In 2024, what are the best opportunities for tourism over the next five years?

Over the next five years, what is the best oppor­tun­ity for travel & tour­ism where you work, or that you have iden­ti­fied through your research and study?

And what are the key strategies that your organ­isa­tion, des­tin­a­tion, or the industry at large should employ to take advant­age of that opportunity?

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites question.

Your cor­res­pond­ent put the ques­tion to a range of travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers in the “GT” net­work, invit­ing emailed writ­ten responses of no more than 300 words. 

Thanks to the 13 respond­ents who shared their thoughts on the ques­tion. Their answers appear in the order received. 

Included in this “GT” Insight Bites com­pil­a­tion are four “GT” Insight Bite_X con­tri­bu­tions. Bite_X (where ‘X’ is up to you) is an oppor­tun­ity for any travel & tour­ism stake­hold­er to dis­cuss any­thing they want (with­in reas­on) with­in the strict 300-word limit.

(Click/touch an item on the Bites menu to go straight to it.)

In Rwanda: The Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration

Greg Bakunzi, Founder, Red Rocks Initiative for Sustainable Development & Red Rocks Rwanda

In the forth­com­ing five years, the Great­er Vir­unga Trans­bound­ary Col­lab­or­a­tion stands out as a key driver for travel & tour­ism in the region, fos­ter­ing col­lab­or­a­tion between Rwanda and neigh­bour­ing countries. 

This ini­ti­at­ive holds immense prom­ise for both bol­ster­ing tour­ism oppor­tun­it­ies and advan­cing wild­life con­ser­va­tion efforts across bor­ders. Joint endeav­ours stem­ming from this col­lab­or­a­tion could lead to an expan­sion of tour­ism offerings. 

Rwanda has made note­worthy strides in accom­mod­a­tion and infra­struc­ture, provid­ing diverse lodging options to cater to vari­ous pref­er­ences and budgets. 

The grow­ing demand for sus­tain­able and eco-friendly accom­mod­a­tion and oth­er facil­it­ies is expec­ted to shape tour­ism devel­op­ment here, fur­ther con­trib­ut­ing to envir­on­ment­al pre­ser­va­tion and the oppor­tun­it­ies avail­able to loc­al communities. 

The next five years will spot­light the cru­cial role of com­munity-based cul­tur­al tour­ism in lever­aging the rich her­it­age of the region to fuel inclus­ive eco­nom­ic growth. 

As col­lab­or­at­ive efforts in nature- and com­munity-based tour­ism unfold, Rwanda and the Vir­unga Trans­bound­ary region will fur­ther emerge as a premi­er travel destination.

To cap­it­al­ise on the bur­geon­ing oppor­tun­it­ies, we at Red Rocks will lever­age our status as a trail­blazer in cham­pi­on­ing people-cent­ric and des­tin­a­tion-focused experiences. 

Key strategies will include enhan­cing all our exist­ing pro­grammes, includ­ing the cul­tur­al events we organ­ise to show­case our rich heritage. 

Oth­er ini­ti­at­ives will include:

• Com­munity engage­ment in capa­city build­ing to empower loc­al com­munit­ies, ensur­ing a more equit­able dis­tri­bu­tion of tour­ism benefits; 
• Adopt­ing and advoc­at­ing for sus­tain­able prac­tices that align our cul­tur­al tour­ism offer­ings with eco-friendly com­munity-based con­ser­va­tion efforts; 
• Stra­tegic part­ner­ships, includ­ing in digit­al marketing;
• Advoc­at­ing for high-qual­ity trans­port­a­tion and tour­ism infra­struc­ture that pre­serves the region’s cul­tur­al and envir­on­ment­al integ­rity; and
• Devel­op­ing our own facil­it­ies to enhance the exper­i­ence we offer our guests.

[Red Rocks is a val­ued “GT” Partner.]

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Technology … with care

Saverio Francesco Bertolucci, Commercial Assistant, VDB Luxury Properties, Spain

For almost every stock­hold­er in the mar­ket who owns a piece of a pub­lic (or private) hos­pit­al­ity com­pany, the main oppor­tun­ity to look for is the devel­op­ment and appro­pri­ate deploy­ment of technology.

Soft­ware, data, and algorithms can help track res­ults, attract cli­ents, and grant socio-eco­nom­ic sus­tain­ab­il­ity … if paired with effi­cient human know­ledge and a good product on site. 

In an industry that is prob­ably the most human, cus­tom­er-facing one, every tan­gible and inter­per­son­al aspect of the hos­pit­al­ity busi­ness still needs to take pre­ced­ence over technology. 

Del­eg­at­ing everything to tech­no­logy is likely the worst mis­take a hotel or a real estate com­pany could make; an oppor­tun­ity turned into a crisis rather than the oth­er way around.

