IT WILL BE ALL ABOUT THE INNOVATION & THE DESTINATION

It was over thirteen years ago that the UNWTO (2007), explicitly promoted the concept of destination management. In launching the ‘Practical Guide to Destination Management’ the, then, Secretary-General of the UNWTO, Francesco Frangialli stated that: “Globalisation has now made it necessary for destinations to stay at the leading edge of new products and ideas to remain competitive. Creative entrepreneurs must contribute to the development of destinations and tourism policies in destinations must be geared to innovation. Decentralisation to destinations is the watchword of the modern tourism industry.”

At the same time, it will be essential for ALL Governments (at all levels) and public bodies to create the infrastructure and institutional capacity to ensure the ability for the destinations to recover in a managed, systematic and structured way. The public:public:private partnership approach is crucial. How is it best for this to happen? Please post your ideas and thoughts in the comments section at the end of this blog.

In preparing for the future it will be vital for highly localised destination management organisations (DMOs) to drive forward and lead the preparation of the future vision for their community and their visitors. They must undertake the coordination and management of a full range of activities within an adequate governance structure that integrates different stakeholders, including the community, and operating with common goals. These developments stem from the urge to achieve an optimal management of the destination and a collective vision in pursuit of a common goal, the competitiveness, resilience and sustainability of the destination.

In the professional edition of ‘Wish You Were Here’ (see this website) the ‘Art and Science of Destination Management’ is described in detail.

The new reality is that every single destination in the world should now be regarded as a ‘start-up’ business. An interesting approach detailing a react / re-think / recover approach for DMOs has been set out by e-Tourism Frontiers (www.e-tourismfrontiers.com).

Destinations must be the dominant ‘brand’ not simply be locations dominated by international brands.

Destinations are managerial entities and DMOs must now step up to the plate to determine their own futures in a strong managerial manner. A key staring point must be a determination to agree their destination’s carrying capacity. The idea of carrying capacity (the optimum, agreed, level of acceptable use of resources from a physical, social, economic, cultural, economic and psychological perspective) was pioneered in the wild lands of the USA in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. The concept and the methodology involved is even more relevant now but, inevitably needs to be refined to suit current conditions. In ‘Wish You Were Here’ there is a review of the Croatian Island of Losinj where such an approach has been used for a few years. In Jackson Hole the Riverwind Foundation, led by Tim O’Donoghue, has pioneered a very different approach to destination sustainability.

A hugely impressive initiative to help fuel the sharing of information about innovation for tourism has been launched by AIRTH - The Alliance for Innovators and Researchers in Tourism and Hospitality (www.airth.global) and their  #TourismFromZero

Here are some of the latest activities of the Alliance:

One of the #TourismFromZero “local&global” activities, that academic supporters can be involved in, is talking about the #TourismFromZero topic in (online) lectures and giving students a special survey code. The code enables the teacher to get filtered and anonymized results from their class' responses and discuss students' captured #TourismFromZero attitude. --- And the students are co-creating the feedback to the whole tourism world at the same time. From the last two days, they have 80 responses from Slovene students (University of Primorska) and 10 from USA (Florian, Virginia Tech). Our other supporters are preparing #TourismFromZero assignments for the University of Iceland and for the Kyoto University, Japan. A similar activity can be performed in all tourism communities by NTOs, DMOs, CEOs, community coordinators, For instance, Slovenian Tourist Board has decided to suggest all of our leading DMOs to use unique #TourismFromZero survey codes in order to share the concerns, ideas, and solutions inside their destination communities; and with the whole world at the same time.

In this context what can tourism learn from other disciplines, such as life sciences or projects such as Amsterdam’s ‘broedplatsen’ (literally breeding spaces) for start-ups. How can the hybrid thinkers like Something & Son (www.somethingandson.com) and the sculptor Gordon Young (www.gordonyoung.info) infiltrate and influence our new ways of thinking and preparing for the future? It was the extraordinary visionary, Claus Sendlinger (founder of Design Hotels) who threw out the very challenging analysis a few years ago that, “Tourism needs hybrid solutions by hybrid thinkers but the tourism industry is not sufficiently innovative or creative to rise to this challenge”. So who will you invite to join your planning for the future?” So, what new talent, skills and innovative thinkers can you find to help you?

THE NEXT BLOG WILL BE ABOUT REGENERATIVE TOURISM AND WILL FEATURE EXAMPLES OF NEW PRODUCTS THAT ARE BEING PLANNED AROUND THE WORLD

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