A critical first action in the development or expansion of tourism in any community is the completion of a series of assessments that establish a sound foundation on which to build a successful tourism program:

• a comprehensive inventory to provide clear knowledge of what is available to attract visitors,
• an uncomplicated capacity assessment to reveal the capacity of the community to serve more visitors,
• a competitive assessment that reveals what surrounding communities are doing to attract visitors and why visitors would visit their communities instead of yours,
• a first impressions exercise to understand how the communities appears to those not familiar with it,
• a listen to learn process to gain information regarding opportunities that community leaders and visitor locations see for tourism as well as the barriers they perceive,
• a profile of current visitors to understand the visitors visiting now and the additional visitors that can be attracted to the available resources.