Indeed, as I presen­ted dur­ing my speech at TIS — Tour­ism Innov­a­tion Sum­mit in Sevilla, tech­no­logy offers a clear advant­age in hyper-per­son­al­ising engage­ment, boost­ing rev­en­ues, and provid­ing the best products and ser­vices to spe­cif­ic cat­egor­ies of cli­ents, but it should nev­er be con­sidered the sole saviour of a fail­ing business.

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‘Strong ambition’ climate action

Geoffrey Lipman, Creative Disruption Architect, SUNx Malta

Dur­ing the past five years, with a small, smart team, we have had fun cre­at­ing a frame­work at SUNx Malta for tour­ism com­munit­ies to respond pos­it­ively to the exist­en­tial cli­mate crisis. 

Build­ing on the vis­ion of the late Maurice Strong, to act for a bet­ter future for our kids: 

• We defined #Cli­mate­FriendlyTravel as Par­is 1.5 / SDG linked / Nature + and focused on Least Developed Coun­tries and Small Island Devel­op­ing States; 
• We launched the world’s first post­gradu­ate #Cli­mate­FriendlyTravel Dip­loma with 100+ stu­dents trained as Strong Cli­mate Champions; 
• We cre­ated a UNFC­CC-linked Registry to help com­pan­ies and com­munit­ies build Cli­mate Action Plan; 
• We launched Chapters in 50 devel­op­ing coun­tries this year, plus ini­ti­at­ives in Ukraine and Bali, Indone­sia (we plan 40 more next year);
• We also just star­ted three social enter­prises:
  1. Cli­mate Friendly Travel Club to engage tomor­row’s young trav­el­lers with rewards for pos­it­ive cli­mate behaviour; 
  2. Cli­mate Friendly Travel Ser­vices to help com­munit­ies and com­pan­ies cre­ate their Plan B; and 
  3. Cli­mate Friendly Travel Facil­ity to raise blen­ded fin­ance for these initiatives.

With this action frame­work in place, and a new TPCC stock­take to guide us, we see the oppor­tun­ity to build a ‘Strong ambi­tion’ group of com­munit­ies in the travel & tour­ism sec­tor who seek to deliv­er on the nature-pos­it­ive, SDG-ori­ented Par­is 1.5 tar­gets: Peak­ing green­house gas (GHG) emis­sions by 2025; cut­ting GHG emis­sions in half by 2030; and get­ting GHG emis­sions down to zero by 2050.

[SUNx Malta is a val­ued “GT” Partner.]

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‘Balanced tourism’ and social enterprises

Jens Thraenhart, Founding Partner, Chameleon Strategies, Thailand

‘Bal­anced tour­ism’ driv­en by social enter­prises presents the best oppor­tun­ity for travel & tour­ism, par­tic­u­larly in the field of des­tin­a­tion management. 

This approach fosters sus­tain­able, inclus­ive growth, reduces leak­age, and pro­motes authen­t­ic exper­i­ences, which are increas­ingly sought after by envir­on­ment­ally-aware and socially-con­scious mod­ern trav­el­lers who make pur­chas­ing decisions that align with their values.

How?

• Bal­anced tour­ism focuses on the equit­able dis­tri­bu­tion of tourism’s bene­fits among stake­hold­ers; not only large cor­por­a­tions, but also com­munit­ies, small busi­nesses, and the envir­on­ment. Chan­nel­ling tour­ism rev­en­ues into com­munit­ies ensures that eco­nom­ic bene­fits are more widely shared. More inclus­ive tour­ism coun­ters des­tin­a­tion mis-man­age­ment that leads to over­crowding in some areas.
• Social enter­prises offer a unique value pro­pos­i­tion. Rooted in com­munit­ies, and often with a strong com­mit­ment to pre­serving cul­ture, the envir­on­ment, and well-being, social enter­prises are best posi­tioned to offer authen­t­ic, cul­tur­ally-rich exper­i­ences. Tour­ists gain a deep­er, more respect­ful, and enrich­ing under­stand­ing and exper­i­ence of the destination.
• The digit­al trans­form­a­tion offers new tools for pro­mot­ing bal­anced tour­ism. Digit­al tools also provide trav­el­lers with all the inform­a­tion they need to make decisions. Digit­al plat­forms can enhance vis­ib­il­ity for small, loc­al enter­prises, facil­it­at­ing dir­ect engage­ment with travellers. 

In con­clu­sion, bal­anced tour­ism and social enter­prises rep­res­ent a future in which travel is not just about places, but about people and their stor­ies. By adopt­ing this approach, travel & tour­ism can drive pos­it­ive change, ensur­ing that it remains vibrant, resi­li­ent, and bene­fi­cial for all in the years to come; that it truly is a force for good.

I recently launched www.BalancedTourism.com to high­light this oppor­tun­ity. Its sis­ter blog www.PurposePicks.com show­cases my per­son­al picks of the most impact­ful social enter­prises in travel.

