Tag Archives: sustainable destinations

Repairing Tourism in Transylvania County, NC

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? Destination Stewardship Report – Vol. 3, No. 1 – Summer 2022 ?

Another winner from the Top 100 – Every year, Green Destinations organizes the Top 100 Destination Sustainability Stories competition, which invites submissions from around the world – a vetted collection of stories spotlighting local and regional destinations that are making progress toward sustainable management of tourism and its impacts. This entry, from the winners announced last year, showcases how a popular North Carolina county created a locally supported program to clean up its tourism wear and tear. Synopsis by Supriya A. N.

The City of Brevard sits nestled amongst the mountains of Pigsah National Forest. [Photo courtesy of Green Destinations]

Top 100 submission by Lee McMinn, Transylvania Always.

In the Wake of Overcrowding, Eco-sensitive Transylvania County Mobilizes Stakeholders to Enhance Sustainability

The love of nature and desire to spend quality time outdoors has resulted in a spike in visitor numbers beyond the carrying capacity in Transylvania County, North Carolina. Not surprisingly, this was causing long-term damage to park resources with overcrowded trails, worsening water quality, increased litter, and even death and injury. The inconvenience caused by overcrowding led residents to question the positive effects of tourism as a vital contributor to the local economy.

Visitors cool off at a popular waterfall and swimming hole. [Photo courtesy of Green Destinations]

To establish the long-term sustainability of the region and restore balance to the natural environment, Transylvania County Tourism Development Authority created a subcommittee called Transylvania Always whose mission addresses the above issues. Transylvania Always partnered with various environmental agencies, non-profits, public land managers, volunteer organizations, and public relations firms to establish a sustainable natural environment for visitors’ safe and memorable enjoyment of the region and diversify the local economy with consistent tourism income.

Some of the steps that helped achieve their goals are:

  • Offering grants to agencies to improve the quality of the experience by repairing and rerouting trails, and improving river safety
  • Consulting with experts to study and develop a comprehensive river inventory to better implement safety strategies and any new activity near the water body

    Trail maintenance is crucial for access to outdoor recreational activities. [Photo courtesy of Green Destinations]

  • Hiring agencies to develop materials to convey the message of trail etiquette, waterfall hazards, and organize campaigns like ‘Leave It Better’ motivating residents and visitors to pick up litter and keep the surroundings clean

With these measures, Transylvania Always changed the narrative of the county as an overcrowded destination to one that’s better managed through active and enthusiastic participation from various stakeholders.

Find the complete Good Practice Story (PDF) from Transylvania County and Brevard, North Carolina.

Disaster Recovery in Evia, Greece

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? Destination Stewardship Report – Vol. 3, No. 1 – Summer 2022 ?

After disastrous wildfires in Northern Evia, Greece, the placemaking agency Toposophy assessed the damage to Evia’s tourism and researched lessons learned from various other disaster-struck destinations. Marta Mills of Toposophy explains what they have done to help Evia build a sustainable recovery and how other destinations can benefit. 

A home goes up in flames as a devastating wildfire tears through Northern Evia. Natural disasters such as these are becoming increasingly frequent. [Photo courtesy of Dimitris Georgiou]

Fire despoils a Greek island. Now what?

‘I will never forget the sound of the fire and the picture afterwards of the place where I grew up and live’, said Giorgos Maroudes, president of the Trade Association of Rovies, a seaside village on the island of Evia. In August 2021, Northern Evia – the northern part of Greece’s second largest island, Evia, and a place of unique biodiversity – suffered one of the worst natural disasters in the country’s history. “As expected, tourism, one of the most important revenue sources of our area, was one of the sectors most heavily impacted,” he reported.

Toposophy, an international placemaking agency and GSTC Member, was hired by the National Reconstruction Committee of Greece on the Recovery and Regeneration of Northern Evia (the NRC) to provide a roadmap for a sustainable recovery adapted to the characteristics of the place and based on an analysis of the responses from other destinations who have experienced natural disasters.

‘The scale of the disaster was unprecedented in our history, so the NRC was a unique initiative in the country’s planning tradition’, says Dimitrios Georgiou from Toposophy, responsible for research and managing the Northern Evia project. ‘The response had to be bigger, more holistic and more people-centered than had been seen before.’

Pre-fire, a diver in Rovies explores north Evia’s rich biodiversity and marine life. [Photo courtesy of Argonauta Diving Resort]

Understanding what has worked and what hasn’t in the past was essential to develop a plan adjusted to Northern Evia’s unique characteristics and needs. During its heyday, Northern Evia was a popular holiday destination for global stars such as Maria Callas and Greta Garbo, mainly because of the thermal spa. Evia also has a rich history and heritage spanning from ancient to medieval times and present, as well as unique biodiversity and local production that remained under-utilized.

In addition to the wildfire’s impact (e.g. destruction of forests, historic olive groves, honey production, livestock, etc.), further challenges included lack of distinct brand/identity, population decline, and negative effects of the pandemic.

To respond in the most effective way, Toposophy’s team conducted a benchmarking study and spent a few weeks in Northern Evia to conduct formal and informal interviews and check what would work in this particular place. This engagement on the ground and stakeholder input helped with creating the final study. The subsequent benchmarking research would help Northern Evia to recover.

Responses by other destinations

According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, it typically takes an average of 16.2 months for a destination to recover from a natural disaster; however, wildfires can take anything from just one month to 93 months. Toposophy’s benchmarking research found that successful responses vary from dedicated strategic plans and funding structures to location-specific initiatives undertaken by community groups and local influencers. For example,

  • In response to the wildfires of 2020 in Oregon, Global Family Travels, in partnership with First Nature Tours and Cascade Volunteers, launched experiences of regenerative tourism in areas of Oregon that suffered the most, while the destination created conditions of safety by providing an interactive dashboard with information about the air quality etc. after a customer survey.
  • Following the earthquake of 2015, Nepal developed an efficient social media strategy that targeted a more adventurous group of visitors and replaced the negative sentiment with a more optimistic one, as well as a “see for yourself” strategy by organizing press and celebrity trips.
  • In Italy, after the earthquake of 2012 in Emiglia Romana, the influential chef Massimo Bottura created a special risotto cacio e pepe recipe with parmigiano during a livestream session that helped to sell a stock of 360 thousand pieces of parmigiano cheese. The relaunch of All Saints’ Day Festival with the support of volunteers also helped drive tourists flows and demonstrate a destination which is ready for business.
  • The tsunami of 2004 was an opportunity for Sri Lanka to rethink its strategy, target markets, and offerings, and subsequently, separate the destination in tourism zones. The destination created packages for added-value niche groups, while launching the “Bounce Back Sri Lanka” campaign directing visitors to areas not affected by the tsunami.

Guidelines for a destination affected by natural disaster

Based on the benchmarking analysis and many formal and informal consultations on the ground with local stakeholders, Toposophy provided actionable guidelines adapted to the conditions of Northern Evia. Some of these recommendations included:

  • Develop new inventory of nature-based tourism products as well as tourism based on assets not affected by the disaster, such as sea and gastronomy experiences.
  • Launch a domestic tourism campaign with a well-rounded events calendar to highlight the readiness of the destination for business.
  • Develop a place brand through participatory processes – important for recovery and resilience building.
  • Provide an educational program with tailor-made consulting and peer-to-peer elements to upgrade quality and effectiveness of crisis response, and to increase social cohesion and resilience to future shocks.
  • Develop programs to tap into new trends or niche groups such as a pilot program for attracting digital nomads and reuse of abandoned industrial heritage, along with wider placemaking goals such as reversing demographic shrinkage.

Northern Evia’s lush, green landscape – before the fire. [Photo courtesy of Dimitris Georgiou]

Hope for the future

According to Giorgos Maroudes of the seaside village Rovies, “The wildfires highlighted precedent weaknesses. The reconstruction requires both short- and long-term measures and planning for a quick recovery and enhanced resilience. The Toposophy study shows that this is feasible, based on successful practices from all over the world.”

What can other destinations learn from this? 

The key takeaways that other destinations can apply include:

  • The involvement of the local community is crucial for the effectiveness of recovery efforts. Transparency and honesty are very important to nurture trust.
  • Tourism recovery efforts should be combined with other dimensions such as restoring biodiversity and cultural heritage.
  • The effectiveness of communication initiatives depends on a mix of factors such as the message carrier (e.g. influencers related to the area affected or a real visitor), the communication timing, and the tone/content of message (honesty, safety, positive news, progress).
  • Regarding recent disasters, perceived safety from the COVID-19 pandemic has been more important when selecting a destination than the impact of a natural disaster.
  • Data-driven approaches that may include customer perception surveys, social listening, and local professional consultation enhance effectiveness and well-informed decisions.
  • Educational initiatives such as seminars, toolkits, and/or consultation increase resilience and create competitive advantage.

Talking about disaster response

We can all learn more from other places willing to share their experiences. For example, the mayor of San Jose has some useful insights on a new community task force that is tackling the climate crisis in California, and we can learn from scientists in Australia how to use the data from past bushfires to better prepare for future hazards. Toposophy’s Common Ground podcast series (Episode 3 ‘Climate Fight: Meet the Frontliners’) tackles the topic of how these destinations cope with natural disasters.

Toposophy’s Marta Mills is a sustainable tourism and communications consultant with over 15 years of experience in projects across Europe and Asia.

Cultivating Comprehensive Destination Stewardship with GSTC Criterion A4

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? Destination Stewardship Report – Vol. 3, No. 1 – Summer 2022 ?

Sustainability in tourism destinations requires not only the commitment of government and nonprofit organizations, but also the work of the private sector to maintain places in ways such that they can be enjoyed for years to come. DMOs need to encourage that. Randy Durband, CEO of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, explains how GSTC’s Destination Criterion A4 offers guidance. 

Criterion A4: Enterprise Engagement and Sustainability Standards

Destination stewardship requires good public policy and strong private sector practices. The Destination Management Organization (DMO) has a role in both, not just the first.

The DMO needs to provide guidance and encouragement to the private sector to operate more sustainably. That is the focus here: the DMO encourages continuous improvement on the sustainability practices of the businesses that are directly serving the visitors.

What makes a destination “sustainable”? It’s public sector-provided infrastructure — roads, parks, clean and safe water, clean and efficient energy — and the preservation of natural and cultural heritage, but also the types of products and services produced and offered by businesses.

Sustainable consumption in tourism is far more than tangible products, such as food and souvenirs purchased by the visitor. Consumption in tourism includes more money and time spent on services than on physical products. Those services include accommodations, transportation, guiding and interpretation, and the attractions visited. A broad view of sustainable tourism products and services is needed, one that looks at the core elements that all visitors require.

A resort on Mexico’s Riviera Maya posts its allegiance to the UN’s SDGs. [Photo by Jonathan Tourtellot]

Businesses serve the visitor directly.  Businesses operate the physical facilities and modes of transport that visitors use. They also provide most of the less tangible services and experiences.

