Before most visitors arrive, they have already set in their mind what your destination is supposed to look like. And how they are supposed to behave in it.
That sounds harmless. It’s not. It’s why guests show up disappointed, confused, and harder to serve from the moment they arrive. And why you and your team spend time fixing expectations instead of delivering the experience.
If you stand by the lake in Hallstatt, Austria for a few minutes, you see it play out in real time.
Sightseers move toward the same stretch of waterfront, pause, and raise their phones toward the church steeple and pastel houses reflected in the water. Some scroll first. Checking the angle they saved earlier, then step forward to recreate it.
Hallstatt has fewer than 750 residents, yet millions of people recognize that single view.
People don’t arrive curious anymore. They arrive already decided on what it’s supposed to be.
By the time tourist…
