Smart clusters: How tourism destinations can organise for a better future

How can travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers work and play bet­ter togeth­er with­in des­tin­a­tions to ensure optim­al outcomes? 

K Michael Hay­wood sug­gests clustering.

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight.

[You too can write a “GT” Insight.]

There is strong evid­ence link­ing pos­it­ive busi­ness per­form­ance and out­comes with soci­et­al out­comes and life-affirm­ing val­ues.

Nev­er­the­less, many tour­ism enter­prises remain ignor­ant, baffled, or disinterested. 

Or per­haps their lead­ers feel that their organ­isa­tions are too small, or they them­selves are too busy man­aging the day-to-day oper­a­tions, to make a difference. 

What are we col­lect­ively neg­lect­ing to do to help them?

Des­pite the efforts by many NGOs and industry asso­ci­ations to high­light and address the myri­ad of cur­rent crises, what remains half-hearted is an essen­tial push to re-invent the tour­ism industry com­munity-by-com­munity, destination-by-destination.

Also see K Michael Hay­wood’s first “GT” Insight
“Can des­tin­a­tions-as-com­munit­ies be bet­ter & smarter by design?”

Cer­tainly turn­key solu­tions are lack­ing. But more troub­ling is the dis­tant and dis­con­nec­ted lead­er­ship oper­at­ing from pos­i­tions at the top of tra­di­tion­al hier­arch­ies rather than from with­in and among stake­hold­er groups. 

This might account for the lack of well-developed eco-sys­tems for innov­a­tion with­in the travel & tour­ism industry, its vari­ous inter­de­pend­ent yet oper­a­tion­ally inde­pend­ent sec­tors, and vir­tu­ally all host com­munit­ies or communities-as-destinations.

The practical potentialities of tourism industry clusters

Travel & tour­ism can­not afford to remain a highly frag­men­ted industry.

Tourism’s prac­tic­al poten­ti­al­it­ies (some iden­ti­fied in my pre­vi­ous post) can be brought to fruition by apply­ing the cluster concept to tour­ism. When well-executed, industry clusters can bring dif­fer­ent stake­hold­ers togeth­er. And they can high­light the essen­tial need for com­ple­ment­ary rela­tion­ships that bol­ster inter­de­pend­en­cies and help us regain the ‘unity’ inher­ent in community.

Also see Phoebe Ever­ing­ham’s “GT” Insight
“Tourism’s ‘crit­ic­al’ rethink and its imper­at­ive shift to cir­cu­lar economics”

In many com­munit­ies-as-des­tin­a­tions, travel & tour­ism is per­ceived as a com­pos­ite of eco­sys­tems; rarely as a cluster. 

This might change if lead­ers took to heart the find­ings of the UNWTO report on City Tour­ism, and delved into OECD’s sup­port for innov­a­tion in tour­ism. These remind us that travel & tour­ism clusters aren’t simply eco­nom­ic con­structs to be judged on com­pet­it­ive­ness, but on their aggreg­ate con­tri­bu­tions to the over­all reju­ven­a­tion of the human spir­it and social, cul­tur­al, eco­nom­ic, and nat­ur­al capital.

By enga­ging in cluster devel­op­ment, com­munit­ies-as-des­tin­a­tions can enhance their pro­duct­ive growth (while avoid­ing Ponzi schemes). Moreover, it is far more likely that they will coalesce around more mag­nan­im­ous “syn­er­gist­ic” forms of value that embrace all aspects of human, eco­nom­ic, social, and cul­tur­al development.

Of course, most vis­it­or-serving enter­prises try to excel at provid­ing “func­tion­al” and “con­veni­ence” value. How­ever, by work­ing col­lab­or­at­ively in a cluster, they can do more to ensure that every busi­ness, house­hold, and cit­izen in a place can, in some way, becomes a pro­vider of the emo­tion­al, social, and life-affirm­ing value that travel & tour­ism can bring to com­munit­ies and visitors.

Also see Bjørn Z Eke­lun­d’s “GT” Insight
“In the eye of the behold­er: How to cre­ate valu­able tour­ism experiences”

The same goes for gov­ern­ment agen­cies, NGOs, and all sorts of cul­tur­al and social enter­prises through their attempts to add to the social, cul­tur­al, and intel­lec­tu­al prowess of com­munit­ies. Far more could be shared if every­one acknow­ledged their role in con­trib­ut­ing to the prosper­ity agenda and worked in closer part­ner­ship to real­ise the net bene­fits and “high value” mul­ti­pli­ers of travel & tourism.

