Can destinations-as-communities be better & smarter by design?
What does it mean to collaboratively design tourism at the community level? And to what end? If it is to strive towards a ‘good’, ‘better’, ‘smarter’ tourism, what does that look like? Retired university professor K Michael Haywood shares his vision.
It’s a “Good Tourism” Insight.
[Thanks to Jim Butcher for inviting Prof Haywood to write a “GT” Insight.]
Astonish … Captivate … Dazzle … Awe … Thrill … Astound … Surprise … Amaze … Gratify … Mystify … Enrich … Inspire … Fascinate … Beguile … Educate … Enchant …
Explicitly or implicitly, and in their own inimitable ways, these are the promises all destinations and visitor-serving enterprises attempt to honour. Yet, honestly, how well do they reveal the achievement of our aspirations for ‘good tourism’ or ‘conscious travel’?
Has our collective obsession with gaining attention, and the untold expenditures on marketing and branding, created new awareness, or a need for changes in behaviour?
Has our exclusive focus on sustainability led us astray by ignoring its connectivity and relationship with an assembly of other urgent interwoven concerns?
Are the crises and urgencies associated with pandemic recovery forestalling the attention our leaders, managers, and policy-makers should be giving to more pressing, apocalyptic issues and futures, and more purposeful rationales for tourism?
Also see Larry Dwyer’s “GT” Insight
“Tourism & hosts’ well-being: Moving beyond GDP towards a better life”
While many people have debated these and similar questions for decades, in some respects the pandemic has come to represent a key tipping or inflection point, signalling the possibility for an abrupt change to the status quo.
We’re at a point when more people are questioning how tourism should be conceptualised: What is its purpose within our communities-as-destinations? What is the meaning, creation, and manifestation of tourism’s ‘value’ and ‘growth’?
If there is indeed heartfelt intent to build back better in community-inclusive ways, how should value and growth be determined and measured?
For years we have been attentive to the sustainability concerns of our communities, countries, and planet. But so profound and determinate are the converging urgencies of climate change, health, and justice — social, environmental, and economic — that a growing number of industry insiders are finally wondering how best to respond.
As community stakeholders contemplate how tourism can lead regenerative initiatives, how do industry stakeholders take meaningful and collective action?
Also see Loretta Bellato’s “GT” Insight
“Is ‘regenerative tourism’ just a rebranding of ‘sustainable tourism’?”
We are all fully aware that the status quo and stall points continue to persist. Most conspicuous is our obsession with competitiveness. Everyone wants to increase the number of seasonal visitors and maximise their expenditures so that communities can generate greater tax revenues and more jobs, and businesses can boost revenues.
As an effective spur to economic growth, tourism development has always held sway and been pursued with panache, quite often without comprehensive consideration as to its desirability, viability, sustainability, or substantiality. Most worrisome is tourism development that is inconsiderate of the corresponding and complementary need for social and cultural development and social and cultural innovation.
Witness the current priority individual enterprises and industry associations feel compelled to focus on to overcome the obstacles associated with transitioning to a restart: Momentous concerns about getting tourism-related jobs back.
Also see Peter Richards’ “GT” Insight
“A community’s dilemma: COVID’s ‘new normal’ vs ‘back to normal’”
This is a complex attrition problem that will require new insights … Continue reading (in full & for free) here: goodtourismblog.com/2021/10/can-tourism-destinations-as-communities-be-better-smarter-by-design/ … For full & free access to all “GT” Insights, visit The “Good Tourism” Blog.
