The hotel that built its brand on a community's identity without consulting the community

I want to describe a pattern rather than a specific incident, because the pattern is more common than any single case. The property is located within, or adjacent to, a community with a specific cultural identity. The property uses that identity as the basis of its brand positioning. The imagery, the décor, the language in the brochure and on the website. The name, perhaps, borrowed from local geography or history.

The community whose identity is being used as the brand asset did not participate in those decisions. They were not asked whether the representation was accurate. They were not asked whether the use was appropriate. They were not told when the brand was being developed.

In some cases, they find out about the brand only when guests ask them about it. Which can be disorienting — to discover that your community's identity is the main attraction of a place that has never included you in anything.

This is a communication question

This is not exclusively a legal question, though it can become one. It is a communication question. The property communicated about a community without communicating with it. And that communication produced something that affects the community — how they are perceived, how they are represented to visitors, what elements of their identity are emphasised and which are erased, without their input or accountability.

The hospitality industry does this constantly. The conservation sector does this. The development communications sector, as I have argued elsewhere, does this with NGO impact stories. The common thread is the assumption that community context can be used as raw material without establishing a relationship of accountability to the community.

The honest question

The honest question for any organisation using community or cultural context as the basis of its brand: have you asked? Not permission — which is a legal framing that may or may not be relevant. Whether the people whose identity is at the centre of this brand have been genuinely included in shaping what it says about them. If they have not — that is not a permanent condition. But recognising it is where the more honest work begins.