Shaping the future of Alpine tourism destinations' next generation: an action research approach

Sa？etak Long-term planning is crucial for the competitiveness of tourism destinations. However, the complexity of the tourism "product", the variety of stakeholders and growing market-pressure forces destinations to develop strategic plans which are based on solid contributions by the whole community. Although so-called community-oriented destinations are characterized by a large number of small- and medium-sized family businesses there is a lack of research investigating destination planning and destination scenarios by including the utmost relevant stakeholder group of future successors. A case study presents the application of a world café and scenario method in an Alpine ski resort and gathers data to derive destination scenarios of the future. The paper at hand shows how scenario methods can form a solid base for strategy development in destinations and therefore derive implications for community-based tourism planning processes in destinations. The results indicate that target segmentation and positioning of the destination as well as branding strategies are key to communicating authentically what a destination offers to tourists and residents. The implication is that destination marketers should develop internal and external branding strategies and include the next generation of (tourism) entrepreneurs in today's decision-making to influence future tourism development at the destination