The Remaking of Tourism in 5 U.S. Cities
Skift Take
Five U.S. destinations geographically spread out, of varying sizes and with different transformative strategies — and challenges — point to what destination marketing organizations will have to do in the coming years.
If the pandemic taught the travel industry anything, it is that change is necessary. For some local tourism officials in the U.S., transformation had been under way well before 2020, but new plans to serve visitors and local communities alike crystallized in the past year.
That's why we thought the time was right to highlight some of these changes through five U.S. destinations — Boston; Charlottesville, Virginia; Paso Robles, California; Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Each destination's tourism bureau was selected for a specific change they are undergoing, but at least two coincidentally converged around inclusivity, remote work, alternative funding models, community feedback or growing pains. Each one also touched the Skift megatrends of overtourism coming to rural and outdoor destinations, communities no longer being spectators in travel or the influence of remote work on traveler mobility.
Charlottesville and Boston embr