One of the major problems facing community-oriented tourism planning and marketing is the lack of local data. Most government tourism data is not disaggregated to the local scale so individual destination areas have been dependent on occasional and ad hoc surveys. This paper reports on one British Columbia initiative to overcome this deficiency, in the form of a demonstration project known as the Vancouver Island Tourism Monitor. This ‘industry driven’ survey produced information over a 12-month period that could distinguish local tourism destinations on the basis of their seasonal and spatial profiles. The success of this demonstration project has led the principal destination area of Victoria to adopt its own version of the monitor in order to develop more effective marketing and planning for the community.