The Tourism Strategy Move You Might Be Skipping.

Everyone loves the word strategy.

It makes us feel "official", grown-up. We put it in slide decks. We put it in job titles. Some of us even put it on coffee mugs. But using the word “strategy” does not make it a strategy. In tourism, “strategy” often gets used to mean plan or list of things we hope to do if funding comes through. We have all seen it: a 50-page “strategic plan” that is basically a mood board with a budget request stapled to it.

Richard Rumelt, author of Good Strategy, Bad Strategy, says real strategy is built on three things:

1. A clear diagnosis

2. A guiding policy

3. Coherent action

And guess which one tourism folks skip? The guiding policy. (It’s fine. We have all done it.)

1. Diagnose the Real Problem

This is naming the thing behind the thing. Flat visitation? It is not “lack of awareness.” It might be that your destination is packed on weekends but turns into a ghost town mid-week. Or maybe your workforce is cycling out faster than you can print name tags. Rumelt calls this the kernel. Without it, everything else is guessing.

2. Set a Guiding Policy (Where Leverage Lives)

This is not just “your plan.” This is the spine of your entire strategy, the choice that says how you will tackle the problem in a way that bends the system in your favor.

A good guiding policy is where leverage lives. It is the one idea that, when you commit to it, ripples across everything else you do. One decision that unlocks ten wins.

Tourism example:

• Diagnosis: Mid-week visitation is dead.

• Guiding Policy: “Make weekdays irresistible to high-value visitors.”

• Leverage: Imagine creating bookable weekday packages for remote workers who want to “work from anywhere,” aligning with conference planners to push mid-week extended stays, and promoting weekday-only experiences...like chef’s table dinners or behind-the-scenes attraction tours, that you cannot get on a Saturday.

That single guiding policy does not just fill rooms mid-week. It stabilizes your workforce schedules, keeps your restaurants humming, and stretches visitor spending beyond the weekend rush.

No guiding policy? You end up playing tourism whack-a-mole.

TikTok campaign this week, heritage tourism pilot next week, random signage upgrades after that. A guiding policy keeps you focused on the one lever that makes everything else easier.

3. Coherent Action

This is where the magic happens. With a guiding policy, marketing, sales, product development and even city council talking points all pull in the same direction. Without it, you get random acts of marketing, mismatched messaging and board meetings that feel like reality TV auditions.

Why This Matters

Rumelt’s big insight is that strategy is not vision or goals. It is choice. It's an essential (though not fun) read. Here's a link to the book.

• Diagnose what is really blocking you

• Set a guiding policy that uses leverage

• Align every action so it sticks

Mic Drop

Stop trying to be the tourism buffet. Be the chef’s special. One focused, leveraged choice will always beat twenty shiny initiatives.