You are NOT alone: getting local leaders, business owners, and community members to recognize the economic impact your destination's travel and tourism ecosystem generates presents a unique challenge to virtually all Destination Management Organizations.

In many cases, these groups see only the visible impacts—traffic, crowds, or seasonal disruption—without understanding the broader economic ecosystem tourism supports.

An effective way to advocate for tourism within your community is by using research and resources to help stakeholders better understand the value visitors bring to the community.

When Visitors Are Perceived as Invaders

If you’ve ever heard a local refer to visitors as “outsiders” or “invaders,” you’ve seen firsthand how tourism can be misunderstood.

This perception often stems from the visible inconveniences tourism can bring—traffic congestion, longer wait times, or crowded public spaces. Without context, it’s easy for residents to focus on what’s right in front of them rather than the broader impact.

This often comes down to a lack of visibility into how visitor spending supports local jobs, small businesses, and public services that residents rely on every day.

Often, relaying this information to locals—the economic impact through increased local employment, support of small businesses, and the reduction in local taxes—will give residents a better understanding of how visitors are benefiting their community and not just disrupting it.

Consider creating a business card-sized "annual report" that can be distributed at civic clubs, during workshops, through schools, etc. Juxtapose revenue earned alongside the jobs that are supported and the tax dollars that residents save as a direct result of visitor spending. Consider creating videos that prominently feature testimonials from local business owners along with impact numbers and what they mean for the community. Planning an annual "media tour" where you visit all the local media outlets to discuss the impact of visitors in your market can also be very effective.

When Tourism and Travel Isn’t Recognized As a Primary Revenue Source

Another common challenge is that tourism is simply not recognized as a primary economic driver. In many communities, industries like manufacturing, agriculture, or healthcare are more visible and therefore more easily understood as revenue sources.

Tourism doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Local governments, industry partners, and community leaders all play a role in how its value is understood. When these groups aren’t aligned, the message can feel fragmented—or go unheard entirely.

This is where data becomes essential. Tools like CoStar reports, tax revenue data, and visitor spending metrics help tell a more complete story. They provide tangible evidence of tourism’s role in supporting the local economy like average daily rates and Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR)

Framing this data in terms of community impact—jobs supported, services funded, and amenities sustained—can make the numbers more relevant to local decision-makers.

By clearly communicating how tourism contributes to the local tax base, supports infrastructure, and drives business for a wide range of industries, DMOs can help shift perception from uncertainty to understanding.

Bringing Front-Line Staff On Board

In an ideal situation, visitors will stop by your welcome center on the way into town to be greeted by some of the friendliest, most knowledgeable people in your area. However, for a variety of reasons, we know that is less and less of the case. Restaurant servers, attraction employees, shop owners, and front desk hotel staff are often the first people to interact with visitors when they arrive in your destination. They are responsible for shaping first impressions and can often set the tone for a visitor’s entire experience. Partner with business owners and management teams to execute customer service training programs that emphasize the important role these employees play in representing your city. Educate them on the resources available to them and your visitors like your welcome center, visitor guides, website, and social media channels. Make sure you communicate with them regularly about the direct impact they have on the local economy and thank them for everything they do to represent your destination’s brand.

You Are Your Destination’s Strongest Advocate

It may feel tiresome to you to repeatedly emphasize your DMO’s impact and value, as well as constantly reminding stakeholders of the role they play in growing the local tourism and travel economy. But your audiences are hearing lots of messaging from many sources, and new audience members have never heard any of this information.

Be consistent and make efforts to regularly report to as many groups in your community as possible. These efforts can pay all sorts of dividends and could even make the difference in an annual DMO budget increase (or decrease if no one knows what your organization does, why visitors are important, etc.) Either way, these advocacy efforts are worth it. Institute good habits to share your DMO’s success. Leverage the reporting data you receive. Schedule a quarterly reminder to get out into the community and tell your destination's travel and tourism story. Create a distribution list of people who would benefit from this information, nurture relationships with local leaders, business owners, and front-line staff, and make sharing your DMO’s efforts to increase visitors in your community a top priority. Because tourism IS economic development, and your stakeholders need to be on board.

Building Support for the Future

Over time, a clearer understanding of tourism’s economic impact leads to stronger community support. That support is critical—not just for marketing efforts, but for long-term destination development, investment, and sustainability.

When the economic value of tourism is clearly communicated, communities are more likely to support the investments and partnerships that help destinations thrive—strengthening both the visitor experience and the community itself.