BRAND DESTIN: A regional identity crisis?

In the eyes of some people, Destin’s boundaries reach from Okaloosa Island to somewhere in Walton County.

“There is a Destin brand and it extends beyond the geographical limits of the city,” Destin City Councilor Jim Bagby told The Log. “If you go out all the way to 30-A, probably, people will tell you they’re in Destin.”

Freedom Communications interviewed several vacationers on C.R. 30-A, and sure enough, one in three said that when they went home, they’d probably tell people they’d been to Destin.

“I would say Destin,” tourist Eamonn McCabe said.

For some people, the blurred boundaries are a problem: They don’t find out they’re outside Destin city limits until they apply at City Hall for the free passes available to city residents for Henderson Beach State Park or the Joe’s Bayou Boat Ramps.

For others, it’s a marketing opportunity.

Several years ago, one Okaloosa Island development cheerfully named itself “Destin West.” Destin Commons sits east of Destin city limits, which didn’t stop Legendary, Inc., from suggesting at one point it be named “Destin Town Center.”

Destin Moving and Storage maintains a warehouse in Santa Rosa Beach and an office in Niceville. Destin AA Taxi’s address is on Hollywood Boulevard and Destin Chops which used to be a staple on the harbor now is rechristened Destin Chops 30A from its new location in Seacrest Beach.

When Destin Commons was in the planning stages, some city council members wondered if there was any way to “copyright” the Destin name to keep it from being used outside city limits. The people interviewed for this article, however, saw the spread of the name as a good thing.

“Destin is a strong, international brand name,” Harbor Docks owner and former City Councilor Charles Morgan said. “Anything we can do to promote the name is good. I think it helps market the region, when other folks use that name.”

“I don’t think it dilutes the brand,” Bagby said. “Visitors may be staying in Okaloosa Island or Four Mile Village but to them in Birmingham, Atlanta, Nashville, whatever — they’re going to Destin.”

The area’s overlapping chambers of commerce also saw eye to eye on the issue.

“I think it’s great for the city’s economy,” President/CEO Shane Moody of the Destin Area Chamber of Commerce said. “Destin is a regional name, it’s a brand name that people relate to ... it’s so recognizable, it’s respected, people like to take advantage of a name like that.”

“Our tourists and customers who’ve been coming here for a long time refer to this area as ‘Destin’ or ‘The Beaches of South Walton,” said Dawn Moliterno, President/CEO of the Walton Area Chamber of Commerce. “I think any time we bring people here, it’s a good thing: I don’t think it matters whether they’re in Destin or South Walton as long as they come here.”

The Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council recently adopted “THE Beach” as a regional marketing slogan for the Panhandle. Bagby said it would make more sense to adopt “Destin” instead, “but I don’t think Panama City or Panama City Beach or any of those other places would have bought in.”

The whole debate couldn’t matter less to many tourists as they bask in the sun on the crystal white Emerald Coast beaches.

“I refer to it as paradise,” said Chase Schwarz, of Houston.

Walton Sun reporter Nate Kelly contributed to this article.