An Integrated Systems Approach to Managing Tourism Growth: A Destination Marketing Organization Perspective

This paper presents a model that incorporates a systems approach for ensuring sustainable tourism.

From a destination perspective, tourism takes place in a series of embedded systems – tourists, enterprises, clusters, destinations, and the larger social/economic/political system. In order to maximize the benefits of tourism each of these systems must perform key tasks that maximize the benefits of tourism and/or mitigate or reduce the costs of tourism. In order to perform optimally, each level of the system must function in an effective manner and be mutually supportive.

This paper will first focus on a destination model for competitive and sustainable destinations. It will then explore linkages to other parts of the tourism system.