There are two fundamentally different approaches to tourism: place-based tourism and entertainment-based tourism. Neither exists in a pure form; in any given destination the two approaches will be mixed.
For more than half a century there has been a convergence of the entertainment industry with tourism, inviting visitors to travel for an entertaining, engrossing, even enthralling experience that is more or less independent of the place where it happens. Gambling casinos, theme parks and water parks, large retail malls, cruise ships—and even some art museums and performing arts centers—offer entertainment disconnected from place. Entertainment-based tourism requires heavy capital investment, involves large-scale enterprises, and is always under competitive pressure from the “new-new” thing.
But travel was first about places—about going to an interesting place to experience what the place had to offer. The first tourism destinations were places notable for their landscapes, their exotic cultures, or their impressive buildings. Place-based tourism invites people to experience the character of a place rather than merely to be entertained by its attractions.
Relative to entertainment-based tourism, place-based tourism requires less capital investment, supports smaller enterprise development, is more compatible with a high local quality of life, spreads its economic benefits widely, and is sustainable. Building place-based tourism requires a special understanding and tools. We can help.