Many DMOs are looking towards a new model of tourism management to build a more resilient and equitable future for the industry and one that, above all, benefits place and people. Here are four questions about tourism for destinations to ask to help achieve that goal and steer towards a better direction for tourism and travel.
Does tourism management and development have your destination’s needs at its centre?
Some of the world’s biggest issues – the climate emergency and rising inequality – are also some of the tourism industry’s main challenges. For too long, a focus on growth and increasing visitor numbers, without an understanding of the impact of tourism or its value to the destination, have contributed to both problems. COVID-19 also threw the relationship between our use of the natural world and its impacts on human livelihoods into sharp relief. The pandemic highlighted the vulnerability of the sector to external events. However, the arrival of COVID-19 also brought about an opportunity to forge a better, more sustainable direction for tourism, one that is not ‘business as usual’, but, instead, looks at the economic, environmental and social value that tourism brings, and ultimately asks why is tourism wanted and by whom?
In 2021 the Future of Tourism Coalition launched to help set the industry on this better path and change how tourism is managed. The Coalition now has over 700 organisations who support 13 Guiding Principles that help to direct the industry to a more responsible, equitable and inclusive future. The Principles were developed collaboratively by the six founding NGOs behind the Future of Tourism Coalition, including the Travel Foundation, and recognise the already established Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) Standards. Each of the Guiding Principles provides a touch point for signatories to evaluate their plans and together they act as a common framework or shared vision which the tourism industry can work towards. The FOTC held its first Summit in Athens in 2022 as well as a number of online webinars, and signatories gain further support and collaboration from a thriving online community.
The FOTC is now building a bank of positive stories, showcasing how the Guiding Principles are already working for destinations in real life, that others can draw upon. For example, Amsterdam is undertaking some big picture thinking by using Kate Raworth’s ‘doughnut’ economic model of planetary and social boundaries for city planning, which relates to Guiding Principle 1, ‘See the Whole Picture,’ and Slovenia developed a national tool to encourage and promote sustainable tourism development based on the GSTC standards and Green Destinations, which relates to Guiding Principle 2: Use Sustainability Standards.’
Are you taking climate action?
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022 ranked climate inaction as the number one threat to the world and the most severe risk, in terms of potential impacts, over the next decade. Tourism is now responsible for 8-11% of global carbon emissions and is set to double in size by 2050, yet destinations will suffer massive impacts from climate change. The travel and tourism sector is reliant on a stable climate and healthy ecosystems, and is therefore likely to be disproportionately affected by changing weather patterns and extreme events such as flooding and wildfires, which are becoming more common. Research report ‘Envisioning Tourism in 2030 and Beyond‘ sets out what a global, thriving, decarbonising tourism industry could look like by 2030 and through to 2050, when tourism and every other human activity must achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions and gives key recommendations on how to get there.
Tourism plays a crucial role in the transition to a net zero world and destination management organisations (DMOs) are key to reducing climate emissions because they can bring different actors together within their destination to work on solutions. Yet, to date, they have been lacking in support with the mammoth task of tackling carbon emissions at a destination level. The UNWTO-led Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism initiative hopes to change this. The Glasgow Declaration aims to catalyse climate action across the sector and ensure alignment towards a shared goal. It places emphasis on identifying what the sector needs to transition to a low carbon economy and to build capacity for climate action in destinations.
Over 700 signatories have now pledged to halve carbon emissions by 2030 and be net zero by 2050 so far including Visit Kiribati and Visit Finland. All signatories must produce a climate action plan within 12 months of signing and report on progress annually. Destinations signing up to this common framework also benefit from a collective target for climate action, creating opportunities for further collaboration and greater sectoral action. The Declaration offers five pathways for climate action: measure, decarbonise, regenerate, collaborate and finance. Signatories are supported in each category with a library of resources and more planning tools, including a briefing paper on measurement and a webinar called ‘Shaping your role in Climate Action’ which showcased the diversity of roles and actions that organisations can take to help tackle climate change.
VisitScotland, a destination that’s leading on climate action and which sat on the drafting committee of the Glasgow Declaration, has already developed a plan to achieve net zero emissions at a national level and within three regions, Glasgow, the Outer Hebrides and Inverness and Loch Ness. Another leading destination, Norway, launched a bold new tourism strategy last year that includes a commitment to halve CO2 emissions in the local tourist industry by 2030, reduce the carbon footprint from transport by 10% a year and to increase the value of tourism to the country.
Do you know the hidden costs of tourism in your destination?
In 2019, the Travel Foundation launched a report ‘Destinations at Risk: The Invisible Burden of Tourism’ with Cornell University and Eplerwood International, that revealed the hidden costs of tourism that are putting cultural wonders, natural ecosystems and community life at risk. The report highlighted that these costs either fall on a destination and its communities or are left unaccounted for, often resulting in further negative impacts such as social conflict, higher cost of living for residents, increased reliance on fossil fuels or ecosystem degradation. For example, it has been well documented that Bali’s water crisis is partly due to unchecked tourism development and now threatens the agricultural sector.
The report urges destinations to look at and account for these hidden and growing costs, which, if not addressed, could put the very assets on which tourism depends at risk. To do this, destinations need to be able to oversee a proper evaluation of tourism’s impacts on their local infrastructure and resources, before planning how to reduce that impact. The case of Bali neatly demonstrates that destination-level planning is required to ensure that local needs are met. To help destinations upskill with the new knowledge and skills needed to measure and manage tourism’s hidden costs, an online 40-hour course, in partnership with Cornell University, launched in winter 2022. Scholarship places are also available for lower-income countries.