Co-creating Kingston’s Integrated Destination Strategy
Tourism Kingston
Destination: Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Engagement: 2019 and 2022
The City of Kingston, located between two of Canada's largest cities and close to the Northeastern United States, has long focused tourism efforts on its historic and natural assets. While visitation was increasing year-over-year (especially during the summer season), key stakeholders in tourism, municipal government, and the business community felt the city could better leverage its tourism potential.
To address this, Tourism Kingston, in partnership with Kingston Accommodation Partners and the City of Kingston, retained Twenty31 to lead the design of a forward-facing Integrated Destination Strategy to build Kingston into a top Canadian leisure and business destination.
Innovation labs and co-creation sessions
We facilitated a number of design-oriented exercises with identified Kingston tourism, business, cultural-industry, and government stakeholders. Resulting insights led to the identification of guiding principles, strategic focus areas, and priority initiatives included in the strategy.
Research, planning, and community engagement
We developed a framework for analyzing the city’s planning, economic development, and investment efforts. From there, we conducted in-depth interviews and surveys with community activists, stakeholders in the tourism, business, and cultural spheres, as well as Indigenous and municipal government stakeholders. These efforts equipped us to identify hurdles, map paths of influence, and determine means of improving tourism development and management within the city.
The Integrated Destination Strategy created by Twenty31 was approved by the City and fully adopted by Tourism Kingston. The dynamic strategy was used to guide all decisions related to tourism investment, development, visitor management, stakeholder engagement, and marketing. It has improved seasonal visitation and boosted tourism’s overall contributions to the economy. Based on the impact of the Integrated Destination Strategy, Tourism Kingston retained Twenty31 for the following three-year integrated destination strategy co-created in 2022.
-
![]()
Designing and Managing a Business Intelligence Program to Support Tourism Recovery
-
![]()
Developing a Model to Quantitatively Prioritise Markets of Opportunities and Optimal Investment Levels
-
![MGM]()
MGM Resorts - Defining MGM's Bold New Positioning
-
![]()
Launching North America’s First Destination Health & Safety Certification Program (Skift IDEA Award Winner)
-
![image for decoration]()
FLYR - Defining Immediate Commercial Opportunities
-
![image for decoration]()
IHG Hotels & Resorts - Internal Strategy Framing
-
![]()
Developing a World-Class Analytical Framework to Measure and Track Ras Al Khaimah’s Destination Brand Health
-
![]()
Transforming Tourism Opportunities Across Identified Tourism Development Zones in Alberta, Canada
-
![]()
Benchmarking and Tracking Dubai's Global Brand Standing and Competitive Market Positioning
-
![]()
Crafting the Global Narrative for One of the World’s Most Spiritual Sites
-
![]()
Developing a Sustainable Tourism Development Strategy for Rwanda
-
![]()
Future-Proofing South African Tourism in the Wake of Covid-19
-
![]()
Advising a DMO on How to Transition Into a High Impact Destination Management Organization
-
![]()
The PEW Charitable Trusts - PEW Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project
-
![]()
Creating a Whole-of-Government 10-Year Tourism Strategy for Alberta
-
![]()
Building a Tourism Framework for Three of Saudi Arabia’s Most Ancient & Valued UNESCO Heritage Sites
-
![]()
Repositioning Bent’s Old Fort as a Top Historical Tourism Site
-
![]()
Guiding the Future of Tourism Development and Management in Oman’s Capital City
-
![]()
Co-Creating a Business-focused Tourism Development Toolkit for America’s National Parks
-
![]()
Building an Evidence-based Tourism Development Decision-making Culture in Sri Lanka
-
![]()
Assessing Peru’s Potential as a World-class Adventure Tourism Destination
-
![]()
Assessing the Feasibility to Create a Homeported Small-ship, Experiential Cruise Line in Guam and Micronesia
-
![]()
Evaluating Abu Dhabi’s Approach to Measuring and Tracking Brand Standing
-
![]()
Co-Creating Kingston’s Integrated Destination Strategy
-
![]()
Co-Creating the North’s First Community-led Tourism Strategy
-
![]()
Creating a Training Platform to Support Tourism SMEs Access Global Markets
-
![image for decoration]()
AIG - Market Intelligence During COVID-19
-
![]()
Development Canada’s Winter & Shoulder Season Tourism Potential
-
![]()
Putting Jordan Front and Centre in the Minds of High-Value Travel Consumers and Travel Trade Partners
-
![]()
Accelerating 'Right-fit' Tourism in Prince Edward Island
-
![]()
Developing Palau’s High-Value Sustainable Tourism Growth and Management Strategy
-
![]()
Co-Creating Halifax’s Tourism Development & Management Strategy
-
![]()
Developing an Investment Strategy to Create a National Destination Management Company
-
![]()
Identifying Opportunities to Accelerate Growth of Canada’s Culinary Tourism Assets
-
![]()
Co-creating Egypt’s New Global Brand Strategy & Go-to-market Plan
-
![]()
Adventure Gear Company - Market Sizing
-
![image for decoration]()
Destination Canada - Visual Identity Refresh
