Consulting Services For
Sharing Travel Stories With Impact
Responsible messaging matters.
Share your stories with our support.
Get the support you need to:
- Communicate with integrity and intention
- Promote responsible travel practices
- Share your sustainability and regenerative efforts
- Address global social and environmental issues through travel experiences
- Build impactful relationships with travel media, journalists, and content creators
- Connect with aligned travelers
- Amplify local communities and social impact initiatives
- Have thoughtful interactions with local partners
- Challenge the tourism status quo
- Shatter stereotypes and celebrate the uniqueness of places
Rewriting the Outdated Tourism Narrative
For nearly 20 years, Rooted’s founder, JoAnna, has worked in consumer-facing and industry-focused hospitality, travel, and tourism marketing and communications capacities. Along the way, she’s encountered generic content, questionable editorial and destination marketing practices, and outdated storytelling choices that undermine people, flatten places, and fail to inspire travelers in a meaningful way.
In 2019, she established Rooted to support the travel and tourism industry reevaluate its purpose and rewrite its narrative.
At Rooted, we work with award-winning, trusted partners to help tourism companies, destinations, and travel media platforms maximize positive impact while minimizing harm using empowering and strategic storytelling.
JoAnna Haugen, founder of Rooted, is an idea inventor, curiosity seeker, solutions advocate, and global traveler.
Our Personalized Consulting Services Include:
Are you overwhelmed by content ideas? Or, perhaps you’re not sure how best to organize, shape, and share your stories? Editorial teams with an unclear vision — or a desire to go in a new direction — risk publishing half-baked travel content that doesn’t reach the right people or align with company values. Whether your company publishes articles on its website or you run (or want to launch) a full-fledged travel publication, feedback and support can help realign and reinspire your content.
Content ideation and editorial advising may include:
- Clarifying a publication’s mission, vision, audience, and intention
- Evaluating past content
- Brainstorming new content and travel article ideas
- Developing a content management plan and editorial calendar
- Considering fresh and empowering approaches to travel journalism
- Revisiting editorial documentation like style guides and writer contracts
Get your whole company on the same page with customized training based on your team’s needs related to mindful and strategic communications topics. Topics may include (but are not limited to) understanding the dominant narrative, communicating about sustainability commitments, language choices, brand storytelling, working with content creators, connecting tourism and regenerative practices, ethical marketing practices, helping travelers tell a better story, developing inclusive communication, and using challenges as story starters.
Benefits of in-house workshops and training include:
- Content customization
- In-person and virtual options
- Relevant case studies and examples
- Delivery based on current and desired knowledge levels
- Interactive and hands-on activities
- Ongoing learning suggestions
With so much messaging and so many platforms, it can be helpful to get a big picture overview of where your company is at — especially if your marketing communications seem to miss the mark. A comprehensive review of your sustainable tourism marketing and communications ensures that the messaging your company shares with the world is effective, impactful, accessible, and appropriately aligned with your ideal clients and brand. This audit takes your digital footprint and brand presence into account, specifically identifying any gaps related to brand positioning, sustainability commitments, and audience engagement.
Delivered in partnership with Mankind Digital.
A marketing and communications audit is a good fit if your company:
- Received certification or accreditation but don’t know how to effectively communicate about it
- Is missing opportunities to connect with well-aligned customers
- Doesn’t have time, knowledge, or skills to prioritize sustainability-related content
- Isn’t sure how to communicate about sustainability or social good commitments
- Is concerned about greenwashing or greenhushing
- Works hard to create content yet fails to see results
Compiling your team’s knowledge into an accessible, engaging document is a valuable practice in transparency and cohesion — and a bit of help in this area can elevate the results. Documents like sustainability, impact, and trend reports are an opportunity to showcase your team’s sustainability actions and thought leadership. Additionally, in-house documentation like ethical marketing guidelines or style guides ensures everyone on your team is aligned and working toward a shared goal.