Travel & tour­ism clusters are poten­tial mag­nets for oth­er indus­tries and for great eco­nom­ic vital­ity. This being the case, most com­munit­ies-as-des­tin­a­tions could do far more to cre­ate “gate­way” value for new busi­ness and com­munity activ­ity; spur­ring inbound and out­bound con­nectiv­ity through the devel­op­ment of roads, ports, and air­ports (though ques­tion­able at times).

In less tan­gible ways too, clusters encour­age the estab­lish­ment of many types of busi­nesses; foster oth­er forms of trade; strengthen for­eign policy through cul­tur­al dip­lomacy; and, enhance the viab­il­ity of shop­ping and cre­ativ­ity dis­tricts and sports and cul­tur­al centres.

Giv­en its eco­nom­ic muscle and its labour-intens­ive­ness, travel & tour­ism is a major employ­er; provid­ing wide-ran­ging oppor­tun­it­ies for people with a vari­ety of skill sets, and of all ages, edu­ca­tion­al back­grounds, and lan­guage and cul­tur­al fluencies. 

Through travel & tour­ism employ­ment, more people are likely to be lif­ted out of poverty and social depriva­tion. How­ever, with the anti­cip­ated future of work sap­ping the will­ing­ness of some to be in ser­vice to oth­ers, it is vital that we’re pre­pared to do more to improve employ­ment conditions.

Also see Andrew Chan’s “GT” Insight
“Data ana­lyt­ics, fin­an­cial acu­men are keys to a career in travel & tourism”

In com­par­is­on to many oth­er indus­tries, travel & tour­ism clusters excel when civic or com­munity-minded­ness is prom­in­ent. They are at their best when they embrace loc­als and that which is local.

No doubt the iden­tity of com­munit­ies could be bet­ter dif­fer­en­ti­ated if tour­ism clusters worked harder to achieve more authen­t­ic place-making. 

For example, they could invest in loc­al enter­prises, cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions, fest­ivals, and events. In some cases, the loc­al can achieve nation­al and even glob­al recog­ni­tion due to its con­tex­tu­ally-sig­ni­fic­ant cul­tur­al and enter­tain­ment value. In the pro­cess, a community’s qual­ity-of-life can be enhanced and its her­it­age and cul­tures protected. 

In a sim­il­ar vein, travel & tour­ism can serve to strengthen rela­tion­ships and deep­en our sense of community:

• Com­munit­ies: Where the heart is.
• Com­munit­ies that demon­strate com­pas­sion.
• Com­munit­ies that help foster new res­tor­a­tion stories.
• Com­munit­ies exper­i­ment­ing with new forms of devel­op­ment eco­nom­ics.
• Com­munit­ies that com­mit to sus­tain­ab­il­ity and regen­er­at­ive urb­an plan­ning.

As a well-func­tion­ing cluster, travel & tour­ism can provide oppor­tun­it­ies to cre­ate trans­form­a­tion­al and tran­scend­ent (exper­i­en­tial, life-enhan­cing, and social) value that is humanely, emo­tion­ally, and sen­su­ally resplendent.

All of this, and more, can be accom­plished through the lov­ing design, stew­ard­ship, and present­a­tion of places and spaces that encour­age human vis­it­a­tion, engage­ment, and par­ti­cip­at­ory involve­ment (with cau­tion, giv­en tourism’s invis­ible bur­dens).

Also see Kristin Dun­ne’s “GT” Insight
“Plan­ning tour­ism with pur­pose & love in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty”

Add to this tourism’s poten­tial for fos­ter­ing curi­os­ity and explor­a­tion among dif­fer­ent tar­get mar­kets and life­styles, and what you get is an industry that deserves to be even more advanced in its pro­gress­ive­ness. This can be so if tour­ism clusters act as “weavers”, fos­ter­ing in oth­ers a sense of joy and goodwill.

With hos­pit­al­ity as part of its rais­on d’être, travel & tour­ism holds untold prom­ise as the most face-to-face, down-to-earth, and grass-rooted of industry clusters, in tune and con­ver­gent with:

• The host/guest rela­tion­ships, fully aware of the com­ple­ment­ary nature of each other’s activ­it­ies, and many engaged in act­ive partnerships.
• Ima­gin­at­ive and innov­at­ive col­lab­or­a­tion that cre­ates func­tion­al, emo­tion­al, social and life-enhan­cing value (and con­trib­utes to the gift eco­nomy).

