Why the Best Tourism Strategy Starts with Celebrating the Locals
Tourism strategy often starts with people who aren’t there yet. But when residents feel represented in an event, their pride becomes part of the experience visitors travel to find.
When residents feel represented in an event, their pride becomes part of the experience visitors travel to find.
Tourism strategy often starts with people who aren’t there yet.
What will make them visit? What will convince them to stay longer? What will they spend, share, or come back for?
Those are important questions. But before a destination creates another reason for visitors to arrive, it’s worth asking what that reason will mean to the people who are already there.
Residents experience tourism from the other side. They see the economic opportunity, but they also live with the traffic, crowds, changing costs, and pressure on the places they care about. An event that looks exciting from a distance can feel very different on the ground.
That makes local enthusiasm more than a nice outcome. It’s part of the strategy.
When residents see themselves in an event, they don’t just attend. They bring friends. They recommend restaurants. They share the stories behind a place. They create the energy, character, and sense of discovery that visitors came to experience.
As Andrew Way, Vice President of Wild, puts it: “We don’t just welcome locals. We celebrate them. If the people who live there don’t feel like the event belongs to them, it probably won’t feel true to anyone else.”
Local ownership starts before opening weekend
Residents begin forming an opinion as soon as plans emerge.
They hear what’s being proposed, see who’s involved, and notice which parts of the community have been included or overlooked. Because they know the place intimately, they’re often the first to recognize whether an event reflects it or simply borrows from it. That makes locals the event’s earliest credibility check.
But recognition alone doesn’t create ownership. Residents also need meaningful opportunities to shape, participate in, and benefit from what’s being built.
That can show up in the artists onstage, the businesses onsite, the food being served, the stories being told, and the partners invited into the experience. It can mean making the event more accessible to residents, supporting local vendors and makers, or extending programming beyond the event grounds so more of the destination can participate.
Making locals happy doesn’t mean trying to please everyone or assuming a community speaks with one voice. It means treating local involvement as part of the event itself, not simply a gesture surrounding it.
Destination events can and should introduce people to something new. Headlining talent, visiting chefs, national partners, and outside perspectives can all expand the experience. What matters is whether those elements connect with the place or merely land on top of it.
When the balance is right, visitors encounter a destination that feels lived in rather than staged. They find it in the bartender’s recommendation after the show, the shop that stays open late, the local artist they discover unexpectedly, or the conversation that sends them somewhere they never would have found in a guide.
The OECD’s 2026 tourism report reinforces the strategic value of that connection. It warns that negative local perceptions of tourism can ultimately undermine a destination’s appeal, while locally owned tourism initiatives can strengthen community pride, deepen visitor engagement, and preserve cultural identity.
The principle has to survive the practical decisions
Celebrating a community is easy to express as an intention. The real test comes in the choices that shape the event.
Who gets brought into the process early enough to influence it?
Which local businesses, artists, cultural organizations, and community groups have a role?
How will residents access the event?
Where will the economic activity go?
How will transportation, noise, crowding, timing, and environmental impact be managed?
What will remain valuable to the community after the last visitor leaves?
These aren’t obstacles to creating something ambitious. They’re part of creating something people will support.
The answers need to be visible in the finished experience. Otherwise, community engagement can feel like another box checked after the major choices have already been made.
The goal isn’t to eliminate every inconvenience or disagreement. A destination event will create change, and communities will have different ideas about what that change should look like.
The goal is to make thoughtful choices, communicate them honestly, and ensure that the value of the event isn’t reserved for the people coming from somewhere else.
Give the community something worth sharing
Tourism has always depended on hospitality. But the best hospitality comes from people who are genuinely excited to share where they live.
That enthusiasm can’t be manufactured in a launch campaign. It grows when residents can see that their voices, culture, and participation helped shape the finished experience.
Create something the community is proud to call its own, and visitors will want to be part of it.
About Wild
Wild helps destinations develop cultural events and experiences rooted in place, bringing local voices, businesses, artists, and communities into the experience from the start. If you’re thinking about building something in your community, let’s explore what’s possible at [email protected]