Abstract
This conceptual paper develops and justifies a pro-active, design-driven approach to sustainable destination development. Using insights from design science, it helps explain the limited practical usability of concepts such as the Tourism Area Life Cycle, by noting that these often focus on an aggregated ‘topological’ level of destination design, while a focus on experiences and product development on a ‘typological’ and ‘morphological’ level is key to constitute change. The ‘Tourism Destination Design Roadmap’ is introduced, its potential to scrutinise ‘visitor flows’ is explored as well as ways in which it can contribute to developing desirable qualities in a destination, while minimising negative impacts. The paper concludes by highlighting its conceptual contribution and identifying directions for future research.
Highlights
The development of tourism destinations often is analogous to the well-known Aesopian fable ‘the goose that lay the golden eggs’, with destinations struggling to prevent tourism from spoiling that what makes them unique and special
Further developing specific support resources could enhance a range of visitor experiences but developing and maintaining these resources could come at unacceptable environmental costs. In such situations, roadmapping can prove a valuable tool to assist in balancing outcomes from multiple perspectives. Such insights are interesting from a purely academic point of view but, and possibly more important given the analysis presented in previous sections, the Tourism Destination Design Roadmap can be used to take control of a visitor flow in practice by assisting on decision making with respect to development and retirement priorities
This paper has introduced concepts from design science and design thinking to further understanding with regards to sustainable destination development
Summary
The development of tourism destinations often is analogous to the well-known Aesopian fable ‘the goose that lay the golden eggs’, with destinations struggling to prevent tourism from spoiling that what makes them unique and special. In spite of the identification of an increasing number of strategies and best-practices to manage or mitigate overtourism, destinations seem unable to move away from a growth paradigm even when this is likely to lead to decline in the long run (Koens et al, 2018) It has been argued the COVID-19 pandemic may provide overvisited destinations with an opportunity to make a fresh start and transform tourism to become more sustainable, better serve the ‘public good’ and allow for ‘human flourishing’ Design science and design thinking can help overcome social and institutional barriers that limit formalised policymaking processes to prevent excesses such as overtourism (Koens et al, 2019; Scuttari et al, 2021) This conceptual paper takes a transdisciplinary approach to provide two original contributions to the burgeoning debate on design in tourism. This paper explores and illustrates how this framework can be used by stakeholders within destinations to take a pro-active approach to sustainable development of tourism by pro-actively accounting for the needs and wants of visitors and residents
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