Tourism strategy

The role of tourism in marketing a country is not just confined to the tourism dollars it attracts. Tourism can play a major role in influencing the perceptions of a country for FDIs and exports. There are five key interrelated questions that any country tourism strategy needs to address:

Reason: Why would they want to travel? (e.g. leisure, spiritual, adventure, sports, conventions, medical etc.)

Relevance: How relevant is the country’s current ‘product’ to the ‘Reason’ for travel? Do you work around the ‘Reason’ or the ‘Relevance’?

Region: From which parts of the world are we likely to attract tourists – given their ‘Reason’ and our ‘Relevance’?

Rivalry: Which countries/regions will ‘lose’ as a result of our ‘gain’? What will make them shift? Why us vs. Why them?

Relationships: Can our ‘product’ stand-alone or do we need to synergise with other countries in attracting tourists to the region at large?

Countries that have succeeded at international tourism ask these hard questions, define specific answers and ensure unwavering commitment to execution – covering the entire supply and demand chain.

(MTI’s 5R is a strategy model for destination tourism)