Commitment - Make Your Vision Happen

COMMITMENT – MAKE YOUR VISION HAPPEN

Once a community has come together with a collective vision of who they want to be as a tourism destination, the vision needs to be turned into reality. This action step means working a plan accepted by the majority of businesses in the community, with consistency, positive energy and a goal of attaining excellence.

The community will need to know what they have to offer visitors and who their target market is. What experiences and services do they have and what kind of visitors will those entities attract? What guarantees can the community give those who are willing to spend time and money at their offered destination? Is what the community has to offer visually appealing? Easy to get to? Easy to understand? Have previous visitors left comments and reviews? Have people been trained to identify and meet the needs of visitors?

Often a budding destination will stumble until it can come together with a tested strategy that will encourage new and repeat business that is based on a customer service philosophy.

Customer service is often left behind as an after thought, even though it is the crux of the tourism industry. Do you have a way to measure customer satisfaction and identify areas that can and should be improved? Is there a method in place where customer complaints can be registered and satisfactorily be addressed?

One of the most important factors in an economy based on tourism is the realization that the preservation of the environment, both natural and built, has to be protected, preserved and enhanced to ensure that the industry is sustainable.

The commitment to being environmentally sustainable should be at the center of every decision made and a strategy adopted. Likewise, the commitment to excellence in customer service is the lifeblood of the industry. These two factors work hand-in-hand, and one cannot be successful without the other. The key to success in both these spheres lies in education.

When a community realizes that as they protect and enhance what they have to offer visitors, they are in fact, enhancing and protecting what they themselves love and need. Tourism dollars become an investment in the future of the community. As the community identity grows stronger, decisions that lead to the fulfillment of the vision naturally fall into place. It is always more comfortable to be and improve who you are, than it is to try and be and improve who you are not.

Steady growth of a tourism destination comes from knowing what you have to offer, as a community, to visitors, and the collective commitment to follow a plan that continually enhances the character of the community for visitors and residents alike.

This is the sixth article in the Putting the I Back in Community tourism article series. You can read the first article” tourism article series. For the first five articles and other informative articles and interviews on positive communication, see:
Article 1: Building Excellence in Tourism
Article 2: Building a Destination with a Sense of Place
Article 3: Failure Leads to Success in Tourism: It’s a Detour
Article 4: Speak With Good Purpose: Be Positive
Article 5: Tourism Excellence: This Is It– Stay Focused
Gossip is Toxic by Sarah Elliston
Are You a Difficult Leader, by Sarah Elliston
Branding and Marketing Tourism for a Small to Medium Community

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