Hello. We shape hospitality destinations with a distinct spirit of place.
Nuao is a destination strategy practice focused on what makes places distinctive and where they can go next. We translate that thinking across brand, property, and guest experience.
Our work is especially valuable during moments of transformation, when a destination is being created, renovated, repositioned, or entering a new chapter.
Services
Nuao works with hospitality destinations at pivotal moments of change, helping define a clear strategic direction before decisions become fragmented across brand, property, and experience.
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Define what makes your destination distinct, and what it should become known for.
We uncover the character, culture, audience, and opportunity of a destination to establish a clear positioning that can guide its brand, built environment, guest experience, and storytelling.
Best for: New destinations, repositioning, or properties that have evolved without a clear strategic foundation.
May include: Positioning strategy, competitive landscape, audience, brand narrative, experience principles, Spirit of Place
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Bring the evolution of your property and brand into one coherent vision.
Major renovations can transform how a property looks without fully addressing what the destination is becoming. We help connect positioning, brand, design, and guest experience so the physical transformation expresses a clear and distinctive identity.
Best for: Major renovations, repositioning, redevelopment, ownership or management transitions.
May include: Brand and property assessment, positioning refinement, design strategy, guest experience direction, brand-to-place guidelines, creative team alignment
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Give the people shaping the destination a shared direction for making decisions.
Through focused strategic workshops, we help leadership and project teams clarify what the destination stands for, what it is becoming, and the principles that should guide its evolution.
Best for: Leadership transitions, complex stakeholder groups, new initiatives, or projects where different teams are interpreting the vision differently.
May include: Leadership workshops, stakeholder facilitation, vision and positioning alignment, strategic principles, decision-making framework
Meet Christine
I’m Christine Koroki, founder of Nuao and a brand strategy partner. My work sits at the intersection of brand, place, and experience.
My perspective has been shaped by a career spanning brand strategy, design, cultural institutions, and the built environment, with work across Hawaiʻi, New York City, California, and East Asia. I’ve worked alongside architects, designers, strategists, cultural practitioners, and organizational leaders to help translate complex ideas into clear and meaningful experiences.
What I’ve come to understand is that the most distinctive places are not created through design alone. They begin with a clear understanding of who they are, what makes them meaningful, and what they have the potential to become.
That is the work I created Nuao to explore.
I bring a designer’s sensitivity and a strategist’s perspective to destinations at moments of change, helping establish the clarity that allows many people and disciplines to shape a place that is distinctive, relevant, and valuable over time.