DESTINATIONS AS ISLANDS OF HOPE
William E Brown opens his magnificent 1971 book, ‘Islands of Hope’ with thoughts on the unthinkable with a rallying call that for everyone working in leisure and recreation (and I suggest, ipso facto, in tourism) the environmental crisis of the time had to result in a new ‘professional mission beginning where we can, creating a seamless whole, offering counsels of hope, educating for survival and making people the hope for the future’.
It was in stark contrast to the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s ‘Hard Rain is ‘gonna Fall’ of ten years earlier but strongly echoes the thinking of Jonathan Tourtellot (referenced by Tim O’Donoghue in his post in this site yesterday).
Jonathan writes on his site ‘Destination Stewardship Centre’ that:
“Even more important is for destinations to ask some questions – posed not just to leadership and business owners, but the residents themselves: What have you learned from the corona crisis? Many destinations have already learned that loss of overnight guests hurts their economies several times more than loss of cruise passengers on shore excursions. What businesses and types of tourism do you miss? What types would you rather not come back? Some tourism benefits are obvious, and their loss more dangerous. Our great historic sites depend on tourism for upkeep; our nature parks and reserves depend on it for political defense against competing land use.
Destinations that were struggling to cope with too many tourists must now deal with the opposite. Before any recovery gets started – whether in months or years – now is an excellent time for destination leadership and citizens to plan for just how to recover. Documenting the effects of this crisis should help.
One priority: Shun the common impulse just to restore the status quo ante. Think about it. Nor should destinations grab desperately at anything that will bring back tourism, quality be damned. Beware of developers who will push quick fixes wrapped in promises of jobs that evaporate the moment construction is over or abandoned. Beware, too, the persistent practice of equating tourist arrivals with success and large-scale projects with triumph. Use better metrics.
Wise planning requires enlightened, collaborative destination stewardship. Now would be a time for each destination to convene – remotely, if not yet in person – a broad-based council to do that. Destinations should use the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s Destination Criterion A1 as a basic minimum. That criterion states in part: “The destination has an effective organization, department, group, or committee responsible for a coordinated approach to sustainable tourism, with involvement by the private sector, public sector and civil society. This group has defined responsibilities, oversight, and implementation capability for the management of socio-economic, cultural and environmental issues.”
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s criterion is clearly a basic minimum. The excellent work by NECTOuR (www.necstour.eu) and the Barcelona Declaration adds to the way we need to re-think tourism. Time to rise to the challenge.
