Roger Brooks

Founder and CEO of Destination Development International, Roger Brooks is one of the world’s leading specialists on community branding, development and marketing. Having assisted more than 800 communities throughout North America over the past 25 years, Roger’s experience includes all aspects of developing destinations:  product development, planning, recruitment of resorts and businesses, feasibility studies, branding, and marketing.

While working in the concert industry providing tour management to international recording artists, Roger majored in Marketing Communications at Central Washington University. From there, he was offered the opportunity to help brand and market several destination resorts. He began by assisting Whistler, British Columbia, Hilton Head Island, S.C, Sunriver Resort in central Oregon, and Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado with their ground-floor efforts.

Roger went on to serve as the Economic Development Director of Ocean Shores, Washington, a beachfront resort city. Charged with increasing tax base, Roger recruited nearly $200 million in new private investment projects to the city, as well as creating and implementing a $300,000 annual co-operative marketing program, and designing a new identity and all new marketing materials. The four-year effort doubled the tax base in the city and increased retail sales and services by $20 million in two years, giving the city the highest per-capita spending of any city in Washington at that time.

Roger’s dynamic and entertaining style has made him one of the world’s most popular keynote speakers in the industry. Using stories and real-life examples to inspire and ignite his audiences, Roger empowers his listeners to make a difference in their communities, and he has become one of North America’s most recognized and frequently quoted experts in the tourism and community branding field.