Visit California has created a sustainable tourism resource centre for the travel trade and media.
The tourist board said the resource centre would help ensure the tourism industry continues to contribute to the state’s economy in a responsible and sustainable way.
Principles of the strategy include a commitment to respecting communities, distributing tourist activity beyond key sites and dates and preserving California’s natural resources.
Speaking at the IPW conference in Anaheim, Visit California chief executive Caroline Beteta said the creation of the resource centre marked a shift from destination marketing to “destination management”.
She added: “Our industry is like any other commodity and it needs to be sustainable. We are managing this from a state level and a lot of what we are focusing on is seasonality to ensure the consumer experience remains rich and pure.”
Visit California added: “Managing a destination is a far more complex undertaking than marketing one. It requires a different mindset.
“The successful management of a destination preserves the visitor economy for many years to come – resulting in tourism that is sustainable in every sense of the word.”
The California Tourism Sustainable Resource Centre can be accessed at: media.visitcalifornia.com/sustainability.