Criterion A4 of the GSTC Destination Criteria and its Performance Indicators underscores that DMO’s must take an active role in engaging with the private sector. This is needed to encourage more sustainable forms of services and experiences. Let’s look at the text:

A4 Enterprise engagement and sustainability standards

The destination regularly informs tourism-related enterprises about sustainability issues and encourages and supports them in making their operations more sustainable. The destination promotes the adoption of sustainability standards, promoting the application of GSTC-I Recognized standards and GSTC-I Accredited certification schemes for tourism enterprises, where available. The destination publicizes a list of sustainability certified enterprises.

      Performance Indicators for Criterion A4:

  1. Evidence of regular communication of sustainability issues to tourism-related businesses (media, meetings, direct contact etc.).
  2. Sustainability support and advice to tourism-related business – available and promoted.
  3. Number and percentage of businesses certified against tourism sustainability standards (and whether GSTC recognised/accredited), with targets for wider outreach.
  4. Evidence of promotion of certification schemes.
  5. List of tourism-related certified enterprises, kept up to date.

This criterion calls for an active role by the DMO in encouraging and/or requiring businesses to operate more sustainably. DMOs can do so in a variety of ways:

  • Awareness-raising through seminars, newsletters, classroom training, etc.
  • Incentives for good performance, such as discounts in tourism promotion activities for businesses with evidence of sustainable practices
  • Subsidies for good performance
  • Mandates for good performance

In other words, carrots and sticks, with as many carrots as possible … but sticks when necessary.

Examples of carrots, that is, encouragement, incentives, and subsidies:

  • Costa Rica’s national government operates a tourism business certification scheme for sustainability, and provides discounts to certified businesses for presenting their business at international trade fairs and other forms of international promotion.
  • Singapore set a target that 60% of hotels gain certification to the GSTC framework by 2025 and are encouraging businesses to adhere to the goal in a variety of ways.
  • Jeju Island, a province in South Korea, set targets for full conversion to electric vehicles (EV’s) that included several years advance notice before an eventual mandate that will require all rental car companies to convert fully to EV’s in their fleets.

An example of mandates comes from Türkiye, where the Ministry formed an agency to develop and operate a Green Tourism program. Included in this is a mandate that all hotels in the country gain certification by GSTC-accredited Certification Bodies by 2030. Those hotels not in compliance will be subject to losing their business licenses enforced by Türkiye’s central government. But the mandate is softened by the implementation of a stepwise scheme. This allows for each hotel to climb a ladder to certification via two steps. The hotel provides evidence of compliance to the national standard at each step (the national standard complies with the GSTC Criteria formally through the GSTC Recognized program). This process must be completed between 2022 and 2030.

Wisconsin, USA, has a state-endorsed environmental program. [Photo courtesy of Wisconsin Department of Tourism]

Making It Verifiably Systemic

It’s useful to break down systematic approaches to sustainable tourism into these elements:

  • Attributes – such as greenhouse gasses, energy, plastic, fair labor practices, cultural heritage preservation, ecosystem conservation, animal welfare.
  • Measurement – as shorthand for measuring, evaluating, rating, scoring, and reporting.
  • Verification – providing evidence that you are managing and making improvements on the attributes you claim to be improving. This can include awards or certification, or any form of reporting that is reviewed to some degree by external and impartial parties – i.e., objectively verifiable. (Self-assessments or any form of “self-verification” are not truly verification — let’s call it “talking about yourself.”)

DMO’s should not be boastful if their local businesses are striving for improvement in only a very few attributes. “We recycle” is a wonderful claim, but are you doing anything else?

Are you measuring and benchmarking and rewarding improvement? Are you measuring how much actually gets recycled in those lovely bins scattered about? Are the businesses seeking external and impartial verification of their claims? The guests can see the recycle bins, but they cannot see back of house whether the sorting continues; that requires external verification through auditing.

All of these are essential.

And, let’s be honest: Even if a DMO is doing great work on complying with GSTC-D Section A on Sustainable Management, if they are not encouraging and rewarding excellence by the businesses within their jurisdiction, can they make any claims of sustainability as a destination?  I think not. Criterion A4 is vital to the compliance of Section A in its entirety.

A “sustainable destination” should be a combination of both DMO and the private sector achieving this recognition together. In other words, the DMO and other public agencies must collectively score well on Section A of GSTC-D – AND the private sector should have gained high percentages of strong, meaningfully verified progress on their journey to sustainability. Hotels should have their buildings certified by LEED, BREEAM, or similar and their operations certified by a GSTC-Accredited Certification Body. Tour operators, agencies, and transport companies should have high percentages of clean energy vehicles in use and should be certified sustainable themselves. Other businesses are part of B-Corp, constantly working to increase their scores.

We at GSTC are working on systems to count hotels at destinations in order to determine the percentage that are certified sustainable. We’ll seek ways to do the same for Destination Management Company (DMC)’s, such as local inbound operators and transport providers. This relates directly to Performance Indicator “3” of Criterion A4.

Criterion A4 speaks to all of the above. How many of a destination’s businesses are seriously addressing what number of attributes?  Are they properly measured, with external verification? Without such significant metrics, a destination’s claim to being “sustainable” rings rather hollow.

Nationwide Tourism Change: Slovenia Shows How To Do It

We often see great accomplishments in destination sustainability by individual towns, counties, and even sizable cities. But how to get an entire country to adopt a comprehensive stewardship program? Hannah Bromm, with Dr. Jonathon Day, describes Slovenia’s award-winning solution for achieving systemic national change. 

Easy access by train and bicycle put Slovenian villages like this one within reach. Photos by Jonathan Tourtellot.

Slovenia Tourism’s Nationwide Green Scheme

Leaders seeking to establish sustainable tourism programs often face a challenge when trying to do it across regions and political boundaries. Yet Slovenia has created a program that has been adopted by communities throughout the country, creating an “ecosystem” of some 60 sustainable destinations.

The Green Scheme of Slovenian Tourism (GSST), an initiative of the Slovenian Tourism Board, is the largest sustainable tourism program in the country.  Launched in 2014, this program aims to introduce sustainable practices to Slovenian tourism and encourage both tourism service providers and destinations to embrace sustainability in their operations. Since its inception, the certification program has grown to include over 200 members, comprising 59 Slovenian destinations, and numerous accommodations and other service providers.

Key Program Takeaways

    • Slovenia has created an internationally recognized program that enables destinations to properly evaluate and achieve their sustainability objectives through an established set of criteria.
    • Importantly, the program has been broadly adopted across the country, creating an “ecosystem” of sustainable destinations.
    • Slovenia’s comprehensive program promotes sustainable development in all areas, including economic, social, cultural, and environmental sustainability.

Slovenia’s Green Destinations

Building a Framework for Sustainable Development 

An important step in encouraging adoption of sustainability programs is to provide clear guidance on the tasks required to achieve them. In this case, the GSST includes a certification program that uses the globally-recognized criteria of the European Tourism Indicators System (ETIS) and Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) as a framework that encourages destinations to achieve a “Slovenia Green” label of Platinum, Gold, Silver, or Bronze. Service providers can obtain similar certifications in these categories: Accommodation, Park, Travel Agency, Attraction, Beach, and Cuisine (see accompanying “Gourmet Route” story).

“The GSST ensures a framework with very concrete criteria that need to be followed by the destinations if they want to achieve the bronze, silver, gold, or platinum label,” according to Maša Klemenčič, project manager for the GSST.

Program members, representing both products and destinations, are provided with a manual that outlines the rules on obtaining, maintaining, and renewing the Slovenia Green label. A designated GSST project manager provides additional support and education to destinations and service providers. In addition to training, those participating in the program receive access to promotional support, access to cooperative marketing opportunities, and grant funding opportunities, all of which allow for ongoing success and growth.

Ljubljana’s recycling bins and bicycles attest to Slovenia’s green policies.

Importantly, acheiving certification allows destinations and providers an opportunity to be recognized for their ongoing performance improvements. However, Slovenia’s GSST program itself has also received international recognition for its success, further incentivizing participation from destination communities and tourism products across the country. As Maša notes:

“For Slovenia tourism as a whole, the GSST has given us direction, so sustainability and green tourism are not just a national strategy, but individual destinations and businesses have also started following this philosophy”.

Learn more about Slovenia’s tourism approach

This story was submitted by Purdue University’s Sustainable Tourism & Responsible Travel Lab. It demonstrates GSTC Destination Criterion A4: Enterprise engagement and sustainability standards and two key U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG 17: Partnerships for the the Goals 

 Source for this story: Slovenia Tourism Board

Doing It Better: Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Iceland

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[Above, the Snaefell shield volcano rises above a beach. Its capping glacier, Snaefellsjokull, is the centerpiece of its namesake national park at the far western end of the Snæfellsnes peninsula. [Photo courtesy of Visit Iceland]

On a long, skinny Icelandic peninsula, five small municipalities have teamed up to create a modest destination stewardship council and supporting network. Tiffany Chan, with Jonathan Tourtellot, explores the Snæfellsnes model of sustainable collaboration – a work in progress that has already earned a platinum sustainability rating.

A Council-and-Network Approach to Destination Stewardship

Iceland’s narrow Snæfellsnes peninsula pokes out 90km westward into the far North Atlantic from a point partway between Reykjavík and Vestfirðir (the Western Fjords). Its wild and diverse landscapes offer a blend of culture, nature, and history – waterfalls and lava fields, black and white sand beaches, an archeological site, a glacier-capped strato-volcano in Snaefellsjokull National Park, and rich cultural heritage woven into Icelandic folklore and history. The peninsula is a two-hour drive north of Reykjavík, putting it within day-trip range of tourists based in Iceland’s capital city.

Lots of tourists.

Iceland, “Land of Fire and Ice,” draws visitors from around the globe to observe the country’s gleaming glaciers, active volcanoes, erupting geysers, and cascading waterfalls. They come to hike in Icelandic parks and admire the dance of the Northern Lights. However, mass tourism did not reach this island nation until the last decade. According to the Icelandic Tourist Board, Iceland received just under half a million foreign visitors in 2010 – still larger than the country’s population of about 330,000. Thereafter, growth of foreign overnight visitors increased annually, peaking at a high of 2.3 million in 2018 and around 2 million in 2019, right before the global pandemic – almost seven times the number of inhabitants. Iceland’s overtourism can contribute to ecological damage of the wild landscapes that visitors hope to see. Further, coachloads of tourists are not conducive to the wilderness experience itself.

The dramatic peak of Kirkjufell rises above the Kirkjufellsfoss waterfall, a location on the northern side of the peninsula made popular by the influence of Instagram. [Photo courtesy of Visit Iceland]

To disperse the masses, Iceland encourages visitors to explore more of the country, to go beyond Reykjavik and nearby day trips. Traveling slower and staying longer in each region is the responsibility of the traveller, but creating incentives to do so, and do so sustainably, fall to the destination itself. Snæfellsnes (“snow mountain peninsula”) has been at the forefront of sustainable destination development in Iceland. Certified by EarthCheck under Global Sustainable Tourism Council criteria, this regional standout employs a collaborative approach to sustainable tourism and destination stewardship.

