Africa Travel WeekTourism businesses can contribute to local sustainable development when they upskill and employ local people and work with local SMMEs to buy locally produced goods and services. They can also facilitate sales by local people directly to tourists. View the short video on creating what Harvard economist Michael Porter calls shared value here:
On the shores of the Tay in Scotland, the Crannog Centre is a stunning example of the contribution that an Iron Age visitor attraction can make to cultural heritage and local sustainable development – is there a more successful, responsible attraction in Scotland? The Crannog Centre addresses so many of the aspirations listed in the 2022 Responsible Tourism Charter.
Bad tourism is bad because it is not managed well. Destinations, other people’s homes, are not infinite. For more on Tourism in a Finite, Climate Challenged World, watch the conversation and/or read the paper.
Overtourism, now an issue in so many places with demonstrations and even hunger strikes, is arguably the most obvious experience we have of the consequences of living in a finite world. Overtourism is the experience of hosts and guests when we allow our places, our homes, to be used by tourists and the tourism industry.
We need to remember that “tourism is like a fire. We can cook our food on it, but if it is poorly managed, it will burn our homes down.
Managing Overtourism is essential and challenging.
The cost of crowds: How top destinations are curbing overtourism
Original article published on responsible tourism blog by Harold Goodwin
Harold Goodwin
