CEO of Travel Foundation speaks out against mass tourism numbers game

Impact assessments urged – do we want quality or quantity in tourism?

Said Salli Fenton CEO of the Travel Foundation "When done badly, tourism focuses only on the simple measure of numbers of tourist arrivals. "

Speaking on Green Destinations Day and World Tourism Day 2016, in Ljubljana, this year’s Green Capital of Europe Salli said:

"More people are better. More people mean more money, which in theory means more benefits for everyone."

"But theory doesn’t always translate into practice and it’s pretty clear that more benefits are not being realised by Venice, Barcelona or Thailand. So the measure of tourist arrivals is fundamentally flawed."

"More people might be bringing in more money, but where does it go? Does it stay in the country or does it leak out? And what are the environmental and social costs of more people? Does all this extra money they bring in cover these costs?"

"From what we’re seen here (in tourist hotspots) more people don’t seem to be making tourists, residents or destination authorities happier. They just seem to be creating major problems."

 If destinations are only measuring numbers of tourist arrivals, they can’t possibly have a clue:

– Whether tourism is providing economic benefit to all members of a destination community equally

– Whether tourism is having a detrimental impact on the very resources that sustain both residents and tourists, or

– Or whether the people who live in the destinations feel that their interactions with tourists are positive

Destinations who only measure numbers and use a multiplier to assess economic benefits are clearly getting a dangerously flawed picture, implied Salli.

In order to ensure tourism fulfils its potential to be a viable long term industry that encourages sustainable development, we (the travel industry) needs to understand what impact tourism is having on destinations and find ways to measure this so that destinations can do a better job of managing it proactively.

This will require destinations and global tourism frameworks to set new measures and targets to drive the way tourism is planned and managed for the future.

These are questions that need to be addressed:

• What types of tourism provide the greatest possible benefits at the least cost?
• What is the carrying capacity of the destination? How much is too much?
• What environmental and social costs will be encountered from tourism and how will mitigation be paid for?
• What limits need to be set to ensure destinations prosper from tourism whilst maintaining their long term sustainability?

Said Salli "All of these things will help destinations define what good growth looks like, because if we can’t define what good growth looks like – how can we expect to achieve it?"

Valere Tjolle

@ValereTjolle [email protected]