When do tourism businesses do their business planning?

The end of the year is a time when a lot of businesses wind down. But for tourism operators, it's time to ramp up!

This means that tourism businesses need to choose a different time to plan and reset.

When I was running the Skyline mountain biking operation (8 month operation per year) I relished the winter downtime to make new plans, work on the business, create new systems and build a better guest experience for the season ahead.

However, a lot of tourism businesses don't get this opportunity - they are open 365 days per year plus they try to take some time off themselves.

Then there's all the unexpected events that crop up along the way.

This makes it difficult to plan, build the business and execute new initiatives (maybe it's part of the root cause for systemic tourism issues but that's another story).

This is part of why I created Tourism x Design.

To help tourism businesses make real business progress, create better visitor experiences and build a better tourism system.

Planning doesn't need to be at the start of the year, financial year or any other set time.

But it does need a framework to create the greatest opportunity for success.

I've broken down how I've helped a number of businesses make great progress this year.

Check out the process here.