As the Forces of Change Attack, How Can We Respond?

Recently, TAG partner Carl Ribaudo and I discussed the very challenging environment the travel industry faces these days.

I said Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) and visitor-serving businesses are being buffeted by a list of strong headwinds (to be polite) from all sides.

Facing multiple concurrent issues, it is difficult for leaders to know what to address first, if at all!

Among the most apparent forces are unstable, unpredictable, and interrelated geopolitics in this country. Globally, the forces include erratic international leisure and group business travel patterns affecting demand (and planning), economic insecurity among some consumers and businesses, negative media depictions (e.g., major disasters, overtourism, etc.), heightened scrutiny and accountability aimed at business and organizational leaders, and let’s not forget AI! Whew! 

Carl adeptly encapsulated all this into “these are signs of ‘forces of change.’” This concept intrigued me, so I followed up with some research and found that it is a dynamic that has been investigated and explained. 

What are Forces of Change?

To begin with, forces of change are the internal and external pressures that affect our organizations and society. They include technological advances, market competition, social trends, economic shifts, and political legislation.

These drivers are classified as PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal) factors.

They drive disruption, disorder, and departure from the norm, and can lower morale. At the same time, they can heighten confusion and anxiety and can cause flight (ignore) or freeze (deny) reactions, neither an effective resolution. 

Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-organizationalbehavior/chapter/forces-of-change

External Forces of Change  

• Technological Advances: Rapid digitization, AI, and automation require new skills and infrastructure.

• Market Competition: Global competition, increased product options, and lower costs forcing innovation.

• Economic Forces: Shifts in interest rates, inflation, and economic growth/recession.

• Social & Cultural Changes: Shifting demographics, consumer values, and lifestyles.

• Political/Legal Forces: New legislation, regulations, and geopolitical shifts affecting operations. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Internal Forces of Change

These arise from an organization's internal functioning and can be made more manageable through good leadership that proactively recognizes the forces at play.

• New Leadership and Mission: A change in top management or the introduction of a new strategic vision often triggers broad structural shifts.

• Performance and Productivity Issues: Low performance or inefficiency may lead to restructuring or the adoption of new technologies.

• Employee Needs and Values: Demands for better compensation, different workplace cultures, or flexible work arrangements (such as hybrid work) drive internal change.

• Organizational Conflict: Tensions between departments or shifts in labor relations can necessitate changes in policy or structure. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Key Strategies to Address Forces of Change

To respond and regain equilibrium, resolving forces of change involves identifying and balancing driving forces (which push for change) against restraining forces (which resist change) using strategies such as Kurt Lewin’s force-field analysis, applied by proactive leadership, along with employee engagement and alignment of the organizational structure with new goals. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] 

Change only happens when driving forces are strengthened or resistance is weakened.

Forces of change lead to adaptation, evolution, and/or transformation, compelling entities to innovate, restructure, or alter strategies to survive and thrive. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. 

Such strategies include:

• Force Field Analysis, effective for internal response, maps out the forces driving change and those resisting it. It allows you to develop strategies to strengthen the driving forces and weaken or remove the restraining forces, thereby increasing productivity, improving morale, reducing costs, aligning with strategic objectives, and garnering support throughout the organization.

• Proactive Leadership: Recognizing and anticipating change by monitoring external trends like technology and competition rather than reacting only when forced.

• Adaptation: Adjust products, services, or internal processes to meet new environmental demands.

• Strategic Planning: Use resources wisely to prepare for inevitable shifts in the business landscape and avoid crisis management. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Two Approaches to Responses

Responses to forces of change can be both reactive and proactive, with a clearly proactive approach being preferred as it is more effective and targeted.

Whether a startup or a well-established organization, it’s important to embrace the driving forces of change. They aren’t going to be all good or all bad, but with planning, research, and strategy development, you’ll be better prepared for either outcome.

It is said that you can drive or be driven by the forces of change.

The Reactive Approach

A reactive mindset is essentially a holding pattern, waiting for disruption to pass rather than meeting it head-on. Those who default to “wait and see” often fear change, resist recognizing that change is underway, or fail to see that it can be a meaningful signal of something better.

Instead, they cling to familiar and established routines (“we’ve always done it this way"), while delaying or impeding any real response. Because change feels threatening rather than generative, reactive individuals rarely consider what opportunities it might unlock.

This posture does little to position an organization for growth; in fact, it can ultimately threaten the organization by refusing to acknowledge the reality surrounding it.

When change isn't actively shaped, it simply happens to you, and assimilating it becomes a struggle rather than a strategic win.

The antidote to reactivity is deliberate, forward-looking leadership and deliberation. By consistently scanning the industry for early signals and emerging patterns, leaders can anticipate shifts before they become crises, a critical difference.

Organizations that regularly monitor their environment can allocate time, people, and budget thoughtfully, while those that respond only when problems erupt find themselves in perpetual firefighting mode, expending more effort for less effective results.

The Proactive Approach

The proactive mindset takes the opposite approach; it scans the horizon, anticipates what's coming, and works to neutralize threats before they gain momentum.

Rather than reacting to change as an unwelcome surprise or threat, proactive leaders look for opportunities within disruption and direct their energy toward the forces they can influence.

No one can predict or control every shift that comes their way, but solid preparation creates space and deeper thinking to consider and enact preemptive moves, often revealing the upside that reactive thinkers miss by avoiding the forces.

The approach doesn't just absorb change; it generates it, surfacing emerging developments early and opening the door for fresh thinking and stronger solutions.

When your organization is facing significant forces of change, a few grounding questions can sharpen your response:

• Which of these forces are within your control — fully, partially, or not at all?

• What current tactics, processes, or offerings could be adjusted to address the change more effectively?

