The tourist destination is a geographical location that travelers choose to visit at the preferred time. It is basically a system containing a number of components such as attractions, accommodation, transport, and other services and infrastructure and has got physical and administrative boundaries.
A destination can be as small as a single building or as large as an entire continent. Howsoever the size of the destination, adequate facilities and services must be developed to satisfy the need of visitors.
Destination development is the strategic planning and advancement of defined areas to support the evolution of desirable destinations for travelers, with the sole focus on the supply side of tourism, by providing compelling experiences, quality infrastructure, and remarkable services to entire repeat visitation.
Tourist destination development is a function of natural and cultural resources the destination is endowed with, its history and heritage, as well as the political and legal system of the country, which could positively or negatively influence the development of a destination including the infrastructure.
Processes of Tourist Destination Development
Destination Audit :
Destination audit analyzes the current situation of tourism in a destination,
evaluates the development potential, and identifies the most useful short-term actions. It is the ideal service for small and emerging destinations, where tourism is only in its initial development phase. The audit will show where your destination is missing opportunities to provide a stronger product and how to fix them.
Partnership Building:
The best way to maximize a destination’s tourism budget is to build
partnerships and combine marketing efforts into one coherent voice. A partnership approach to marketing provides greater strength, unity, and leveraged results and will more effectively market the destination together when compared to individual efforts.
Vision:
It is the capacity to envisage future market trends and plan accordingly. The vision of how the destination can be developed in the future according to the present scenario and how this development will benefit the destination and its attractions are of utmost importance while developing a site as a tourist destination.
SWOT Analysis:
Resource Analysis:
The process of determining the economic resource impacts of alternative
proposals for the future courses of action. Here, the physical quantities are often translated into monetary terms. The resource analyst must not only give attention to economic costs but also has to determine if it is feasible to obtain physical material and manpower in the required time period to develop a destination.
Tourism Marketing Plan:
A tourism marketing plan outlines the advertising and overall marketing
approach that will be used to promote a destination. It lays emphasis on the allocation of marketing resources in the best and most economical way. It also involves the preparation of policies, programs, budgets, etc for carrying out various activities to attain marketing goals.
So, the tourism policymakers, destination organizers, and service providers have to be set up such that they seek to provide high-quality visitor experiences that are profitable to destination stakeholders while ensuring that the destination isn’t compromised in terms of its environmental social, and cultural
integrity.
And the development of tourist destinations should be carried out in such a way that it would create a memorable tourist experience and at the same time increases the sustainability of tourist destinations.
