What Does Sustainable Travel Mean for Your Destination? A Guide for DMOs
April 18, 2025
Sustainable tourism has become one of those phrases that’s been tossed around so much it’s teetering on losing its impact. But it shouldn’t—sustainable tourism actually matters. And when it comes to making it more than a buzzword and making it real, DMOs are no longer optional players. They’re the planners, the educators, the referees, and, yes, still the storytellers.
From Hype to Strategy: DMOs as Sustainability Architects
The role of a DMO is rapidly evolving from simply promoting places to managing their future. In the past, a DMO’s job was largely to fill hotel rooms. Now, in today’s climate-conscious travel landscape, DMOs are expected to take an active role in shaping tourism that supports both the environment and local communities. This means aligning tourism strategies with sustainability goals, prioritizing resident well-being, and encouraging behavior change among visitors.
In other words, sustainable tourism is responsible tourism. As Madden CEO Dan Janes explained, “It’s tourism that works in concert with the community—driving economic growth, enhancing community well-being, and promoting inclusivity through their destination’s promotion and engagement initiatives.”
“DMOs now serve as stewards of place—balancing economic benefits with social and ecological responsibility,” explained Kristin Dialessi, Strategic Advisor at Madden. “As expectations shift, DMOs have the opportunity to lead the way by transforming green intentions into gold-standard actions that ensure tourism adds value without adding strain.”
This shift doesn’t mean giving up visitation goals. It means rethinking how those goals are met and DMO’s don’t have to navigate this alone. For instance, One West Tourism Alliance’s Professional in Responsible Tourism (PRT) program provides tourism professionals with the skills to promote travel aligned with responsible tourism principles, culminating in a professional development certification. It’s designed to strengthen ethical, community-focused tourism practices across the industry.
But Where to Start Your Sustainable Tourism Strategy?
DMOs have reach. They influence how travelers think about a place before they even pack their bags. That makes them incredibly powerful—not just in drawing people in, but in shaping what kind of impact those people leave behind. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to how a destination begins that narrative. But like any marketing effort, it should be grounded in the destination’s core brand pillars to ensure it feels recognizable and creates a clear connection to the overall destination brand.
When Visit Idaho experienced a surge in visitation, it recognized the importance of protecting the very places and communities that helped fuel that growth. Visit Idaho launched the “Travel With Care” initiative with messaging on how to experience Idaho in a responsible way, centered around the campaign’s three core pillars—care for Idaho, care for yourself, and care for others. “Travel With Care” is housed within the Visit Idaho brand but allows for a fresh, creative tone that stands apart. It acts as a flexible platform for all sustainable tourism and overtourism messaging. To ensure it resonates, the campaign strikes a friendly, conversational tone—avoiding anything that feels preachy. Colorful, illustrative visuals paired with quick, witty copy keep the message approachable while still delivering impact.
Port Aransas took a unique approach to promoting visitor responsibility by introducing an original character designed to remind travelers to care for the island and its coastal community—brand extension in the form of Flynn, an illustrated sea turtle. Flynn is the primary “spokes-turtle” educating tourists on conservation in the multi-platform campaign “Respect Our Island Home.”
Making It Real: 3 Ways DMOs Can Build True Sustainable Tourism
Building sustainable travel into your brand narrative is only the beginning. You can’t just talk the talk—you have to walk the walk too. It’s about rethinking what it means to attract visitors by putting community, conservation, and clarity at the core of every strategy. As a DMO it’s about evolving from a cheerleader to a changemaker.
Here are 3 ways to make it part of your DMO:
- Align with your community: Take a proactive approach by addressing tourism’s negative impacts like overcrowding and environmental strain. “Managing visitor volume to protect community well-being and listening to resident sentiment to guide decision-making are key to building up sustainable tourism,” said Kristin. “Above all, DMOs need to stay agile and be ready to adapt strategies as the community’s culture, needs, and expectations evolve.”
- Keep tabs on impact: Use geolocation data to understand visitor flow, run sentiment analysis to track resident attitudes, and use sustainability indicators to see whether progress is happening—or if course corrections are needed. Platforms like Madden’s Voyage help turn data into actionable direction. Destination Door County prioritized protecting its community and natural resources by launching initiatives that promote sustainable travel and action. To track progress and ensure accountability, a custom Sustainability Index was developed to measure the impact of these efforts across key indicators, offering both performance insights and transparency for residents and stakeholders.
- Act as a convener: Bring people together. From town halls and listening sessions to sustainability task forces and collaborative visioning, greener DMOs make sure tourism isn’t something done to a community—it’s something built with them. Think of them as the party host, policy whisperer, and local translator all in one.
What About Ecotourism?
Ecotourism is often mistaken for a niche corner of the travel world—somewhere between birdwatching and barefoot forest bathing retreats. But at its core, ecotourism is a critical part of the broader conversation. It’s not a trend—it’s a toolkit. One that DMOs can use to create experiences that support environmental conservation, empower local communities, and still excite the modern traveler.
So what is Ecotourism, really?
According to The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), ecotourism is:
“Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education.”
Where sustainability is the overarching goal—balancing the long-term economic, environmental, and social health of a community—ecotourism is one way to get there. It’s one of the most tangible, visible forms of sustainability in action, especially in nature-based communities. But even urban destinations have a role to play in creating experiences that are environmentally and culturally responsible.
For a DMO integrating ecotourism into your core strategy can look like:
- Elevating nature-based and community-led experiences in marketing efforts, right alongside marquee attractions. A guided forest walk with a conservationist can (and should) get the same spotlight as a new food hall.
- Helping shape visitor behavior, not just drive demand. As previously mentioned in this blog, this means including education in your messaging—why a place matters, how to explore it responsibly, and how tourism dollars help protect it.
- Supporting the local ecosystem (not just the natural one) by collaborating with Indigenous leaders, farmers, artists, scientists, and other underrepresented voices who are caretakers of both place and culture.
- Protecting place access and experience quality by managing volume, flow, and impact. This is especially relevant for DMOs marketing outdoor destinations where overtourism can erode the very thing visitors came for.
By integrating ecotourism principles into broader efforts, DMOs can create a brand narrative—and a tourism destination—that actually reflects community values, supports the environment, and leaves travelers feeling like they’ve done more than take a trip. They’ve done good.
So, What Does Sustainable Travel Mean for Your DMO?
It’s a question that keeps coming up—for good reason. But what does sustainable travel mean, really? It’s about more than the environment. What sustainable travel means for DMOs is creating an experience that benefits everyone: residents, businesses, ecosystems, and visitors alike. It’s long-term thinking over short-term wins. It’s showing up differently—not to sell more, but to serve better.
Building your strategy around sustainable travel sets your community up to thrive—not just survive.
Where It All Comes Together
As a DMO, you’re not the cheerleader anymore—you’re the coach, the strategist, the community diplomat. And while that might sound like a lot, it’s also your biggest opportunity. Communities are paying attention. Visitors are too. And they both want the same thing: meaningful travel that adds value—not pressure.
So here’s the bottom line: sustainable travel isn’t a side campaign or a seasonal push. It’s a shift in how you do the work. It’s about showing up differently—as a DMO that protects what makes your community special while still inviting the world to experience it.
Want to build a strategy that makes sustainable travel more than a message? Let’s make your values visible, your impact measurable, and your brand unforgettable.
