Travel Foundation boss urges collaboration

Businesses, NGO and other stakeholders must work together more closely to achieve sustainability at destination level, urges the Travel Foundation CEO Salli Felton in her recent interview with Sustainability-Leaders.com

"If I earned a pound every time I’ve heard public sector organisations, sustainability professionals and NGO’s tell me that collaboration with the private sector will compromise project objectives, I would be a very wealthy woman," she said.

"I believe very strongly that we need to find ways to work collaboratively and harness the private sector to do what they do best – drive the implementation of solutions. This is the model we are developing in our work at the Travel Foundation and so far, it’s proving very successful – for businesses, governments, local people and holidaymakers."

Stronger focus on destinations needed:

"Until core tourism stakeholders can assess and understand the impacts of tourism (economic, environmental and social) on a destination, it is impossible to plan tourism development in a sustainable way.

"Waiting for consumer demand to increase before taking action should not be an option because if tourism stakeholders don’t manage the impact of their activities, they risk destroying the very product that sustains them.

"Whilst consumer demand for sustainable holidays might not always be obvious, there is a clear customer expectation that companies will not sell holidays that impact negatively on destinations."

Limited knowledge and fragmented industry are key challenges:

"There is a lack of knowledge around the real impact tourism is having on destinations and a corresponding inability to manage these impacts in a positive and proactive way. If addressed however, this challenge becomes an opportunity.

"The other key challenge is that tourism is a global, yet fragmented industry, with numerous stakeholders across all sectors. With no accepted international framework or formal model of operation, and no one stakeholder ‘owning’ tourism, it becomes difficult to attribute responsibility to stakeholders."

Need to measure sustainability in tourism:

"At the moment tourist numbers seems to remain the key measure of success in destinations yet these figures tell us nothing about the impact that tourism is having on that destination.

"How much a tourist spends while on holiday is another common measure, yet this tells us nothing about where the money goes. If we don’t focus on measuring the impacts of tourism (both positive and negative) we won’t ever have a clear idea of whether it can be sustainable.

"Perhaps it’s about taking small steps to start, identifying the measures that really matter to a destination – the environmental pressures, the community ambitions – and focus on these as a starting point."

Read full interview with Salli Felton on Sustainability-Leaders.com