Welcome to Issue No. 034 of Sojourn. An independent publication delivering strategic interpretation for leaders shaping the future of travel and hospitality.
A pattern I keep noticing in hospitality right now: the more uncertain a brand is about what it actually is, the more programming it tends to put on the calendar. A wine night. A wellness panel. A pop-up dinner. A residency. Another residency. The activation calendar gets fuller, but the brand somehow gets harder to describe. That’s not coincidence.
Interpretation: Programming has become one of the most overused tools in hospitality, and one of the least examined. It tends to get treated as a sign of vitality, as proof that a brand is alive, current, in ‘conversation’ with culture. But constant activation isn’t the same as meaning. In many cases, it’s actually a substitute for it. When a brand doesn’t have a clear enough point of view, programming starts doing the work that identity is supposed to do. And it can’t, at least not for long.
A calendar isn’t a brand. It’s only an indicator of how often you’re trying to be one.
