Rejuvenating a maturing tourist destination: The case of the Gold Coast, Australia

Extract: In an increasingly competitive global environment, strategic planning has become a fundamental element of business survival. The lead times involved in effectively responding to market trends mean that an ongoing environmental scanning and strategic assessment process is necessary. This is no less so in the tourism industry than in any other area of economic activity. As Ritchie and Crouch (2000) have observed while tourism has been growing over the last 50 years, it has been relatively easy for most tourist destinations to maintain a healthy rate of growth despite declining market shares. They add, however, that this ischanging as growth in the total market size is slowing down and more destinations are emerging to compete within this market. Competitiveness in this setting requires the establishment of a more strategic focus at both the individual enterprise level and for the destination as a whole. Indeed, planning at these two levels needs to be an integrated process.The tourism product in any seting is a composite of services and goods, and the quality of the visitor’s experience depends, to some degree, upon the extent to which the range of providers involved coordinate their efforts and have a common sense of purpose. A ’whole of destination' approach is therefore required in the development of the strategic focus and it has been the recognition of this imperative that has underpinned the creation of tourist destination marketing organisations.