Destination Stewardship Report

Comprehensive Articles Archive

Five Years of Useful Stories 2020-2025

Below you will find every feature article that has appeared in the Destination Stewardship Report over its publication history. They constitute a valuable resource. Even the earliest stories contain helpful insights and examples.

This participatory e-publication is a collaboration among (left to right above) the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), the Destination Stewardship Center, and the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST)  – and in time, maybe others. Learn more.

Our goal is to provide information and insights useful to anyone interested in the interaction between tourism and care for places. We welcome your ideas and submissions.

The links below take you to each issue, just as it would appear in your in-box, and to each feature story therein. You can subscribe for free here.

2024

The Winter 2024 issue mailed in January 2025.

• UXUA’s Tale – Coping with Political Hostility
• Park Protection the Indigenous Way
• Conference as a Stewardship Model
• Opinion: Cruise Crisis
• Cultivating Stewardship
• Two More Winners From the Top 100:

Heritage and Nature in Hungary
How Estonia Cleaned Up Its Big Event

The  May-August issue mailed at the end of August 2024.

• The Los Angeles DMO Adopts Destination Stewardship
• The Encouraging If Uneven Rise of Destination Stewardship – Editor’s commentary
• Nepal’s Community Homestay Network
• Engaging Travelers in Destination Stewardship
• Pioneering Community-Owned Tourism in the Maldives
• Two More Winners From the Top 100:
  • The Hidden Heritage of Belsh, Albania
  • The Birds of Aqaba, Jordan

The January-April issue mailed at the end of April 2024.

• Djurgården Shows How To Collaborate

• Rapa Nui: Memories of the Future

• Durango: Destination Stewardship in Action

• Indigenous Tourism eLibrary Offers Guidance for Destinations

• Two More Winners From the Top 100:
  • Yoron Island Reaches for the Stars
  • Baie de Somme: 50 Years of Cycling and Conservation

2023

The September-December issue emailed in November 2023,

• The Surprising Value of Geoparks

• Architectural Tactics for Dispersing Tourism: Lessons from Australia’s Great Ocean Road

• Tourism and Natural Disaster Recovery: Keys to Success

• Introducing the GSTC Destination Stewardship Starter Kit

• Two More Winners From the Top 100:
  • Bypassed by Visitors: How One Community Tackles Undertourism
  • Historic Thai City Finds Ways to Solve Tourist Waste

• Partnership with a Purpose: Takeaways from the Power of Partnership Summit

The May-August issue emailed on 8 August 2023.

• Bahamas Destination Stewardship Initiative – a conversation
• B.C. Indigenous Guardians Program – protecting their coast
• Preserving Living Culture on Rhodes – or not
• South Pacific Pushes Back on MegaCruises – but will governments go along?
• Two More Winners From the Top 100:
  • Brazil’s Diamantina Redefines a Tradition – so as to redefine tourism
  • Fighting Poverty in Kyrgystan with Handicraft Tourism – a boon for women

The January-April issue emailed on 17 April 2023.

• Tourism in Colombia Sails Towards Peace – Opinion
• How to build a community-centered destination stewardship initiative
• Regenerative and sustainable tourism in the Willamette Valley
• Destination Stewardship: Collaboration, Standards, and Good Policy – report from GSTC in Seville
• How can we all be better destination stewards? – a family travel perspective
• Two More Winners From the Top 100:
  • People Power: Rebuilding a Region with Eco at Heart in Australia
  • “Agriculture x Tourism” Helps Protect Thousands-Year-Old Grassland in Aso, Japan

2022

The Autumn 2022 issue emailed first week of November.

• Partnering for Stewardship in gulf coast Florida – without government support
• Future-of-Tourism Summit on Climate held in Athens – summarized
• Panama Tourism to Empower Local and Indigenous Communities
• A Revealing Ocean View of Tourism by the International High Panel
• CREST’s Forum On Destination Stewardship – key points
• Two More Winners From the Top 100 Rely on Indigenous Tradition:
  • Livingstone, Zambia Creates a ‘Forest of Faces
  • Revitalizing the Kypseli Neighborhood in Athens

The Summer 2022 issue emailed the first week of August.

