We’re excited to announce that we’ve been working closely with Travel South Dakota to co-develop the state’s new Destination Development Program, which was officially introduced in January at the 2025 South Dakota Governor’s Conference on Tourism. This initiative represents a powerful step toward supporting South Dakota’s rural communities and businesses through responsible, community-driven tourism growth, ensuring that the benefits of tourism are shared widely while preserving the state’s cultural and natural assets.
This work builds on our five-year partnership with Travel South Dakota, which began with a shared commitment to Indigenous tourism through the launch of the South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance (SDNTA). We’re proud that Travel South Dakota has entrusted us as a strategic partner in developing this new program, one that is participatory by design, rooted in local voices, and informed by a deep understanding of the state’s unique destinations and needs.
Since early 2024, our team at the GW International Institute of Tourism Studies has collaborated with Travel South Dakota to research destination development programs from across the country and shape a framework tailored specifically to the needs of South Dakota’s rural communities. To ground this work in lived experience, we conducted stakeholder surveys and in-person focus groups with local leaders and tourism professionals to gather input on community goals, capacity gaps, and barriers to implementation.
This collaborative approach ensures that the Destination Development Program is not only strategic but also actionable, driven by the communities it’s designed to support. The program will officially launch in August 2025, marking an important milestone in advancing sustainable, inclusive tourism across South Dakota.
