Four Reasons Why Route Development Is a Tourism Board’s Duty

New air route development to and from your destination will increase attractiveness and visitation—but who should be doing it?

In May 2024 alone, more than 50 new air routes cropped up around the world, demonstrating that the industry is thriving. But those new routes weren’t all created by airlines alone. They require collaboration and initiative on the part of the destination.

Rather than wait for airlines to advocate for it, we’re here to remind you that route development is a tourism board’s duty, first and foremost. Attend conferences like Routes and network with decision makers to move the needle. Destinations want more travelers, so they need to pave the way for more flights themselves.

1. Tourism Boards Can Lead

In order to develop new routes, it takes a number of partners to collaborate together. It’s not just the destination and the airline. You need to think of local partners, as well, including public transportation authorities, leaders at the airport, and environmental authorities, among others.

Someone needs to coordinate all of those stakeholders, and a tourism board is well-placed to connect the dots. An airline can’t possibly be expected to do that for every destination wishing for more route development, so tourism boards must step up and take the lead. By taking the lead, you remove one more hurdle for airlines to launch a new route to your destination.

2. Tourism Boards Can’t Grow Otherwise

More airlift means more visitation. That should be clear, and any destination who thinks, “We have enough visitors,” probably isn’t reading this post! The only reason to engage in route development is for a tourism board to grow visitation and its local tourism economy. The tourism board and its stakeholders are the ones poised to grow and benefit the most from that.

Airlines, however, aren’t invested in your local community as much as tourism boards are. They don’t have insight into your growth. tourism boards, therefore, must realize that they need to engage airlines and secure new routes if there is any hope to grow. 

Furthermore, it’s a tourism board’s responsibility to help support local communities through tourism, and more flights into the destination is a clear way toward achieving that goal.

3. Tourism Boards Know the Consumer

A destination knows its consumer. Tourism boards can make the best case for stats, facts, and market intelligence about the consumer that the airlines may not otherwise know. However, it’s not enough for a tourism board to bring this information to the table—you need to bring the table, chairs, and place settings as well!

Tourism boards know who they want to fill those planes and are better equipped than airlines or most advocacy groups to argue for more airlift through data and research into their target markets and consumers. This advantage is why route development should be a tourism board’s responsibility to spearhead from the beginning.

4. Tourism Boards Provide Incentives

Airlines know how to market themselves, but they don’t always know how a tourism board will support them. That’s why a destination needs to share with airlines specific investments and marketing programs to support not only new routes, but existing ones as well. Show how past campaigns have filled seats and propose solutions for filling new seats coming from target markets.

Make it obvious that your tourism board’s marketing efforts and any local incentives will make it worth the airline’s time.

The easier you make it for an airline to say yes, the faster new routes will start taking off.

Connect with Siobhan Chretien at [email protected] to learn about working with our agency to attract new route development to your destination. Tap into more than 65 years of destination marketing experience to reach your goals.