Category Archives: Tourism Marketing

We are proud to share that we have become the first New Zealand agency to be named a finalist in the global Skift IDEA Awards, recognised in the "Industry Innovators: Tourism" category for our work creating the new Tonga Tourism destination brand.

More than 490 entries from around the world were submitted for the 2026 Skift IDEA Awards, which recognise innovative work shaping the future of travel and tourism.

Our finalist entry, “By the people, for the people – a living brand,” recognises our people-led approach to developing Tonga’s new destination brand, placing Tongan tourism stakeholders and communities at the heart of the research and brand development process.

“This is fantastic recognition for the Tomahawk team and, most importantly, for our partners at Tonga...

For many tourism operators and small businesses, wearing multiple hats is just part of the job. You're the owner, the salesperson, the customer service team, the operations manager, and somewhere in between, you believe you can do all of the marketing too.

But it's a myth, in reality while DIY marketing has its place, trying to do everything yourself can eventually become one of the biggest barriers to growing your business.

Why Businesses Choose the DIY Route

It feels like a natural decision to manage your own marketing when no one knows your business better than you do, social media and AI tools make marketing look easy, and you're trying to keep costs down.

In the early stages of a business, doing your own marketing can make sense to help you understand your...

Your website might be attracting plenty of visitors, but if they're leaving without booking, your user experience (UX) could be letting you down. The good news? Small improvements often have a surprisingly big impact on direct bookings. In this article, we'll share seven UX features that help turn more website visitors into paying guests.

We design tourism websites with a focus on user experience and converting visitors to book. In this article, we'll walk through the seven UX features that make the biggest difference for tourism operators looking to boost direct bookings and reduce reliance on OTA commissions.

Quick guide: 7 UX features that drive bookings

• Mobile-first responsive design: Captures the majority of travel traffic with fast, thumb-friendly...

We have officially welcomed our newest team member, Chip, an AI-generated T-Hawk with a smooth voice and endless enthusiasm for tourism and digital marketing. Well...technically he isn't that new. Chip was assembled somewhere in Silicon Valley and now calls a high-performance data centre home. It's warm, it's noisy, and apparently the Wi-Fi is excellent!

Chip is the voice behind Sound Advice for Tourism, our brand-new audio knowledge hub that brings its most popular tourism marketing resources to life for busy people who prefer listening over reading.

Each episode transforms one of our blogs or marketing guides into a short, conversational audio experience with actionable advice without the jargon.

"We wanted to make our content more accessible," says Renee Goodsell, our...

Online Travel Agents (OTAs) like Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, Viator and Get Your Guide have become an important part of the tourism distribution landscape. They provide visibility, reach new audiences, and can help fill beds, tours, and experiences that might otherwise go unsold.

But we often hear from tourism businesses that "the OTA can handle the customer relationship."

While OTAs are great at helping guests find and book your business, relying on them to manage the entire customer relationship means you're giving away one of your most valuable assets: your customer data.

Why Being Dependent on OTAs is Costly

When a guest books through an OTA, the platform manages much of the relationship. They control the booking journey, the communications, and often limit the...

When many people hear the word “brand”, they immediately think of logos, colours, fonts, or maybe a slick-looking website. And while those things are important, they are only the surface layer of branding.

Your brand is not your logo.

Your brand is the feeling people associate with your business. It’s the reputation you build over time. It’s what customers say about you when you’re not in the room.

A logo is simply the visual identifier attached to that reputation.

This misunderstanding is one of the biggest marketing myths we still see, particularly in tourism and hospitality, where businesses often invest heavily in visual design but underestimate the importance of consistency, customer experience, and trust.

Brand is Built Through Experience

Think about...