• A Malaysian District Collaborates Lest Tourism Run Wild
• Disaster Recovery in Evia, Greece
• Cultivating Comprehensive Destination Stewardship with GSTC Criterion A4
• Two More Winners From the Top 100 Destination Sustainability Stories:
  • Brazil’s Bombinhas Learns About Itself
  • Repairing Tourism in Transylvania County, NC
• To Market Stewardship, Use Local Voices

See the complete Spring 2022 issue here.  Feature stories are:

• Doing It Better: Big Bay, Michigan
• Two from Slovenia:
  • Nationwide Tourism Change: Slovenia Shows How To Do It
  • Slovenia’s Green Gourmet Tourist Route
• Svalbard Overheating
• Two More Winners From the Top 100 Rely on Indigenous Tradition:
  • Indigenous Guyanese Tap Tourism to Save Their Huge Fish
  • Ataúro Island Revives a Conservation Tradition

See the complete Issue here: Winter 2022. Feature stories are:

• Cooperation on Jeju Island, Korea
• Doing It Better: Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Iceland
• Teton County (USA) Stewardship Journal
• By Their Bootstraps: Homemade Heritage Tourism in Peru 
• Battle Over a Dam Spawns a New Green Destination in Bosnia
• OPINION: The NY Times’s Selection of Sustainable Destinations

2021

See the complete Issue here: Autumn 2021. Feature stories are:

• Italy’s Matera Copes With Overtourism – and James Bond
• Sprawling Västerbotten, Sweden Collaborates on Sustainability
• Two From India:
  • Contrasting Tourism Landscapes in Karnataka
  • Villagers Move to Control Tourism Development in the Himalayas
• Vanuatu Tourism Gets a Reboot
• Two Winners From the Top 100:
  • Dafar, Tunisia Communities Pull Together for Beneficial Tourism
  • Bad Grund, Germany Bootstraps Itself Back To Life
• Sign the Glasgow Declaration on Climate!

See the complete Issue here: Summer 2021. Feature stories are:

• Palau: A Conservation Culture
• Localizing a Vermont Tour
• Doing It Better: Pennsylvania Wilds, USA
• Two from Chile:
  • Chelenko Opts for Sustainability
  • Human Encounters from Araucania
• Resources for Tourism Recovery
• Webinar reports:
  • Overtourism’s Lessons for Tomorrow
  • Metrics and Supply Chains

See the complete Issue here: Spring 2021. Feature stories are:

• The Nisga’a of B.C. Offer an Indigenous Tourism Model
• Saving Cultural Heritage: The Singapore Hawkers Case
• Doing It Better: Sedona, Arizona
• Once Overrun, Dubrovnik Plans for Sustainability
• Opinion: A Chance to Tame Cruise Tourism
• Japan’s Journey Toward Sustainability
• New Sustainability App Can Help Destinations
• Webinar reports:
  • Measuring Destination Happiness
  • Future of Tourism Coalition’s “Reset Tourism” Webinar Series – Destination Stewardship

See the complete Issue here: Winter 2021. Report includes these featured stories:

• Riviera Maya’s Queen of Green by Dr. Jonathon Day
• Even in Affluent Norway, Innkeepers Have Struggled by Arild Molstad
• Our 5th “Doing it Better” profile: Namibia’s K-H Conservancy  by Jonathan Tourtellot
• Overtourism and Undertourism in Protected Areas by Dr. Anna Spenceley
• A Taiwanese Island Boosts Tourist Capacity – Sustainably by Monique Chen
• Neolocalism and Tourism by Dr. Christina Cavaliere

2020

See the complete Issue here: Autumn 2020. Report includes these featured stories:

• The Greening of Gritty Ulsan, South Korea by Dr. Mihee Kang and Seok Yoon
• 10 Ways to Reset Your Tourism Model Post-Covid by Florian Kaefer
• Pandemic Tourism Brings Surprises to Serbia by Ivana Damnjanović
• Columbia Gorge: Our 4th “Doing it Better” profile by Jacqueline Harper
• Mallorca Tries to Tame Tourism by Daza Garcia
• How Data Science Can Help Destinations by Irene Lane

See the complete Issue here: Summer 2020 – Inaugural Issue. Report includes these featured stories:

• In Italy’s Dolomites, a “Future Lab” Inspires DMO Innovation by Marta Mills
• Engaging Gateway Communities for a U.S. National Park by Kelly Bricker
• Crete Needs to Restore Its Gastronomic Heritage by Nikki Rose
• GSTC’s criterion A1 on destination management – its context and importance by  Randy Durband and Jonathan Tourtellot
• Anna Maria Island, Florida Offers a Model for Sustainable Stewardship by David Randle
• The Elaborate Process of Revising GSTC’s Destination Criteria by Kelly Bricker and Richard and Jackie Denman

For more information and participation please contact us.  —Jonathan Tourtellot, Executive Editor