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Opportunities for the most adaptive

Wolfgang Georg Arlt, CEO, COTRI (China Outbound Tourism Research Institute); Director, Meaningful Tourism Center, Germany

Over the next five years, the best way to take advant­age of the oppor­tun­it­ies arising for most travel, tour­ism, and ser­vice pro­viders is to re-invent them­selves in response to:

• Chan­ging demand. More older people and young singles are trav­el­ling instead of tra­di­tion­al fam­il­ies. They are look­ing for authen­t­ic exper­i­ences and encoun­ters with loc­als instead of just recreation.
• Arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. AI is chan­ging the world in the same way the inter­net changed it 25 years ago, with the cru­cial dif­fer­ence being that it is not just repla­cing tools (email for mail, Net­flix for TV, Google for dic­tion­ary) but cre­at­ing com­pletely new tools (machine for man), and much faster.
• Cli­mate change. Per­haps the biggest reas­on to adapt, cli­mate change will threaten many busi­ness mod­els and invest­ments. It is nice to be envir­on­ment­ally-friendly, with labels and cer­ti­fic­ates, but this is like installing sprink­lers and smoke detect­ors in a house that’s already on fire. 

Many will have to adapt now to pre-empt change, espe­cially as we exper­i­ence the res­ults of the cli­mate cata­strophe soon­er than even the worst-case scen­ari­os predicted. 

For example, beach resorts threatened by flood­ing, heat waves, and jelly­fish inva­sions will lose guests even if those events do not hap­pen every year. The pos­sib­il­ity will be enough to keep poten­tial vis­it­ors away. 

But there are oppor­tun­it­ies in a crisis. Tak­ing advant­age of them will mean lever­aging the first mover advant­age. Repur­pose a prop­erty or des­tin­a­tion. Offer more indoor activ­it­ies. Move the main tour­ism sea­son. Cater to spe­cial interests. Repos­i­tion a hotel as a live-in museum or con­fer­ence centre. 

Turn the Bel­gian birth­place of Mr Sax into a year-round des­tin­a­tion for sax­o­phone fans with sax­o­phone-themed events and a sax­o­phone music academy …

Those who believe that a little gre­en­wash­ing will be enough will be the losers.

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Leadership activated

K Michael Haywood, Professor Emeritus, University of Guelph, Canada

Not sur­pris­ing, in response to the pre­vi­ous ques­tion, most respond­ents iden­ti­fied the prob­lems affect­ing and asso­ci­ated with tour­ism as being extern­al to the every­day oper­a­tions of vis­it­or-serving enterprises.

Per­plex­ing, though, was why so few ignored the real­it­ies facing small-to-medi­um sized oper­at­ors, includ­ing many in the C‑suite, whose real-time atten­tion is focused on the imme­di­ate present; on the press­ing intern­al issues and events beset­ting their organ­isa­tions and com­munit­ies: Infla­tion, rev­en­ue deple­tion, value col­lapse, mount­ing debt, employ­ee and cit­izenry unrest. 

It’s as if no one takes an interest in the actu­al movers-and-shakers … no one inter­ested in the pres­sures and prob­lems asso­ci­ated with man­aging and lead­ing … the obstacles (often self-imposed) pre­vent­ing prob­lem-res­ol­u­tion and desired out­comes and aston­ish­ing mag­ni­fi­cence from being achieved. 

Best inten­tions side­lined by imbed­ded biases, habits, and pro­cesses; the fear of fail­ure or repris­al; the inab­il­ity to identi­fy altern­at­ives; a per­ceived lack of hope, time, or the desire to col­lab­or­ate … a fail­ure to view tour­ism as a com­munity-wide endeav­our, how the suc­cess of indi­vidu­als and enter­prises is con­tin­gent on the suc­cess of the whole.

Indeed, what does it take to real­ise extraordin­ary out­comes, man­age mean­ing­ful change, pre­pare to adapt or pivot for our com­munit­ies’ sake, humanity’s sake? 

To flesh out all the asso­ci­ated oppor­tun­it­ies linked to resolv­ing our prob­lems, we need to be far more forth­com­ing if we are to under­stand and hope to expand the mind­sets of lead­ers; those who bring oppor­tun­it­ies to fruition. 

To learn how, read “Inner Mas­tery, Out­er Impact”.

As a pur­suit towards pro­gress, lead­er­ship needs to be inspired by a sense of noble pur­pose. Only then can we hope to achieve our col­lect­ive goals, open our hearts and minds to new pos­sib­il­it­ies, and select the right actions … 

Des­tin­a­tions-in-Action ener­gised by lead­ers, every­one con­scien­tiously in pur­suit of oppor­tun­it­ies, co-cre­at­ing value mean­ing­ful for all.