Sustainability is Rooted in Nature

A significant portion of the Snæfellsnes population still lives on small farms. [Photo courtesy of Visit Iceland]

Unsurprisingly, the rapid growth in number of visitors through 2019 has affected Snæfellsnes. However, environmental protection and social responsibility are deeply rooted in this region of Iceland. Fishing is a very rich part of their cultural heritage. Residents relied on the fishing industry until tourism took over a couple of decades ago. The five Snæfellsnes municipalities, each different in size, form a small and connected community of less than 4000 residents. While most residents live in the towns, some 200-300 continue to live on farms, including one of the municipal mayors.

Overall, Snæfellsnes has taken a collaborative approach to various areas of sustainable development, including creation of Snæfellsnes Regional Park. The regional park was founded in 2014 by the five municipalities, nongovernment organizations, and other stakeholders to channel cooperation and share the area’s unique attractions with visitors and residents alike.

Additionally, for Snæfellsnes, destination certification was a step towards meeting sustainability goals. Snæfellsnes was the first European destination to receive an EarthCheck certification, in 2008. The certification program has been an effective project, keeping the environment, society and economy top of mind. According to the 10-year review on Snæfellsnes as an EarthCheck Destination, waste in landfills has been reduced by almost half, greenhouse gas emissions and energy performance are much improved, and the development of environmental programs and social initiatives have increased. Snæfellsnes Peninsula is now a certified platinum destination under the EarthCheck system.

Collaborative Governance

Collaboration in Snæfellsnes is based on an informal network of overlapping organizations.
• Byggðasamlag Snæfellinga is the destination stewardship council, made up of mayors from each of the five municipalities –- Snaefellsbaer, Helgafellssveit, Grundarfjörður, Stykkishólmur, and Eyjaog Miklaholtshreppur.
• Natturustofa Vesturands (the West Iceland Nature Research Center) manages Umhverfisvottun Snæfellsness (the Snæfellsnes Sustainability Program).
• The Snæfellsnes Regional Park, West Iceland Marketing, tourism unions, and the private sector are all involved in sustainable development as well.

Within this web of stakeholders, two particular individuals drive the sustainability effort in Snæfellsnes. Guðrún Magnea Magnúsdóttir, at the West Iceland Nature Research Center, is the Sustainability Program Manager. She coordinates sustainability programs and projects, including the EarthCheck Certification. Ragnhildur Sigurðardóttir, the Regional Park Manager, is equally involved in spearheading sustainability initiatives, as well as regional planning.

The Snæfellsnes EarthCheck Green Team celebrates 13 consecutive years of certification. [Photo courtesy of Guðrún Magnea Magnúsdóttir]

Although several tourism councils and stakeholders make up this informal network, they all share common goals when it comes to the future of Snæfellsnes. To address issues in the region, meetings are called, often in neighboring farms. The community comes together, and the discussions begin. As Ragnhildur puts it, “the beauty of our work is cooperation. ‘Þetta reddast’ is a common slogan in Iceland, meaning ‘it will work out.’” The community is committed and invested in the sustainable development of Snæfellsnes. Ragnhildur continues: “Those who have moved to Snæfellsnes and are involved with tourism have never seen such strong tourism collaboration in a rural area. This is especially true of those who come from other rural areas. They are impressed with the work that we’ve done.”

Sustainable Management as a Community

Oftentimes, political changes alter the course of sustainability progress. In Snæfellsnes, an election is held every four years. If not re-elected, the mayors all change at the same time, which can delay certain initiatives, but it does not impact the destination management plan in a significant way. However, multi-stakeholder involvement doesn’t come without challenges. Every municipality is different in size, funding and resources, with the smallest being 66 people with a tiny budget. There has been formal and informal dialogue about the potential of combining two municipalities, possibly even all five.

Regardless, sustainable management involves broad cooperation of parties and public participation. Snæfellsnes Regional Park (not to be confused with Snaefellsjokull National Park), is a joint effort by the municipalities and tourism stakeholders. The governing bodies include a Founder’s Council, under which a Steering Group and Working Group work in collaboration. Additional consultants assisted with landscape assessment, regional plan development, and project management.

Sharing a common vision allows for cooperation through environmental conservation and promotion.

Multiple parties are also involved in regional planning. Over 200 people from various groups and stakeholders come together, including the five municipalities, a local planning committee, and a local steering committee. The five municipalities appoint a regional planning committee to overlook zoning under their supervision. Every municipality has an individual plan, which must also align with the regional plan.

The snowy destination of Bjarnafoss receives an environmental award in 2018. [Photo by Heimir Berg]

The municipalities are financially responsible for the social services and schools within their own community but collectively take care of the Visitor Center, the history museum, and the sustainability program, including the EarthCheck Certification.

The regional park is funded by municipalities, the tourism union, the workers union, and farmers associations. Through the regional park, Ragnhildur Sigurðardóttir is responsible for training staff and running the Visitors Center. Guðrún Magnea Magnúsdóttir oversees the EarthCheck Standard and sustainability program, holding courses at the center. The Visitor Center is located at Breiðablik, the entrance to Snæfellsnes. It is open daily and provides tourists with trip planning information to help guide their visit within the region.

Most residents share an understanding that protecting natural resources benefits the entire community, but there are limits. “It would be great to have more happening in the Visitors Center, but once the work has been done, reality hits. You have to hire employees, pay for electricity costs and all that comes with running the center,” says Ragnhildur. “When the five municipalities come together, they also have to consider money that is needed elsewhere, such as building a kindergarten.”

Projects & Activities

The Regional Park is working on two important projects:
• Taking the initial steps for applying to become a UNESCO Biosphere destination.
• Destination branding and marketing under the “Choose or Stay” policy.

Choose or Stay is a national strategy for converting daytrippers from Reykjavík into overnight visitors. In Icelandic it rhymes: veldu eða vertu. It encourages visitors to travel slower, either by choosing just one site for a day trip or staying longer to see more. The approach helps create a circular travel route around Snæfellsnes while avoiding congestion due to large tour buses.

To further disperse tourists, a categorical system was created whereby a list of 28 popular locations is labelled A, B, C or D, based on various risk factors for the environment and the visitors. Visitor-ready locations with appropriate infrastructure in place are labelled A, while B is still in progress, C is a wishlist of places that they want to market to be visitor-ready or at least heading in that direction. D is for sensitive places where they don’t want visitors. This system helps manage the number of people visiting each location. Overall, it is going well and helps manage crowding by spreading people out.

Búðakirkja, the Black Church of Búðir, has become a popular destination for photographers, who travel to the rural southern side of the peninsula to capture its beauty. [Photo courtesy of Visit Iceland]

Measuring Progress in Rural Iceland

When asked how Snæfellsnes measures success, Ragnhildur responded: “We discuss results at our annual meeting. We ask everyone at the meeting for input. We work together and see Snæfellsnes as a whole, which is better when it comes to funding and finishing projects. At the same time, Guðrún and I often reject projects because we have to be selective.”

Additionally, there are plenty of evaluations. Following an action plan of what Guðrún and each municipality is doing, there is an evaluation at the end of the year to discuss how each project will proceed, with environmental and social factors in mind. The EarthCheck certification also requires an annual third-party performance audit. The benefit of being one of two areas in Iceland with certification (the other being the municipalities in the Westfjords), is the joint effort within the entire community. Many decisions in Snæfellsnes are directly linked to being certified, ensuring continued progress toward sustainability.

Commentary

As a council made up of mayors, the Byggðasamlag Snæfellinga seems to serve technically as the core of the informal network of overlapping organizations that address destination stewardship in Snæfellsnes. Threats of overtourism are weighed against a desire to grow.

“Twenty years ago, there was little tourism. Residents lived off the fishing industry, along with farming and agriculture. We are traditional and old fashioned, but we have deep roots. We want new inhabitants and companies to come to Snæfellsnes. This is the luxury of having a low population of residents,” says Ragnhildur.

The Iceland Regional Affairs Conference held in Snæfellsnes in 2018. [Photo courtesy of Guðrún Magnea Magnúsdóttir]

Tourism started to increase about 20 years ago, but more rapidly within the last 10. Sustainability seems to have proceeded as well, if haltingly. Snæfellsnes tourism enterprises that are certified have seen results, such as savings from energy efficiency and other best practices. However, getting business to become certified is a challenge, according to the two managers. Businesses are small and mostly rely on busy summer periods. It is costly and takes time and resources to get certified and audited. Since there is little competition, it is not very compelling.

Economic, cultural, and ecological factors all come into play. “With elections bringing in a new board of municipalities, it is kind of political,” says Guðrún. She lists the major challenges:

  1. Politics
  2. Budgets to finance the program
  3. Mobilizing the community
  4. Reaching out to inform visitors – Mainly because of budget limitations, the villages don’t have the resources, the marketing, the informational signs, nor anyone for managing tourism.

Some say it would make sense for the regional park to manage all of it, but that will take more resources and collaboration. Meanwhile the certification consultant, EarthCheck, provides some measure of continuity, if tipped strongly toward environment over social and cultural sustainability. Snæfellsnes’s current governance arrangement may seem somewhat messy, but the destination is of manageable size, there is broad cultural support for sustainability, and the outlook encouraging. Perhaps that Icelandic aphorism does apply: “It will work out.”

Teton County Stewardship Journal

Reply

The snow-capped peak of Mount Moran rises above the fall foliage in Grand Teton National Park. [Photo by Roi Ariel]

What does it take to align a destination’s differing stakeholders and separate agendas into a coherent sustainability program? In Teton county, Wyoming, USA, better known as Jackson Hole, a mission to “unite efforts” sounds simple. As Tim O’Donoghue’s journal shows, however, those two words conceal a host of challenges when dealing with a complex, often overtouristed destination that includes two iconic national parks. The good news: The challenges can be overcome, with patience. —JBT

Jackson Hole’s Journey Toward Sustainability – A Journal

Before I start:
Teton County covers 4,200 square miles of some of North America’s most pristine wild lands and is home to the most abundant, diverse wildlife in the lower 48 states. Also, known as Jackson Hole, our destination includes Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, two national forests, the National Elk Refuge, and the headwaters of eight major rivers in the United States. Our year-round population is 23,500 with an annual visitation of over 4 million. Since 2014, our visitation has markedly increased with all visitation records breaking during Covid. Simultaneously, budgets that support the infrastructure and services that visitors and residents have relied upon have decreased, as has staffing in our national parks, other federal agencies, and local businesses. We are experiencing the “perfect storm” of overtourism challenges. To meet these challenges, the Riverwind Foundation and I as its Executive Director created the Jackson Hole & Yellowstone Sustainable Destination Program to “Unite efforts to minimize resident and visitor impacts on the Greater Yellowstone and other ecosystems now and for future generations.” These efforts started with energy efficiency and renewables, waste management and recycling, alternative fuels and transportation, and have expanded to embrace local and whole foods, biodiversity restoration and conservation, and visitor and resident outreach and education. The following are my journal entries of our sustainability journey.

