Destinations International Gets 55% More Engagement with Higher Logic Thrive Community
About Destinations International
Destinations International (DI) is the global association for destination professionals. They empower convention and visitor bureaus, tourism boards, and destination organizations through community, advocacy, and educational resources. Their mission: to catalyze global destination and economic development through the power of travel.
As part of this mission, DI is committed to offering high-impact member experiences that keep professionals engaged, informed, and connected.
The Opportunity: A Community Glow-Up
Destinations International wanted their online community to become a true destination—a hub where members could form meaningful connections, easily access resources, and stay engaged. Their goal was to create a space that felt personalized, professional, and dynamic for over 8,000 members.
With guidance from the Arritt Group, they selected Higher Logic Thrive Community to power this transformation. Alongside, they also implemented Higher Logic Thrive Marketing and Jobs, replacing their previous platform, Act-On, and career center software.
“We replaced Act-On with Higher Logic Thrive Marketing and Community. We have also now replaced our former career center with Higher Logic Thrive Jobs.”
How They Did It: Building a Stronger Experience
1. Creating an Inviting User Experience
The new community homepage, created with Higher Logic Thrive Community, introduced a social media-style feed showing real-time discussions and updates—keeping logged-in members continuously engaged. Key improvements included:
- Prominent placement of discussion threads
- One-click interaction features (like, reply, recommend)
- Homepages for logged-out visitors to highlight member-only benefits
2. Personalization and Relevance
Joanna and her team introduced quick links tailored by user type, ensuring members, industry partners, and guests all saw the most relevant resources. This hyper-targeted design increased engagement across the board.
3. Showcasing Member Value
The new homepage for non-members acts as a membership acquisition tool, highlighting webinars, events, exclusive portals (like RFPs and speaker bureaus), and other members-only content.
“Higher Logic Thrive Community has an engaging home page format that really invites our members to stay longer in the community and to interact more with their peers. With Higher Logic Thrive, non-logged-in users see a community home page that showcases valuable member benefits.”
New Tools & Resources Rolled Out
Libraries for Engagement
The team launched three major community resources:
- Job Description Library – Members share and reuse templates
- RFP Portal – Destination RFPs are tagged, searchable, and time-sensitive
- Speaker Directory – Filterable by topic and location for event planning
All libraries use Higher Logic Thrive’s tagging functionality for quick discovery.
Community How-To Videos
Using Canva and HTML, Joanna created a simple, engaging video series to help members navigate the new features. These tutorials were paired with downloadable PDFs for members who preferred written instructions.
The Technical Win: Better Integration and Marketing
Before Higher Logic Thrive, DI’s marketing team faced labor-intensive workflows, relying on manual uploads and disconnected platforms. With Higher Logic:
- They achieved Single Sign-On with their AMS, re:Members (formerly Impexium)
- Eliminated repetitive manual tasks
- Unified marketing and community data for seamless member experiences
“Integration and Single Sign-On with re:Members creates a much better user experience for our members across our platforms,” said David.
The Results
- 55% increase in engaged users
- 27% increase in engagement from non-staff contributors
- New personalized homepages for both members and guests
- Improved email performance (open and click-through rates above industry benchmarks)
Looking Ahead
- David and Joanna’s teams are excited to continue expanding with Higher Logic Thrive tools. Future priorities include:
- Credentialing modules
- Submissions and review workflows
- Enhanced social feeds
- AI-powered search assistants and other intelligent tools
“I’m excited to further build out some of the additional features included in Higher Logic Thrive Community, ” said David.
Conclusion
Through a combination of strategic design, personalization, seamless integrations, and resource-rich engagement, Destinations International has transformed their member experience into a high-performing digital community. With Higher Logic Thrive, they’ve not only seen impressive engagement gains—they’ve laid a foundation for ongoing innovation, member value, and global impact.
Want to learn more about Destinations International’s journey with Higher Logic? Check out this case study they shared at Super Forum 2024.
How can Higher Logic Thrive grow your community?
Let’s set up time to talk about your needs and how we can help you deepen member engagement.
