28 Jan Citizen science 4 sustainable tourism

Citizen scientists play an important role in gathering scientific data for research projects around the world, from counting birdlife to monitoring winter storms. But could they help in the work of making destinations more sustainable?

Working with Dr. Cristina Cavaliere, Julia Branstrator, and Dr. Kelly Bricker, we set out to examine the Global Sustainable Tourism Council Destination Criteria to see if there were indicators that citizen scientists might be able to observe and report on.

Our question was: “could citizen scientists help monitor sustainable tourism?”

The Answer: Yes. We found many ways that citizen scientists and volunteers – visitors or community members – could help monitor tourism impact.

The findings provide destination leaders with another possible way destination leaders can measure the effects of tourism in their communities.

If you’d like to read the full academic article, you can find it here:

Branstrator, J. R., Cavaliere, C. T., Day, J., & Bricker, K. S. (2023). Civic Reporting Indicators and Biocultural Conservation: Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Tourism. Sustainability, 15(3), 1823. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/3/1823

Shout out of thanks to my brilliant collaborators on this work. It is always a pleasure to work with folks committed to improving the sustainability of our tourism system.