How Tina O'Dwyer is Filling the Cracks in Tourism Through The Place Paradigm Mindset

For decades, the global tourism industry has operated under a popular notion that more visitors mean more value. Since the 1950s, destinations have been measured by numbers: the number of arrivals, the amount spent, and the rate of growth. It is a model that has delivered extraordinary success, transforming tourism into one of the world's most powerful industries. Yet, in recent years, cracks in this "numbers paradigm" have become impossible to ignore.

Overcrowding, environmental strain, and community pushback have made it clear that growth without balance can diminish rather than enrich a place.

It is within this context that Tina O'Dwyer, founder of The Tourism Space, has introduced a new way of thinking, which she calls The Place Paradigm. "For a long time, people have believed more visitors have equaled more value," she explains. "But there is a tipping point after which more becomes less. Less value, less sustainability, less belonging. The true connector in tourism is not the number, but the place."

O'Dwyer's The Place Paradigm proposes a shift from tourism as a number game to tourism as a relationship. Rather than asking how many visitors a destination can attract, the question becomes: what do we want for this place, and how can tourism help deliver it? In doing so, tourism can become an ally of the place, rather than a force imposed upon it.

O'Dwyer's perspective is shaped not only by theory but also by lived experience. Early in her tourism career, she became involved in an ecotourism initiative in a rural community that had once been divided over tourism development - some fearing it would damage their heritage and landscape, others believing it would secure their prosperity and future.

"What I realized was that both sides were motivated by the same thing: love of place," O'Dwyer recalls. "Those who wanted tourism wanted it because they wanted the place to thrive. Those who didn't want tourism also wanted the place to thrive. It was the same motivation, just expressed differently." That was the lightbulb moment that has guided her work ever since.

That lesson, that place itself, is the unifying force that now underpins O'Dwyer's work with leaders in tourism worldwide. Through The Tourism Space, she facilitates what she calls "Strategic Listening" and "Place Speaking" processes. This approach involves not just consulting communities but creating meaningful processes where places themselves find expression and people feel heard, invested, and connected.

By putting place at the center, competition between businesses, destinations, or even countries can be dissolved. "When the purpose is the place, that essence of collaboration replaces competition," she notes.

The urgency of this shift is evident in the protests seen across destinations where residents feel excluded from decisions about tourism's development. As O'Dwyer observes, "People in these tourism-dependent places are not against tourism. They're against being excluded. They know how much their livelihoods rely on it, but they want to be part of shaping it."

The Place Paradigm offers a path forward, one rooted in belonging, identity, and stewardship rather than extraction.

And it's this belief that underpins her work as it gains international recognition. O'Dwyer's TEDx talk captured widespread attention, and she is currently writing a book, The Place Paradigm, to expand on the framework.

She also curates the Sustainability Summit at World Travel Market London, one of the largest international B2B events for the global travel and tourism sector. Adding further credibility, The Tourism Space has earned both university accreditation and CPD recognition for its Certificate in Sustainable Destination Practice, helping businesses and tourism stakeholders embed stewardship and sustainability into long-term development.

At its heart, The Place Paradigm is focused on redefining value, challenging the sector to think not in five-year destination plans, but in 100-year or even 1000-year horizons, in line with the deep histories and ecosystems on which the very appeal of tourism depends.

It reframes tourism as a microcosm of broader world challenges, how one balances growth and sustainability, individuality and community, competition and collaboration. "Tourism is not an industry in the conventional sense," O'Dwyer emphasizes. "It isn't about manufacturing a product. It's about people, their connection to place, and creating spaces where they and their guests can truly belong."

As destinations grapple with the future of tourism in an age of climate consciousness and community activism, O'Dwyer's call is clear: to move beyond numbers and embrace the place itself as the guiding compass.

Ultimately, O'Dwyer's message resonates deeply with the fabric of tourism today: when guided by place instead of numbers, tourism can heal divides, strengthen communities, and protect the very heritage and landscapes that give it meaning.