All of this can occur if we are determ­ined, even when ham­strung by chal­lenges to the safety of vis­it­ors, espe­cially in emer­gen­cies or when vis­it­ors “Come from Away”.

Cer­tainly travel & tour­ism can over­whelm nat­ur­al, human, cul­tur­al, and fin­an­cial cap­it­al in ways few oth­er indus­tries can. In doing so, though, it is essen­tial that its wealth (well­th) cre­ation prowess be for the bene­fit of the entire com­munity; a some­what obstin­ate task all industry clusters should be giv­ing thought to, par­tic­u­larly if they focus on becom­ing regen­er­at­ive.

Also see Tazim Jamal’s “GT” Insight
“Towards a new paradigm for regen­er­at­ive tour­ism and just futures”

Cer­tainly travel & tour­ism clusters with­in com­munit­ies-as-des­tin­a­tions will have to work harder if they are to muster the where­with­al to per­fect their cluster ini­ti­at­ives. It might be simplist­ic to re-state this but it begins with the human touch, listen­ing, and tak­ing time to under­stand oth­er per­spect­ives before pro­mot­ing our own.

Such an approach provides a path­way for stake­hold­ers to share their aspir­a­tions for their com­munit­ies while pay­ing atten­tion to inflec­tion points — such as pro­longed cli­mate, energy, and health crises, and restric­tions on move­ment — that may sig­nal the need for con­tinu­ous adapt­a­tion and whole­some and inspir­a­tion­al ideas.

One can’t expect to bring about any of these forms of trans­form­a­tion without con­fer­ring legit­im­acy onto lead­er­ship. This demands address­ing (what might be a lack of) the required qual­it­ies of lead­er­ship.

Also needed is empower­ing employ­ees; help­ing small to medi­um-sized enter­prises become smarter; learn­ing to be smarter as intel­li­gent com­munit­ies; and, determ­in­ing the need for innov­a­tion hubs — such as in Queens­land, Aus­tralia and Ontario, Canada — that foster bot­tom-up innov­a­tion.

When con­ceived as a sup­port­ive and con­nect­ive industry cluster with the poten­tial to power whole com­munit­ies for­ward, a very strong busi­ness case can be made for travel & tour­ism as a super-cluster. But how, when indi­vidu­al­ised rights-to-free­dom (exag­ger­ated dur­ing these COVID times) keep pulling us apart rather than together?

Progressing toward potentialities

Cer­tainly a few well-inten­tioned com­munit­ies are tak­ing it upon them­selves to reori­ent tour­ism to enhance loc­al well-being. But is this sufficient?

As a cluster, most com­munit­ies-as-des­tin­a­tions and their travel & tour­ism indus­tries would pro­gress faster if they delved into their col­lect­ive past to fully assess the devel­op­ment, mar­ket­ing, and rhet­or­ic of tour­ism. This would include an hon­est assess­ment of the oper­a­tions of vis­it­or-serving enter­prises and their eco­nom­ic, social, cul­tur­al, and envir­on­ment­al mis­sions, min­is­tra­tions, and missteps.

As a shared learn­ing jour­ney, such reflec­tion on past suc­cesses and short­com­ings and determ­in­a­tion of “what cur­rently is”, can lead to some amaz­ing insights. Moreover, by adopt­ing favoured forms of peer learn­ing every­one would be far bet­ter posi­tioned to delve deep­er into re-think­ing the pur­pose of tour­ism (not just vis­it­or-serving organ­isa­tions), and to con­sider “what could and should be” in a thought­ful re-fram­ing and repos­i­tion­ing of a community-as-destination.

With the cent­ral notion that suc­cess­ful clusters bring people togeth­er, aspir­a­tion­al futures can be pur­sued with con­fid­ence by organ­isa­tions with­in clusters, and indi­vidu­als with­in organ­isa­tions, in the know­ledge that the out­come-driv­en innov­a­tions or ini­ti­at­ives (ODIs) they identi­fy are accept­able with­in the con­text of their communities.

What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a deep­er “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): Our Milky Way is a cluster of stars that includes ours. Image by Greg Rakozy (CC0) via Unsplash.

About the author

K Michael Hay­wood is Pro­fess­or Emer­it­us, School of Hos­pit­al­ity, Food and Tour­ism at the Uni­ver­sity of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Prof Hay­wood has recently writ­ten an e‑book “Aston­ish, Smarter Tour­ism by Design”. Find Michael on Linked­In.