Conventions come, conventions go, and except for the money the conference attendees spend, too often, these meetings have little impact on the community. But what if it was about more the money the conference and its attendees contribute to the economy? What if conventions were a catalyst for learning and skill development beyond the walls of the conference center? What if conventions positively changed the destination community and improved the quality of life? The Glasgow Convention Bureau (GCB) has a program designed to do just that. GCB encourages conferences...

03 June, 2023 /

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 /

The rise in "Local" is making an impact. One of the three big trends shapingmarketing today - So Mo Lo ( Social, Mobile and Local), "local" tends to be an afterthought in conversations that focus on the rise of mobile and the impact of social networking and marketing. But "local" is a big deal to tourism marketing and is changing the way the industry does business. The focus on local has a couple of great benefits for tourism: Local product and services build a "sense of place". "Local" tends...

28 May, 2015 /

The idea that tourism is a system has been around for a while. Morrison and Mill wrote the first edition of The Tourism System in 1985 - and they weren't the first to recognize the concept. Since then there have been advances - Louise Twining Ward - added that tourism was a Complex and Adaptive System and Noel Scott and his colleagues have done great work on understanding the dynamics within these networks. So - if we know its a system - why don't we treat it like one ?...

22 May, 2015 /

"Sustainability" has been described as one of the most "jargony-ist" words of recent times. Because I talk about sustainability a lot, I get this feedback from everyone - students, hoteliers, tour operators and DMOs.  I agree ! The word "sustainability"  is used way too frequently and too carelessly - and it's too bad - because lost in the "I'm so over this word - sustainability" attitude is the important fact that DMOs are important agents of sustainability. Imagine working to make the destination the best place it could be -...

15 May, 2015 /

Tourism is the largest industry in the world - and yet it is still called the "invisible industry". Well - maybe it isn't invisible - but it is hidden in plain site. Tourism and the visitor economy is right under our noses - but we don't recognize it. In some ways this lack of awareness starts in school. For example, as a school kid, we went on field trips and camps and we often seemed to find ourselves at farms set up to welcome students and show them agriculture. While I...

14 May, 2015 /

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 /

At a recent conference one of the speakers reminded the audience that tourism takes place at the acquiescence of the community. I thought the statement was eloquent and expressed an important idea...

10 August, 2014 /