• And perhaps most importantly, how can you continue to serve your customers well, not just through the disruption, but on the other side of it?

Strategy to Address or Mitigate the Forces of Change

From a strategy perspective, dealing with the forces of change is critical at several levels.

First, it allows the organization to recognize the forces of change. Second, can the organization impact those changes or respond to them?

Most forces of change are macro-level and out of the span of control of an individual organization. That being said, the organization needs to assess its response from short-, mid-, and long-term perspectives.

Forces of change also demand adaptability and resilience from a destination marketing organization, and to meet that, an organization’s culture may have to change.

Organizational change is that an incremental in nature, but given the scope of the forces of change, destinations may need to evolve much more quickly

Strategy Implications: Responding to the Forces of Change

The travel and tourism industry has entered an era in which traditional assumptions about stability, growth, and competitiveness are fundamentally challenged.

The convergence of geopolitical instability, economic uncertainty, climate-related disruptions, changing consumer expectations, technological acceleration, workforce shifts, and heightened public scrutiny is reshaping destination and tourism organization operations on a daily basis.

These are not isolated disruptions but a broader systemic condition resulting from forces of change.

The central strategic question is no longer whether change will occur, but whether destination management organizations (DMOs) are structurally and culturally prepared to respond to continuous change as a permanent operating approach.  

Many traditional DMOs were designed in and for a more stable era focused on promotion, visitor attraction, and seasonal demand generation.

Today, however, the DMO role has been evolving toward broader responsibilities, including economic resilience, stakeholder alignment, community stewardship, experience development, public engagement, advocacy, and long-term competitiveness.

Structure Follows Strategy: From Promotion Organizations to Strategic Platforms

One of the most significant implications of the forces of change is that DMOs can no longer function solely as marketing organizations.

Marketing remains important, but promotion alone cannot solve structural challenges such as changing visitor values, resident tension, workforce shortages, climate risk, infrastructure pressures, or competitive pressure and undifferentiated offerings.

Instead, successful DMOs increasingly function as strategic platforms for anticipating and interpreting change, aligning stakeholders, identifying emerging opportunities, and guiding long-term adaptation.

This requires several important strategic shifts:

Given the above shifts, destination competitiveness will depend less on who markets the loudest but more on who adapts the smartest.  It’s good to remember Charles Darwin’s observation, “’fitness’ means being the best suited to a specific environment, rather than purely the biggest, strongest, or smartest.” That is, those most adaptable to change.

The forces of change affecting the travel industry are unlikely to stabilize soon. If anything, the pace of disruption, convergence, and uncertainty will continue to accelerate.

This reality requires destinations and tourism organizations to rethink traditional assumptions about strategy, competition, leadership, and organizational purpose. 

The future may belong less to destinations that simply market themselves effectively and more to those that adapt continuously, differentiate meaningfully, align with their communities, embrace strategic resilience, and ultimately build organizational cultures capable of navigating uncertainty with clarity and confidence.

Destination Case Study: Hawai’i

This past March, Hawai’i experienced heavy storms and flooding, short-term and localized on Oahu’s North Shore, West Maui, Molokai, and the island of Hawai’i.  Following widespread press coverage, the state as a whole lost tourism demand and $300 million of economic impact. 

To counteract cancellations and reinvigorate visitation, the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau just launched a $2 million marketing campaign, funded by the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA), to inform potential visitors that the island is open for business and that they are welcome to come this summer (and beyond).

Caroline Anderson, interim president and CEO of HTA, stated, "While conditions across much of Hawaii have returned to normal, some travelers may still have questions following the storms, and that uncertainty continues to affect local businesses. This campaign enables the welcoming messages from the people of Hawai'i to come through clearly and genuinely, so visitors can be confident that their visit will be both memorable and appreciated."

This is a reactive response, necessitated by the inability to predict the extent and location of the storms and by the impacts of media coverage that typically follows any natural disaster. 

A reactive response is better than no response at all. Any response needs to be deliberate in its timing, to address the specific issue, while also being sensitive to areas and people that may still be affected, and targeted to the audiences most likely to be motivated.

Political Advocacy as a Proactive Response

In the face of politically driven forces of change, it is critical for us in the travel and tourism industry to be proactive by staying aware of and being vigilant about legislation. Proposals by elected officials can “make us or break us” in our operations.

Many well-intentioned bills could have far-reaching, costly, counterproductive, or worse, unintended consequences once implemented if not stopped, while bills advantageous to tourism can die for lack of visible support from the industry.

Thanks to the California Travel Association (CalTravel), our state’s membership-based advocacy organization, we can stay proactively informed and take action to support or oppose bills impacting tourism. 

In mid-May, I again went to Sacramento with 100 fellow CalTravel members, walking the halls of the Capitol’s legislators’ office annex, meeting with assembly members, senators, and staff to discuss bills related to privacy (support), real estate ownership (oppose), and a proposed state sports tourism fund. 

Over the years, CalTravel has strengthened ongoing relationships with and support of elected officials, and it researches and tracks legislation.

This proactive approach provides overall protection for us in the industry against legislative forces of change. Efforts include supporting legislation to raise California’s competitiveness as a tourism destination, protecting the travel and tourism industry from unnecessary costs of doing business, while opposing legislation that would impede visitation, deter visitor spending, and unfairly burden tourism-related businesses.

Face the Forces of Change as Forces of Good

We hope this article has helped illuminate that forces of change are neither monolithic nor need to be avoided or feared.

Change is a constant, and how we meet it is a choice.

If we proactively pay attention, prepare deliberately, and work through change collaboratively, forces of change can be anticipated, managed, and lead to improvement.  

It is unrealistic to eliminate uncertainty; the goal is to lead through it with clarity and confidence, hopefully with better outcomes than where we started.