Effective governance provides the foundation for sustainable destination development. It ensures that responsibilities are clearly defined, decision-making processes are transparent, and all relevant stakeholders are actively involved in shaping and implementing common goals. Strong governance structures help create a shared understanding of sustainability and enable coordinated action across all levels of destination management.

In Tyrol, governance structures have evolved over time and are now institutionalized through the Tyrolean Tourism Act. This Act requires all 34 Tyrolean Tourism Associations to develop a sustainability strategy, prepare a sustainability report, and appoint a sustainability coordinator. To align with the Tyrolean tourism strategy “The Tyrolean Way”, dedicated structures are needed to clarify responsibilities and ensure broad commitment at both regional and destination levels. While the specific governance arrangements remain at the discretion of each association, the participatory approach to sustainable tourism development includes the establishment of a steering group ("Sustainability Board") involving key stakeholders such as local authorities, core service providers, and members of the association’s supervisory board, as well as a working group ("Sustainability Committee") that may include management, sustainability coordination, and the operational team responsible for implementing the association’s sustainability measures.

TYSTO builds upon these well-established structures of tourism governance in Tyrol. Rather than operating as a separate forum, it is closely interlinked with existing coordination processes where key stakeholders already collaborate. The graphic “Sustainable Development in Tyrolean Tourism: Stakeholders, networks, tasks” outlines the governance architecture of this stakeholder network and demonstrates how sustainability initiatives including TYSTO are coordinated and implemented collectively.

Building on this approach, TYSTO the key issue area “Governance” focusing on three fields of action to assess and continuously strengthen sustainable destination management in Tyrol.

Initial results will be published in 2026, covering data from the 2025 reporting year. Data collection is currently ongoing.