Klein O'Rorke believes that all great developments contain three distinct, yet inter-related elements: offer, environment and experience.

Traditional thinking in the industry is that the experience, if it is thought about at all, is the result of the combined efforts of the offer and environment.

For years, this largely worked and developers could be confident that, if they built it, people would come.

In the last decade, however, things have changed and the change is accelerating.

Increasingly, to create a competitive edge and generate lasting loyalty, destinations need to think more carefully about the experience, rather than leaving it to chance.

Our view is that the experience must be treated as an equal partner to the offer and environment.

Defining the experience as a brand and using it to drive the communication can ensure differentiation from competitors. It also creates emotional engagement with audiences.

With many clients, we are taking this philosophy even further by working with them to look at how the offer and environment should be influenced by the experience, ensuring that differentiation is embedded in the destination.