This week – July 4-11, 2021 – is Naidoc week in Australia. Naidoc Week activities celebrate the history, culture, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The theme for Naidoc Week 2021 is “Heal Country!” and the message could not be more critical. The themes raised by Naidoc, while not directed at tourism, have deep implications for our industry. There is growing recognition in sustainable and regenerative tourism of the value of indigenous wisdom in what we call “destination stewardship”. In the words of the Naidoc committee: The NAIDOC...

07 July, 2021 /

We live at a time of incredible travel freedoms. If you have the time and money, you can go almost anywhere. ( We'll talk in another post about issues around time, money and travel another time). With these freedoms, comes responsibility. As a traveler, you are visiting someone else's community. Your journey of discovery or relaxation takes place in a destination community where people live their lives. Your freedom to visit is based on their hospitality - don't take it for granted. With the freedom to visit...

17 August, 2019 /

Sustainability and Social Responsibility are are the driving force behind the Top 5 trends in restaurants in the U.S. according to the National Restaurant Association. The top food trends, according to the  National Restaurant Association Culinary Forecast 2015 are locally sourced meat, seafood and produce and environmental sustainability. Why do DMO managers need to know this ? Because this trend is helping them meet their goals of improving the economic and social well being of their destination communities.  We are all becoming familiar with infographics touting the economic benefits of tourism....

13 May, 2015 /

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the key drivers of sustainable tourism. The tourism system involves many actors all working to deliver a customer experience. There is little in the way of "top down, command and control" in tourism.  So - without the active participation of companies - and the managers that run those companies - it is difficult to imagine the tourism system becoming more sustainable. In a recent study led by Diana Chan Yu, we examined the drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility in hotels in China....

01 June, 2013 /

Flipping through the pages of most high end consumer travel magazines - Travel and Leisure, Conde Nast Travel and the like - exposes the curious to some of the most luxurious brands on the planet. These magazines are the showcases for some of today's most upmarket consumer brands and the content of the magazines - both the editorial and the advertising - reflect the interests of these affluent readers. At first glance- it may seem that these interests are exclusively self centered but a closer examination shows that issues of...

27 January, 2013 /

There is real skepticism that companies can do well and do good. When discussion turns to the socially responsible actions of a company it seems inevitable that the motives of the company will be brought into question. The typical comment goes something like " sure - they are the greenest company around...

27 April, 2012 /