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Svalbard Overheating

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? Destination Stewardship Report – Vol. 2, No. 4 – Spring 2022 ?

With its coal mines now closing, Norway’s polar archipelago of Svalbard faces a unique set of threats: disrupted tourism, rising temperatures, and increased international vying for arctic control. Yet its extreme location also provides a unique set of opportunities for reviving tourism, according to this Communiqué from Arild Molstad.

Its camouflage useless, a polar bear treads snowless terrain in Svalbard. Photo: Marcus Westberg

Breaking News from the Island of the Polar Bears

The inhabitants of Spitsbergen – all two thousand of them – don’t have to pore over the United Nations’ climate change reports to feel that something’s not right.

On the only populated island in the Svalbard archipelago, a mere 90 minutes’ flight from the North Pole, bursts of rain are beginning to appear in February. Tourists who fly from distant continents to the “capital” of Longyearbyen to explore the majestic mountains on snowmobile under the Northern Lights may instead find themselves back in their hotel rooms, waiting for colder weather, watching sled-drivers return their frustrated howling huskies to camp. Midwinter rain is bad news all around in Spitsbergen: For dogs’ paws caught in slippery tracks; for reindeer trying to scratch their way through frozen surfaces to forage for edible moss and lichen; for surprised tour operators caught out by inaccessible slushy terrain.

Rising Temperatures

“This ain’t supposed to be happening,” sighs a tour guide, downing a pint of foamy Mack’s Beer in a popular bar, where some of his old drinking buddies are nowhere to be seen. As coal mining is being shut down permanently, their sooty, grimy, exhausted faces remain only as black and white photo portraits on the wall, mementos from a colorful history now fading away. Some of the gritty facades that once gave Longyearbyen its one-company-town atmosphere have yielded to erosion- and avalanche-proof housing.

The melting of Svalbard is not happening in a hurry. For decades the archipelago will remain a bucket-list destination for travellers looking for adventure, remoteness, and the spectacular, unforgettable beauty of the black granite mountains topped by glittering ice, their glaciers sloping towards fjords and valleys like bridal veils.

Svalbard tour guide trainee. Photo: Arild Molstad

But the metrics are scary. The archipelago is the fastest-melting place on earth: Since 1971 the temperature has risen by 4 degrees Celsius, five times higher than the world average. In winter the increase is 7 degrees. An astounding +22°C was recorded last summer.

Which means that ecotourism, which in the last decades was seen as Svalbard’s sure-fire alternative to a doomed coal mining industry, is facing an uncertain future. This comes at a time when this distant destination has been struggling with a post-pandemic decline in visitors, who even prior to 2019 didn’t stay long, most of them cruise passengers doing short day excursions.

Tourism Goes Greener

That is why Ronny Brunvoll is burning the midnight oil these days. As the leader of Visit Svalbard, he is in charge of an expert team updating the Svalbard Tourism Master Plan. It is important work, fraught with challenges, many of them political. The 1920 Svalbard Treaty was based on compromises between eight nations, one of them a weakened Russia in the aftermath of WWII.

The treaty conferred sovereignty upon Norway , but declared the archipelago a visa-free zone, meaning anybody willing to work is welcome. Local laws are dictated by the arctic weather, safety, and environmental concerns.  Now, against the background of rapid climate change and – until the pandemic struck – growing tourism, Norway’s government in Oslo is prescribing a strict regimen that curbs visitors’ movement anywhere on the islands.

Above all, that regimen will hit cruise tourism hardest, imposing a ceiling on the number of passengers per vessel. No final decision has been made yet, but the limit will likely be set to between 200 and 500 passengers, effectively putting a stop to conventional, polluting large-cruise-ship traffic. What will be allowed: expedition-class motor vessels. But even they will face strict rules as to where and when they can organize shore excursions.

