“In 2019, over 1.5 billion tourists crossed international borders and tourism’s continued growth seemed assured. However, in 2020, tourism stopped in its tracks. The world went from overtourism to no tourism.” – Kelsey Frenkiel, Program Manager at the Center for … Continue reading
On 14 April 2021 we were pleased to send out the Spring (2Q) edition of the Destination Stewardship Report, completing its first year of online publication as a joint project with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. Here’s a description of the 9 stories in this issue.. Continue reading
Prompted by a restive citizenry and a responsive city council, the DMO for the city of Sedona, in Arizona’s popular Red Rock country, now acts in effect as a destination stewardship council. That’s unusual. For part of our ongoing project to profile places with effective, holistic management, Sarah-Jane Johnson takes a deep dive into Sedona’s story. This is the sixth in the Destination Stewardship Center’s profiles of exemplary places with collaborative destination management in the spirit of GSTC’s Destination Criterion A1. Continue reading
If no good crisis should go to waste, DSC director Jonathan Tourtellot urges destinations to seize this one, forming stewardship councils that can oversee research and planning for the recovery. Plus a personal afterthought. Continue reading
The rising buzz in tourism circles about overtourism is now spilling into the mainstream media, especially in Europe, which seems to have the largest numbers of unhappy, tourism-battered residents. Here’s some of the latest information on overtourism. Continue reading
Yet another voice in the overtourism discussion, this time from an Airbnb report with a Foreword by Destination Stewardship Center director Jonathan Tourtellot. Also, a re-post of his National Geographic Voices blog on the topic. Continue reading
At GSTC’s annual meeting, this year in Chile, hot topics included overtourism and the need for destination stewardship councils. Here, a set of recent news and comment on these topics. Continue reading
Salli Felton, CEO of The Travel Foundation in the U.K., shows how mass tourism can get out of hand. There’s a solution, she says: Measure success in terms of impacts, not arrivals. The tools for doing so already exist. But does the will to use them? Continue reading
Facing congestion in Phuket, whether at the airport, on the roads or on beaches has long been a familiar phenomenon. What is different is that the congestion is mostly caused by the onslaught of mass tourism from Russia and China. Continue reading