Encouraging Visitors To Abide By Your Community’s Values

Every tourism and economic development strategy comes with tradeoffs and a need for balance. When it comes to tourism, cities must carefully navigate the risk of becoming so popular that they end up ruining the destination for those that call it home or damaging the environment.

Navigating this challenge is difficult but not impossible. Many visitors want to contribute positively to the cities they visit. Most tourists want to support and contribute to the values that make these cities special. All that’s needed are opportunities for them to understand and demonstrate those values. With some creativity, planning and intentional communication strategies, cities can create these opportunities and in doing so, create meaningful opportunities for travelers to practice value-based tourism.

IDEA #1 – Implement Pledge Initiatives

Over the years, destinations with unique natural amenities such as Aspen, Iceland, Hawaii and New Zealand have implemented pledge strategies as a way to encourage visitors to pay special attention to the places they are visiting and the effects their actions may have on the natural environment. Tourists can opt-in in a variety of ways from signing an online form prior to their visit to receiving the city’s pledge stamped in their visitor’s passport. Such is the case in Palau where tourists read and sign a pledge written by local school children.

Image credit: National Geographic

Many of these pledges ask tourists to treat the area with respect, leave nothing behind but their footprints, and to prioritize their own safety over social media. However, many locations also customize their pledge to include hazards unique to their area. For example, Hawaii’s Pono Pledge warns against tampering with their extensive lava fields. Visitors agree: “Molten lava will mesmerize me, but I will not disrupt its flow.”

While many pledges focus mostly on encouraging a certain  behavior, others go a step further and ask tourists to not only promise to apply their values when they visit but to also donate to protect the wildlife and upkeep of these locations. Pledge for the Wild is a community value initiative created by five mountain towns throughout the United States: Bend, OR, Bozeman, MT, Flagstaff, AZ, South Lake Tahoe, CA, and Steamboat Springs, CO. These programs encourage visitors to not only be a considerate visitor but to also donate funds to help with general upkeep.

While it may seem simple, these pledge programs provide visitors with a sobering reminder to respect the locations they are visiting with as much care and consideration as they would give their own home.

Idea #2: Introduce Education Programs

Some destinations have taken the concept of pledges one step further by creating in-depth, interactive educational content for visitors, allowing them to express their willingness to abide by certain values. These programs usually include some videos, articles and interactive questions that provide visitors with an understanding of what makes that city special and gives them a chance to express their support of certain values.

For example, in Banff, the Banff Mountain Institute encourages visitors to watch a handful of educational online videos prior to their trip. Once complete, they receive a certificate in their name which they can show upon arrival in exchange for a free city-branded water bottle. Similarly, the Invasive Species Initiative is a multi-country effort focused on educating visitors about invasive species through content that empowers tourists to prevent further damage to local ecosystems.

Creative programs like these are especially powerful for eco-conscious tourists, many of whom plan to engage mindfully with a destination and its unique qualities but who don’t have a way of expressing that intent. Providing a certificate or badge program is an excellent opportunity for them to trade their anxiety for a sense of pride and personal responsibility.

Image credit: Banff and Lake Louise Mountain Institute

Idea #3: Focus Inward First

Tourism alone is rarely the problem. The real issue is when tourism becomes extractive instead of additive. When a place is marketed in ways that don’t reflect local values, don’t benefit residents, and don’t reinvest back into the community, it creates resentment between locals and visitors. People begin to feel like their city is being consumed instead of strengthened.

Too often, communities jump straight into tourism marketing without first doing the deeper work of understanding who they are, what they value, and what kind of future they want to build. A strong place brand should not simply attract more people. It should act as a shared north star that aligns tourism, economic development, community identity, and long-term stewardship of place.

That’s why the best tourism strategies start inward first. Communities need to clearly define what makes their place unique, what experiences genuinely fit their culture and values, and what type of growth benefits both residents and visitors. When approached through a triple bottom line lens, a place brand creates direction not only for marketing, but also for investment, development, infrastructure, mobility, events, and the visitor experience itself.

We applied this philosophy while working with the Town of Breckenridge, Colorado on their Open Space & Trails Master Plan. Due to COVID and the increased preference for outdoor recreation, many of the town’s trails and open spaces were experiencing significant congestion and overuse. This created challenges for delicate environmental areas and frustration among locals who felt their favorite trails were being overwhelmed by visitors unfamiliar with trail etiquette or the community’s values around stewardship.

Rather than simply trying to attract or deter more visitors, the strategy focused on creating a healthier and more balanced relationship between people and place. Through wayfinding, directional trail systems, communication with third-party trail apps, and management zones, we helped distribute users more evenly across the trail network while improving the overall experience. The strategy separated hikers from downhill bikers, created clearer experiences for advanced versus novice users, and helped reduce neighborhood parking and traffic impacts near trailheads.

The goal was not just managing tourism. It was protecting what makes Breckenridge special in the first place while ensuring both residents and visitors could continue to enjoy it responsibly.