2021 will be remembered as a reset year. After decades of tourism growth, the pandemic delivered a devasting year for our industry and now we are starting to make our way forward again. It's not going to be the same, but can it be better? As we get ready for the new normal – here are a couple of priorities for the coming years. Building back better takes leadership that balances the immediate with the strategic. Focusing on the short-term without attention to the long-term – or vice versa...

28 June, 2021 /

As someone who came of age in the 80s, I have spent my entire life waiting to see the benefits of trickle-down economics. The consensus these days seems to be that I shouldn’t hold my breath in anticipation of those policies creating the outcomes that were promised. But we can learn from the past. And it hasn’t been lost on me that many of the thought leaders I followed in the 80s and 90s – Kotler, Porter, and Senge, to name a few - have all advocated for interventions...

20 March, 2021 /

Uzbekistan, a central Asian Nation located along the Silk Road, is becoming a popular destination for visitors from the region and beyond. While cultural heritage has been a strong attraction for many travelers, Uzbekistan’s environment and natural places have the potential to draw visitors. Purdue’s Sustainable Tourism and Responsible Travel (START) lab is working with scholars from Urgench State University (UrSU), Uzbekistan, to support the development of ecotourism practices. The first project, supported by a grant from the American Council for International Education’s Central Asia University Partnership Program...

24 January, 2021 /

Cities need sustainable tourism more than ever. Too often sustainable tourism discussions focus on small scale, nature-based tourism. It is critical to remember that sustainable tourism principles can be applied to all parts of the tourism system. Indeed, although the pandemic has silenced many of the concerns about overtourism, sustainable tourism in urban destinations has never been more important. That is not to say it will be easy. Implementing sustainable tourism is a wicked problem. What does that mean? Wicked problems, like sustainable tourism, are complex, with many actors...

16 January, 2021 /

Sustainable tourism management requires careful planning according to our recent study of the GSTC Destination Criteria. Core to sustainable tourism planning is the development of a Destination Management Strategy designed to support the long-term sustainability of the destination community. These strategies should be: Suited to the scale of the destinationDeveloped with stakeholders and publicly availableBased on sustainability principles andAlign with other sustainability plans in the community. So what things should destinations be including in their plans? Our review of the destination criteria suggest that plans should be in place to: Protect the...

10 January, 2021 /

Sustainable tourism management incorporates a wide range of tasks – from environmental performance management to regulations supporting social justice. The Global Sustainable Tourism Council organizes their criteria into 4 categories - sustainable management, socio-economic sustainability, cultural sustainability, and environmental sustainability. In a recent analysis of the GSTC Destination criteria, undergraduate researcher, Jennifer Romanchek, and I examined the criteria from a different perspective.  We categorized the criteria as: People and TeamworkPlanning for Sustainable Tourism in DestinationsPolicy Framework for Sustainable TourismPrograms in the Destination that support Sustainable TourismPerformance Management to achieve...

02 December, 2020 /

100 days into the pandemic it’s fair to say that the world has changed. While the recovery may have setbacks and restarts, we will move forward. In time, we will get our tourism and hospitality industry workers back on the job, our businesses operating, and our destinations welcoming visitors again. There is a desire by many to rebuild our damaged industry as quickly as possible, recreating it the way it was. But just coming back the same isn’t good enough.  I am encouraged by the chorus of voices calling...

28 June, 2020 /

Sustainable tourism, at is simplest, is a set of activities designed to maximize the benefits of tourism.  Making sure we maximize the benefits of tourism, and minimize the negatives, particularly for host communities, is hard to argue against. So why don’t we see more great examples of sustainable tourism? Sustainable tourism is a wicked problem. Wicked problems are both complicated and complex. Sustainable tourism is complicated because, to achieve its promise, there are many things to do. Fortunately, over the last 4o years we’ve got a pretty good idea of what...

23 May, 2020 /

It made a splash! Earlier this summer, the Business Roundtable (BRT) redefined the purpose of a corporation.  The corporations of the business roundtable stated: While each of our individual companies serves its own corporate purpose, we share a fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders. We commit to: Delivering value to our customers. We will further the tradition of American companies leading the way in meeting or exceeding customer expectations. Investing in our employees. This starts with compensating them fairly and providing important benefits. It also includes supporting them through training...

17 October, 2019 /

The summer of 2017 a new term - Overtourism - burst into discussions about tourism. While the issues of overtourism have been around for some time, the folks at Skift named it and featured it in their 2017 megatrends. People in some of the most popular destinations, frustrated with the negative impacts of tourism, reached their tipping point, and a tourist backlash began. There is no question that overtourism is a problem. But overtourism is a symptom of a bigger challenge - sustainable destination management -...

08 September, 2019 /
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