For People Who
Care About Places
Welcome to the Destination Stewardship Center
Extending the work of the former National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations.
We seek to help protect the world’s distinctive places by supporting wisely managed tourism and enlightened destination stewardship.
Our goal: Create a collaborative knowledge center where people can find resources for achieving that mission. We invite your help.
This website is all about the intersection between stewardship of places and one of the world’s most impactful industries: tourism. We gather and provide information on the ways tourism can help—or hurt—distinctive destinations around the world. We seek people who want to join us in building a global community and knowledge network for doing so. We are proud founding members of the similarly dedicated Future of Tourism Coalition.
We stand at the intersection between tourism and care for places.
Our Mission
“Help protect the world’s distinctive places by supporting wisely managed tourism and enlightened destination stewardship.” Join us. Success depends on you, our great volunteers, working to build a powerful knowledge network all about tourism's tricky interaction with places.
Information Exchange
We issue the multi-author Destination Stewardship Report periodically in collaboration with our partners. Please contribute! Participate as well in our collaborative blog, and information exchange for thoughtful travelers.
Destination Stewardship Resources
if you work in the travel industry, a stewardship organization, government, or academia, if you are a civic leader or a proactive traveler, then this section is for you. Numerous subdirectories address special topics, developed with your help.
Services
Here is what the Destination Stewardship Center and our affiliates can do for your destination – including workshops, videos, storytelling training, and consultation on developing your own destination stewardship council.
Destination Watch
Some destinations are taking good care of themselves, others not so. Still others are in play. So far, this section includes the Destination News Monitor, profiles of exemplary destination stewardship councils, and historic National Geographic “Places Rated” scores.
The Future of Tourism Coalition
The Destination Stewardship Center is one of six co-founders of this global coalition of nonprofit organizations devoted to sustainable tourism and improving destination stewardship.
The work of preserving the unique and important aspects of destinations is a critical part of stewardship, and is of utmost concern to many travelers
What We Do
We use all the communication methods that we can to:
- Highlight the issues. Tourism is changing the world. The Destination Stewardship Report is a free e-mailed periodical with lively articles on all pertinent topics. You can subscribe for free. And contribute content. Our Destination Watch section presents stewardship news from around the globe. We also offer a blogging platform and index of content.
- Provide Stewardship Resources – information and links to services – to help destinations to improve in terms of authenticity, sustainability, and a responsible tourism economy, including various types of tourism.
- Present a holistic, sustainable approach to tourism, defined via National Geographic as the Geotourism Approach: Tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place—its environment, culture, geology, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents. Mindful, discerning travelers will find access to helpful links in the Geotravelers section.
Please register on the website if you would like to join us and get involved. Or simply contact us.
Those who change the world are nearly always those who volunteer to do so.
About Us
The nonprofit Destination Stewardship Center is a growing community of people involved in the intersection between tourism and stewardship of places. Our team seeks additional volunteer participants love places and who meet our qualifications, including editorial interns, apprentices, restless retired editors, and sustainable-tourism enthusiasts who aspire to leadership in achieving our mission.
We also seek potential partners, sponsors, and destination monitors for specific places, especially World Heritage destinations. Please contact us.