The Biggest Mistake Local Tourism Boards Make
Most local tourism organizations are pretty good at marketing.
They have websites.
They run social media accounts.
They produce visitor guides.
They buy advertising.
They attend travel shows, create videos, work with influencers and develop campaigns designed to convince people to visit their community.
And yet, some destinations spend year after year marketing themselves without becoming significantly stronger destinations.
Why?
Because I think many communities make one fundamental mistake:
They confuse destination marketing with destination development.
Getting someone to visit your community and giving them a reason to come back are two very different jobs.
And increasingly, I think the second one matters just as much as the first.
Marketing Can't Fix the Experience
Imagine seeing a beautiful advertisement for a small mountain town.
The photography is incredible. The downtown looks charming. The mountains are spectacular. The restaurants look amazing.
So you decide to visit.
Then you arrive.
You aren't sure where to park.
You can't easily figure out where things are.
Several businesses are closed.
There's nowhere obvious to sit outside.
You don't know what else there is to do.
The downtown feels disconnected from nearby attractions.
And after a couple of hours, you get back in the car and leave.
Was the marketing successful?
Technically, yes.
It got you there.
But was the destination successful?
That's a very different question.
Tourism Doesn't End When Someone Arrives
For decades, tourism organizations have often been measured primarily by things like visitation, hotel occupancy, website traffic, advertising reach and economic impact.
Those things matter.
But I think we should be asking another question:
What happens after the visitor arrives?
Can they easily navigate the community?
Do they discover businesses they didn't already know about?
Are there places that encourage them to linger?
Can they find something to do after their original reason for visiting is over?
Do they stay for dinner?
Do they spend the night?
Do they tell someone else about the experience?
Do they want to come back?
That's where destination development begins.
A Visitor Is Not the Same as a Customer
This distinction is incredibly important.
Suppose 100,000 people visit an attraction just outside your downtown every year.
It's tempting to count those visitors as part of the community's tourism success.
But what if most of them drive directly to the attraction and then leave?
They may technically have visited the destination.
But the coffee shop didn't benefit.
The retailer didn't benefit.
The restaurant didn't benefit.
The hotel didn't benefit.
The community captured very little of the economic opportunity those visitors represented.
The goal shouldn't simply be attracting people.
It should be connecting visitors to the rest of the destination.
That's a completely different way of thinking about tourism.
The Best Tourism Development Can Be Surprisingly Small
When people hear "destination development," they sometimes imagine enormous projects.
Convention centers.
Resorts.
Stadiums.
Major attractions.
Those can certainly transform destinations.
But some of the most effective improvements can be much smaller.
Better signage.
Clear parking information.
Public seating.
Walkable connections.
Public restrooms.
Digital wayfinding.
Attractive gathering spaces.
Events that connect different parts of the community.
Better coordination between attractions and downtown businesses.
Extended hours during major visitor periods.
Simple itineraries that answer, "What should we do next?"
None of those things necessarily make a spectacular tourism advertisement.
But they can dramatically improve the visitor experience.
And improving the visitor experience can increase spending without attracting a single additional visitor.
Stop Thinking Only About More Visitors
This may be one of the biggest opportunities in tourism.
Imagine a community currently attracts 500,000 visitors annually.
The traditional goal might be:
How do we get to 600,000?
But there's another question worth asking:
How do we create more value from the 500,000 people already coming?
What if visitors stayed another two hours?
What if more ate dinner locally?
What if another percentage stayed overnight?
What if they discovered three businesses instead of one?
What if an afternoon visit became a weekend?
Suddenly tourism growth isn't entirely dependent on continually increasing visitor counts.
You're improving the economic value of existing visitation.
And that can sometimes be far more achievable.
Your Businesses Are Part of the Tourism Product
This is another area where I think communities sometimes miss an opportunity.
Tourism isn't only attractions.
The bookstore is part of the experience.
The coffee shop is part of the experience.
The brewery is part of the experience.
The antique store is part of the experience.
The restaurant is part of the experience.
The person working behind the counter who tells a visitor about a great overlook ten minutes away is part of the experience.
Visitors don't experience tourism departments.
They experience places.
And places are created by hundreds of individual interactions.
That means local businesses shouldn't simply be viewed as advertisers, sponsors or listings in a visitor guide.
They are part of the destination itself.
Residents Are Part of It Too
There's another group tourism organizations shouldn't overlook:
The people who live there.
One of the strongest destinations is often a place residents genuinely enjoy themselves.
Think about the things visitors tend to love.
Walkable downtowns.
Good restaurants.
Interesting shops.
Parks.
Trails.
Events.
Public spaces.
Beautiful streets.
Live music.
Gathering places.
Those aren't exclusively tourism amenities.
They're quality-of-life amenities.
That's why destination development can benefit both visitors and residents at the same time.
If you're building a place people enjoy living in, there's a pretty good chance you're also building a place people will enjoy visiting.
Marketing Should Amplify the Product
None of this means destination marketing isn't important.
It absolutely is.
You can build an incredible destination, but if nobody knows about it, you still have a problem.
The distinction is that marketing should amplify a great visitor experience—not compensate for a weak one.
The strongest tourism strategy combines both.
Develop the destination.
Then market what you've built.
Listen to visitors.
Improve the experience.
Then market it again.
It's a continuous cycle.
Tourism Boards Should Be Asking Different Questions
Instead of only asking:
"How do we attract more visitors?"
I'd add several others.
Where do visitors go after their primary attraction?
Where are we losing them?
What frustrates them?
What prevents them from staying longer?
What prevents them from spending more?
What experiences are missing?
How easily can they discover local businesses?
What do they do after 5 p.m.?
What would turn a day trip into an overnight stay?
What would make them return next year?
Those questions move tourism from promotion into development.
And that's where things get interesting.
The Biggest Mistake
The biggest mistake local tourism boards can make isn't running the wrong advertisement.
It isn't choosing the wrong social media platform.
It isn't creating the wrong slogan.
It's believing their primary job is simply to bring people through the door.
Because getting visitors there is only the beginning.
A destination isn't successful because people arrive.
It's successful when people stay longer, explore farther, spend locally, have an experience worth remembering and eventually decide they want to come back.
Marketing can get someone to your community once.
Building a great destination is what makes them want to return.
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