A seasonal marketing plan helps a destination stay intentional when demand shifts. Instead of reacting to weather, school calendars, and event cycles, you can align messaging, budget, and partnerships to the moments that matter most.
For DMOs, tourism boards, and CVBs, seasonality is also an operational constraint. Staff time, partner readiness, and stakeholder expectations change across the year. A plan creates a shared cadence, so marketing supports visitation goals without overextending the team.
Author: StampIdeas. Last updated: January 20, 2026. In this guide, we outline a practical way to define seasons, choose channel priorities, coordinate partners, and measure what is working so next year’s plan is stronger than the last. This approach works for a small town, a region, or a multi-county destination.
Start with season definitions, goals, and audience timing
Begin by defining your seasons in terms that reflect visitor behavior, not just months on a calendar. Many destinations have at least four distinct periods: peak, shoulder, off-season, and event-driven surges. For each period, document the experiences you are prioritizing, the audiences you want to reach, and the constraints that shape delivery.
Next, set goals that are specific to the season’s role. Peak season goals often focus on distribution, visitor experience, and managing demand. Shoulder seasons usually focus on filling gaps and changing perceptions. Off-season goals may center on building awareness, strengthening partner offers, and creating reasons to visit despite fewer natural demand drivers.
Finally, map your audiences to decision windows. Some trips are planned weeks ahead, others months ahead. Social platforms increasingly influence discovery and planning behavior, so your timing should reflect when travelers start researching, not just when you want them to arrive.
If you want a destination-wide view of digital levers that support each season, this overview provides useful context: digital marketing for destinations.
Build seasonal narratives and partner programs you can execute
Once the seasons and goals are clear, define a simple narrative for each period. A narrative is not a slogan. It is a concise explanation of why a visitor should choose your destination during that season, and what the experience looks like when they do.
Then build a partner program that supports the narrative. For example, if a shoulder season is positioned around culinary weekends, you need participating restaurants, lodging, and event partners to coordinate offers, hours, and visitor-ready details. Your plan should make coordination practical, with clear deadlines, assets, and responsibilities.
Create a small set of reusable content formats that match the story. Short video can be effective for showing seasonal atmosphere and experiences, but it works best when it includes clear planning details and a next step. If off-season is a priority, connect your narrative to tangible reasons to visit, then distribute it through partners: promote off-season travel.
Choose channels by season and measure intent, not just attention
Channel planning works best when it follows the role of the season. In peak season, you may prioritize owned channels that help manage expectations, such as attraction pages, itineraries, and event calendars. In shoulder seasons, paid social and search can efficiently reach drive markets with a specific offer. In off-season, email and organic content can build familiarity and support future demand.
No matter the season, make sure your website and content fundamentals support discovery and verification. Many travelers will see a social post, then search to confirm details, hours, and credibility. Google’s Search Essentials provide a baseline for making content accessible to search systems and users: Google Search Essentials.
For measurement, track reach and engagement, but anchor decisions to intent signals. Examples include clicks to seasonal landing pages, itinerary downloads, visitor guide requests, partner referrals, and email signups. When the plan measures real planning behavior, budget discussions become calmer and improvements become easier to defend. If you are experimenting with AI for audience segmentation or creative testing, keep governance clear and results measurable: AI in tourism advertising.
Examples and use cases
A coastal destination may treat peak summer as a distribution challenge. The plan can emphasize itineraries, parking and access guidance, and promoting less-visited attractions to reduce pressure. Paid media can be limited to targeted moments, while owned channels carry most of the visitor planning load.
A mountain region may treat shoulder season as a perception shift. The plan can highlight experiences that are uniquely strong in spring or fall, then coordinate lodging and events into a simple “weekend ready” message. Social video supports discovery, and a seasonal landing page captures itinerary clicks and guide requests.
A small town with a winter lull may treat off-season as a partnership build. The plan can focus on a limited set of themed weekends, then activate local partners and earned media. The off-season guide offers a structured way to make that work sustainable: promote off-season travel. In each case, seasonality shapes what you prioritize and how you measure success.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How many seasons should our plan include?
A: Use as many as you need to reflect real behavior. Most destinations can start with three to four periods: peak, shoulder, off-season, and event surges. If two shoulder seasons behave differently, split them.
Q: What should we do first if we have limited staff capacity?
A: Start with clarity. Define the seasons, pick one priority audience per season, and build one seasonal landing page that partners can link to. Then add channels and content formats as capacity allows.
Q: How far in advance should we plan seasonal campaigns?
A: Work backward from the decision window. For some drive markets, that may be four to six weeks. For larger trips and group travel, it can be several months. Use last year’s web and inquiry trends as a starting point.
Q: How do we involve partners without slowing execution?
A: Create a simple partner kit for each season: message, key dates, links, and a small set of approved assets. Set deadlines for submissions, then publish on a consistent cadence so partners know what to expect.
Q: Which metrics should we report to stakeholders?
A: Report a mix of reach and intent. Reach shows visibility. Intent shows progress toward visitation, such as landing page clicks, guide requests, email signups, and partner referrals. Tie results back to each season’s goal.
Q: How do we keep the plan inclusive and accessible?
A: Use captions on all video, write descriptive alt text, and ensure key planning details are available in plain language. Accessibility improves visitor experience and reduces friction for everyone.
Conclusion
A seasonal marketing plan gives destination teams a calm structure for a changing demand environment. Define seasons based on behavior, set goals that fit each period, and build narratives and partner programs you can execute.
When channel choices and measurement focus on intent, the plan becomes more than a calendar. It becomes a system that improves year over year, even as platforms and traveler habits evolve.
This article was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by the StampIdeas team for accuracy and clarity. If you want support selecting partners and setting expectations, this agency evaluation guide is a strong next step: tourism board marketing agency. A steady plan helps you protect time, improve results, and build stakeholder confidence.
If you want a clearer strategy and more consistent results, schedule a conversation with Stamp.