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In Rwanda: ‘Significant strides’ in tourism development 

Rwaka Mabrise, Communications Officer, Red Rocks Initiative for Sustainable Development & Red Rocks Rwanda

Rwanda has been mak­ing sig­ni­fic­ant strides in devel­op­ing the tour­ism sec­tor, which helps us at Red Rocks focus on eco-tour­ism, con­ser­va­tion, and cul­tur­al experiences.

Over the next five years, oppor­tun­it­ies for the travel & tour­ism industry in Rwanda are many, includ­ing the grow­ing aware­ness and pop­ular­ity of gor­illa trekking exper­i­ences in Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park in the north of Rwanda. 

We are eager to strengthen and pro­mote this activ­ity to attract more tour­ists inter­ested in wild­life con­ser­va­tion and unique prim­ate exper­i­ences. We have been invest­ing in eco-friendly ini­ti­at­ives to sup­port our sus­tain­ab­il­ity efforts.

Our com­mit­ment extends to cul­tur­al tour­ism in Nyak­i­n­ama vil­lage, where we share Rwanda’s rich cul­tur­al her­it­age — tra­di­tion­al dances, music, food, loc­al crafts, and more — through our com­munity-based tour­ism projects.

Con­tin­ued invest­ments in trans­port­a­tion, accom­mod­a­tion, and oth­er tour­ism-related infra­struc­ture will open up new areas for explor­a­tion and tour­ism devel­op­ment with­in our coun­try. Thus we are embra­cing new tech­no­lo­gies for mar­ket­ing, book­ings, and enhan­cing the over­all tour­ism exper­i­ence. This includes the devel­op­ment of mobile apps, online book­ing plat­forms, and vir­tu­al exper­i­ences to attract and engage tourists.

[Red Rocks is a val­ued “GT” Partner.]

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In Asia and the Pacific: What can PATA do?

Peter Semone, Chair, Pacific Asia Travel Association

As the Chair of the Pacific Asia Travel Asso­ci­ation (PATA), of course I will tell you that the best oppor­tun­it­ies for travel & tour­ism in the medi­um to long term are in Asia and the Pacific, which are liv­ing museums; kal­eido­scopes of the most unique and pre­cious cul­tures and eco­sys­tems known to mankind. 

The PATA region’s sup­ply of tour­ism products and ser­vices is unmatched for lux­ury, authen­ti­city, and diversity. 

From a demand per­spect­ive, it’s a no brain­er. Asia Pacific is an epi­centre of demo­graph­ics with more than 55% (4.32 bil­lion) of the glob­al pop­u­la­tion liv­ing inside the Yuxi Circle; a 4,000-km radi­us circle centred on the small town of Yuxi in south­west­ern China’s Yun­nan Province. 

For those reas­ons, and many more, an invest­ment in Asia Pacific is a wise bet.

What can PATA do to take advant­age of these opportunities?

• PATA needs to become a know­ledge organ­isa­tion that iden­ti­fies tour­ism trends. We need to work with stra­tegic part­ners to col­lect and aggreg­ate data from mul­tiple sources. 
• PATA needs to pro­duce pos­i­tion papers as know­ledge products that stim­u­late debate among and action by gov­ern­ments, the private sec­tor, and civil society.
• PATA needs to speak out on oppor­tun­it­ies, threats, and chal­lenges through engage­ment with the media. 
• PATA needs to organ­ise them­at­ic events that attract a broad cross sec­tion of tour­ism stake­hold­ers, sim­il­ar to the PATA events of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. 
• PATA needs to build capa­city in our region through tar­geted edu­ca­tion and train­ing pro­grams geared at nation­al tour­ism organ­isa­tions and industry, par­tic­u­larly micro and small enter­prises. (Our long and proud his­tory of capa­city build­ing in the PATA region should not be forgotten.)

I think with these ele­ments, PATA can regain its author­ity as ‘the Voice’ of the Pacific Asia region’s tour­ism industry. 

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Sustainability niches

Ed Jackiewicz, Professor, California State University, Northridge, USA

The dis­mal pro­gnoses we often hear about for tour­ism reck­lessly over­look much of the innov­a­tion in the industry, both from pro­du­cers and consumers. 

One poten­tial bright spot from the pan­dem­ic is that it provided an oppor­tun­ity, wheth­er con­sciously or sub­con­sciously, to pause and reflect on our life­styles and the role of our tour­ism and leis­ure activ­it­ies with­in them. 

The trends arising have implic­a­tions for how places adjust. 

In a “GT” Insight from last year, my col­league and I high­lighted the small city of Bend, Ore­gon and its appeal to tele­com­muters and digit­al nomads who wish to integ­rate recre­ation­al activ­it­ies into their daily routine in pur­suit of a ‘per­man­ent vacation’. 

Places like Bend, with its vast ‘natures­capes’ and ‘adven­tures­capes’, attract this long-stay mar­ket as well as mostly young­er out­door enthu­si­asts more gen­er­ally, thus the pro­tec­tion of the envir­on­ment becomes crit­ic­al for the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of the destination. 

