Destinations operating since decades ago reach a stage of maturity sooner or later, in which they stop growing and lose the strength and vibrancy that made them grow. At this point, depending on the conditions of the environment and will of the local inhabitants, many destinations prefer to manage this situation without growing anymore, so long as they are not willing to receive more tourists or they don’t want to extend the destination’s urban area with accommodation facilities or second residences, and keep the destination as it is to preserve its original charm, and avoid the risk of spoiling it with tourism overflows.
Other destinations, however, due to the need or will for the tourism business growth, try to find other solutions to satisfy a higher demand trying not to spoil the charm that attracts the tourism flows. Further, these destinations face many challenges such as:
- Congestion issues in the most popular areas
- Difficult conviviality between locals and tourists
- Excessive dominance of tourism related businesses in residential areas
- Lack of infrastructure renovation, which may give an image of decadence
- Tourism expenditure stagnation
- Seasonality stagnation due to incapacity to overcome seasonal occupancy gaps
- Poor branding, lost reputation, low brand awareness, lack of well-defined identity, etc.
- Lack of new tourism businesses creation
These and many other issues may be resolved through adequate tourism development planning, in which a good cluster development strategy is to have a key role in overcoming them successfully.
Which other issues affect mature destinations?
