Webinar #1 | 09 April 2025 | What Makes a DMO Effective in Sustainable Destination Management?
Destination Stewardship for Sustainable Tourism: Insights and Lessons on Sustainable Destination Management
As part of the WeNaTour webinar series, the first session titled “What makes a DMO effective in sustainable destination management?” was delivered on April 9th, featuring presentations on key roles and responsibilities of destination management organisations (DMOs), effective approaches to engaging and collaborating with destination stakeholders, and a real-life destination example of implementing the destination management and stewardship approach.
Key Takeaways
Here are some of the key lessons shared in the webinar and important takeaways.
- There can be many different forms of a management entity in terms of its structure, make-up and organisational type. Importantly, though, all effective destination management organisations should have capacities for executing key responsibilities such as:
- Strategic planning to develop and implement the sustainable tourism development and management framework.
- Inclusive stakeholder engagement based on a clear vision representing shared goals and values of the community.
- Responsible development and marketing of local experiences that reflect the local sense of place and support local well-being.
- When establishing participatory experiences for stakeholders, focus on being an effective facilitator who assists in the design, journey and guiding of the collaborative process of co-creating solutions, rather than just disseminating information or offering one-way communication.
- Today’s (and tomorrow’s) DMOs, navigating the unique challenges of a VUCA (Volatile Uncertain Complex Ambiguous) world, need skills for smart stewardship, which not only requires a balanced approach to tourism management but also an integrated regenerative approach to supporting and enhancing the well-being of communities and the environment.
This webinar has been developed and delivered by:
- Ayako Ezaki (TrainingAid)
- Alessia Fiorentino (Etifor | Valuing Nature)
- Riccardo Da Re (Etifor | Valuing Nature)
- Michele Oriente (Azienda per il Turismo Valsugana – Lagorai, Terme, Laghi)
Watch the Webinar Recording
Additional Details
The webinar series is part of the WeNaTour e-Learning Programme, and the students enrolled in our course will have access to all the proceedings of each webinar, including the video recordings, presentation slides, and follow-up Q&A. In addition to the lessons shared via the webinar, there will be further resources, examples and tools to help you improve your skills.
Enrollment is free and open to any students or professionals interested in learning about sustainable tourism and destination management practices incorporating welfare, nature and innovation in tourism.
To learn more about the e-learning offer and to enrol, please click here.
Discover the case study
The destination example by Valsugana Lagorai has also been shared as a WeNaTour case study, providing details of the work of ApT (Agency for Tourism) Valsugana Lagorai in implementing sustainable destination management practices.
Join the WeNaTour Webinar Series
Each session is organized by Etifor | Valuing Nature and TrainingAid and features speakers from organisations including Etifor, SanoTouring, Transilvania University of Brasov, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Nature Tourism Development and Destination Management Organizations like Valsugana Lagorai (Italy), Garda Trentino (Italy), Nassfeld Lesachtal Weißensee (Austria), San Vigilio di Marebbe (Italy).
Full programme at this link