Vis­it Bend, the city’s des­tin­a­tion mar­ket­ing organ­isa­tion (DMO), plays an increas­ingly vital role in pro­mot­ing envir­on­ment­al sustainability. 

It was recently recog­nised as the Leave No Trace Des­tin­a­tion of the Year for its integ­ra­tion of the Leave No Trace prin­ciples into the mar­ket­ing of the region; pro­mot­ing those prin­ciples to Cent­ral Oregon’s loc­al res­id­ents as well as its 4.5 mil­lion visitors.

This is just one example of an organ­isa­tion steer­ing the future of tour­ism in a pos­it­ive dir­ec­tion. As oth­er tour­ism ‘niches’, such as gastro tour­ism, volun­teer tour­ism, and so many oth­ers, con­tin­ue to evolve, more tar­geted and focused sus­tain­ab­il­ity cam­paigns with­in those areas of interest have the poten­tial for pos­it­ive out­comes mov­ing forward.

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In Rwanda: Favourable conditions

Roger Irakoze, tour guide and wildlife filmmaker, Rwanda

Red Rocks is a com­munity-based organ­isa­tion that focuses on com­munity devel­op­ment through cul­tur­al tourism. 

Red Rocks is two organ­isa­tions. One is Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ives for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment which is a non-profit organ­isa­tion. The oth­er is Red Rocks Rwanda which is an inter­cul­tur­al centre and social enterprise

The best oppor­tun­it­ies for Red Rocks over the next five years come out of the favour­able con­di­tions in which we operate:

• Polit­ic­al sta­bil­ity: Rwanda is polit­ic­ally stable and one of the safest coun­tries in Africa.
• Good tour­ism policy: Rwanda’s gov­ern­ment has a good plan for the future of tour­ism in general.
• Vis­it Rwanda mar­ket­ing cam­paign: Rwanda’s gov­ern­ment has put a lot of effort into advert­ising and pro­mot­ing Rwanda and its tour­ism industry.
• Cul­tur­al tour­ism is trend­ing: Cul­tur­al tour­ism aware­ness is grow­ing and many more people are motiv­ated to travel to explore the her­it­age and cul­ture of Rwanda, which advant­ages Red Rocks.
• Increased well-being of moun­tain gor­il­las: Grow­ing aware­ness that the moun­tain gor­il­las of Rwanda are well taken care of increases the num­ber of people who wish to see them. Red Rocks is not far from Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park, which is where our moun­tain gor­il­las live.
• Open gates for for­eign investors: The pres­ence of for­eign investors in Rwanda is anoth­er source of vis­it­ors to Red Rocks, and they may want to forge partnerships.

The key strategies to employ to take the advant­age of the oppor­tun­it­ies include:

• Excel­lent cus­tom­er ser­vice: Treat­ing your vis­it­ors well leads to repeat vis­its and/or pos­it­ive word-of-mouth. 
• Stra­tegic mar­ket­ing: The bet­ter you advert­ise your products and ser­vices, the more they get to be known by the right people.
• Innov­a­tion: New products or fea­tures increases the pool of poten­tial customers.
• Dif­fer­en­ti­ation: Offer some­thing unique.

[Red Rocks is a val­ued “GT” Partner.]

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In Kenya: Demand for sustainable, responsible tourism

Edwin Magio, PhD Research Student, Leeds Beckett University, UK

There has been a sig­ni­fic­ant increase in aware­ness and demand for sus­tain­able and respons­ible tour­ism worldwide. 

Kenya has the poten­tial to be an ideal des­tin­a­tion for tour­ists seek­ing sus­tain­able and respons­ible tour­ism destinations. 

The key to real­ising this poten­tial lies in main­stream­ing loc­al com­munit­ies and com­munity-based tour­ism. This can to cre­ate a ‘win-win’ wherein tour­ism becomes a force for pos­it­ive social and eco­nom­ic change in loc­al com­munit­ies while pre­serving Kenya’s rich biod­iversity and cul­ture for future generations.

A com­munity-based tour­ism approach relies on three strategies: 

1. Capa­city build­ing entails empower­ing loc­al com­munit­ies with the know­ledge and skills neces­sary to act­ively par­ti­cip­ate in and man­age tour­ism ini­ti­at­ives. This may include train­ing pro­grams in busi­ness plan­ning, product devel­op­ment, mar­ket­ing, and entrepreneurship.
2. Part­ner­ships play an import­ant role in fos­ter­ing col­lab­or­a­tion between the tour­ism industry and loc­al com­munit­ies. Part­ner­ship with com­munity groups and busi­nesses can cre­ate a sym­bi­ot­ic rela­tion­ship, ensur­ing that the bene­fits of tour­ism are shared more equitably.
3. Pro­mo­tion to raise aware­ness of com­munity-based tour­ism products is equally import­ant. Loc­al and inter­na­tion­al mar­ket­ing cam­paigns should reflect the authen­t­ic exper­i­ences that awaits tour­ists and the pos­it­ive impact their trips can have on the loc­al communities.