Report and documentation development support may include:
- Ideation and content strategy
- Documentation organization and flow
- Developmental editing
- Insight on best practices, relevant frameworks, and case studies
- Co-creation and collaboration
- Copywriting services
You know your company best, and you know what your marketing and communications pain points are. Because every tourism company, destination, and travel publication is different, there is rarely a one-size-fits-all solution that meets all needs. Don’t let that stop your company if you think the Rooted team can support you on your ethical marketing and strategic storytelling journey. We’ve worked with many clients on projects that don’t fit neatly into a single offering.
Additional storytelling services may include:
- Trip cohesion: Learn how to maximize your company’s offerings by using a trip or destination to frame storytelling.
- Story discovery: Uncover unexpected and alternative storylines hidden throughout the customer and traveler journey.
- Brand storytelling: Get clear about what your brand stands for and ensure you’re using jargon-free, aligned messaging.
- Research and analysis: Use our network and expertise to compile research related to sustainability best practices, storytelling examples, event speakers, and more.
A Small, Woman-Owned Tourism Consultancy
Committed to Empowering Your Company
We love working with people and organizations committed to reimagining travel experiences, supporting sustainable communities, and embracing regenerative business practices.
When you show up with good intentions, we’re excited to do the same.
When you work with Rooted, you can expect:
A discovery call to ensure we’re a good fit
A sense of curiosity and interest
Transparency and honesty
Clear communication
Timely delivery
Professionalism
Validation of “the journey” as your company evolves its practices
“A la carte” services that address your specific pain points
Knowledge of market trends and how they apply to your company
We Know Your Travel Communications Challenge…
And We Can Help Solve It!
Reimaging and recreating a vibrant, resilient, and holistically beneficial version of tourism is not simple. But if you’re interested and committed to this vision, we can help ensure your tourism marketing and storytelling efforts support your actions.
These are a few of the key communications-related challenges experienced across the tourism industry.
(Spoiler alert: They are also powerful opportunities to communicate better!)
Tour Operators
- Appropriately amplifying community tourism
- Building narrative arcs into tours
- Integrating challenging topics into travel experiences
- Navigating power dynamics with local partners
- Helping passive tourists become engaged global citizens
- Communicating boundaries and expectations with travelers
Travel Journalists and Content Creators
- Finding untold stories that attract editors and followers
- Navigating ethical content-related quandaries
- Avoiding stereotypes and clichés
- Building relationships with destinations and travel experience providers
- Improving general reporting and storytelling skills
- Understanding how content choices impact traveler behavior
Small Travel Business Owners and Entrepreneurs
- Articulating brand stories and messaging
- Learning how to prioritize marketing messages
- Improving basic marketing and communications skills
- Capitalizing on unique selling propositions (USPs) through storytelling
- Cohesively communicating across the buyer and traveler journeys
- Using communication to support internal operations
Travel Media Publications and Platforms
- Finding fresh ways to share stories about popular destinations
- Deciding how to responsibly cover less-visited places
- Lifting up marginalized writers and creators
- Navigating problematic article formats and content challenges
- Developing ethical editorial practices
- Publishing inspiring but accurate content
Destinations and DMOs
- Introducing unexpected ways to visit and experience a place
- Highlighting unique features of a place
- Surfacing alternative storylines that introduce complexity
- Developing domestic tourism and encouraging return visitation
- Working with travel content creators and media to tell a compelling story
- Communicating sustainability efforts and community-driven initiatives in an accessible way
Tourism Associations, Organizations, and Membership Groups
- Building transparency and accountability frameworks
- Offering marketing and communications training and support
- Developing accessible and inclusive messaging
- Creating thought leadership around impact-related topics
- Connecting members with best practices and case studies
- Communicating with intention across a globally diverse membership base
Travel PR, Marketing, and Communications Professionals
- Creating style guides and other content-related tools
- Communicating effectively with global and diverse internal teams
- Developing compelling content that aligns with travelers
- Training teams how to communicate meaningfully with guests
- Compiling and sharing sustainability and impact updates
- Ensuring cohesiveness across all communication channels
{ Hear From Some Of Our Satisfied Clients }
Frequently Asked Questions About
Tourism Communications Consultation Services
Rooted is a small, independent tourism consultancy run by JoAnna Haugen and supported by a network of well-connected tourism partners. When you work with Rooted, you receive personal, customized attention and services while benefiting from the cost savings of outsourcing to a subject area expert. JoAnna is able to simplify complex topics related to the connection of sustainable tourism, travel storytelling, and social impact — and even makes the process accessible and fun.
