Destination Stewardship Report

Autumn 2022 October-December (Volume 3, Issue 2)

The Destination Stewardship Report is an e-quarterly collaboration between the Destination Stewardship Center, Center for Responsible Travel, and Global Sustainable Tourism Council. Our goal is to provide practical information and insights useful to anyone whose work or interests involve improving destination stewardship in a post-pandemic world. Subscribe HERE.

Partnering for Destination Stewardship in Florida

In much of the U.S., state DMOs remain focused on marketing and don’t address stewardship efforts. Who, then, will? Dr. Brooke Hansen describes the initial success of two partnership arrangements incorporating the hospitality industry in the greater Tampa Bay area.

Beautification Nonprofits Take the Lead

Two Keep America Beautiful Affiliates in west central Florida have taken up the role of leading destination stewardship by collaborating with several key partners. Destination stewardship is integral to upholding the triple bottom line of sustainable tourism, but to be successful, it needs to promote participatory governance, inclusion of diverse stakeholders and residents, valuation of ecosystem services, and integrity of culture and place. It also needs to align with global integrative frameworks such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Tourism 4 SDGs… READ MORE →

Panama Tourism to Empower Local and Indigenous Communities

Inequity in distribution of tourism income is a major problem in much of Latin America, especially for indigenous communities. Now Panama is taking tangible steps to fix that, beginning with ten pilot projects and a focus on nature and tradition. Iván Eskildsen, the nation’s Minister of Tourism, explains.

Our National Plan Intends To Preserve and Regenerate Ecosystems and Ancestral Traditions

As Panama aspires to become a world-class sustainable tourism destination, local communities need to be considered at the very center of the tourism phenomenon, or sustainability will not be achieved. This philosophy is at the heart of Panama’s Sustainable Tourism Master Plan… READ MORE →

A Revealing Ocean View of Tourism

A “High Level” international Ocean Panel has come out with a blunt change-your-ways-or-else report aimed at the customary models for coastal and marine tourism. Norwegian journalist and consultant-participant Arild Molstad sums up the content and opines about its implications for any destination with a port and a coast.

A call for regenerative tourism on coastal destinations

“The very thing that draws people to coastal and marine destinations continues to be threatened by tourism itself. The unprecedented pause in global tourism has provided a unique opportunity to reassess and reset.” So states a recent report on international coastal zones – Opportunities for Transforming Coastal and Marine Tourism.* Co-authored by the 17 nations** of the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel)… READ MORE →

Key Takeaways from CREST’s Forum on Destination Stewardship

What does it mean to implement a destination stewardship model? What are the successes and challenges communities face throughout the process? And what does a shift towards stewardship mean for destination marketing? Alix Collins summarizes the key takeaways from the 2022 World Tourism Day Forum.

A Better Way Forward

For this year’s World Tourism Day Forum (27 Sept. 2022), we at the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) wanted to shine a light on destination stewardship. Initially, we were going to focus on the challenge of shifting from marketing to management, but implementing the destination stewardship model isn’t just about marketing. It’s also about governance, funding structures, stakeholder engagement, political will, and community and private sector buy-in. So we shifted our focus… READ MORE →

A Call for Climate Collaboration at the First Ever Future-of-Tourism Summit

After two Covid-wracked years, the Future of Tourism Coalition was able to convene its first face-to-face summit on 29 Sept. 2022. Held in Athens, Greece, the Coalition conference focused on climate mitigation and adaptation. Kate Lewis reports.

Businesses and Destinations Asked to Partner-Up for Change Ahead

On 29 September the inaugural Future of Tourism Summit, held in Athens and live-streamed globally, brought together NGOs, businesses and destination organisations to demonstrate the need for “radical collaboration” to adapt to future needs. The focus of the day was climate action, within the framework of…READ MORE →

Two Winners from the Top 100

Every year, Green Destinations organizes the Top 100 Destination Sustainability Stories competition, inviting submissions from around the world. This vetted collection of stories spotlights local and regional destinations that are making progress toward sustainable management of tourism. From the 100 winners announced last year, we’ve selected two more stories, this time from Guyana and Timor-Leste, that showcase how indigenous traditions can help communities revive endangered natural habitats, supported by responsible tourism. Synopses by Josie Burd.

Livingstone, Zambia Creates a ‘Forest of Faces’

Top 100 submission by Rosie Mercer, Business Development Manager at Destination Livingstone Initiative.

Tapping Local Wood-Carving Talent Gives Livingstone a Competitive Step Up – and a Lesson in Stewardship

Just 10km away from Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Livingstone relies on tourism for its main economic activity. However, the town of Victoria Falls across the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe had been getting most of the tourism traffic. So how does Livingstone draw those people back in? In 2019, their community created a Destination Management Plan (DMP) to brainstorm opportunities to improve the situation… READ MORE →

Revitalizing the Kypseli Neighborhood in Athens

Top 100 submission by Alexia Panagiotopoulou, Head of Strategy, Athens Development and Destination Management Agency.

Revitalizing the Kypseli Neighborhood Began with a Holistic Redo of its Core Agora

Amidst the densely packed historic neighborhood of Kypseli stands a building that has gone through lifetimes of change. The Kypseli Agora is one of the last permanent neighborhood markets in Athens, a traditional gathering place for the community. Fondly recalled memories of after-school ice cream visits and weekend shopping for fresh foods with their parents roll off the tongues of elderly residents as they reminisce about how the market felt more like a second home than a place of business…READ MORE →

Bookshelf

Collected by Josie Burd. Note: Descriptions are taken from publisher blurbs.

Apollo, M. (2022). Mountaineering Adventure Tourism and Local Communities: Social, Environmental and Economics Interactions. Edward Elgar. Focuses on the socio-economic and environmental issues of the impact of mountaineering adventure tourism on local communities.Uses empirical evidence from interviews held in the Himalayas combined with a theoretical grounding,

Gowreesunkar, V.G.B., Maingi, S.W., & Ming’ate, F.L.M. (2022). Management of Tourism Ecosystem Services in a Post Pandemic Context. Routledge. An exploration of the challenges faced by destinations regarding the management and restoration of their ecosystem services.

Hugues, S., & Yallop, A.C. (2022). Overtourism and Tourism Education: A strategy for sustainable tourism futures. Routledge. An investigation of overtourism from a tourism education perspective with original research on overtourism, education, and sustainability. Puts forward a range of practical and transformative tourism education strategies to mitigate overtourism and to promote the sustainable destination development.

Stodola, S. (2022). The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit, and Peril at the Beach. Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Captivating exploration of beach resort culture from its roots to its undervalued role in today’s world economy as the travel industry approaches a climate reckoning.