 

Heavy traffic in Jackson during the summer months. [Photo courtesy of Buckrail News]

September 2012 – The Global Sustainable Tourism Council and their contractor, Sustainable Travel International, have briefed our stakeholders on their findings from evaluating us against the world’s first comprehensive, integrated set of destination sustainability criteria. In one room were gathering representatives from our national parks, national forests, the National Elk Refuge, nonprofit organizations, schools, and too-many-to-count businesses. As one of the first Early Adopters of the GSTC Destination Criteria, we received a two-part challenge: (1) despite all of the sustainability activities that we engaged in, we have no organization or current program to coordinate and unite these activities toward community goals and international sustainability standards and (2) according to their evaluation, “Teton County (a.k.a. Jackson Hole) more than any other place in the world has the potential to become a leader as a sustainable destination” in that we have the natural capital, human capacity, and financial resources to realize this potential. In other words, we need to organize and manage – not just market – our destination. This will be a challenging evolutionary step to take over the next 10 years, given that we have never before collaboratively managed tourism.

December 2013 – Our newly formed Steering Committee of sustainability subject-matter experts and key stakeholders just finished the first action plan for our sustainable destination program after nine months of meetings and one-on-one conversations. The initial response to announcing the formation of our Steering Committee was unexpected. We expected it would be challenging to convince people to give their time and see the value of lending their expertise. Instead, to accommodate all the requests to participate, we had to limit the Steering Committee to 12 and form a larger, informal “partners” group with volunteers we activated depending on our planned actions. We discovered that our planned work aligned with the goals of many of our new partners, either through work they were already doing or work they hoped to accomplish. All that was needed was a centralized group to bring together various stakeholders and pool resources.

One of our goals is to go for destination certification within five years. We have a lot of improvements to pursue, especially concerning destination management. We have our work cut out. I guess we should have thought a little more about all of this before taking this on.

 

Onlookers gather to watch the Town Square Shootout re-enactment during the Old West Days Celebration in Jackson. [Photo courtesy of Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board]

March 2014 – Our sustainability training and technical assistance programs hit the 100-business mark with after just three months! Actually, not just businesses but also nonprofit organizations, government departments, and schools.

October 2014 – Our first inventory of Jackson Hole’s sustainability assets has been completed! We collected detailed information on our community’s sustainability organizations, programs, facilities, and capabilities from 120 stakeholders. Importantly, we also learned what their sustainability needs and interests are. That will help us design future sustainability trainings.

January 2015 – We had a great session with over 30 high school students during their arts and literature retreat out in Grand Teton National Park. We brainstormed ideas for a sustainability code of conduct for our entire destination.

June 2015 – Thanks to our sustainable destination Steering Committee and our school faculties, we finished the Jackson Hole Sustainability Code of Conduct. Little did we know that over 200 students would eventually get involved in designing the graphics and wording of it! Guiding the creative processes of that many students to a finished product was a major exercise in patience and coordination (they were very creative), but it was fun and definitely worth it. Our chamber of commerce wants to include the code of conduct in their visitors’ guide. So we will be reaching our first 100,000 visitors in the next six months.

March 2016 – We just worked with the 150th business participating in our sustainability workshops and technical assistance programs. It’s great to see the momentum build within our business community to learn about sustainability principles and incorporate them in their practices. One of our newest workshops was created to help businesses institutionalize their sustainability efforts – putting in writing their goals, policies, and practices in a Sustainability Management Plan, formal training program, and/or employee manual.

January 2017 – The Community Foundation of Jackson Hole just released the results of a survey of our local conservation organizations. It found that negative tourism impacts are one of the most significant concerns for protecting our environment and natural resources. Since we just started to implement our sustainable destination action plan, this study ought to help our cause.

A herd of bison grazes on a hilltop with the mighty Teton Range looming in the background. [Photo courtesy of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort]

March 2017 – I just returned from ITB travel trade show in Berlin. The Riverwind Foundation and Jackson Hole were selected by NatGeo as a Destination Leadership Finalist for the World Legacy Awards. What an honor! An even more fulfilling part of this experience was meeting kindred spirits from other destinations around the world and hearing their inspiring stories.

April 2017 – After the Riverwind Foundation discussed with diverse stakeholders what a desired future of tourism would be and with our local government staff on how to write a resolution to express that, our town and county elected officials unanimously voted in support of it: a resolution for Jackson Hole to be a world-leading sustainable community and destination! Now we have an official rallying cry!

June 2017 – After conducting over 20 one-on-one stakeholder interviews, the Riverwind Foundation and our partner, the Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs, hosted a very telling workshop with our key destination stakeholders. We received a clear message: We must shift our tourism priorities from quantity to quality of visitors. We had a very promising discussion among these community and destination leaders on our tourism challenges and opportunities. We have a running start toward ideas for near- and long-term solutions and building a consensus that we need to focus on attracting and cultivating environmentally and socially responsible travelers. Visitor and resident outreach and education programs will be central to supporting all other destination management strategies and actions, from reservation systems to shuttles, to seasonal access restrictions and wildlife movement.

A bear sighting causes traffic to block the road in Grand Teton National Park. [Photo by Ryan Dorgan, Jackson Hole News]

Now the really intensive and fun part begins – building partnerships and collaborative projects. This is going to take a lot more time and a lot more meetings at the coffee shop. I need to be careful of my caffeine intake.

November 2017 – We just finished our first sustainability “Hotshots” program comprised of young “green-collared” team members. They doubled the number of businesses that have been trained by helping each enterprise work through a 90-question survey. The answers would yield a to-do list of sustainability practices in such areas as energy efficiency, waste management, biodiversity protection, and community investment. By my calculations, we just passed the 300 mark for businesses and organizations that we’ve worked with. Proof of concept: We can provide basic sustainability training to newly graduated university students and then unleash them into our community with the survey to train businesses.

February 2018 – With the help of students, we just created our community’s first report card on our destination’s sustainability status and progress toward our goals and international standards for sustainability, including energy and fuels, transportation, waste and recycling, and food. There was quite a bit of enthusiasm with the students who seized the opportunity to issue a report card on adults!

April 2018 – In Buenos Aires at the World Travel & Tourism Council’s annual meeting, I was in a conference room with dozens of other finalists for the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards. Even though we didn’t get the top Destination award, sharing meals and stories with visionary, passionate, and highly effective leaders from all around the world is perhaps the most fulfilling part of my work. I wonder how we can have more regular gatherings of such people . . .

December 2018 – We just passed the 400 mark with businesses and organizations that we’ve engaged with in our local sustainability training, technical assistance, and certification programs. Speaking of certification, we are in our initial year of our local BEST sustainability certification program. Our first cohort of business and organization participants are developing their sustainability management plans and preparing for their assessments (we don’t like “audits”). It’s really great to see these future community and destination leaders pushing their sustainability envelopes.

January 2019 – Here we are, five years after we began our sustainable destination program, and ready to go for destination certification! We’ve selected EarthCheck for our first go at certification. Why are we pursuing certification? Because we want a system and set of standards as a practical means for our stakeholders to work together to improve our sustainability performance. (For more details on this process, see our GSTC report.)

The Teton Pow Wow offers an opportunity to experience Native history and culture from regional tribes. [Photo by Tim O’Donoghue]

March 2020 – After more than a year preparing for, conducting, and responding to the results of an audit by EarthCheck, even as the Covid-19 pandemic struck, we officially received notification that we achieved sustainable destination certification. I’m truly grateful to the 44 volunteers and the Riverwind Foundation’s community partners in contributing so much of their time, energy, and information to make this happen. We know that like most other travel and tourism destinations we won’t ever be completely sustainable, but we now know what it takes to become more sustainable, and how to use a set of standards and processes to engage our community in that effort.
September 2021 – One of the great lessons that came from our destination certification efforts was that we needed to coordinate all of our sustainability and tourism plans and policies. In doing so, we engaged our stakeholders in creating a destination management plan for striving toward our vision of being a world-leading sustainable community and destination.  Our Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board has transitioned its focus and funds from solely marketing to planning for a balanced, complementary approach for marketing and management. Importantly, our community’s values will now drive plans for tourism rather than tourism driving our community’s values.

Vertical Harvest energizes local food systems via hydroponic, vertical, controlled environmental agriculture to deliver healthier food and futures. [Photo courtesy of Vertical Harvest]

January 2022 – While there will be much more to say about the destination management activities that have transpired in Teton County from 2019 to the present day, I want to note that Teton County has also sought a balanced relationship between tourism and Covid. Other than in the spring of 2020, when we asked our visitors to reschedule their trips, we have been open for business. Our record-breaking visitation since then has been the result of a large U.S. drive market with a pent-up desire to flee restrictions and densely populated areas to less-restricted, wide-open spaces such as our Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. I expect that even when Covid becomes a “normal” disease in our lives, challenges to sustaining and regenerating the integrity of our natural and community resources will continue. Thus, a holistic approach to destination management will also be “normal” for Teton County.

The story of our journey continues . . .

Doing It Better: Sedona, Arizona

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[Above: Sedona red rocks, reflected. Photo credits throughout: Sedona Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau]

Prompted by a restive citizenry and a responsive city council, the DMO for the city of Sedona, Arizona, USA, 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.

In Arizona’s Popular Red Rock Country,  One CVB Put Community First and So Became Its Own Destination Stewardship Council

For decades the Arizona desert town of Sedona (population 10,000) has welcomed an annual average of 3 million tourists captivated by the landscape of red rock buttes, canyons, and pine forests. They can take advantage of distinctly Sedona offerings – an abundance of outdoor recreation such as iconic mountain biking and hiking, well-coordinated arts and culture including festivals, plus the famous Sedona “vortexes,” a staple for spiritual tourists.

Eventually and perhaps inevitably, red-rock fever took grip: Sedona became a victim of successful marketing promotions, reaching a high point of being “loved to death” in 2016 when droves of Instagram-snapping tourists responded to marketing campaigns spotlighting the centennial of the National Park Service, closely followed by another for the Grand Canyon’s 100th anniversary. Visitors clogged Sedona streets with traffic and packed local trailheads, much to the dismay of local residents. Leaders at Sedona Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Board (SCC&TB), started to question how much tourism much was too much, and what kind of action was needed.

