As international travel continues to grow, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) encourages proactive and holistic destination stewardship, one that helps governments, destinations and the private sector work together to ensure tourism creates lasting value for residents, businesses and visitors alike
WTTC believes that, when managed proactively, tourism growth provides significant opportunities for destinations, businesses and residents alike. With stronger planning, collaboration with residents and evidence-based decision-making, destinations can build a tourism model that supports communities’ day-to-day wellbeing while unlocking the full economic and social benefits of Travel & Tourism
To support this approach, WTTC has published a concise and practical policy brief, Destination Stewardship: Creating Value for All, setting out seven principles to help destinations plan for sustainable growth, protect the character of the places people visit, and ensure the benefits of tourism are shared more widely. Recognising that many destinations are already in peak travel season, the brief includes “quick actions” that can be implemented now to help monitor pressures, support residents, and enhance the visitor experience this summer.
Travel & Tourism is one of the world’s most powerful economic sectors, supporting one in every 10 jobs globally, generating around 10% of global GDP, and expected to create one in every three new jobs over the coming decade. In 2025 alone, the sector contributed US$11.6 trillion to the global economy and supported 366 million jobs worldwide
WTTC believes the conversation around tourism must move beyond visitor numbers and towards how destinations manage growth. Successful destinations are those that plan collaboratively and in advance, measure resident satisfaction, use better data, diversify tourism across seasons and locations, reinvest tourism revenues into local communities, and prepare for future challenges before they emerge
At the heart of the framework are seven destination stewardship principles:
1. Plan together, grow together
2. Make resident satisfaction the measure of success
3. Plan ahead
4. Understand the issue
5. More places, more seasons, more value
6. Turn tourism into shared prosperity
7. Be ready to respond
Central to the framework is a shift in how destinations define success, not simply by visitor arrivals, but by resident satisfaction, long-term resilience, and the value tourism creates for local communities
The policy brief brings these principles to life through practical examples from destinations around the world. In Madrid, a proactive tourism strategy focused on deseasonalisation, decentralisation and public and private governance has helped build a value-over-volume model without waiting for pressures to develop. Colorado demonstrates how collaborative governance, resident engagement and forward planning can shape tourism policy, while Bogotá shows how early investments in data and planning result in better destination management and more broadly shared benefits for residents.
Dubrovnik illustrates how smarter management of cruise arrivals can ease pressure without limiting visitor numbers, New York City demonstrates how developing regional tourism experiences can spread economic benefits more evenly, and the Balearic Islands show how transparent reinvestment of tourism revenues can strengthen public support by delivering visible benefits for local communities
The report also highlights innovative initiatives from destinations including Copenhagen, Japan, Ljubljana, and South Korea, demonstrating that destination stewardship can be adapted to different tourism models and challenges around the world
Gloria Guevara, President & CEO, WTTC, said: ” When destinations are managed well, Travel & Tourism creates jobs, strengthens communities, protects cultural and natural heritage, and delivers lasting prosperity. Destination stewardship succeeds when governments, local communities and the private sector work together with a shared vision for long-term success. Our seven principles provide a practical framework that destinations can adapt to their own needs, helping ensure tourism continues to deliver benefits for everyone.”
Alongside its long-term recommendations, the report provides destinations with practical actions that can be implemented immediately. These include monitoring resident sentiment, mapping tourism pressure points using better data, promoting lesser-known destinations, encouraging responsible visitor behaviour, communicating tourism’s benefits more effectively to local communities, and establishing coordinated response teams in advance
WTTC believes destination stewardship should sit at the heart of tourism policy and planning. By adopting these seven principles and learning from destinations already putting them into practice, governments, destinations and the private sector can work together to ensure Travel & Tourism continues to drive economic growth while enhancing quality of life for residents, protecting the character of destinations and enriching the visitor experience
