National Tourism Offices

National tourism offices (NTOs) are the agencies responsible for the promotion and, sometimes, the management of the development of the tourism industry within a country. They have a strong relationship with a government department or office, and will implement and monitor national tourism policy through a variety of means that can include research, influencing the tourism policy-making process, destination marketing, tourism product development, and the maintenance of national standards for the tourism industry. NTOs are almost always led by the public sector and governed within national public sector arrangements. However, NTOs are seeing an increasing level of private sector involvement through avenues such as board membership and partnership agreements. This increasing private sector involvement helps to ensure that the priorities of the government of a ...