Around the world, there’s a new course to be plotted as destination organizations look inward at stakeholders and residents and begin to address the organizational changes needed to facilitate that shift: marketing must have a local voice, budgets need to address a wider scope of projects throughout…
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“We as a travel industry have come to understand that comfort is important. The residents are finally getting their say …long-term, comfort is a very sound business decision because we don’t want to overrun the golden goose.” — Eliza Voss, Vice President Destination Marketing, Aspen Chamber Resort…
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“You will not fail if you surround yourself with the right people, have the right leaders in place, and find the correct way to drive your team toward success.” — Ryan Bolton, Vice President of Product at Simpleview “At the end of the day, the culture has got to be authentic, and it’s got to stand…
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Plotting a new course in any industry is never easy. If you’re the early adopter or the leader of the pack, it’s compounded even more so by the structures and processes we have in place as businesses. In the early part of the last decade, some tourism destination organizations shifted to more…
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It’s no longer a point of discussion — there’s an obvious necessity for tourism to create legacy value improvements and assets for the places and people that choose to play host to visitors. As we re-organize and rationalize our destination organizations to serve citizens and visitors alike, we need…
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“The DMO got out of the way, and we let the passion of the resident talk to the passion of the visitor, and where that passion meets is where the transformation happens.” — Kristin Dunne, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand If you've been paying attention to the sustainability discussion in tourism for the…
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Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, destination organizations were midstream in dealing with digital disruption. Marketing for most destinations had shifted from predominantly paid media placement to earned media and intelligent social content. However, there was still a long way to go for destination…
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More and more, we see destination organizations worldwide launching innovative programs to engage local stakeholders in developing long-term strategies for regenerative tourism that serve both local citizens and travelers. And, yes, specifically in that order — local citizens first! Citizens must be…
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Episode guest: Greg Takehara, CEO of Tourism Cares Taleb Rifai, then secretary-general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), wrote this in the introduction to the 2016 United Nations Global Report on the Transformative Power of Tourism: “Tourism is much more than a leisure…
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Over the last three years on the Future of Tourism, we’ve talked a lot about destination development, stakeholder engagement, and the regenerative power of tourism when it's done well. But as my friend Petra Stušek, president at ECM and CEO of Ljubljana Tourism, likes to say — as of today, August…
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