Collaborative Blog

Category: Stewardship

A Taiwanese Island Boosts Tourist Capacity – Sustainably

[Above, Turtle Island in profile. Photo: Roi Ariel] For 20 years, ecotourists have been eager to tour a biodiverse volcanic island off the coast of Taiwan. But what happens when both locals and tourists complain about the stringent conservation limits on visitation set by government and academics? Monique Chen explains

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Even in Norway, Innkeepers Have Struggled

[Above: Aurland Fjord from a mountain farm. Photos by Montag, unless otherwise noted.] In the time of Covid, small lodges have flirted with failure, even in the fjords of oil-rich Norway. Arild Molstad reports on one couple who – “showing true viking spirit and eco-courage” – believe they can beat the odds

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How Data Science Can Help Destinations

Destination Stewardship Report – Autumn 2020  Sustainable destination planning is frequently hobbled by conventional measures of return on investment. But if ROI is expanded by using data science to include tangible but often omitted factors at both company and destination levels, says Irene Lane, then the picture is more accurate

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Mallorca Tries to Tame Tourism

Destination Stewardship Report – Autumn 2020 Among notoriously overtouristed destinations, Spain’s island of Mallorca is striving, if half-heartedly, for a sustainable-tourism reset once the pandemic recedes. Daza Garcia reports that right now, their chances of avoiding errors of the past are encouraging but far from certain. Can Mallorca Again Be

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Doing It Better: Columbia Gorge

The Search for Holistic Destination Management In our last DSR issue, we discussed the importance of GSTC Destination Criterion A1, which reads in part: “The destination has an effective organization, department, group, or committee responsible for a coordinated approach to sustainable tourism, . . . for the management of environmental,

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Doing It Better: Crown of the Continent

This border-straddling North American destination council relies on three strengths – a robust local network, core sustainability principles, and a global brand affiliation. See the third of our profiles on destinations with innovative approaches to holistic management as prescribed by GSTC-D Criterion A1 and the National Geographic Geotourism Principles.

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Engaging a U.S. National Park’s Gateway Communities

Destination Stewardship Report – Summer 2020  Improving relations between a national park and its gateway communities can be tricky, involving touchy issues such as invasive species, extractive industries, air pollution, visitation levels and economics, even dark skies. The collaborative approach employed for North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park yielded actionable

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GSTC’s Crucial Criterion A1

? Destination Stewardship Report – Summer 2020 ? Its Importance by Randy Durband, CEO, GSTC The GSTC Destination Criteria have well proven their value as guides to good destination stewardship. GSTC has chosen not to provide weighting to specific criteria, preferring to present a holistic system. Yet, it is natural to

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Revising GSTC’s Destination Criteria

Destination Stewardship Report – Summer 2020  The GSTC Destination Criteria (GSTC-D) were revised last year with global public consultation. The criteria were first developed through a stakeholder consultation process leading to their initial publication (Version 1.0) on 1st November 2013. In 2018 the first revision of the GSTC-D began. The

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Crete Needs to Restore its Gastronomic Heritage

Destination Stewardship Report – Summer 2020  Culinary expert Nikki Rose says Crete has wandered far from its roots as the “Garden of Greece,” losing traditional farms, villages, and cuisine in the process. Mass tourism has been partly responsible, and sustainable tourism could help reverse the trend, restoring Crete’s traditional, organic,

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