GAMBLING WITH OUR TOURISM FUTURE: THE ROLE OF RESEARCH IN DESTINATION AND ENTERPRISE STRATEGIES TO AVOID STRATEGIC DRIFT

The coming decade and a half should see major shifts in the leisure and tourism environment reflecting economic dynamics, changing consumer values, political forces, environmental changes and the explosive growth of information technology. This paper explores the way in which some key drivers could affect the global tourism industry to the year 2020. An exploration of these trends allows important change agents, on both the supply side and the demand side of tourism, to be highlighted and discussed. In response, strategies can be formulated by destination managers and tourism operators to avoid strategic drift for their organisations and to develop tourism in a sustainable way