Dog sledders pass beneath a shrinking glacier. Photo: Arild Molstad

“We must find ways to keep them here longer,” says Mr. Brunvoll , who is conscious not only of the per capita CO2 emissions burned during the long journey from the mainland by ship or plane, but of the need to find employment for Norwegian citizens. One way to do so is making it compulsory to hire locally trained guides who are familiar with the terrain – and armed for protection against polar bears looking for food scraps as their traditional habitat is threatened by shrinking ice. No ice means no place from which bears can catch seals. “The bears are easier to spot now,” a wildlife guide told me. “But remember, they’ll spot you long before you see them.”

Global Safety Vaults as Attractions

The tourism challenge is a delicate balancing act. Recently, more visitors have been drawn to Spitsbergen’s Global Seed Vault – a repository of seeds from mostly developing nations, should they face a famine, natural catastrophe or acts of war. Nearby another vault has recently been dug into the permafrost – the Arctic World Archive. Here nations’ institutions are depositing rare, invaluable artifacts, data, documents, and art, digitalized on tape guaranteed to last for 1,000 years.

The Arctic World Archive is built into the permafrost. Photo: Copyright AWA

Now there is talk about building a visitor center to welcome visitors to both vaults. If that happens, it would likely be an attraction that could prolong the average tourist’s stay. The center would function as a drawing card for narrating the colorful, exciting story of Svalbard, from the early 17th century arrival of fearless trappers and fisher folk to the transformation into a tight-knit community, situated in a place once considered remote, but now caught in the middle of a modern version of the colonial powers’ “Great Game.” Today ambitious nations are jockeying for position and access to oil and gas, precious minerals and huge fish stocks, as the Arctic Sea soon will become ice-free.

Resurrected Matera Faces Overtourism

Inviting Hollywood into your home can backfire badly. Often, a roaring success on the screen may cause instant, irreversible collateral damage to the destination, its culture and citizens. Arild Molstad explores the too-much, too-fast story of Italy’s ancient, now-restored town of Matera.  

Once Called “the Shame of Italy,” Matera Grapples with Modernity, UNESCO, and James Bond

Until three years ago few but Italians had heard about this little town at the southern end of Italy’s scenic Apennines’ mountain range. For centuries it was a neglected, forgotten place. Now millions of travelers are placing Matera near the top of their bucket list of dream destinations.

Hard to find – and for those who knew its awful past – easy to keep hidden in the Sassi Gorge  (Italian for “stones”), Matera fills a narrow ravine where its stacked dwellings, churches, and monasteries were carved into the limestone.

Daniel Craig poses in front of Matera’s famous cathedral while taking a break from filming his new James Bond movie, No Time to Die. [Photo courtesy of Esquire Middle East]

Had somebody in the 1950’s told  the poor, overcrowded, and undernourished inhabitants of Matera that their children and grandchildren would be living in a site inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List (1993), they would have been laughed out of town.  The Sassi, which once housed 20,000 inhabitants, was reduced by then to around 1,500 people – still today’s population.

The Town that God Forgot   

Matera was first caught in the global spotlight before World War II, when Benito Mussolini’s regime deported a young anti-fascist artist to this desolate town, where he could do the regime no harm. Instead, Carlo Levi wrote Christ Stopped at Eboli, shocking the world. Photo: atp.basilicata.it

It was only in 1986 that the Italian government, with World Heritage status in mind, decided to invest serious money into the rehabilitation of Matera. A handful of years later rumours about this unique site started slowly to circulate. Its position – deep in Italy’s Mezzogiorno region and off the beaten track – was the reason that early visitors called it “a hidden treasure.” Even backpackers exploring the triangle between Naples, Rome, and the Adriatic port of Bari missed it.

When I found myself at the edge of the Murgia plateau in 2021, staring speechlessly down at Matera’s unique network of caves, churches, and alleyways, I was looking at what is said to be one of the three oldest continuously inhabited towns on our planet (the other two: Aleppo and Jericho).

For an absorbing half-hour video presentation of Matera’s history, today’s visitors flock to Casa Noha, an interactive museum housed in a former palazzo. Here I was to learn the long and dramatic journey Matera had taken, from abject poverty during two world wars, to winning European Capital of Culture status in 2019.  

