Recovery training, California

Project aims

Following the damage wrought by the pandemic, it has become even more important to rebuild sustainably, with an eye to future-proofing destinations against any future disruptions and ensuring they can continue to provide economic benefits for local communities.

We partnered with Visit California to deliver a programme of training tailored to Destination Management Organisations (DMOs), along with a “How-To” guide to help destinations rebuild in a responsible, data-driven way with more resilience.

Training has so far been delivered in the form of workshops and webinars to a large number of DMOs and related organisations across California, with these key goals:

• Provide DMOs with the latest market insights and enable them to consider how/where to adapt their ‘offer’ accordingly.
• Help DMOs assess COVID-related impacts and consider potential future impacts, relating to changing tourist demand/expectation.
• Guide DMOs towards future-proofing their tourism product against future shocks.
• Provide DMOs with practical tools to support delivery of the above.

Activities - training and workshops

As well as working with Visit California to create this How-To Planning Guide for a sustainable recovery, we

• Delivered a webinar on destination stewardship, on the future-proofing of tourism destinations to a large number of DMO and industry participants in California. The aim was to provide a high-level but practical understanding of the international trends and perspectives on long-term destination recovery and DMO priorities.
• Delivered two sustainable recovery workshops – one focused on urban destinations, and one on rural destinations – to 20 California DMO participants, accompanied by practical “How-To” Guides for Sustainable Recovery customised for each workshop.