“Neoclassical government building representing institutional strength.”
Jorge Zárate
Introduction
In the modern global economy, the travel and tourism industries play a crucial role in fostering economic growth, cultural exchange, and international cooperation. As global connectivity increases and competition among destinations intensifies, the need for well-structured and reliable institutions becomes paramount. Institutions—understood as the set of rules, norms, and structures that guide behavior in a society—serve as the backbone for governance, education, infrastructure, and commerce within the tourism sector.
In this essay, I explore how institutions can be built and sustained within travel and tourism, with a particular focus on destination marketing and promotion towards trade. By examining institutional design, governance frameworks, stakeholder collaboration, and promotional strategies, I aim to provide a comprehensive guide to strengthening tourism systems that are resilient, inclusive, and economically impactful.
Understanding Institutions: Foundations and Pillars
Before exploring tourism-specific institutions, it is important to understand the broader concept of institutions as described in institutional theory. According to W. Richard Scott (2001), institutions are multifaceted, durable social structures made up of symbolic elements, social activities, and material resources. They exert authority over behavior by establishing norms and expectations that persist over time.
Scott identifies three key pillars of institutions that support their structure and influence:
Regulative Pillar: This pillar emphasizes rules, laws, and sanctions. Institutions under this pillar enforce compliance through formal mechanisms like legislation, contracts, and regulation.
Normative Pillar: This pillar includes values and norms. It shapes what is considered appropriate and acceptable behavior in a society or sector. In tourism, this could involve cultural etiquette, professional ethics, and standards of service.
Cultural-Cognitive Pillar: This reflects shared understandings, mental models, and taken-for-granted beliefs. It influences how individuals perceive and interpret their social environment. In tourism, for example, it could shape how locals perceive the role of visitors and vice versa.
Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) are specialized institutions tasked with brand development, trade engagement, and promotional strategy. Their effectiveness depends on structured planning, digital investment, and stakeholder collaboration. These organizations play a vital role in positioning destinations competitively in the global market.
These pillars are not isolated but interdependent, working together to provide stability and meaning to institutional life. They also serve as a framework for evaluating the strength and function of institutions across all sectors, including travel and tourism. Recognizing this foundation allows me to better analyze how tourism-related institutions can be designed, promoted, and sustained in both formal and informal ways.
The Foundation of Institutions in Tourism
Tourism institutions encompass a range of regulatory, educational, cultural, and economic entities that support and regulate the industry. These include national tourism boards, local destination management organizations (DMOs), ministries of tourism, accreditation agencies, and trade associations. Each of these plays a role in structuring the tourism landscape, ensuring the implementation of standards, and driving coordinated actions across public and private sectors.
Institutions in tourism are typically built through a mix of legislative action, policy development, stakeholder input, and international cooperation. For instance, national tourism strategies often establish the legal and policy frameworks for tourism promotion and sustainability. Local DMOs may arise through partnerships between municipalities and private businesses, tasked with executing marketing and development plans. Additionally, institutions benefit from alignment with global standards, such as those set by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 2022), which enhance credibility and international collaboration.
Governance and Regulatory Frameworks
Strong governance is essential to the functioning of institutions in the tourism sector. Effective governance involves clear mandates, transparency, accountability mechanisms, and inclusive participation from diverse stakeholders. Tourism governance structures may include public agencies, advisory councils, and inter-ministerial committees that facilitate coordination between sectors such as transportation, culture, environment, and commerce.
Key elements for successful tourism governance include:
Legal clarity: Well-defined laws and regulations governing land use, visas, business licensing, and tourist behavior.
Institutional coordination: Mechanisms for communication and cooperation among tourism-related agencies and departments.
Public-private partnerships: Collaborative arrangements between governments and industry actors to pool resources, share risks, and innovate solutions.
Community involvement: Engaging local populations in tourism planning to ensure cultural sensitivity, equity, and long-term support.
Countries like Costa Rica and New Zealand have excelled in tourism governance by creating integrated policy frameworks that prioritize sustainability, local benefit, and long-term planning (Dredge & Jenkins, 2007).
The Role of Education and Capacity Building
Education is a critical component in building effective tourism institutions. By establishing educational institutions and training programs, destinations can develop a skilled workforce equipped to meet the demands of a dynamic industry. Universities, technical colleges, and tourism academies play a pivotal role in shaping the competencies of tourism professionals, from hospitality management to digital marketing and eco-tourism.
In addition to formal education, institutions must support ongoing professional development and certification. Programs such as tour guide accreditation, sustainability training, and crisis management workshops help maintain quality standards and adapt to emerging trends. Capacity building also involves empowering institutions themselves through knowledge-sharing, data systems, and institutional learning.
For example, I have seen how the TBO Academy model integrates trade-focused learning with market intelligence to equip travel agents and tourism boards with the skills and data they need to succeed. Such educational investments strengthen not only human capital but also institutional resilience.
