Tourism That Matters
Building Strategies That Create Prosperity for People and Places
The Premise
Tourism That Matters is a practical guide to strategy in travel and tourism, written for people working inside the system rather than observing it from a distance. It is grounded in nearly two decades of field experience across very different contexts, from post-conflict economies and remote regions to global capitals and mature destinations, where tourism repeatedly emerges as one of the most effective tools available for creating opportunity, shaping identity, and building economic systems rooted in place.
Across these environments, the lesson is consistent. Tourism can move faster than traditional industry, create jobs with relatively low barriers to entry, and restore confidence through the simple act of sharing a place with others. But it only works when it is approached with intention, grounded in local reality, and designed to benefit the communities in which it happens. Without that grounding, growth becomes extractive, and strategy quickly loses its purpose.
Excerpt
Travel and tourism are more than economic sectors. They are systems of human connection, mirrors of culture, and engines of prosperity, but they also reach into the parts of a place that don’t fit neatly into any department or budget line. They touch housing, labor, congestion, public space, and the daily rhythm of community life. They influence how residents experience their own city just as much as how visitors do. And because they intersect with these gray-zone challenges, tourism is never “just tourism.” It is social policy, cultural policy, economic policy, and environmental policy woven together.
Who It’s For
This book exists for destination leaders, travel executives, policymakers, and practitioners who want to connect ambition to action without relying on generic frameworks or abstract best practices. It translates lived experience into a disciplined way of thinking about strategy, aligning purpose with resources, evidence with judgment, and growth with responsibility, while acknowledging the complexity and trade-offs that define real-world decision-making.
When we talk about strategy in this book, we are not talking about a document. We are talking about a promise: to communities, to travelers, and to the future being shaped through today’s decisions.
Tourism That Matters is an upcoming publication. Updates on its release will be shared through the Wild Sage newsletter, available via the site footer.