Past clients also appreciate our emphasis on honesty, transparency, addressing difficult issues, and calling the outdated status quo in the tourism industry into question.
Once you get in touch with us with a brief explanation of your challenge, we’ll set up a discovery call to ask questions and learn more. From there, we’ll draft a proposal outlining expectations, a timeline, and deliverables, which we’ll agree upon together before moving onto your travel initiative or project. We encourage anyone from your team with a part in the project to be active in these planning stages so that expectations are clearly defined and you are thrilled with the outcome.
When you work with us, we are a partner in your process and invested in your success — but don’t be surprised if we nudge your thinking in surprising directions. We are well known — and specifically sought out — for our out-of-the-box ideas, unconventional questions, and willingness to challenge “business as usual.”
Travel content in print and on online publishing platforms is highly influential in travelers’ decision-making process. Travel storytelling is a powerful way to inspire people, but it also creates awareness, gives space to unheard narrators, alters people’s perspectives, challenges biases, and changes the way people approach travel experiences. That’s a lot of responsibility!
You know your travel publication, company, or destination best. However, someone with an outside perspective with both B2C and B2B editorial experience can uncover fresh content ideas, identify gaps in best practices, and offer new overarching suggestions to the editorial approach.
Your team gets the best of both worlds when investing in in-house training from Rooted: An award-winning speaker and a wealth of knowledge about tourism marketing, strategic travel storytelling, social impact, sustainable and regenerative tourism, community tourism, women’s empowerment in tourism, and innovative ideation.
Depending on your specific requests and needs, your customized training or workshop will ensure your team is prepared to:
- Stand confidently behind a brand story that matters.
- Surface interesting and inspiring stories about and for your tourism business, travel publication, or destination.
- Identify gaps in your travel-related communications without external support.
- Use storytelling as a tool to create more intentional and interesting travel experiences.
- Clearly communicate your sustainability commitments and impact.
- Highlight the connections between sustainable tourism, regenerative practices, and social impact, and use intentional messaging practices to uplift the planet, people, and places.
The tourism industry has many benefits: Approximately 10% of jobs around the world are tied directly to the hospitality and tourism sectors. Travel also offers a unique way to connect people, promote stewardship, and create awareness about environmental and social issues.
However, tourism also causes a lot of harm. Recognizing this, travel companies, tour operators, and destinations have set environmental, cultural, and social benchmarks and initiatives. These commitments are intended to have a positive impact, and it’s important to communicate that impact with external stakeholders, travelers, and other companies working in tourism.
Our consulting clients consist of tour operators, destinations and DMOs, PR and marketing teams, tourism associations, travel editorial boards, and professional conference and training organizers.
Though the majority of JoAnna’s consulting experience is in the tourism and hospitality industries, she has worked with a wide variety of forward-thinking and innovative companies committed to sustainable development, conservation, and regenerative practices. Storytelling is universal and can be used in powerful ways across every industry and sector.
Your Tourism Marketing and Travel Communications Partner
Work With Someone Who Believes In Tourism’s Potential and Your Success
We live in an uncertain world with a precarious future. The time is right for rethinking, reframing, and recommitting to a responsible, accessible form of tourism committed to sustainable development and regenerative travel practices.
At Rooted, we believe the journey to realizing this vision of tourism is just as important as the destination. Your influence and impact matter. With our personalized training support and robust offering of tourism consulting services, we proudly walk this journey with you.
