, your destination website will fail without the right content at its core - content that informs, inspires and actually helps people decide to visit.
As part of their regular spotlight on the weird and wonderful, the team talk about the Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival and the Watercress Eating Championship near Winchester - colourful reminders of just how much raw material destinations have to work with - before turning to what it really means for a place to think and act like a content creator, not just a listings provider. They look at how written copy, video, audio, imagery and social content can all orbit around key stories, and how a strong content model can feed websites, apps, in-destination screens and even AI tools and search assistants.
In this episode, we explore:
Why content is the central pillar of any destination website - the engine, with design and tech as the chassis
How to move from “keeping listings up to date” to behaving like an insider guide to your place
The importance of answering real questions visitors ask (including practical topics like parking, where to stay and how to get around)
How to design content that works across channels: website, social media, search results, YouTube, podcasts and AI-driven tools
Using events (from Christmas markets to watercress festivals) as anchors for rich, multi-format content - blogs, reels, stories, interviews and more
Why quality over quantity matters, and how poor, duplicated or badly organised content drains already stretched teams
Treating your CMS as a true content hub, feeding multiple endpoints - not just a place to publish web pages
Practical tips for repurposing long-form content into short-form clips and posts that extend reach and lifetime
A simple lens for every piece of content: would this help someone decide to book or visit?
How tone of voice, storytelling and entertainment help your brand personality come through - and make your place more memorable
If you’re planning a new destination website, rebuilding an existing one or simply trying to get more from the content you already have, this episode will help you reset your strategy around what really matters: creating distinctive, well-structured, audience-led content that turns curiosity into actual visits.
