How can places think outside the box to engage residents in the development of their place? From wayfinding to digital skills building, here are six examples of places who are building the future of their visitor economy in partnership with their locals.

London: Co-creation in wayfinding

Co-creation requires a leap of faith. Opening up your process can invite unhelpful or even risky outcomes — who can forget the infamous Boaty McBoatface? But done right, co-creation can bear braver results than we first imagine. Over in Sydney, a state-wide naming competition led to Barangaroo Reserve, a name that honours a powerful figure in Aboriginal culture and community. In Dublin, Rosie Hackett Bridge, named after the influential trade union activist, was the result of nominations from the city.

Here at DNCO, we led a citywide co-creation process to name the six London Overground lines. From riding the entire network and interviewing hundreds of customers to conversations with experts, we were able to unearth untold stories like the Mildmay, Europe’s first hospice caring for people with AIDS-related illnesses. Bridges to buildings, parks to entire transport networks — these everyday public infrastructures are transformed into exciting opportunities for citizen engagement. Ultimately, co-creation ensure that we better reflect the super diversity of the cities we know and love.

Brenda Sjahrial, Senior Strategist, DNCO

Berlin: Launching a Citizen Council

Set up in 2022 in a collaboration between Visit Berlin and the Senate for Economy, the Citizen Council is a great example of a pioneering approach to citizen engagement. The initiative involves residents from every district across the city who meet regularly to share their perspectives on tourism and how the quality of life for citizens can be improved. It promotes positive participation and ensures that each district has a stake and a voice in tourism planning. Residents from across all twelve districts were invited to apply, making a full council of 24 citizens who will serve until 2025 and who will be a key part in ensuring that Berliners are actively shaping the future of tourism in the capital city. This example is just one of several case studies included in a new research report from the Travel Foundation and partners due out later this year, looking at how tourism can deliver more equitable outcomes in destinations and support wider community goals. We’re looking forward to sharing key insights from the research at City Nation Place Global this November!

Georgina Davies, Communication Manager, The Travel Foundation

Athens: Connecting locals to visitors

Today, ‘visitor meet local’ programmes are commonplace but this wasn’t the case back in 2010, when a combination of economic crisis, social strife, and negative headlines had taken a deep toll on the Greek capital and its reputation. As a form of crisis response, we helped to set up This is Athens With a Local, mobilising Athenians to reclaim the narrative about their city directly with the rest of the world - to great effect. Completely free tours, on-the-spot info for visitors and Athenian’s own content gained such a momentum that the scheme continues to delight visitors to this day.

Peter Jordan, Head of Insights, TOPOSOPHY

Phnom Penh: Developing a tourism master plan

In 2023, Trove partnered with the French Development Agency (AfD) and the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism to develop a tourism development brand and master plan for Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. The success of this project stemmed from genuine citizen engagement: A 100-person steering group, including tour operators and 25 residents, ensured locals' voices were heard and, importantly, translated into discernible results. One impactful outcome was the development of a new public park, serving as a tangible reflection of community input and a reminder of effective citizen engagement.

Danny Cohanpour, CEO, Trove Tourism Development Advisors

Scotland: Incentivising residents to support local businesses

In 2021, the Scottish Government backed the Town & City Gift Card system with the launch of a new Scotland Loves Local Gift Card for every local authority in Scotland as a means to reignite regional economies and fuel the national financial recovery from the pandemic. This trailblazing gift card project was successful at engaging and inspiring citizens to support local businesses by making it easy to shop, dine and explore their community through one gift card, with over £4 million spent through the initiative to date. In 2022, accessibility of the card was enhanced when over £14 million of Scottish Government LACER Funding was distributed to low incomes households across Scotland using the card, supporting people through the cost of living crisis and stimulating business activity.

Colin Munro, Managing Director, Miconex

Tennessee: Upskilling small businesses

Phocuswright research tells us that 42% of travellers say going off the beaten path is “very important” when they travel -- yet the rural communities where these types of experiences are often found can lack the digital presence needed to get noticed by today’s tech-savvy travellers. We worked with Tennessee Department of Tourist Development’s Office of Rural Tourism to engage citizens and businesses in 28 rural counties across the state to improve their online reputation on leading travel-planning platforms. This included a detailed audit of business listings in each county across Google Maps, Google Search and Tripadvisor, action steps to improve missing or poor content and engagement with county tourism leaders. County-wide webinars and in-market workshops provided local small businesses with digital marketing skills training and hands-on support.  This helped engage residents in revitalizing their digital presence and ensuring that rural communities were ready to take advantage of the growing interest in off-the-beaten path tourism.

Kim Palmer, Destination Optimization Program Director, Miles Partnership