Wake up call for destinations: report

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2012 marks the 20th anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit and of Agenda 21, which set the benchmark for sustainable development.

Fuel prices are again spiking. Oil is now hovering around $100 -$150 per barrel and likely to increase as world economies come out of stagnation/recession.

Man-made greenhouse gas emissions are hastening global warming and world governments are gradually moving to cap these. The effect of this cap is certain to be an increase in the end-user price of travel.

The airline industry will certainly respond to the challenge with a variety of technological changes and advantages including low emission biofuels, new ways of managing routes, high load factors, enhanced engineering and much more.

The rail industry is already beginning a massive global expansion of high-speed routes, taking advantage of its opportunity as a low emission carrier and opportunities for current technology to re-gain a vast proportion of the short and medium haul market.

One can be sure that other surface transport operators such as shipping and bus transport are not far behind in the drive to maximum efficiency and emission-management.

And accommodation operators are quickly recognizing that energy and waste mean money and are reducing their costs and their consequent emissions.

Tour operators, travel agents and global travel distribution networks, aware of the inherent marketing advantages in efficient systems will foster this growth in fuel and waste economy and low emission growth and promote these new products.

So the challenge of fuel prices and GHG emissions will be engaged, but what about the remainder of the Earth Summit Agenda 21 hopes and opportunities – delivering local economic, cultural, environmental and social benefits?

Tourism is comprised of a partnership of three major stakeholders – this triumvirate comprises market, transportation and destination. The first two partners have their interest in generating and moving tourists for profit, usually for their shareholders. As part of their flexible business model, they are involved in the sustainability of the destinations to which they operate.

The third tourism stakeholder, the destination, has its interest in receiving tourists for a profit, usually for its residents who are utterly reliant on the sustainability of their home location.

A destination is simply a country, region, city, town or village community that naturally attracts tourists because it has a specific range of assets, or, indeed, has been created specifically to attract people.

The world’s destinations range from key tourism countries such as France or Spain, iconic city venues such as the Cote d’Azur, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Benidorm, London, Paris, Rome, New York, Venice or Amsterdam, and world heritage sites, through to a massive range of other places large, small and tiny, all with a kaleidoscope of features and all who see tourism as an opportunity.

Whether managed by ministries of tourism, tourist boards, convention and visitors bureaux or local initiatives, it is fundamentally necessary for destinations to take responsibility for the overall sustainability of their inbound tourism-flow and exact from it the inherent benefits of local sustainable economic growth, local social and cultural advantages and local built and natural environmental stewardship and protection.

In the same way that that the outbound tourism industry woke up to the smell of reality in the 1970’s when fuel prices escalated, and recognized that tourism is not a numbers game, but a revenue management game – destinations need to do the same now.

To create true sustainable tourism, destinations need to assert the key management role in the tourism triumvirate. Why? Because, whereas the marketers are answerable ultimately to their shareholders and their domicile legislators, destinations are responsible to their taxpayers and residents who are practically affected by inbound flows of tourism.  

 is a fact that, apart from the environmental issues embodied in inbound transportation, the vast majority of social, environmental, cultural and economic opportunities and challenges of tourism take place in destinations and it is therefore their responsibility to manage.

In this context, success for a destination will not be judged by numbers of tourists but by what beneficial effects tourism will have on the social, cultural, economic and environmental health of the destination.

This is the tourism challenge for the next 50 years. Which destinations will manage tourism to generate profit for their communities – economic profit, social profit, environmental profit and cultural profit – thus empowering their stakeholder-residents?

Those destinations that understand their community’s needs and manage tourism to fulfil them; engage in tourism revenue maximization; integrated destination branding incorporating locally-produced products and services;; use volunteer tourism to assist local development; reduce the energy, waste and carbon footprint of each and every tourism service; create integrated low-energy local transportation systems; use training and interpretation to add maximum value and gain maximum revenue from each tourism visit – in short see tourism in terms of a profit and loss account, take charge of it and manage it for their own benefit – these destinations will create a global industry that can rightfully be called sustainable.

In the 3rd annual Sustainable Tourism Ministers Briefing, I have sketched out the current situation and forecasts for the future including a comprehensive global carbon trading and management system for airlines and economic stagnation for major source markets.

However even the current situation is not without massive financial sustainable opportunities.

Governments and major organizations are recognizing the fiscal advantages of sustainable tourism and a wide range of opportunities are becoming available.

Within the report there is a range of opportunities- including 10 KEY OPPORTUNITIES available now for destinations, tour operators and travel agents, tourism attractions and accommodation providers.

This is the time to act

Excerpted from the Executive Summary of the Thomas Cook/TotemTourism Sustainable Tourism Ministers Briefing 2012

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The Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2012 is supported by: ABTA – The Travel Association, ITB Berlin, Discover Ltd.,Club Med, Innovation Norway, Thomas Cook Ltd., FourBGB, Cape Town Tourism, Bord Failte, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Green Tourism Business Scheme, MCI Business School Innsbruck