Red Rock State Park, from Schnebly Hill. Photo by bboserup/istockphoto.com

Context of Sustainability

The seeds for sustainability were actually planted 13 years before this watershed moment of overtourism, when Sedona teamed up with four regional DMO partners to form the Sedona Verde Valley Tourism Council, a collaborative effort to coordinate and promote the products and experiences of the entire Verde Valley. An anchor project for this regional partnership was creation of a National Geographic Geotourism Map Guide promoting regional culture, heritage, and ecological diversity, supported by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, which was keen to create value around the Verde River and its watershed through awareness and education. Geotourism has been defined via National Geographic as “tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place—its environment, culture, geology, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.” As a tactical approach, the values informing Geotourism MapGuide became the first introduction to sustainability before any strategy was conceived.

The crunch of 2016 prompted SCC&TB to embark on a Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) assessment. Sedona scored 33 out of 41, placing itself as a leading destination in sustainable tourism management, and only one of two destinations in the United States to undergo assessment (the other being Jackson Hole, Wyoming). So began the Sedona DMO’s transition from Destination Marketing Organization to Destination Management Oorganization.

After the GSTC assessment results, SCC&TB began in 2017 an 18-month-long journey toward defining a concept for tourism sustainability. Working in partnership with the City of Sedona and external consulting teams from the Arizona State University and Nichols Tourism Group, the Sedona DMO engaged community, business, and visitors in a discovery phase and drafting of a final Sustainable Tourism Plan, presented to the City Council for approval in spring 2019.

By pursuing a mission to become a leader in sustainability, SCC&TB has become the closest thing to a real stewardship council for the destination, although not for the entire valley. The process of developing a solid sustainability plan has made community the focus of the organization’s updated mission statement: “to serve Sedona by making it the best place to live, work, play, and visit.” This statement reflects the strong relationships created within the community and the corresponding realization that the tourism mission is broader than economic benefits.

Organizational Structure and Governance

Unlike some other stewardship councils being reviewed thus far by the Destination Stewardship Center, Sedona manages sustainability differently. As the Sedona DMO reoriented to focus on management instead of marketing, it has been working alongside the local government, relying on sustainability support teams, and engaging with a community that has become increasingly skeptical of tourism.

“A lot of DMO’s don’t want to get into visitor management. . . .
But in fragile destinations it’s the only way to be successful.”

 

“There are really just a handful of communities that are trying to do management rather than marketing. [Sedona] is not a typical visitor and convention bureau. This is really unusual for a CVB,” said Jennifer Wesselhoff, CEO of SCC&TB in 2020. “A lot of DMO’s don’t want to get into visitor management. It’s a debate. Some think it’s a slippery slope. But in fragile destinations it’s the only way to be successful.”

SCC&TB is a membership organization. It is guided and overseen by a volunteer board of directors composed of local Chamber members elected by the Chamber membership. They include local businesses, nonprofit organizations, government, and community organizations. The Board employs a President/CEO who implements the policies established by the Board, administers Chamber programs, and supervises the Chamber’s budget.

To oversee the Sustainable Tourism Plan’s implementation and strategy, a Sustainable Tourism Advisory Committee (STAC) helps direct the City Council and the SCC&TB Board, while evaluating the Plan’s progress on an ongoing basis.

Success-tracking metrics for every tactic in the Plan have been refined through the direction of the Sustainable Tourism Action Team (STAT), a body of 22 members representing tourism businesses, the city of Sedona, US Forest Service, and numerous nonprofit organizations including Red Rock Trail Fund, the Sedona Verde Sustainability Alliance, and Keep Sedona Beautiful. SCC&TB’s President/CEO and marketing director spearhead the organization of the STAT and the STAC meetings and report on the status of the work to City Council every quarter.

Setting the agenda is a joint process between the City Council and the Chamber. The January city council work session sets priorities, and SCC&TB then drafts its plan of priorities to be approved by its own board and presented back to the City Council, which approves funding for tourism management and promotion. While there is no dedicated sustainability manager, many different Chamber and City staff members will have sustainability tactics attached to their job descriptions. The marketing director has oversight and coordination of scheduling meetings and tracking metrics.

To make sure SCC&TB is not the only one taking the lead, each tactic has a lead person or organization. Every lead is on the STAC and provides a quarterly update. The City has a part time sustainability coordinator, who also leads the City’s climate action plan, currently under development.

Hiking the red rock country is a popular Sedona area activity.

Community Engagement

Integrating the Sedona community into the process for developing and implementing  the Sustainable Tourism Plan was – and continues to be – an unprecedented collaboration. Sedona Chamber describes how thousands of community members were involved over 18 months in planning, and several organizations continue to lead or support current tactics.

In the Plan’s development stage, the team conducted the following action steps for research surveying and feedback:

  • Interviewed hundreds of residents.
  • Analyzed hundreds of business-survey responses.
  • Conducted focus groups with area non-profit organizations.
  • Brought land management agencies together.
  • Talked with tourism industry companies operating tours, lodging facilities, and restaurants.
  • Included local arts and spirituality communities.
  • Collaborated with governments and industry ranging from Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) and the Forest Service to Arizona State Parks (APS.)
  • Provided status updates through regular communication tactics including blog posts, social media, radio spots, guest columns, and presentations. Public meetings were held to review findings and get more input.

Beyond the Plan’s development, the SCC&TB ensures continuing engagement with the community about sustainability and the Plan itself. The STAC advisory council is made up of residents and local business owners, who determine the overarching metrics of success for the entire plan.

The DMO’s communication with residents is frequent, including updates to the community on the Sustainable Tourism Plan via e-blasts and local media op-eds. “We talk about the STP all the time. We constantly remind the community of how the things we are doing align with the Plan,” said Wesselhoff.

Managing Sustainable Tourism

Sedona’s community-based sustainability plan has been divided into four strategic pillars that list objectives designed to implement sustainability:

  1. Environmental Objectives: Lead the tourism industry in implementing sustainability principles, positioning Sedona as a national and international leader in destination stewardship.
    1. Implement new waste prevention, reduction, and diversion strategies focused on visitors and their impacts in the Sedona region.
    2. Expand programs that encourage minimal water usage and protect water quality.
    3. Create new programs to help businesses and visitors moderate energy use and use alternative forms of energy.
    4. Launch initiatives that lessen impacts on lands (including noise, air, and light pollution), and stimulate efforts for long-term sustainability.
    5. Educate and engage businesses and visitors on sustainability initiatives, encouraging visitors to be sensitive guests during their stays.
  2. Resident Quality of Life Objectives: Protect and enhance the quality of life by mitigating negative impacts of tourism.
    1. Implement new infrastructure and multi-modal solutions to facilitate visitor traffic flows and enhance access to key destinations.
    2. Expand use of technology to help solve transportation challenges.
    3. Deepen engagement with Sedona residents, expanding their knowledge of tourism and efforts to manage it so as to achieve an effective balance.
    4. Develop new sustainability-focused experiences that resonate with both Sedona residents and visitors.
    5. Manage current and future accommodations in ways that increase long-term sustainability.
    6. Launch initiatives to maintain local quality of life by lessening undesirable tourism impacts on residents including noise, air, and light pollution.
  3. Quality of the Economy Objectives: Shape the Sedona economy in ways that balance its long-term sustainability and vibrancy.
    1. Monitor and adjust levels of economic activity for needy periods and moderate congestion by dispersing visitors.
    2. Expand interagency collaboration among diverse Sedona organizations.
    3. Monitor and adjust tourism marketing to achieve a balance between quality of life and a healthy economy.
    4. Pursue innovative approaches to employee housing and training.
  4. Visitor Experience Objectives: Continue to provide an excellent visitor experience that highlights Sedona’s sustainability values and keeps visitors coming back.
    1. Deepen understanding of existing experiences, how best to access them, and how to apply sustainable practices while visiting.
    2. Work to disperse visitors across the broader Verde Valley region to help moderate congestion at key Sedona experiences.

Activities

Some specific destination programs which have been developed prior to or grown since the implementation of the Sustainable Tourism Plan include:

  • Walk Sedona which encourages people to get out of their cars in an effort to decrease road congestion.
  • Sedona Secret 7 which encourages visitor dispersion to less populated areas.
  • The Sedona Cares visitor pledge is an educational tool to encourage better visitor behavior.
  • An initiative led by Sedona Lodging Council to providephotos and b-roll footage oflesser known areas and encourage them to stop using photos of “over loved” areas.
  • Front-line worker and concierge training to discourage promotion of overly used areas.
  • Sedona Recycling Quiz designed for visitors and locals to understand how to manage trash.

Voluntourists can help with trail work.

Additionally:

  • Visit Sedona promotes voluntourism opportunities to visitors while also offering coordination and promotion for local businesses and organizations.
  • Sedona has created a Love Our Locals campaign to drive local businesses. This campaign provides an opportunity to connect residents and visitors to locally owned and operated businesses, promote “made in Sedona” products, offer promotions and discounts to local residents.
  • Green meetings are a direct alignment of the Sedona brand, and care for the environment.

Areas of Sustainability and Stewardship

The implementation part of the tourism sustainability plan contains more than 30 tactics. Each is tracked and managed according to these parameters:

  • Description: An explanation of the tactic providing insight and key elements.
  • Timeline – How long it will take to achieve: Short (12-18 months), Mid (2-3 years), Long (4-5 years).
  • Pillars affected: If more than one objective is involved.
  • Lead partner: The entity (or entities) primarily responsible for moving the tactic forward.
  • Supporting partners: Other partners who will help implement the tactic.
  • Prospective metrics: Examples of the types of metrics and targets (if appropriate) that will help evaluate the effectiveness of the tactic.

Below are four examples of tactics from the Sustainable Tourism Plan, highlighting the level of collaboration, planning, and measurement.

 Funding

Implementation of SCC&TB Sustainable Tourism Plan is supported with appropriate funding for each of the four pillars of the Plan. The City of Sedona provides primary funding for SCC&TB from the collection of sales and lodging tax. Visitor spending makes up 77% of all sales tax collected. Sales and bed tax rates are each currently at 3.5%. In 2014, Sedona’s lodging industry agreed to increase bed tax by .5% on the condition the SCC&TB would receive 55% of the total collections. A statewide change in law to allow short term rentals in Arizona significantly contributed still more to the budget, as the 1,000 short term rentals such as Airbnb in the area also pay bed tax. This pushed the tourism budget from $500,000 in FY14 to $2.4 million in 2019.

As a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the SCC&TB’s FY21 budget is expected to focus on rebuilding the economy. The budget in FY21, as allocated by sustainability objectives, shows a lop-sided tilt toward post-Covid economic recovery:

  1. Economy $1,800,000
  2. Environmental $171,000
  3. Quality of Life $271,000
  4. Visitor Experience $27,000

Measures of Success/ Results

Transparent tracking of the impact of the sustainability process is key. Using each objective, SCC&TB has developed baseline data points and measures the following, presented publicly and also reported into the City:

  • Environment—through perception of sustainability. Metrics include volume of trash collected, number of miles maintained by trail keeper resources, number of visitors signed on with educational programming.
  • Resident Quality of Life—a citizen survey is conducted by the City to measure perception from locals of quality of life.
  • Quality of the Economy—sales and bed-tax collections, measured throughout the year and not just in key tourism seasons.
  • Visitor Experience—visitor satisfaction, via survey, and whether it’s going up or down.