By integ­rat­ing these strategies, Kenya can devel­op a com­munity-based tour­ism mod­el that pri­or­it­ises sus­tain­ab­il­ity, com­munity empower­ment, and biod­iversity con­ser­va­tion, and unlocks the hid­den poten­tial of the travel & tour­ism industry to be a driv­ing force for pos­it­ive change.

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A growing interest in tackling food waste

Rubina Srikureja, Senior Manager of Operations, LightBlue Consulting

When people look at the data around food waste, they are stunned. 

The scale of the food waste prob­lem is of increas­ing interest glob­ally, and more people are integ­rat­ing sys­tems to tackle the issue from the core; by pre­vent­ing it. 

Reach­ing out to dif­fer­ent insti­tu­tions across Asia and around the world is a huge oppor­tun­ity for us at Light­Blue Con­sult­ing to raise aware­ness of the issue of food waste. 

We occa­sion­ally offer pro-bono free courses to NGO schools to help raise aware­ness of food waste. Provid­ing train­ing to schools helps to edu­cate the next generation.

We’ve received great feed­back from pro­fess­ors, uni­ver­sity coordin­at­ors, and stu­dents who have taken our online food waste pre­ven­tion course. 

We think that any­thing that raises aware­ness of food waste is cru­cial to keep­ing our plan­et hab­it­able for future gen­er­a­tions. There­fore, we would urge travel & tour­ism oper­at­ors to join us in fight­ing food waste to make a real dif­fer­ence in the world. 

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More active and involved communities

Jonathon Day, Associate Professor at Purdue University, Indiana, USA

Last year Skift iden­ti­fied a trend towards com­munit­ies tak­ing a more act­ive role in tour­ism devel­op­ment. 

This trend provides a great oppor­tun­ity for tour­ism prac­ti­tion­ers to truly under­stand what tour­ism activ­it­ies con­trib­ute to improv­ing qual­ity of life in des­tin­a­tion communities. 

Our industry needs to build our capa­city for hear­ing com­munity feed­back and integ­rat­ing it into our planning. 

There are mod­els out there we can learn from. Town plan­ners engage all the time. And even with­in tour­ism there are places that do it well. The recent DMO­cracy pro­ject under­taken by Miles Part­ner­ship high­lights some great examples. 

Mov­ing to a ‘loc­als first’ tour­ism mod­el brings the pur­pose of (sus­tain­able) tour­ism devel­op­ment into focus. 

Why pro­mote tour­ism? Ulti­mately the answer must be to improve the qual­ity of life in des­tin­a­tion communities. 

And for DMOs the next ques­tion is: “Who do we work for?” The answer has to be the people of the des­tin­a­tion, not hoteliers, event organ­isers, or tour­ism operators. 

Remem­ber­ing our pur­pose — the why of our work — (re)frames tour­ism pro­mo­tion and devel­op­ment appropriately. 

Recog­nising that change — and work­ing effect­ively with the com­munity — is an excit­ing oppor­tun­ity for the com­ing years. 

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“GT” Insight Bite_X (‘X’ is up to you)

The “Good Tour­ism” Blog offers a great oppor­tun­ity to any travel & tour­ism stake­hold­er who wishes to express them­self in writ­ing for the bene­fit of “GT’s” thought­ful and open-minded read­ers. To fea­ture in the next “GT” Insight Bite com­pil­a­tion, send no more than 300 words (300 words or few­er (</=300 words)) on any tour­ism-related idea or con­cern you may have. “GT’s” pub­lish­er will per­son­ally help with basic copy edit­ing, so don’t by shy if you lack con­fid­ence in writ­ing English. 

Send your “GT” Insight Bite and pic­ture to GoodTourism@gmail.com

Bite_X: Pune’s pollution problems

Sandip Sahebrao Tapkir, Principal, Swami Samarth Maharashtra Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Technology, India

Over the dec­ades, tour­ism has faced many chal­lenges and threats, both nat­ur­al and man-made. It is a cycle. Every cen­tury we find new ones in their many forms. 

Yet the tour­ism industry has kept pro­gress­ing and over­com­ing these chal­lenges and threats and is now posi­tioned to play a major roles in attain­ing the UN’s sus­tain­able devel­op­ment goals. 

I live in Pune, Maha­rashtra, India. The top­ic for this “GT” Insight Bite is my response to “What are tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years to 2028?” 

Pol­lu­tion is the single biggest chal­lenge and threat to man­kind, the envir­on­ment, and all the creatures. And it is the biggest chal­lenge and threat to tour­ism in my locality.

Most of the water bod­ies like rivers, under­ground water sources, lakes, and ponds are highly pol­luted due to indus­tri­al­isa­tion, with drain­age and untreated sewage water released to them. 

