Rejuvenating a maturing tourist destination: The case of the Gold Coast, Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research

The Gold Coast Tourism Visioning project articulates a set of core values and principles that underpin a preferred future for the sustainable prosperity of Australia’s leading tourism destination in the medium to longer term (10 to 20 years). It challenges destination Gold Coast to move from a past ad hoc approach to tourism to one that integrates economic, social and environmental dimensions to evolve new patterns of managing and growing tourism in a more systematic and dynamic way in this new century. Tourism is a key component of the inevitable transition to sustainable development strategies in advanced western democracies such as Australia. Through this Gold Coast Tourism Visioning project, the local tourism industry has an opportunity to confirm itself as part of the solution, rather than as a contributor, to the economic, social and environmental challenges of the future. With the assistance and support of numerous public and private sector organisations and individuals, a team of interdisciplinary researchers built the knowledge foundation for the leading-edge Gold Coast Tourism Visioning Project. The project has created a more strategic perspective towards tourism policy, planning, development and marketing involving the process of visioning – a technique combining the setting of a ‘vision’ and ‘planning’