Some other key sustainability achievements in Sedona include:

  • Fly Friendly: In 2020, helicopter tours operators ceased overflights within Sedona’s city limits and over neighborhoods, sensitive prehistoric sites and resorts outside the city limits as part of a new Fly Friendly policy.
  • Transportation Improvements: In 2020, the City of Sedona completed Uptown traffic improvements, making vehicle and pedestrian flow more efficient, easing congestion, and contributing to the area’s aesthetic appeal; roundabouts that eliminate U turns and give access to new off-street parking; and a median with locally designed artwork that prevents mid-block pedestrian crossing and left-hand turns. Like Fly Friendly, the Uptown Improvements address all four pillars of sustainability.
  • Sustainability Certification: Low water use, energy conservation, recycling and using local products are hallmarks of sustainable business operations. Dozens of Sedona-based businesses and government offices have achieved sustainability certification, as determined by the Sustainability Alliance, a Sedona Verde non-profit organization that leads sustainability projects.
  • Governor’s Award: In 2019, the SCC&TB was honored with the Governor’s Award for Outstanding Arizona Cultural and Historic Preservation for its efforts in creation of the Sedona Sustainable Tourism Plan. The Award recognizes the year’s “most significant contribution to the cultural and historic preservation of the natural, cultural or aesthetic legacy of Arizona that inspires visitation to the state.”

Sedona’s “Fly Friendly” policy keeps helicopter tours away from the city and other sensitive areas.

Final Commentary

Sedona’s effort to research and create a truly comprehensive plan stands out against other Destination Management Organization efforts for several reasons. There are resources; there is a solid partnership with the City and elected officials; plus there has been intense dialogue and listening within the community to create a truly community-based sustainability plan. There was an 18-month planning process, with investment, resources, and then structure to see out the objectives. Wesselhoff believed the plan is solid for five years, with a possible few adjustments to tactics around climate change to be added in the future. She would expect a further GSTC assessment toward the end of the 5-year plan, as a means to benchmark overall progress.

Also striking is the way this plan has been designed to build tourism around the needs of the community, placing residents first and foremost. The planning process has helped the DMO shift its focus from the visitor to the resident as the number one client, including local business owners.

From listening came soul-searching for Wesselhoff. “Previously I was the biggest advocate and cheerleader for tourism. I believed it was really good for our community – the benefits drastically outweighed the inconveniences of tourism. But I don’t think I honestly and genuinely listened to complaints, because they were [merely] inconveniences, and [because] 10,000 people depended on tourism for their jobs – every single resident could have a job in tourism if they wanted to. This process allowed me to embrace the tradeoffs in a more thoughtful way and consider how we can positively impact those negative tradeoffs.”

Wesselhoff also believes the Sustainable Tourism Plan has already led to significant tactical wins for the local community. She cited the Fly Friendly program’s no-fly zone for air tours over residential areas – one of the legacies she will leave from her personal efforts as leader. For 18 months, the City and County (which operates the airport), tour operators, and other stewardship entities in the community came together as partners to create solutions to control helicopter noise. “Helicopter noise has been a pinch-point for locals,” she said. “Without the Sustainable Tourism Plan we never would have gotten there; it provided the framework to say ‘this is what the community wants.’”

While Wesselhoff was readying at the time of this 2020 interview to move into a new role as CEO at Visit Park City in Utah, she felt confident that Sedona’s stewardship efforts will continue, in large part because the Plan is positioned as something the entire community has bought into, bigger than just one person or one organization.

Having steered the process to create what she feels is a truly community-oriented tourism plan and meaningful engagement with residents, Wesselhoff offered words of wisdom for other DMOs: Engage with residents and recognize your potential role as community builders: “We need to listen to our residents as much or more than we listen to our visitors or our businesses. I learned so much through this process. The value of listening to that perspective was really meaningful.”

Appendix
The following community partners participated in the Plan development process:
Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
Arizona Department of Transportation
Arizona Game and Fish Department
Arizona Public Service
Arizona State Parks and Trails
City of Sedona City Council
Coconino National Forest
Friends of the Forest Sedona
Friends of the Verde River
Keep Sedona Beautiful
Local First Arizona
National Park Service – River and Trails
Northern Arizona University Climate Program
Northern Arizona Climate Alliance
Northern Arizona Council of Governments
Oak Creek Watershed Council
Red Rock State Park
Red Rock Trail Fund
Sedona Airport Authority
Sedona Compost
Sedona Events Alliance
Sedona Heritage Museum
Sedona Lodging Council
Sedona Mountain Bike Coalition
Sedona Recycles
Sedona Sustainability Alliance
Sedona Verde Valley Tourism Council
Sedona Verde Valley Sustainability Alliance
US Fish and Wildlife Service
US Forest Service
Verde Front Collaborative

 

Just Out: the Autumn Destination Stewardship Report

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Welcome to the GSTC/DSC
e-quarterly
Destination Stewardship Report Autumn 2020
Summer 2020 – Inaugural Issue

How can destinations plan better for a post-Covid recovery? What have we learned about tourism during the ongoing crisis? The Autumn edition of the Destination Stewardship Report addresses both those questions with examples and practical guidance, providing links to these feature stories:

  • From sustainability leaders and destination mangers worldwide, a white paper laying out ten practical ways to plan a more lasting, regenerative, and community-compatible tourism recovery.
  • From Korea, the example of how a hard-working industrial city saved a natural bamboo habitat for migrating egrets, creating a new ecotourism attraction that revitalized the impoverished neighborhood next door.
  • From Serbia, its borders closed during the crisis, a look at what happens when a sudden influx of resort-pampered Serbs discover their own hinterland: lots of profits for rural residents – at a cost. [One anecdote reports a similar pattern in the US state of New Hampshire over the summer.  —Ed.]
  • From Mallorca, Spain, plans that attempt to anticipate and prevent overtourism as travel restrictions loosen, with mixed opinions on the likelihood of success.
  • From the Columbia Gorge, USA, the fourth in our series of “Doing It Better” profiles about destinations working toward holistic management – in this case, a tourism alliance that unites the two states bordering the Columbia River.
  • From another thought leader, a better way to calculate return on investment as destinations emerge from the crisis, demonstrating that by using data science you can measure the hidden benefits of good stewardship. “Not everything that counts is counted,” goes the saying, but now it can be – affecting policy accordingly.
  • Plus, selected news stories and the latest on the Future of Tourism Coalition, which now has over 300 companies, agencies, and NGOs as signatories to its Guiding Principles.

Please read the latest Destination Stewardship Report here, comment, and propose your own contributions by contacting us.

This jointly sponsored e-quarterly is a collaboration between the Destination Stewardship Center and Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC)  – and in time, maybe others. Our goal is to provide information and insights useful to anyone whose work or interests involve destination stewardship. It’s an all-volunteer experiment, so its success will depend on your interest, feedback, and content contributions. Join us, and help each other. You can subscribe for free here.You can read the e-mail version here and the feature articles on our webpages.                                    —Jonathan Tourtellot, Editor

For more information and participation please contact us.

  • About  the Global Sustainable Tourism Council  GSTC establishes and manages global sustainable standards, known as the GSTC Criteria. There are two sets: Destination Criteria for public policy-makers and destination managers, and Industry Criteria for hotels and tour operators. The GSTC Criteria form the foundation for accreditation of certification bodies that certify hotels/accommodations, tour operators, and destinations as having sustainable policies and practices in place. GSTC does not directly certify any products or services; but it accredits those that do. The GSTC is an independent and neutral USA-registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization that represents a diverse and global membership, including national and provincial governments, NGO’s, leading travel companies, hotels, tour operators, individuals and communities – all striving to achieve best practices in sustainable tourism. www.gstc.org
  • About the Destination Stewardship Center  The DSC is a volunteer-driven nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the world’s distinctive places by supporting wisely managed tourism and enlightened destination stewardship. We gather and provide information on how tourism can help and not harm the natural, cultural, and social quality of destinations around the world. We seek to build a global community and knowledge network for advancing this goal. Join us and learn more at www.destinationcenter.org.

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 – and brighter.

Lucerne, Switzerland supports sustainable development by optimizing operations and promoting nature-based and cultural opportunities for tourists. © Greenloons

It’s Time To Merge Sustainable Destination Planning with Data Science

By Irene Lane

Before COVID hit, destination stakeholders were concerned about the social, economic, and environmental impact of overtourism at their locales. On the one hand, tourists eagerly flocked to fragile, biodiverse hotspots thereby assuring plentiful (albeit low-paying) service jobs, corporate hospitality investments, and tax revenues. On the other, local residents were facing the costs of an overloaded public infrastructure, a decaying social fabric holding their communities together, and increased residential resistance to fickle travelers looking for their next viral Instagram post.

Throughout, many destination stakeholders had called for both transparent, pragmatic sustainability standards and efficient data collection. An easy way to combine the two would help strategic investment and decision-making. Data modeling and statistical analysis, known as data science, is the key for doing that.

Now comes the age of Covid-19, with its declining tourism arrivals and tax revenues, along with the advent of policy changes (or at least discussions) that promote racial and social justice. That makes strategic decision-making buttressed by data science more important than ever.

Development of ROI Financial Model for Sustainable Destinations

For those who have been studying and advocating for destination sustainability, none of the social, economic, or environmental impacts of myopic destination planning were surprising. But a few of us with backgrounds in data analytics informally endeavored to go one step further. My contribution was to develop a return on investment (ROI) financial model that accounted for GSTC sustainable destination criteria along with other pertinent data including local tax incentives, productivity rates, and consumption benchmarks.

Calculation of the ROI of sustainability was not an entirely new concept. Previously, tourism companies had determined ROI based solely on operational investments and cost savings, such as those found with renewable energy, water conservation, waste management, and food and beverage sourcing projects, among others.

The consistent issue was that ROI, calculated under those parameters, was typically negative for the first two years. So, it came as no surprise that destination managers would choose to make other investments with quicker and higher rates of return.

The flaw in such ROI calculations was that they were not holistic in their approach.

By using an environmental scorecard approach for measuring ROI, I built on the traditional operational and environmental elements and expanded it to include the costs for and benefits to employees, communities, and customers.

For example, a company’s investment in environmental and wildlife educational materials could be balanced against the savings brought about by free media mentions sparked by its sustainability status and incremental revenue from customers seeking sustainable choices.

By investing in ecosystem preservation, destinations can attach a financial value to wildlife conservation, including this caiman in the Tambopata region of Peru. © Greenloons

Another example is a destination’s investment in sustainable tourism apprenticeship and small business loan programs balanced against the savings of shared agriculture, transportation, activity, and renewable energy resources as well as the incremental revenue from customers extending their stay at a destination due to the increased variety of options.

