Travel Megatrends 2018: Cities Navigate the Clash of Visitor Vs. Local
Photo Caption: Promoters of tourism and economic development are better collaborating to benefit area residents and diversify visitor spend. Patricia Mafra
Skift Take
City leaders in government, tourism, and economic development are collaborating more strategically to grow their leisure and business travel sectors in alignment with the interests of their local communities and industries.
Skift Megatrends 2018
In January 2018 released our annual travel industry trends forecast, Skift Megatrends 2018. You can read about each of the trends on Skift, or download a copy of our magazine here.Traditionally in cities, tourism boards have strived to attract higher numbers of visitors, while economic development agencies focused on strengthening the local business community and infrastructure. Different government departments worked with each side, but in the big scheme of things, there often wasn’t a lot of collaboration between the people stewarding the growth of their visitor economy and local economy.
Today, the public and private sectors promoting tourism and economic development are collaborating more intentionally, in both the leisure and meetings segments, to benefit a wider breadth of area residents and drive local industry growth.
Beginning with the leisure travel industry, every city is attempting to diversify visitor spending and push incoming travelers beyond the most frequented tourism areas. This is designed to alleviate congestion and spread tourism dollars more evenly into underserved regions. At the extreme end, cities like Barcelona
