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Since the announcement of the Icelandic Pledge in June 2017, destinations are increasingly turning to national destination pledges as a possible tool to address negative impacts caused by visitors. This article uses qualitative interviews with 17 stakeholders involved in the development and implementation of the full sample of national destination pledges at the time of the research (namely the Icelandic Pledge, the Palau Pledge, the New Zealand Tiaki Promise and the Sustainable Finland Pledge) as an empirical basis. It explores the catalysts for the development of national destination pledges including undesirable visitor behaviour, increasing visitor numbers and a desire to protect the destination and its people. It then demonstrates how national destination pledges are social marketing initiatives, which employ commercial marketing techniques to positively influence visitor behaviour. By analysing the social …