Threats in the external environment and changes in the industry’s markets and structures have challenged destination marketing organizations to change in fundamental ways. The strategic responses to these developments are essentially decisions to proactively shape, adapt to, or passively struggle through a crisis. Envisioning the future of tourism and examining possible ways of reaching various future scenarios are essential exercises in this process of deciding which strategic approach to adopt. In response to the increasing need for new visions of the future of tourism and particularly destination marketing, leading destination marketers from the midwestern United States were invited to participate in a large focus group to discuss the specific challenges encountered by their organizations. This article summarizes the issues raised and their implications for destination marketing organizations as well as tourism research.

This study explores the existing markets of a unique annual event, the Spoleto Festival in Italy, that blends inter nationally well-known cultural exhibitions with historical settings. Behavioral, motivational, and demographic char acteristics of festival visitors were examined by using a posteriori market segmentation. Factor analysis was performed to determine the leading motivations for attending the international cultural-historical event, whereas cluster analysis was employed to identify groups of respondents based on motivational behaviors. Based on the findings, two distinct groups were formed: Enthusiasts and Moderates. The results of the study show statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of age, income, and marital status. Marketing and management implications for effectively targeting the two market segments are discussed.

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This article presents a model to explain and measure the determinants of tourism attractiveness of a destination by measuring supply-and-demand indicators. The guiding principle of this study is that the overall tourism attractiveness of a destination depends on the relationship between the availability of existing attractions and the perceived importance of such attractions. The method used qualitative and quantitative statistical analysis to inventory, group, and measure the existing attraction portfolio and its perceived importance. The findings confirmed that tourism regions are not created equal and reveal significant spatial differences in terms of resource availability and actual perception of these resources. The proposed framework could be used as a decision-making tool in planning, marketing, and developing appropriate resource allocation strategies.

Events and trends affecting the tourism industry are becoming more complex and fast-paced. In response to these radical changes in the external environment, destination managers are striving for new approaches to predict future forces driving change. With this goal in mind, the current study was conducted to determine future forces that are likely to affect the future of tourism in the tristate area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware from 2006 to 2010. The data for the study were gathered using the nominal group technique for scenario thinking, with informants from a variety of tourism businesses in the region. The findings of the study confirm that the tourism industry will be facing major challenges and experiencing swift changes. The global economy, changing market demographics, and emerging technology are forcing destination managers to adopt and implement proactive strategies to survive the competitive tourism environment.