The Encouraging if Uneven Rise of Destination Stewardship

The Encouraging if Uneven Rise of Destination Stewardship

COMMENTARY BY THE EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Jonathan Tourtellot first began promoting the idea of destination stewardship around 2002 during his days at National Geographic Traveler magazine. He’s been at it ever since. Here’s what he likes – and doesn’t like – about the new rise in popularity of the approach.

The concept is gaining traction, at least in part

Quite a few years ago, I was shown photos of a new beachfront resort development in Mexico. Doesn’t matter where. The developer and government participants proudly pointed out that the buildings were all LEED certified. Energy efficient.

Very nice, but…

I studied the photographs. The mid-rise buildings could have been anywhere in the world. Nothing about them, not their design, not their façades, not their landscaping, said “¡Mexico!”

Nada.

So, what does this have to do with destination stewardship? Just that any tourism-related project, no matter how well-intentioned, needs to take into account the broader picture. That principle applies whether building something new, restoring something old, mitigating climate change, or engaging the community.

Over the past decade or so, the “destination stewardship” concept has taken off. In 2022, the World Travel and Tourism Council issued a report on the concept, with an emphasis on collaborative governance. A wide-ranging November 2023 symposium in Quebec was devoted to the topic. GSTC maintains a Destination Stewardship Working Group. Los Angeles Tourism has switched from being a DMO to declaring itself a “Destination Stewardship Organization”, with a focus on serving all Angelenos (see accompanying story by its CEO, Adam Burke).

Often, it is citizen complaints about overtourism that have prompted business and government leaders to peek over the tourism-industry parapets and acknowledge that the domain below actually provides their sustenance.

In the U.S., Lake Tahoe (California/Nevada) is using a destination stewardship approach to cope with overtourism and other issues, as is heavily visited Taos, New Mexico. Tourism pressures in the Rockies have spurred Colorado to establish a statewide Office of Destination Stewardship and plan.

Recent headlines attest to the growing interest in destination stewardship, but interpretations of the concept may vary from one place to another.

For various reasons, other places have also been adopting their own destination stewardship plans: Ottawa, Canada; Big Sur, California (again, for overtourism); and Chelan County, Washington, among others. And, turning to the other hemisphere, Horsburgh Atoll in the Maldives is launching its own unique approach (featured in an accompanying story).

Whatever the terminology, more and more bright spots are shining through the worn lacquer of tourism-equals-money (therefore, “more is more”) simplicity, a mindset that has long hidden the complex, dynamic relationship between tourist and destination.

Having been a proponent of destination stewardship for more than two decades, I find all this progress great, really! And yet –

And yet I worry.

Stewardship is a Big Tent

With evermore destinations adopting plans and policies under the destination stewardship flag, it’s important that practitioners understand and embrace just what the term means – or at least, what it should mean.

Various organizations, including our own, have offered detailed, reasonably compatible definitions for “destination stewardship.” But the simplest way to think of it is: The process of caring for places where tourism occurs.

That encompasses a multitude of moving parts. Good destination stewardship incorporates more than mitigating overtourism and adopting some basic environmental reforms. To be effective, destination stewardship must extend beyond the tourism industry and the transactions that define it. Various branches of government, portions of civil society, and even non-tourism businesses often have roles to play.

A closer look at what’s been going on confirms my reluctance to break out the champagne just yet. For one thing, many of the destination stewardship plans so far are just that – plans. True change often seems cast in the future, in terms that are sometimes pragmatic, sometimes dreamy. Action steps and funding still await resolution.

In other cases, there may be a tendency to focus on the cause du jour – climate, DEI, water use, etc. – to the near exclusion of other stewardship components.

The purpose of this column is not to critique individual plans, but rather to issue a word of caution to destinations developing or evaluating their stewardship plans: Don’t miss this opportunity! This is a chance to set a precedent for holistic thinking about places.

Eight Mandatory Considerations

The very nature of destinations – each like a diamond with different facets – suggests that in general, a complete stewardship plan requires checking these boxes:

1. ☐ Prosperity from tourism, adequate and well-distributed
2. ☐ Thoughtful tourism management
3. ☐ Natural habitat conservation
4. ☐ Preservation of the past
5. ☐ Living culture
6. ☐ Community benefit
7. ☐ Respect for the planet
8. ☐ Destination identity

Let’s look at these facets and how a thoughtful destination stewardship plan might address each.

#1: Money. Any tourism plan addresses economics, but the more enlightened ones look beyond “make money” to “who gets the money?” To the extent possible, the answer should be local people and businesses.