Pol­lu­tion of all kinds — water, air, noise, land — and at all levels is the biggest chal­lenge and threat to sus­tain­ing good tour­ism at my location. 

The over­use of plastics and the huge num­bers of private vehicles that emit green­house gases add to the pol­lu­tion problem.

 Key actions:

• Ban plastic use;
• Fund­ing and atten­tion to these issues by pub­lic and private bodies;
• Lim­it private vehicle use and shift to elec­tric vehicles;
• Restore and pro­tect water sources;
• Pub­lic aware­ness cam­paigns.

I am sure that people are now real­ising the import­ance of pro­tect­ing des­tin­a­tions. We will see good res­ults if we take action today; as a joint ven­ture among all the stake­hold­ers in society.

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Bite_X: ‘You cannot beat climage change, but …’

Wolfgang Georg Arlt, CEO, COTRI (China Outbound Tourism Research Institute); Director, Meaningful Tourism Center, Germany

The facts: 2023 was the hot­test year since records began in 1880, with glob­al aver­age tem­per­at­ures at 1.46C above pre-indus­tri­al levels. 

COP28 failed. COP29 in Baku this year is not prom­ising any pro­gress either. Chair­man Xi Jin­ping did not even men­tion cli­mate change in his long New Year speech for 2024. None of the 17 SDGs will be achieved by 2030 accord­ing to cur­rent data.

Cli­mate change will des­troy busi­ness mod­els for many beach and ski­ing resorts, nation­al parks, city hotels, etc. The term ‘tour­ism hot­spot’ will acquire a new meaning. 

The key strategy for com­pan­ies and des­tin­a­tions engaged with tour­ism and hos­pit­al­ity is, firstly, to pro­duce a real­ist­ic fore­cast for the pos­sible effects of cli­mate change in the next five years. ‘Real­ist­ic’ means assum­ing the worst-case scen­ario instead of the “Par­is 2015 goals can still be achieved” wish­ful thinking. 

The effects ana­lysed should be based on KPIs for all six main stake­hold­ers of the Mean­ing­ful Tour­ism paradigm: Tour­ists, Host com­munit­ies, Employ­ees of Ser­vice Pro­vider, Ser­vice Pro­viders, Gov­ern­ments, and the Environment. 

The second step is to devel­op a new busi­ness mod­el using, again, Mean­ing­ful Tour­ism tools, repos­i­tion­ing exist­ing struc­tures and chan­ging invest­ment decisions.

Chair­man Xi stated: “We will con­tin­ue to act on the prin­ciple of seek­ing pro­gress while main­tain­ing sta­bil­ity, pro­mot­ing sta­bil­ity through pro­gress, and estab­lish­ing the new before abol­ish­ing the old.” 

For the glob­al tour­ism industry, it is prob­ably bet­ter to stay with Joseph Schum­peter: “Situ­ations emerge in the pro­cess of cre­at­ive destruc­tion in which many firms may have to per­ish that nev­er­the­less would be able to live on vig­or­ously and use­fully if they could weath­er a par­tic­u­lar storm.”

You can­not beat cli­mate change, but you can beat your com­pet­it­ors by react­ing faster.

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Bite_X: What do leaders have in common?

K Michael Haywood, Professor Emeritus, University of Guelph, Canada

Lead­ers, each in their own con­texts, are con­sumed with unleash­ing poten­tial; their own and that of the people they lead or serve. 

Dur­ing optim­ist­ic times, they strive to rely on reas­on and bring about pos­it­ive change. 

How­ever, when faced with uncer­tainty and com­plex­ity in today’s pess­im­ist­ic times, a lead­er­’s mis­steps can des­troy insti­tu­tion­al value and repu­ta­tion and lead to their replacement.

Fail­ing as change lead­ers is an ana­thema. But old habits, form­al pro­cesses, self-doubt, lack of exper­i­ence, exist­ing reward sys­tems, pro­fes­sion­al stand­ards, the status quo, and dif­fi­culty leav­ing com­fort zones can pre­vent lead­ers from achiev­ing the extraordin­ary; espe­cially when inat­ten­tion to bad decisions or the nuance of con­sequen­tial­ism persists.

Draw­ing from John Kotter’s frame­work, the leader’s job is said to require:

• Artic­u­lat­ing a com­mon vision, 
• Align­ing people around it, and 
• Motiv­at­ing them to execute it. 

What actu­ally makes or breaks a lead­er is not how well they drive an agenda, but how they react in real time to events they can­not predict.

This makes me won­der to what extent is the fun­da­ment­al state of lead­er­ship com­mon to lead­ers. Do lead­ers demon­strate lead­er­ship-in-flow? Do they pos­sess a centered­ness that draws on ener­gies they have or are infused by: 

• A clearly artic­u­lated pur­pose;
• A com­mit­ment to a noble cause; 
• An inner calmness and pos­it­iv­ity; 
• Self-real­isa­tion and intu­it­ive­ness; and
• A curi­os­ity of, and receptiv­ity to, oth­ers needs and points of view. 

