The art & science of destination management

This essay first appeared in an extended format in ‘Wish You Were Here: The stories behind 50 of the world’s great destinations’ by Terry Stevens and published by GRAFFEG and is reproduced by kind permission of the author. Since then the world of tourism has been devastated and reduced to almost zero by Covid-19 pandemic. As this version of the essay is published, countries are beginning to emerge from the lockdown. This will take place on a staggered basis and recovery will take a long time. In these circumstances, destination management will become the most important aspect of tourism regrowth. The research and findings discussed below will be critical to the success of the future development of sustainable and resilient destinations.