Cultural and Environmental Institutions
Cultural institutions—such as museums, heritage boards, and arts councils—play a key role in preserving and promoting the identity of destinations. These institutions contribute to destination branding, storytelling, and visitor engagement. Moreover, they ensure that tourism does not dilute local heritage but rather becomes a vehicle for cultural exchange and preservation.
Environmental institutions, including parks services and conservation authorities, are equally essential. They safeguard natural resources, manage protected areas, and enforce sustainable tourism practices. When institutional frameworks for environment and tourism align, destinations can offer high-quality experiences that balance ecological integrity with economic gain (Eagles et al., 2002).
For instance, Galápagos National Park in Ecuador operates under strict environmental regulations while generating significant tourism revenue. The synergy between conservation institutions and tourism management provides a replicable model for other biodiversity-rich destinations.
Institutions of Culture, Behaviors and Best Practices
A fundamental yet often under-explored dimension of institutional development in tourism involves the norms, behaviors, and shared best practices that guide how stakeholders interact and collaborate. Institutions are not only about formal structures and laws but also about the informal rules that shape expectations and social practices. These informal institutions—which include culture, ethics, professional behavior, and mutual understanding—are key to building a robust and sustainable tourism industry.
Culture represents one of the most resilient institutional pillars: it embodies collective behaviors, traditions, and expectations that persist through time. Institutions stabilize and reproduce expected social behavior. In tourism, this cultural framework guides how destinations engage with visitors, how service quality is maintained, and how communities interact with the industry.
Behaviors as Institutional Patterns
Shared behaviors, such as hospitality etiquette, guest service standards, and community interactions, often evolve into institution-like patterns that define the essence of a destination. For example, Japan’s culture of hospitality (omotenashi) is so deeply institutionalized that it permeates every level of tourism service delivery.
Best Practices as Reinforcing Mechanisms
When standardized and widely adopted, best practices reinforce institutional values such as quality, respect, inclusivity, and sustainability:
Codes of conduct for operators and guides
Responsible visitor campaigns
Institutionalized feedback from tourists
Sustainability certifications
These practices contribute to predictability and trust—core features of institutions.
Designing and Implementing Institutions in Promotion from a Travel Point of Sale Framework
Beyond traditional destination marketing institutions, a modern approach must address the institutional design at the very point where travel is sold: the frontlines of travel agencies, online booking platforms, tourism fairs, and B2B trade ecosystems. These transactional nodes are where knowledge, creativity, and innovation must be institutionally embedded.
Strategic Design Elements:
Knowledge-Driven Structures: Institutions must collect, analyze, and leverage big data, market trends, and behavioral analytics to inform every promotional decision. This knowledge base becomes the institutional memory that guides adaptive strategies.
Creative Infrastructure: Institutional frameworks should provide structural support for innovation. This includes funding mechanisms, collaborative networks, and sandbox environments for prototyping campaigns, itineraries, and interactive technologies.
Innovation Governance: Appointing innovation champions or institutional innovation boards can institutionalize the creative process and ensure continuous evolution of promotional methods.
Implementation Methods at the Travel Point of Sale:
Standardized Trade Toolkits: Institutions should create branded toolkits that travel agents, wholesalers, and OTAs can adopt seamlessly. These toolkits include brand guidelines, promotional assets, onboarding materials, and real-time support services.
Digital Platforms with Embedded Intelligence: The integration of AI-driven recommender systems, dynamic packaging, and sentiment analysis dashboards within booking platforms enhances the promotional capacity directly at the POS.
Co-Marketing Agreements: Institutionalize co-branded marketing efforts between destinations, DMCs, and retail agencies through shared funding, joint KPIs, and synchronized calendars. This aligns the incentives of all actors involved.
Learning Ecosystems: Create continuous learning environments linked to booking interfaces. For instance, embedding micro-learning modules or pop-up destination tips within agent dashboards builds knowledge capital in real time.
Knowledge Hubs: Tourism institutions should develop centralized knowledge hubs that serve as repositories for best practices, innovation cases, and performance data, accessible to all promotional actors.
Institutionalizing Feedback and Adaptation:
Implement feedback loops through NPS (Net Promoter Score) systems, agent surveys, and user-generated content analysis. Institutional structures must be responsive, allowing for campaign recalibration based on real-time insights.
Establish advisory boards comprising travel agents, DMCs, trade buyers, and tech providers to ensure grounded implementation of institutional strategies.
Example:
A Latin American B2B Innovation Council formed by public tourism boards and private consortia could coordinate innovation in promotion across the region. With rotating leadership, a shared knowledge portal, and joint investment funds, this institution could reshape how the region engages global travel trade, combining sales intelligence with creative storytelling.
Destination Marketing Institutions
Core Functions of DMOs Include:
Brand Development: Crafting a unique and authentic image of the destination that resonates with both domestic and international travelers.