Or is the com­mon­al­ity among lead­ers a feel­ing of power­less­ness and frustration?

Not if they see fit to: 

• Revise their res­ult-ori­ent­a­tions;
• Rebuild trust;
• Per­suade people to make good things great;
• Cre­ate and cap­ture value mean­ing­ful for all;
• Reduce the fric­tion under­min­ing pro­ductiv­ity and creativity; 
• Adopt new pro­gress prin­ciples;
• Cir­cum­vent exist­en­tial threats; and
• Encour­age every­one to build suc­cess upon success.

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Bite_X: ‘Climate change blanches greenwashing’

Herb Hiller, Writer & Publisher, The Climate Traveler, USA

As quickly as pos­sible, tour­ism must advance the role of sci­ence in gen­er­al and cli­ma­to­logy in par­tic­u­lar into des­tin­a­tion policy making.

It must also strengthen sci­ence-led strategies toward cli­mate action that pre­serve leis­ure and busi­ness travel free of fur­ther travel trade greenwashing. 

Tour­ism in its favoured mode as expens­ive long dis­tance travel by air already freights every next trip with a more globe-threat­en­ing dis­charge of green­house gas emissions.

The travel ques­tion for 2024 that looms for every travel advisor is how their cli­ents can get home fast if only to evac­u­ate for the next once-in-a-100-year fire, hur­ricane, or flood.

This doesn’t mean that people can’t con­tin­ue to keep trav­el­ling and keep spend­ing lav­ishly for fair value so long as lux­ury is loc­ally inspired. The trick is travel by the least pol­lut­ing means pos­sible that com­bines com­mit­ment to cli­mate action with immers­ive loc­al interpretation. 

Nor should we pre­cisely blame apex gre­en­wash­ers like fees-con­ceal­ing hotels or cruise ship com­pan­ies that refuse to com­pensate ports of call fairly for pas­sen­ger impacts. Their lead­ers were edu­cated in a sys­tem that rewards such behaviour. 

We should instead look for­ward to action that fol­lows a recent fore­cast by Miles Part­ner­ship and Future Part­ners that in the next five years cli­mate change will skew travel toward des­tin­a­tions closer to home (59% say so, up from 56% two years ago). It will also affect how people get around at their des­tin­a­tions, e.g., by tak­ing more pub­lic trans­port­a­tion and few­er flights. 

Or as OAG Avi­ation puts things, cit­ing Skift, Expe­dia, and the OTA start-up Viatu: “On top of the ever-increas­ing demand for more sus­tain­able travel options, people are spe­cific­ally ask­ing for great­er trans­par­ency and edu­ca­tion on this mat­ter than ever before. This is a trend that is found in almost all of the latest trav­el­ler surveys.”

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What do you think? 

In a com­ment below share your own thoughts about the best oppor­tun­it­ies for travel & tour­ism over the next five years. (SIGN IN or REGISTER first. After sign­ing in you will need to refresh this page to see the com­ments section.) 

Or write a “GT” Insight or “GT” Insight Bite of your own. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

This is an open invit­a­tion to travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers from any back­ground to share their thoughts in plain Eng­lish with a glob­al industry audience.

“GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” pub­lishes. “GT” is where free thought travels.

If you think the tour­ism media land­scape is bet­ter with “GT” in it, then please … 

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Featured image (top of post)

What are the travel & tour­ism industry’s best oppor­tun­it­ies over the next five years to 2029? Rain­bow image by Clk­er-Free-Vec­tor-Images (CC0) via Pixabay.

Previous “GT” Insight Bites

• Tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years to 2028
• On empower­ment, pro­mo­tion, and the power of expression
• On enrich­ment, repat­ri­ation, the double-edged blade, and war
• On tour­ism tech­no­logy, pro­gress, and loc­al benefit-sharing
• Hey, travel & tour­ism, are you ‘neo­co­lo­ni­al­ist’?
• Who’s the new boss? Asia Pacific tour­ism industry asso­ci­ation seeks leader
• ‘The hos­pit­al­ity industry offers a great career.’ Really?
• Cruise ships: Bless­ing or blight?
• Tour­ist vs trav­el­ler: What’s the difference?
• The heads of fin­ance, oper­a­tions, and PR walk into their boss’s office … 
• Yes, Tour­ism Minister
• What are tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years?
• ‘Tour­ism is built on the back­bone of white suprem­acy’. What do you think?
• Really, what’s the dif­fer­ence? ‘Sus­tain­able tour­ism’ vs ‘regen­er­at­ive tourism’
• Want a career in tour­ism? Import­ant things you should know
• Diverse per­spect­ives on travel & tour­ism and a fairer world
• Diverse per­spect­ives on eco­nom­ic degrowth and tourism
• Diverse per­spect­ives on vis­it­or dispersion

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