The industry body has released a new policy brief, Destination Stewardship: Creating Value for All, outlining seven principles designed to help destinations manage tourism growth while protecting local communities, cultural heritage, and the visitor experience.
WTTC says international travel continues to expand, making proactive planning more important than ever. Rather than responding after problems emerge, destinations should adopt long-term strategies built on collaboration, better data, and community engagement.
The report argues that tourism, when managed effectively, creates jobs, strengthens local economies, and improves quality of life.
Travel & Tourism currently supports one in every 10 jobs worldwide and generates around 10% of global GDP. In 2025, the sector contributed US$11.6 trillion to the global economy and supported 366 million jobs. WTTC expects the industry to create one in every three new jobs over the next decade.
Seven principles for a successful tourism strategy
The organization says successful destinations share several characteristics. They plan ahead, measure resident satisfaction, use evidence-based decision-making, spread tourism across different seasons and locations, reinvest tourism revenues into local communities, and prepare for future challenges before they arise.
At the center of the framework are seven destination stewardship principles:
Plan together, grow together
Make resident satisfaction the measure of success
Plan ahead
Understand the issue
More places, more seasons, more value
Turn tourism into shared prosperity
Be ready to respond
This framework encourages destinations to redefine success by looking beyond visitor arrivals and instead measuring community wellbeing, long-term resilience, and the overall value tourism brings to local residents.
A question of balance
The report highlights several destinations already applying these ideas.
Madrid has focused on deseasonalization, decentralization, and stronger public-private collaboration to build a value-over-volume tourism model. Colorado has strengthened tourism governance through resident engagement and forward planning, while Bogotá has invested early in data and destination planning to improve long-term management.
Other examples include Dubrovnik, where smarter cruise scheduling has reduced congestion without limiting visitor numbers, New York City, which has expanded regional tourism experiences to spread economic benefits more evenly, and Spain’s Balearic Islands, where tourism revenues are being transparently reinvested into local communities.
The report also showcases destination stewardship initiatives in Copenhagen, Japan, Ljubljana, and South Korea, demonstrating that the approach can be adapted to different tourism models around the world.
WTTC President & CEO Gloria Guevara said destination stewardship succeeds when governments, local communities, and the private sector work toward a shared long-term vision.
The report also includes practical actions that destinations can implement immediately during the current peak travel season. These include monitoring resident sentiment, identifying tourism pressure points through better data, promoting lesser-known destinations, encouraging responsible visitor behavior, improving communication, and establishing coordinated response teams before issues arise.
WTTC says adopting these principles will help destinations deliver sustainable tourism growth while enhancing residents’ quality of life, protecting local character, and ensuring visitors continue to enjoy authentic travel experiences.
Tags: WTTC Gloria Guevara