The Outer Banks
Long Range Tourism Management Plan
Our Long Range Tourism Management Plan (LRTMP) focuses on an equitable approach that moves beyond business as usual to protect our core values and manage growth of tourism on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The aim is to ensure that tourism preserves and even benefits the environment, culture, and community livelihood, including quality of life for our residents, and quality of place for our visitors.
Dare County Tourism Board Seeking Applications for Special Committee; Residents, Non-Resident Property Owners Encouraged To Apply
Group To Focus On Long-Range Tourism Management Plan Implementation
The Special Committee – or task force – was originally formed to facilitate the process of the LRTMP and includes local tourism economy representation in historic attractions, environmental expertise, housing and infrastructure, parks and preservation, lodging and municipal government to name a few. The Dare County Tourism Board is adding seats on the Special Committee for Dare County residents and non-resident property owner representation to which interested individuals can apply online.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and, if selected, you will be contacted with additional information. The committee will meet at least quarterly, unless projects and timelines dictate otherwise, and members will be eligible to serve 2 two-year terms. If you have any questions, please contact Jeff Schwartzenberg at schwartzenberg@outerbanks.
What is a Tourism Management Plan?
Traditionally, the tourism sector has defined itself as a single tactic — marketing. It has also defined overall success as a single metric — volume. There are few other sectors beyond tourism where the organizations stewarding their industries spend so much more effort and resources on marketing a product than they do developing and managing a product. Addressing that in recent years, the world’s most progressive organizations in tourism have been expanding from destination marketing to destination management. It’s a shift from promoting communities to engaging and stewarding communities, which in turn, provides more livable, lovable and sustainable destinations.
In this new paradigm, the impact of tourism can no longer be measured solely in economic terms. We must also measure success against the well-being of destinations, considering nature, human health, and community identities. We must be thoughtful about how the quality of the visitor experience can be balanced with the quality of life for residents; about the types of visitors who would provide maximum financial value to our local communities while having the optimal social and environmental impact, and how we can responsibly grow our tourism industry for the benefit of all in our communities.
The future success of the visitor economy — and the growth of direct and indirect benefits it provides for the local economy — depend on the public, private and civic sectors collaborating to ensure the long-term viability of the destination. That alignment between government, industry and civic organizations is crucial. It requires area leaders co-developing a shared vision for the future that supports visitor growth while continually enhancing the destination as a healthy, dynamic and productive place for all residents to live, work and play.
A tourism management plan allows a community to take a strategic approach to defining its competitive positioning as a destination. These plans are a critical step in identifying and prioritizing those opportunities for enhancements to the visitor and resident experience that will position the community as a desirable place to live, work and visit, and extend the benefits of the visitor economy throughout the community.
Why is a Tourism Management Plan needed?
Tourism has been the Outer Banks’ largest economic engine for many decades. Despite numerous natural and manmade calamities over the years, tourism has proven to be incredibly resilient and productive for our community. Today, tourism represents a $1.8 billion industry for Dare County.
The local industry’s success presents several challenges, though, as millions of guests visit our small community (37,000 year-round residents) each year. This strain has been exacerbated by the unprecedented boom in visitation we’ve seen during the COVID pandemic.
Tourism improves the quality of life for local residents with the jobs, tax revenue, recreational and entertainment opportunities, and infrastructure dollars it provides. While these benefits are fundamental to our community, the negative impacts are significant as well.
The DCTB wishes to establish a long-term management plan for tourism that will allow it to grow responsibly, i.e., in a way that is sustainable over time, optimizing the benefits for the local community while minimizing and managing the negative impacts.
Project Contact
Jeff Schwartzenberg
Outer Banks Visitors Bureau
Community Engagement Manager
Phone: (252) 473-7155
Email: schwartzenberg@outerbanks.org
LRTMP Lifecycle
Phase 1: Project Planning & Management
Confirm project plan, management processes, and approach to stakeholder engagement
Phase 2: Destination Assessment
A data-driven assessment to identify strengths and weaknesses of the destination phase
Phase 3: Stakeholder Engagement
Proactively engage key stakeholders and community leaders to collaboratively develop the plan and generate buy-in
Phase 4: Situational Analysis
Summarize the current state of the tourism ecosystem in the Outer Banks
Phase 5: Visioning Workshop
Develop future vision for the Outer Banks’ visitor economy and prioritize key issues and opportunities
Phase 6: Tourism Management Plan Development
Validate recommendations and the master plan phase
Phase 7: Implementation Plan Development
Develop a comprehensive implementation plan
How Can You Be Involved?
Surveys:
-
The Resident Survey closed on December 2, 2022 with over 4.5K responses. We appreciate your time and input and look forward to sharing the results.
Community Meeting & Visioning Session
We can’t do any of this without you, so thank you for making your voice be heard! The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau hosted two community visioning sessions with members of the community on January 24, 2023. All were invited to sign up for in-person workshops with both sessions covering the same material at the Fessenden Center Activity Room in Buxton, NC and the Ramada Plaza in Kill Devil Hills, NC. The Buxton unedited recording can be viewed here and the Kill Devil Hills unedited recording can be viewed here.
Following significant input from the community, we were pleased to share the outcome of the development process and present the final plan and its direction on May 24, 2023 from 5:30-6:30pm at the Ramada Plaza Oceanfront in Kill Devil Hills. The unedited recording can be viewed here.



LRTMP Task Force
Teresa Armendarez | Natalie Kavanaugh |
Luke Baer | Willo Kelly |
Mark Ballog | Lee Nettles |
Jessica Barnes | Robert Outten |
Karen Brown | Chris Sawin |
Tim Cafferty | Ronnie Sloan |
Shannon Castillo | Tim Sweeney |
Reide Corbett | Michael Tillett |
Mary Helen Goodloe-Murphy | Sterling Webster |
Dave Hallac |
Task Force Meeting Dates
- Kick off Meeting: September 29, 2022 from 9am-1pm
- Visioning Session: March 15, 2023 from 1-5pm
- Virtual Validation: April 6, 2023 from 10-11am