Essentially, rethinking the triple bottom-line financial value of each employee, community (including destination partnerships), and customer interaction that stemmed from sustainable investments greatly expanded the view of ROI at the company level.


Failte Ireland promotes agritourism along the Wild Atlantic Way cycling routes, thereby enabling small-scale and profitable agricultural and fishing production. © Greenloons

The result of our informal collaboration was an ROI model that allowed individual tourism businesses – and, in aggregate, destinations – to determine which sustainable criteria investments would yield the greatest returns based on the destination business climate.

At the destination level, for example, policy makers could see the economic impact gained by rebate programs or tax incentives for promoting renewable energy investments, supply chain partnerships, apprenticeship programs, or marketing campaigns.

The model further addressed how a sustainable tourism company, and thus a destination, can plan, budget, and market the social, economic, and environmental changes and improvements sustainability will bring to their businesses.

ROI Model starts with the operational, community, employee, and customer investments (along with savings and incremental revenue opportunities) needed to adhere to the GSTC Industry Certification Criteria. The ROI Model then incorporates specific GSTC Destination Criteria to allow and incentivize businesses to create their own 5 Year ROI Dashboards, thereby creating a continuous improvement loop.

ROI Modeling in Action

One of the frequently overlooked drivers of ROI is the calculation of strategic and supply chain partnerships. When partnerships are encouraged or incentivized, and other aforementioned data is included and weighted appropriately, the ROI calculation generally goes from negative to positive during the first year.

If destinations can factor in visitor interactions, employee training and productivity, community partnerships, and culture and heritage preservation behaviors and investments, then sustainability ROI increases dramatically. In fact, statistics reveal for the UK, New Zealand, Australia, and India, that travelers interested in destinations with authentic culture and heritage sites spend as much as 38% higher per day and stayed 22% longer overall compared to other kinds of travelers.

Importance of ROI Data Analysis Post COVID

Now that there is the potential for the reset button to be pushed for the tourism industry, the focus might well be on communities that are working together to increase living standards, biodiversity conservation, and food ecosystem resilience.

In other words, perhaps we can now start adopting a more sustainable or regenerative set of travel infrastructure practices backed up by – data collection, data modeling, and data analysis practices – rigorous data science.

Doing It Better: Crown of the Continent

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[Above: Rocky Mountain skyline at Glacier National Park, Montana. All photos by Jonathan Tourtellot.]

Editor’s note: As destinations plan for eventual recovery from the pandemic, they have an unprecedented opportunity to manage tourism more effectively. With this post about North America’s “Crown of the Continent,” we offer the third in our profiles of destination organizations that approach the standard set forth in the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s critical destination-management 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, economic, social, and cultural issues.”

This holistic requirement seems obvious, yet very few places around the world come close to meeting it. Below is Ellen Rugh’s profile of another one that does: the “Crown of the Continent.” We hope this information will provide other places with ideas on how better to manage tourism’s hazards and benefits. To join in our search for more examples of holistic destination management, or submit a candidate for profiling, read more here.

Crown of the Continent Geotourism Council –
Montana, Alberta, and British Columbia

N.B. – This report was compiled before the onset of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. It is based on Destination Stewardship Center questionnaire responses and follow-up interviews.

Introduction

Since 2006, the Crown of the Continent Geotourism Council has become a strong and active transboundary partnership, characterized by a high level of commitment, cooperation, and collaboration between local stakeholders in Alberta, British Columbia, and Montana. Although not a legally mandated organization, the Council has found their success, their respondents told us, by carefully selecting a group of individuals “who are all willing to work beyond borders, and while they can have varying opinions about how to resolve certain issues, they all strive for the same end goals.” Covering a 7.3-million-hectare region (18 million acres), the Crown of the Continent Geotourism Council prides itself on the vast number of stakeholders within their network, including crucial tribal relationships. The Council focuses on creating local experiences for  visitors, allowing any local residents, from tourism practitioners to the mom down the street, to propose sites and attractions for the Council to include in its MapGuide, so long as they meet the principles of geotourism as originally put forth via National Geographic: “Tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place – its environment, culture, geology, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.”

Geographic Description

The Crown of the Continent encompasses Crown of the Continent mapapproximately 73,000 sq kilometers (about 28,000 sq miles). Its transboundary jurisdiction includes the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park and the surrounding lands and communities in Alberta, British Columbia, and Montana, including five First People nations. The region includes within its jurisdiction over 680 sites, attractions, and accommodations.

Context

The Crown of the Continent Geotourism Council’s transboundary partnership was created through their first catalyst project, a National Geographic Geotourism MapGuide, in an effort to implement cooperative projects that expand or enhance visitor and resident opportunities and encourage sustainable businesses through geotourism activities, including stewardship, education, and regional promotion. Such a task becomes crucial in an area dotted by small towns, whose voice in protecting the natural and cultural heritage of the area may not typically be heard, and the National Geographic requirement for citizen participation provided an opportunity for them.

To maintain their success as a transboundary organization, the Crown of the Continent Geotourism Council thrives on effective partnerships and attributes success to “the relationships, a shared pride in the region, and the potential to develop the economies of the communities while stewarding, enhancing, and celebrating our special character of place.” The Council’s network is enormous, with 33,099 e-newsletter subscribers as of 2016. With their flexibility and reputation for collaboration, the Crown says that “stakeholders often approach us for assistance, because we know so many people in the region and have a vast database. Especially in an 18 million acre region, connecting with the locals and connecting the locals with each other, is one of our most valuable assets.”

The iconic Prince of Wales Hotel presides over Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta.

To leverage such a vast network, 195 volunteer field experts within the Council provide recommendations for what the Council features on their platforms and MapGuides. These authentic “hyperlocal” tourist offerings comprise the community-based businesses, organizations, and points of interest that would be typically overlooked by an outsider. Field experts may be an officially nominated tourism practitioner or just a resident citizen with a passion for sharing her locale with others. The Council acknowledges that these locals hold the most knowledge and connection to the place. Their recommendations on the best places to visit, places to stay, and things to do are then vetted by the project coordinator under National Geographic oversight. Crown of the Continent takes pride that each nomination shared with visitors is a place most respected and regarded by locals.

Activities

The Council labels themselves a content development and curation program. All content within their website, MapGuides, and social media pages must meet geotourism principles as originally set forth by National Geographic.

Crown of the Continent MapGuide (center) amid brochures on display at a local business.

The Council promotes buying local; employing locals; green purchasing; staying in eco-friendly and locally-owned unique lodging; participating in human-powered activities; volunteering; visiting First Nation and Tribal Lands, designated dirt roads, and scenic routes; and stepping away from your car. Starting in 2016, the Council has sent their listed organizations and businesses a window decal and digital link badge that identify them as a National Geographic Crown of the Continent Destination, all at no charge.

While the Council does not have the capacity to plan events and activities on their own, they do promote unique and authentic festivals and events on their website and MapGuide, including powwows, Earth Day Celebrations, sustainable-forestry tours and programming, bioblitzes, wildlife and wildflower festivals, heritage and culture celebrations, rodeos, volunteer opportunities, and “Green” contests. Both local residents and visitors may participate in these activities.

Given their broad network and insight on all of the unique offerings throughout the region, the Council develops trip plans that focus on hyperlocal experiences and moving the visitor (and residents) around the region. As the Council explaines, visitors typically come to the region with a preplanned “Plan A” (typically, Glacier National Park or Waterton Lakes National Park), and once they arrive, usually decide on their “Plan B” (places to go, places to stay, and things to do outside of the National Parks).

Farm-owned market and coffee shop in Fernie, B.C. typifies the Crown’s “hyperlocal” recommendations for tourists.

With so many different experiences available, the Council coaches local businesses on how to steer visitors towards unique, authentic, and hyperlocal experiences by advising on digital marketing strategies, customer service techniques, and suggested messaging when recommending experiences. The Council says that most businesses have a desktop copy of the physical National Geographic Crown of the Continent Mapguide to use as a quick reference, and their website has a “Trip Plan” feature that allows businesses to create custom Trip Plans for their respective customers. These Trip Plans can be shared via their social media platforms, sent as an email, or embedded as a widget on their website.

Give its vast land coverage, the Council has found it difficult to take a direct lead on product development. Their strength is in giving others the tools to develop distinctive experiences through capacity building, networking, and promotion. However, they will jump in when a special project arises, such as in 2016, when they assisted in the creation of “Crown of the Continent: The Wildest Rockies,” a large-format photo exhibition and book. The exhibition was displayed in the C.M Russell Museum, the Montana State Capital, the US Senate Building’s Russell Rotunda, and the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. Hard copies of the book are still sold in Glacier National Park Conservancy’s online bookstore.

Organizational Structure and Governance

Given the bureaucratic complications that arise from being transboundary organization, the Council is not filed as a 501(c)3 or (c)4. Instead, it operates under a fiscal agent, the Whitefish Convention & Visitors Bureau, in Montana.

The Council is composed of 8-10 Executive Committee members and one project coordinator, representing over 730 businesses and organizations. The Executive Committee, who holds final decision-making authority, comprises representatives from the three major funding organizations, plus a combination of representatives from different agencies focusing on tourism, culture, or heritage. The Council tries to maintain at least one tribal representative on their Executive Committee at all times. Each member at-large provides beneficial input and fulfills a wide range of duties for the Council. The Executive Committee, along with anyone else affiliated with the Council, strives to adhere to geotourism principles.

There are no term limits for Executive Committee members, and because the organization does not require any formal mandates, there is no official election process. Instead, the organization has found their success by carefully selecting a group of individuals “who are all willing to work beyond borders, and while they can have varying opinions about how to resolve certain issues, they all strive for the same end goals.” Executive Committee members are involved depending on their available time commitment and employment status with their respective organizations. If an Executive Committee member wishes or needs to be phased out of the Executive Committee, the Committee selects a replacement at the Annual Executive Committee Retreat. When family health forced a key popular leader to step down during the Council’s formative years, the organization was thus able to carry on with relative ease. The Council’s goal is to always have someone representing the three core funders and the fiscal agent, plus like-minded conservation organizations, government entities, business owners, tribes, and DMOs.

This Executive Committee sets the long-term and annual strategic work plan. Special projects may require forming sub-committees. Most often, these groups include one or two Executive Committee members and several other individuals such as representatives from nonprofits, government agencies, businesses, DMOs, or people with a skill set that will elevate that project.

Informally, the Crown of the Continent Geotourism Council also organizes an arrangement of partners and members, with “partners” being those who disperse any information and announcements throughout the Crown’s network, and “members” being those who have passed the vetting process and are represented within the Council’s website and MapGuide. Last, the Council has an arrangement with volunteer field experts, who provide the hyperlocal recommendations that would be typically overlooked by an outside visitor.