#2: Tourism management is also addressed in any plan, but does it focus more on the quality of tourism and less on the quantity of tourists? And what about the pros and cons of short-term rentals? Most important, is there a collaborative council or committee to coordinate the plan, as called for in GSTC Destination Criterion A1?

#3: Nature. Even in urban places, conservation counts. Nature tourism may not be significant, but healthy ecosystems are. Rampant habitat loss endangers the holistic integrity of a place.

#4: Built heritage. Historic and archaeological sites also belong in the plan, even if history isn’t currently a major feature of the destination brand. Things could change. Preserving vernacular architecture retains a valuable sense of place. Unlike many natural habitats, once a remnant of the past is gone, it’s gone forever.

#5: Living culture – authentic music, cuisine, folkways, architecture, arts and crafts – are the very things that tourism should help sustain. Highly self-aware places – New Orleans, Newfoundland, Scotland – are good at this; they enjoy showcasing who they are and diligently protect their culture. But places where local ways are disappearing under the rising tide of mass culture are those that most need to include such factors in a stewardship plan.

Note that numbers 3, 4, and 5 reflect the UNESCO World Heritage and Intangible Cultural Heritage programs. But a place doesn’t have to meet UNESCO’s “outstanding universal value” criterion to find natural, historic, and cultural aspects that contribute to its identity (see number 8, below).

#6: Engaging the community, even if only with better communication about tourism activities, is a start. Stewardship plans dealing with a skeptical public do tend to be sensitive to this. Among the underlying questions are: Are all communities at the table? Are they benefiting from tourism more than being disrupted or commodified by it?

#7: Planet. It’s hard to say how many destinations effectively address such planet-wide problems as plastics, climate, and exotic species in their stewardship plans, but it’s easy to identify those that don’t: U.S. jurisdictions under right-wing political sway. To borrow from the Dutch story, these places not only fail to put a finger in the leaking dike, they may actually forbid it. Movements in parts of Europe aim to do likewise. More often, though, political challenges are simpler: Why devote a portion of our scarce resources to nonlocal problems? Answer: The planet on which we ride is local. In most places, supportive evidence to that effect abounds.

#8: Distinctiveness of place. This frequent omission concerns me. Globalization and corporatization have been replacing distinctiveness – the delight and value of travel and authentic experiences – with logo-driven sameness. It is important that destinations zoom out and ask themselves “What things are unique to our place?” And then act to protect them and build an identity or “brand” upon them.

Dr. Jonathon Day of Purdue University (author of the accompanying column) ticks all eight of these boxes in his compact Practical Guide to Destination Stewardship and Sustainable Tourism, developed in 2023 for the state of Maine tourism office. Take a look. We’ll see whether Maine will follow his advice.

A Note about Jasper

Jasper, Alberta, gateway to Canada’s great national park of the same name, suffered enormous damage from 2024 wildfires. No deaths, but a third of the beloved town was destroyed.

Just last year, Jasper adopted a 10-year Destination Stewardship Plan based on “Place, People, Planet, Prosperity, Policy,” each “P” with actions to be executed in cooperation with the park. Their definition of stewardship is spot on: “holistically taking care of the environmental, sociocultural, economic, and governance systems that define the unique character of Jasper.”

Jasper must now add “wildfire” and “regeneration” to that list. We wish them well in employing their plan as a guide for rebuilding.

Santa Rosa, California has literally asked citizens, “What’s special about our place?” Exactly the right question. Holistic inventories reveal what makes a destination different from all others. Commercially, the combination becomes the destination’s unique selling point; spiritually it bolsters community morale, building pride in place and respect for assets that locals may have previously dismissed as unremarkable and routine.

Indeed, delving into destination character is where the fun lies, where opportunities hide that thoughtfully creative tourism can develop into enriching experiences not only for visitors but for residents as well.

The tourist office for the Faroe Islands seems to understand that, having created what amounts to a destination stewardship plan with the simple title Heim. Home. In other words, “tourism here is all about our place and who we are.”

Good destination stewardship, then, must encompass more than environmental sustainability. More than equity and inclusion. More than historic preservation or nature conservation. More than climate mitigation. These attributes and many more are truly and absolutely important, but none alone comprises the precious whole – the place and the people who live there.

About the Author

Journalist, editor, speaker, and consultant, Jonathan Tourtellot runs the nonprofit Destination Stewardship Center, successor to National Geographic’s Center for Sustainable Destinations.