Tourism must stop promoting growth without understanding the costs

The Travel Foundation is calling on investors, businesses, governments and their destination marketing organisations (DMOs) to better understand the costs, not just the economic benefits, of tourism within destinations. This will allow promotional budgets to be deployed more strategically, and potentially diverted toward addressing sustainability risks that could render destinations unprofitable in the long-term.

Speaking today (Monday 4 November) at World Travel Market in London, Jeremy Sampson, the charity’s CEO, described an “Invisible Burden” of tourism: the costs of serving tourism’s increasing demand which are either picked up by a destination and its residents, or left unpaid, resulting in social conflict and environmental decline. The Invisible Burden was outlined in a report published earlier this year by the Travel Foundation, with Cornell University and EplerWood International.

Sampson made his comments during a panel discussion on Sustainable Tourism Development in Albania:

Sampson called on those investing in growth strategies to understand these costs and invest in managing the Invisible Burden.

During the unveiling of Albania’s new Sustainable Tourism Strategy 2019-2023, Mr. Blendi Klosi, Minister of Tourism and Environment, said:

To download the Travel Foundation’s free report “Destinations at Risk: The Invisible Burden of Tourism” visit www.invisibleburden.org.