Market Segmentation: Identifying and targeting high-value visitor segments through research-driven strategy.
Trade Engagement: Partnering with tour operators, airlines, travel agents, and OTAs to integrate the destination into travel packages and global distribution networks.
Event Promotion: Leveraging festivals, conventions, cultural expos, and sports events to attract specific types of travelers.
Content and Storytelling: Creating compelling multimedia narratives that highlight the destination’s values, culture, and experiences across digital and traditional platforms.
Countries with strong DMOs, such as Tourism Australia and VisitScotland, demonstrate how coordinated branding and trade engagement translate into sustained tourism growth. These institutions often work hand-in-hand with government agencies, private businesses, and community groups to ensure alignment between promotional strategies and broader tourism goals.
DMOs also play a central role in crisis communication, sustainability initiatives, and destination stewardship—emphasizing their evolving function beyond pure marketing into long-term destination management.
Promoting Trade through Tourism Institutions
Tourism institutions play a pivotal role in facilitating and enhancing trade by acting as conduits between local producers and international markets. Their functions extend beyond attracting visitors—they also enable economic development by linking tourism with export industries, investment opportunities, and international collaboration.
Key Trade-Promoting Functions:
Market Access Facilitation: Institutions organize and participate in international trade fairs and exhibitions, giving local businesses exposure to global buyers and investors.
Capacity Building: Training programs help small tourism enterprises meet international standards, fostering innovation and readiness for cross-border trade.
Policy Advocacy: Tourism institutions advocate for streamlined visa processes, improved customs procedures, and bilateral tourism agreements that lower trade barriers.
Product Development and Diversification: By promoting local culture, cuisine, and experiences, institutions help diversify the national export portfolio through niche tourism products like gastronomy, wellness, and ecotourism.
Real-World Examples:
United States: The U.S. International Trade Administration supports the tourism industry through the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), which offers data, insights, and matchmaking for trade expansion.
Spain: Turespaña actively collaborates with autonomous communities and the private sector to position Spanish tourism offerings globally, often linked with exports of wine, fashion, and design.
France: Atout France partners with tourism boards and export promotion agencies to elevate French culture and regional industries through experiential travel.
Challenges Faced by Tourism Institutions:
Budget Constraints: Limited funding restricts the scope of global outreach and innovation. For example, several national tourism boards have scaled back participation in major trade events due to resource cuts.
Fragmentation: A lack of coordination among local, regional, and national tourism entities can result in duplicated efforts or inconsistent messaging.
Rapid Market Changes: Institutions must adapt to evolving traveler preferences, technological shifts, and geopolitical disruptions that affect both travel and trade flows.
Recommendations:
Secure Sustainable Funding: Blended finance models—public, private, and international—can provide long-term resources for promotion and innovation.
Strengthen Institutional Partnerships: Align tourism boards with chambers of commerce, export councils, and trade ministries to deliver unified messages abroad.
Leverage Data and AI: Institutions should use predictive analytics to anticipate demand trends and personalize business matchmaking in trade forums.
By strategically aligning tourism promotion with trade development goals, institutions not only boost visitor arrivals but also catalyze investment, cultural diplomacy, and sustainable economic diversification.
My Final Thoughts
Institutions are the invisible scaffolding that supports the visible success of tourism destinations. From visa regulations and environmental protection to destination branding and trade engagement, institutions shape every aspect of the tourism experience. Without them, the tourism sector would lack direction, cohesion, and the capacity to grow sustainably.
Building and maintaining these institutions requires strategic vision, committed leadership, and multi-stakeholder collaboration. It demands the integration of formal rules with shared values and adaptable behaviors. It also calls for investments in human capital, digital infrastructure, and cross-border partnerships.
As the tourism industry recovers from global shocks and enters a new era of digital transformation and sustainability, institutional strength will be the determining factor for long-term success. Institutions must evolve with emerging traveler expectations, environmental challenges, and geopolitical shifts.
By aligning destination marketing with trade promotion and ensuring robust institutional frameworks—rooted in regulation, norms, and shared cognition—I believe destinations can position themselves as competitive, inclusive, and resilient players in the global tourism landscape.
Tourism is more than leisure. It is a platform for economic empowerment, cultural dialogue, and shared prosperity. Its institutions must reflect that.
References
Dredge, D., & Jenkins, J. (2007). Tourism Planning and Policy. John Wiley & Sons Australia.
Eagles, P. F. J., McCool, S. F., & Haynes, C. D. (2002). Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas: Guidelines for Planning and Management. IUCN.
Scott, W. R. (2001). Institutions and Organizations. Sage Publications.
UNWTO. (2022). Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals – Journey to 2030. World Tourism Organization.
Wang, Y., & Pizam, A. (2011). Destination Marketing and Management: Theories and Applications. CABI.
Jorge Zárate 