Destination management and strategic market planning: a strategic planning technique of the total tourism product with the assistance of section elevation diagrams

Herein, a methodology for analysing an area’s broad tourism product is presented. In particular, after theoretically approaching the issue of Destination Management, and the issues of marketing and planning geographical sections, the use of a Destination Card is proposed for applications relevant to areas’ strategic analyses. The aforementioned card is a result of the combination of tools for landscape architectural design (landscape planning/section elevation diagrams) and particularly face analysis sections, with the presentation of both practical evaluation criteria and area categorisation criteria from the theory of Destination Management. Destination analysis through the Card may facilitate the procedures of Strategic Planning and tourism development-elevation for destinations. Furthermore, the Destination Card is based on the application of marketing concepts, since it makes use of data and information related to the demand and to the opinions of residents/professionals within each community.