Develop and manage destinations sustainably
Connect destination-management actions with economic, environmental, sociocultural and political objectives and evaluate how progress is monitored.
Exam scope and assessment notes
This original lesson maps Cambridge International AS & A Level Travel & Tourism 9395 syllabus section 7.2 for exams in 2027, 2028 and 2029. Build AO1 knowledge, AO2 application, AO3 analysis and research, and AO4 evaluation. Examples and practice are original StudyForA material, not Cambridge questions, mark schemes or official grades. Use current, reliable local evidence; tourism effects and customer needs depend on context. Paper 2 requires learners to plan and manage a real event as a team, then present their project individually. This site can teach and simulate the planning process, but cannot conduct the event, verify participation or evidence, replace centre approval and supervision, award a coursework mark, or provide Cambridge moderation.
Before you begin
Work on paper. Try each question before revealing help, and explain why your method works.
Quick readiness check
Before you start: Which action supports local economic retention?
What you will learn
- Explain policies, product development, visitor/traffic management, branding, partnerships, community investment and participation.
- Assess access, planning control, environmental auditing, visitor information, monitoring and responsible behaviour measures.
- Compare economic, environmental, sociocultural and political development objectives and evaluate conflicts among them.
Destination management is coordinated action
Activities can include sustainable policies, new or specialist products, visitor and traffic management, branding, partnerships, long-term investment, community projects, local training and employment.
Planning control, widening access, regular environmental audits, visitor information, liaison and evaluation help keep development aligned with place conditions. Management can also encourage ethical behaviour, respect for traditions and support for local produce.
Objectives can reinforce or conflict
Economic goals include retaining visitor spending and investing income in public or social projects. Environmental goals include reducing harm, conserving and regenerating nature and using resources sustainably.
Sociocultural goals include protecting culture, empowering communities, widening access, creating employment and educating visitors or residents. Political goals can include reputation and international relations. A useful judgement states whose goals matter, who gains or pays and how trade-offs will be monitored.
Sources for this lesson
Pause and explain
A new tourism product creates jobs but increases pressure on water and housing. What should management do?
Worked example
A destination plans to increase visitor capacity through a new access road and market a specialist nature product. Explain how management objectives could align and conflict.
Show the worked solution
- The road and product could improve access and create opportunities for local suppliers and employment.
- More traffic or visitors could increase habitat pressure, resource use or congestion if capacity and routes are poorly managed.
- Use planning review, local consultation, environmental audits and outcome measures to decide whether scale or season limits are needed.
Answer The proposal could support livelihoods and access but also intensify environmental pressure. Management should align commercial plans with conservation limits and community priorities.
Try a topic test
Choose Easy, Normal or Difficult. Save your answers and open worked review after finishing.
Test this topic →From guided practice to a new situation
Write your answer and reasoning first. Use a hint only if you are stuck. The model solution is for self-checking; your written work is not automatically marked.
A region wants to fund local training with tourism revenue and reduce traffic at a popular viewpoint. Propose a joined-up management package.
Give me a hint
Link funding, local participation, visitor movement and measures to verify results.
Compare my reasoning
- Partner with local businesses and community groups to design relevant training and transparent employment pathways.
- Use timed access, public transport, walking routes or visitor information to manage traffic, with access alternatives.
- Monitor local spending and jobs, congestion, visitor experience and environmental conditions, and adapt the plan.
Training and traffic controls can support economic and environmental aims if designed with local participation. Evaluate distribution and access as well as total visitor numbers.
Look for these in your work
- Combines economic and management actions
- Includes community participation
- Measures multiple outcomes
A destination opens a new accessible attraction, but nearby residents report rent increases and congestion. Evaluate how managers should respond without treating access as the cause of every problem.
Give me a hint
Verify different impacts and seek the mechanisms, affected groups and management options.
Compare my reasoning
- Keep the access improvement and assess who can use it, while collecting data on congestion and housing costs over time.
- Consult residents and housing, transport and tourism providers to examine seasonal patterns and other causes.
- Adjust visitor flows, transport, housing or planning measures where evidence supports them, then monitor distribution and access.
Maintain a focus on wider access while investigating congestion and housing pressures with local evidence. Target controls at demonstrated causes and assess who gains or loses.
Look for these in your work
- Separates distinct outcomes
- Uses local evidence and consultation
- Balances access with targeted management
A destination's conservation audit finds rising waste and habitat pressure, while local employment improves. Recommend a management decision and indicators for the next year.
Give me a hint
Protect benefits where possible while setting clear environmental controls and review points.
Compare my reasoning
- Identify which sites, seasons and activities drive the pressure and consult affected residents and providers.
- Set waste and visitor-management actions with owners, resources and triggers for reducing or redirecting use.
- Track habitat condition and waste alongside local jobs, supplier spending and resident/visitor views.
Retain employment benefits where compatible with limits, but act on the audit by managing the sources of pressure. Review environmental and local economic indicators together.
Look for these in your work
- Uses audit evidence
- Sets an actionable control
- Balances ecological and economic measures
Common mistakes
- Treating higher arrivals as the only development objective
- Ignoring community involvement or distribution of visitor spending
- Relying on an audit without acting on its findings
What can you explain now?
A new tourism product creates jobs but increases pressure on water and housing. What should management do?
Compare with the explanation
Assess the scale and distribution of both benefits and costs, then set monitored controls
A strong response applies the concept to the evidence, explains the effect and qualifies its conclusion where conditions matter.
After trying it yourself, choose your next review. This is your self-assessment.
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Make it stick
Name one management action and one objective in each of two sustainability dimensions.
If you needed the solution, close it and solve the problem again from a blank page. A correct answer is stronger when you can explain the reason for each step.