Building strong and resilient tourism destinations

Tourism is an important driver of economic development and can bring significant advantages to people, places and local communities. While some destinations seek to attract more visitors to harness the economic and social benefits of tourism, others aim to manage tourism growth and visit flows, adapt to changing visitor trends, and build tourism resilience to future crises. This paper highlights the need to develop tailored, forward-looking, and strategic destination development plans which align with national tourism strategies to achieve a strong and diversified tourism economy. Policy approaches to build stronger, more diversified tourism destinations are discussed including diversifying tourism to enhance resilience; promoting tailored, strategic tourism destination plans; fostering co-ordinated destination governance structures; strengthening tourism management capacity at destination level; and building evidence for destination decision making.