Randy Durband, CEO of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, said some of the best examples of a management-over-marketing approach right now come from smaller, emerging destinations looking beyond visitor numbers to include average length of stay, amount of money spent, and guest satisfaction level as key indicators in defining success.
One example is the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association in British Columbia, Canada. The group decided to split its resources, with 60 percent going to development and planning and 40 percent going to promotion. “The fascinating thing is that they’ve increased their number of visitors, length of stay, average spend — and they’ve improved relations between First Nation indigenous people and the greater majority white community,” Durband said.
Read the full article: Travel Megatrends 2020: Tourism’s New Competitive Advantage Is Protecting Destinations by Rosie Spinks on Skift (February 3, 2020)