Sustainability and Stewardship

The Council focuses all of their work in supporting the principles of geotourism and good destination stewardship, thus creating a model in which sustainability ties into every project. The “Events and Things to Do” listings on their website include information about “Leave No Trace” practices, wildlife encounter tips, volunteer opportunities, appropriate conduct when visiting cultural and heritage sites, who and how businesses support local conservation, and preservation and community beautification efforts.

• Indigenous peoples. The Council also takes care to include  indigenous/tribal partners in all quadrants of the Crown of the Continent, actively seeking feedback from the First Peoples’ representatives who serve on the Executive Committee as partners. Indigenous/tribal content has been vetted and approved by respective First Nations before it is published. Each First Nation provides a strict list of places, experiences, and stories that are allowed to be shared. Even for content that may not seem directly related to First Peoples, the Council tries to share the cultural story behind a place. The goal is to be a platform for First Peoples to tell their stories in their voices.

• Restorative activities. In one case, the Council partnered in the planning, creation, and promotion of the Castle Parks in Alberta, an ecologically strategic piece of land of within Yellowstone-Yukon corridor previously viewed as a government-owned no-man’s land. Lack of enforcement, extractive industry, boondocking, and motorized vehicles had caused significant deterioration and degradation to sensitive ecosystems.

Save-the-Castle demonstrators, Alberta.

The Council helped push for proper planning, monitoring, and infrastructure for upgrading the area into park status, and promoting it via social media and the MapGuide.

• Climate mitigation. The Council has partnered with the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Authority to coordinate routes for installing electric charging vehicles across British Columbia. The British Columbia section is complete all the way to Crowsnest Pass, where Alberta is picking up the route. Most of the charging infrastructure has been installed in the Alberta section of Crown of the Continent and south to the U.S. border. Montana has begun the EV station installation process. Several other routes throughout the Crown are in development as an asset to both locals and tourists.

Managing Tourism Sustainably

While the Council does not have a formalized plan for addressing overtourism or mass tourism, they claim that given the nature of the region, most tourism products offered do not lend themselves to mass tourism, and it has not posed a threat thus far other than at overburdened Glacier National Park.

Saint Mary Lake, a popular photo stop in oft-overtouristed Glacier National Park, Montana.

As the Council strictly adheres to the principles of geotourism, they focus all activities on authentic, local experiences that benefit local communities, dispersing visitors around the region and away from the national park. The Council helps promote recreational opportunities, especially trail systems beyond park boundaries. The policy is to follow strict criteria on what gets promoted, checking whether the area is ecologically or culturally sensitive, the trail is in good condition, and existing trailhead infrastructure (parking, outhouse, signage, etc) can support increased visitation.

The Council is helping to create a State of the Crown of the Continent Report to better understand and communicate a multitude of indicators for the region. This will direct future work, provide a measurement of the region’s health – of what’s going well and what isn’t – and provide a nonpolitical document that can be used to argue the importance of supporting, enhancing, and sustaining the region.

Additionally, the Council compiles a running list of areas and points of interest that they will not promote on their platforms, as the areas are either too fragile to handle increased visitation or are sacred sites. The Council works closely with government agencies, conservation organizations, and tribal representatives to ensure this list, for internal use only, is always up to date.

Community Engagement

The Crown of the Continent Geotourism Council encompasses stakeholders representing 53 organizations, tribal nations, agencies, and businesses,[1] who have contributed time, expertise, and/or financial support. The Council also has had an arranged partnership with National Geographic, which has cobranded their website and assists in the development and printing of the Crown of the Continent MapGuide. During the creation of this project, an even broader set of stakeholders were included to provided nominations, comments and ideas. The Council operates as an open‐invitation advisory committee of interested individuals, and has a networking relationship with local nonprofit organizations and universities, allowing all parties to leverage key resources. Says the Council Coordinator, Sheena Pate, “Our networking ability remains our greatest strength. Our government partners leverage to their advantage our nimble ability to move freely throughout the Crown of the Continent and our desire to always be connecting the region, since they are restricted on travel abilities and their already mandated work.”

Her tips for other destinations: “Bring together the willing. Be sure to have diversity of opinions.” The network is what gives their Council heft. “We find great joy in connecting those who work in their silos and have yet to realize their connection to other silos. We’re always putting the ‘puzzle pieces’ together and connecting what might be seen as differing voices.” The common ground? “Ultimately most of those living and working in the region are here because of the sense of place and outdoor heritage.”

The Crown of the Continent Geotourism Council does not serve as the locality’s official DMO. Each partner DMO contributes annually to the direction, planning, and funding of the transboundary partnership, while pursuing initiatives in their local jurisdictions that align with goals of the Geotourism Council. The Council claims that their success as a whole is an aggregation of all stakeholders, both DMOs and others, creating individual successes within their jurisdictions.

Furthermore, the Council not only works across the international border, but also across tribal nations. The Council reports that building these relationships has been pivotal, not only for responsible tourism development, but for external affairs as well: “Receiving the trust of local tribal groups is one of the most important things a destination stewardship council can do. While state and provincial governments within the Crown of the Continent jurisdiction have been working to accomplish this for years, they have moved in such a structured way. The Crown has been able to build trust much more quickly, through an informal, personal approach.” Tribal groups work with the Council directly on updating and adding points of interest on MapGuide and website.

Local business, Crowsnest, Alberta.

The Council also serves on the planning committee for the annual Roundtable on the Crown of the Continent. The conference focuses on overarching issues, and the Council pulls in business and organization participation, recruits regional and national presenters and keynotes, solicits sponsors, and assists with marketing the conference. Tribal members, residents, students, government agencies, non-profit organizations, industries, and businesses all attend. The Council has lately shifted to an advisory role in order to give more attention to repeating the success of its 2018 Business of Outdoor Recreation Summit.

Funding

As of 2019, the Council’s budget falls at approximately $75,000 annually, predominantly funded by the Montana Department of Commerce’s Office of Tourism & Business Development, the Kootenay Rockies Tourism, and the Alberta Southwest Regional Alliance.  This funding covers the project coordinator salary, website hosting and maintenance, branding, and any additional special projects, travel, and conferences. The Whitefish Convention & Visitors Bureau acts as the Council’s fiscal agent for free. Additional funding may be called upon for special projects, such as a MapGuide reprint.

Business and organizational membership is free including representation on the Crown of the Continent platforms (website, MapGuide, and social media). The Council says “no one pays to play” since these members already provide indirect financial support by paying membership fees to the Regional Tourism Alliances or Convention and Visitors Bureaus who, in turn, support the Council.

Measures of success

The Crown does not collect data as an organization. Instead, each region gathers its own visitor statistics, which the Council will evaluate to determine the quality of the visitors and tourism experience. Looking beyond visitation quantity, they seek to measure visitor demographics, such as income and age, as well as identifying each visitor’s length of stay, locations, and spending. They have found an increase in length of stay, with visitors more often frequenting local businesses. Lastly, they try to determine whether the most frequented businesses and accommodations are those that give back to the community or share messages of conservation.

Commentary

The Crown of the Continent Geotourism Council may prove that anything is possible if you put your mind to it and stay true to conscious, ethically minded stances. While sharing a similar set of geographic borders and tourism assets compared to B.C.’s Thompson Okanagan, this Council has taken a vastly different organizational approach. By bringing together the willing and a diverse set of stakeholders, the Council makes decisions that stretch far – opting for quality over quantity. With limited funding, Council members appear to be doing an excellent job of pushing their resources based on what is most important for that year, although I would love to see them expand their funding, add on another full-time staff, and get capacity to implement greater long-term strategy. With the funding that they do receive, the Council feels confident in their budget every year, even with a small selection of donors, due to their invaluable transboundary relationships across the US-Canadian border and across tribal nations, plus the thousands of stakeholders participating within their network. The National Geographic Geotourism MapGuide being critical to its genesis, the Crown of the Continent Geotourism Council demonstrates the value of a catalytic project that can blossom into much more robust initiatives.

On the other hand, the Council lacks an official mandate. While this allows for flexibility, it does create vulnerability. In fact, many other geotourism councils that started under the same National Geographic program have since fallen out of existence or lack true authority, which shows us both the fragility of unofficial organizations, but also the strength of the Crown in overcoming adversity and taking the correct course of action. Furthermore, while the National Geographic name provides major brand recognition, the arrangement is vulnerable. Funding may be needed to maintain this label, or National Geographic may drop the program. Last, given the changing landscape in technology and smartphone reliance, I wonder if evolving their successful MapGuide project from a mobile-friendly website into a true smartphone app will be critical in coming years.

We would like to collect more concrete examples of project implementation, both successes and failures. Our interviews were able to highlight a few examples, but limited timing still left us wanting more.  —Ellen Rugh

[1] Organizations that have participated in the Crown of the Continent Geotourism Council include:
1) Alberta Ministry of Tourism, Parks and Recreation
2) Alberta Southwest Regional Alliance
3) Alpine Artisans Inc
4) Blackfeet Nation
5) Blood Tribe/Kainai Nation
6) Bureau of Land Management, United State Department of Interior
7) Castle Crown Wilderness Coalition
8) Chinook Country Tourist Association
9) Chinook Institute for Community Stewardship
10) College of the Rockies, Tourism Knowledge Cluster
11) Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
12) Continental Divide Trail Alliance
13) Cowboy Trail Tourism Association
14) Dames on the Range
15) Fernie Chamber of Commerce/Tourism Fernie
16) Flathead Beacon
17) Flathead Convention and Visitor Bureau
18) Frank Slide Interpretive Centre
19) Glacier Country Regional Tourism Commission
20) Glacier National Park
21) Glacier Natural History Association
22) Southwest Montana Regional Tourism Commission
23) Henry P. Kendall Foundation
24) Kalispell Chamber / Convention & Visitor Bureau
25) Kootenay Rockies Tourism, British Columbia
26) Ktunaxa Nation
27) Miistakis Institute
28) Montana Department of Tourism and Business Development
29) Montana Scenic Loop
30) National Geographic Society, Center for Sustainable Destination
31) National Parks Conservation Association
32) National Park Service, United States Department of Interior
33) Pekisko Group
34) Rocky Mountain Grizzly Centre
35) Central Montana Regional Tourism Commission
36) Seeley Lake Chamber of Commerce
37) Sonoran Institute
38) Sustainable, Obtainable Solutions
39) Swan Valley Connections
40) The Sustainability Fund of Kalispell, Montana
41) Top 10 Scenic Drives in the Northern Rockies
42) Trail of the Great Bear
43) Travel Alberta
44) U.S. Forest Service, United State Department of Agriculture
45) University of Calgary, Program of Environmental Design
46) University of Montana, Center of Natural Resource and Environmental Policy
47) University of Montana, Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research
48) Waterton Lakes National Park
49) Waterton Park Chamber of Commerce
50) Whitefish Convention and Visitor Bureau
51) Wilburforce Foundation
52) Wildsight
53) Yellowstone-to-Yukon Conservation Initiative