Why Do Destination Stewardship Strategies Fail Before They Start?

Imagine your leadership team just wrapped up a two-day strategic planning workshop. Board members, staff, partners and community voices were all in the room. At the end of the workshop, there was unanimous agreement: your destination is going to prioritize stewardship.

One month later, your marketing team has launched a new sustainability campaign. Your community engagement director is fielding calls from residents who feel misrepresented. And your advisory board wants to know how the campaign is supporting economic growth.

The problem? Everyone agreed on a word without agreeing on what that word meant.

This is the hidden cost of undefined stewardship language, and it’s more common than most destination leaders realize. Below, explore why shared language is a necessary foundation for effective destination stewardship strategy, how framing shapes understanding and what destination organizations can do to build the mutual understanding their teams and stakeholders need to move forward together.

Creating Shared Language Through Framing

When destination practitioners and stakeholders talk about stewardship, some may hear environmental conservation, others economic resilience or even regulatory burden. And some may disengage entirely because the word feels politically charged.

By creating a shared understanding for your organization and stakeholders, you can shape who engages, how resources flow and what solutions are implemented. In practice, shared language means your team is operating from the same understanding of what the work is, why it matters and what success looks like. This is where framing comes in.

According to the FrameWorks Institute, a nonprofit research organization that explores how language and communication shapes public understanding, framing choices,including what we say, how we say it, what values we emphasize and what is left unsaid, directly impact how people respond and act.

For destination organizations, the absence of a shared frame results in stakeholders filling in the blanks and strategies moving in different directions. The consequences are visible across destination organizations of every size, from competing narratives and stakeholder tension to duplicate efforts and wasted resources. The language gap doesn’t just stall strategic momentum, it shapes which strategies become possible in the first place.

Defining Destination Stewardship

Shared language starts with a shared definition. Let’s start off with defining destination stewardship. Destination stewardship is the continuous pursuit of a net-positive tourism ecosystem that exists in alignment with shared community values.

This definition, developed by industry leaders, was intentionally created to apply to all destination types, from urban cultural destinations to rural nature-based communities. Every word carries intentional weight:

• Continuous pursuit – establishes stewardship as an ongoing approach and organizational commitment, not a project with a start or end date.
• Net positive – sets an aspirational direction without prescribing what that looks like for each community.
• Tourism ecosystem – encompasses the whole system, from visitors and residents to businesses and local government.
• Shared community values – creates a sense of accountability, highlighting how stewardship must be rooted in and reflect what communities actually value.

Having a shared definition is the first step. But across the travel and tourism industry, most destination organizations are still operating without one.

A Global Framework Built By the Industry, For the Industry

Across the globe, destinations are individually trying to solve the same problem in different ways, because there hasn’t been a common definition of what destination stewardship is, where to start or what best practice looks like.

In December 2023, Destination Wayfinder convened the Global Stewardship Innovation Lab, a diverse group of industry thought leaders, stewardship practitioners and researchers, to accomplish two key outcomes: 1) create a shared definition of destination stewardship and 2) develop a global framework rooted in best practices.

The result was the Destination Wayfinder Framework, 71 elements representing the complete spectrum of destination management functions, categorized into nine core modules. In November 2024, the framework achieved GSTC-Recognized Standard status, meaning it is fully equivalent to the GSTC Destination Criteria for sustainable tourism. 

Adapting a Global Framework to Local Context

One of the most common questions destination leaders ask is, “Every destination is different. How does a global framework apply to my destination and its communities?"

The answer is built into the design. The global framework helps destination organizations ground strategy in globally recognized best practices while local context ensures the strategy is meaningful, credible and actionable for the specific community it serves. 

What This Looks Like in Practice

Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board leveraged Destination Wayfinder to organize an abundance of existing data, assessments and advisory inputs that lacked clear integration. With dedicated consultation support, Los Angeles Tourism worked through the nine-module structure to identify 12 stewardship priority areas and 97 action items, each categorized by barrier to entry, impact and timeframe. Destination Wayfinder helped turn local and regional insights into an organized and actionable roadmap.

In the South Pacific, Cook Island Tourism Corporation’s challenge was different. With tourism driving 75% of GDP and a whole-of-government commitment to sustainable tourism already in place, the organization needed direction and alignment after its GSTC Destination Assessment. Destination Wayfinder provided a baseline for stewardship capability and a platform for collaboration, helping Cook Islands Tourism operationalize global standards at the local level. 

Taking the Next Step

Shared language is where stewardship strategy begins. Here are three ways to move forward today:

Watch the Webinar: Building the Shared Language Your Stewardship Strategy Needs

As the Destination Stewardship Director at Destination Wayfinder and former Executive Director at Visit Durango, I explore why shared language is a strategic necessity, how the Destination Wayfinder framework adapts to local destination needs and what you can do to start getting aligned. Whether you’re just beginning to define stewardship or deep into implementation, this session will give you practical insights for the work ahead. Watch the webinar recording.

Download the Resource: Stewardship 101

The Stewardship 101 one-pager offers a clear, shareable introduction to destination stewardship. It defines destination stewardship, outlines four guiding principles that drive decision-making and maps the evolution of the destination organization. Use it to kick off an internal workshop, anchor a presentation or get your strategic partners on the same page before work begins. Download the stewardship one-pager.

Book a Demo: See Destination Wayfinder in Action

See Destination Wayfinder in action and explore how it can foster a culture of continuous improvement for your organization. This is an opportunity to discuss your unique challenges and goals,  exploring how the platform and framework can best support your destination. Wherever you are on your stewardship journey, Destination Wayfinder has a starting point for you. Schedule your Destination Wayfinder demo.