Creating a Tourism Referral Program Across Three Outlet Shopping Centers
House Collective partnered with a real estate development and management company specializing in upscale outlet shopping destinations to lead the strategy and development of a tourism referral program across three outlet destinations in California and Colorado. Working with portfolio leadership, individual property marketing leads, and existing digital platform partners, House Collective developed the research, strategy, program framework, creative direction, communications, and implementation recommendations needed to bring the initiative together across markets. The engagement drew on House Collective’s experience in shopping center and destination marketing, including super-regional retail centers, outlet destinations, and entertainment-oriented properties.
Tourism Marketing Strategy · Marketing Leadership · Multi-Channel Program Development
Destination marketing · Tourism partnerships · Multi-property strategy
3 Outlet Shopping Centers · 1.39M+ Sq. Ft. of Retail · 270+ Brands, Retailers & Restaurants
California & Colorado · Award-winning destination retail properties
A coordinated tourism referral program framework adapted across three outlet shopping centers, connecting destination research, traveler journeys, partnerships, communications and measurement.
A shared strategy with market-specific activation gave each property team a practical foundation for strengthening visitor engagement, tourism partnerships and destination visibility.
OPPORTUNITY
Tourism traffic across three distinct destinations.
The portfolio wanted to strengthen tourism-driven traffic across three outlet destinations, each with its own market, visitor patterns, partnerships, resources, and marketing team. The opportunity called for a shared referral strategy that could create consistency across the portfolio while giving each property room to adapt the program to its destination.
STRATEGY
Creating a shared program with market-specific activation.
House Collective partnered with portfolio leadership to shape the strategy and launch plan, provide marketing leadership throughout program development, and coordinate the people and platforms needed to move the work forward.
Each destination had its own audience, visitor experience, marketing priorities, technology, resources, and operational capacity. House Collective created a shared program structure while working closely with each property marketing team.
Responsibilities
Key Deliverables
SELECTED WORK
Designing the traveler journey, operating model, and activation system.
House Collective combined destination research, traveler journey design, cross-property collaboration, and operational planning to create a tourism referral program structure each shopping center could adapt.
Listening to the traveler.
Before developing the program messaging, House Collective studied the visitor experience and the destination market surrounding each property. We reviewed hundreds of public reviews across Google, Yelp, Tripadvisor, and Facebook, along with area hotels, travel professionals, tourism organizations, attractions, competitive programs, digital listings, website analytics, and audience data.
The research was organized around the traveler journey for each center: what prompted a visit, what travelers valued, how each property fit within a larger trip, and which partners could help introduce visitors to the destination.
The research surfaced distinct travel patterns for each destination. One property was part of a mountain travel experience, another served travelers moving through a major regional corridor, and the California destination reflected Los Angeles tourism patterns, including international visitors and guests fitting shopping into a larger trip.
One strategy, three marketing teams.
Building a portfolio-wide program required coordination across teams already responsible for the day-to-day marketing of their individual destinations.
House Collective worked with portfolio leadership and directly with the Marketing Directors, Marketing Managers, and marketing teams at each property, incorporating their market knowledge, priorities, resources, and operational requirements into the program design. We also coordinated with existing marketing and digital partners whose platforms and systems would support implementation.
We developed a shared strategic framework that each property could adapt to its market. Recommendations accounted for differences in visitor behavior, local tourism relationships, available resources, technology, and each team’s capacity to manage the program over time.
Creating a concierge and tourism partner journey.
House Collective mapped the full path from awareness through membership and advocacy, connecting outreach, listings, content, social media, landing pages, email, referral tracking, rewards, and ongoing member communications.
The program manual translated the strategy into practical options the property teams could use. It included multiple rewards and tracking processes, from hotel-level tracking and individual concierge codes to technology-supported referral platforms, allowing each center to choose an approach suited to its resources and program needs.
OUTCOMES
Building a coordinated program system for three destinations.
House Collective translated the strategy into a complete program system for each destination. The work included program identities and logos, messaging and creative direction, calls to action, photography direction, landing pages, newsletter templates, email campaigns, SMS communications, social media recommendations, referral workflows, rewards processes, and program measurement.
The assets were informed by the surrounding tourism ecosystem, including area hotels, travel professionals, tourism organizations, attraction programs, visitor behavior, and digital channels.
The result was a coordinated program architecture with room for each property team to prioritize the audience, offers, partnerships, and implementation approach most relevant to its market.
IMPACT
Giving each property team a framework it could build on.
House Collective provided the strategy, research, program direction, and implementation framework while coordinating across portfolio leadership, property marketing teams, and established partners.
Each destination gained an adaptable tourism marketing system designed around its market, relationships, resources, and priorities.