Dangerous living conditions, poor sanitation and disease forced residents to abandon the Sassi after World War II. The writer Carlo Levi, an anti-Fascist writer exiled to the region by the Mussolini regime, compared Matera to Dante’s Inferno in his immortal book, Christ Stopped at Eboli. Matera became known as “the shame of Italy’’ as its hapless, suffering inhabitants succumbed to malnutrition and water-borne diseases at the bottom of the ravine.

La Grotte della Civita: one of the exclusive, repurposed cave dwelling boutique hotels by owner and conservationist Daniele Kihlgren. Photo: atp.basilicata.it

Levi’s book, a heart-breaking wake-up call to Italian authorities, was also filmed here. Wrote Levi: “To this shadowy land, that knows neither sin nor redemption from sin, where evil is not moral but is only the pain residing forever in earthly things, Christ did not come. Christ stopped at Eboli.”  

Comes the Resurrection

The restoration of Matera begun in the 1980s was partly hard labor, partly an outstanding artistic and architectural achievement as the wild, limestone canyon prepared for the coming of more visitors. “It was a sight to behold,” sighs Gianni, a local filmmaker. “Now tourism is outpacing us, year by year, in our efforts to safeguard Matera’s authenticity and integrity.”

In the street, older inhabitants had stories to tell of those who left, and how they refused to return to face the old town’s sudden prosperity. To them, it brought back dark memories of desperation and ignominy. All complained about tourism-driven higher housing and grocery prices. “Where are the benefits?” they asked as Matera received a record-breaking one million visitors in 2019. 

UNESCO Inscription Requires Protection and Management 

Numerous laws, plans, statutes, institutions, and departments to safeguard Matera came into being when Matera was accorded UNESCO World status in 1993. Later, a management plan was drawn up to address tourism and visitation challenges in the historical area.  

The Municipality established a special department, “Ufficio Sassi,” in collaboration with several local offices of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, recognizing “the need for vigilance in respect” to prevent “negative impact to the development in the buffer zone between the ancient quarters and the modern town of Matera.” I wonder: Has this turned into a bureaucratic maze, to be exploited by fast-money investors with little time for conservation?
–A.M.

Matera by day. Photo: Charlotte Molstad

Matera – A Movie Set

Matera’s appearance has often been compared to a movie set. It is hard to disagree, as I rise early to watch the sun embrace the town’s facades, adding patches of orange and deep shadow to the Sassi Gorge down below, from which only the soft sounds of street sweepers and somebody strumming a guitar emerge. 

Connoisseurs of movie classics will recognize Matera – known as “little Jerusalem” in films by famous directors such as De Sica, Visconti, Pasolini, the Taviani brothers, and Mel Gibson’s controversial The Passion of Christ. 

My terrace is only a stone’s throw away from a film location shot near the cathedral – a film now being watched by millions of James Bond fans all over the world, as Daniel Craig, in his slick, souped-up Aston Martin, performs impossible hairpin turns in the narrow alleyways and steep staircases. I’d hired a guide to Sassi’s secret hideaways, who suggested that the title of the film, No Time to Die, might be a fitting headline for “an editorial in the local newspaper to help save Matera’s priceless treasures.” He was referring to the numerous unique, fragile cave paintings depicting scenes from the holy scripture.

Matera by night: Wonderfully spooky golden light falls on a maze of streets. Photo: Arild Molstad

Others were more direct. The manager of high-end boutique hotel (who spoke on the promise of anonymity) decried the recent wave of “too many restaurants, bars, arts and craft shops, guides that are not ambassadors of this beautiful town, or neglect to respect rules and regulations.” He said, “Residents who moved back in the 90s are now leaving the historical center.” They fear further exploitation and commercialization.” Surely not an unknown phenomenon in UNESCO sites such as nearby Naples or in Sicily – not to mention Venice. 

Taking on 007

During my stay, I spoke to others who would welcome a “007 workshop” – to be convened urgently, similar to a town meeting held in 2019, during the Capital of Culture festivities. Already at that time, prominent local leaders were expressing concern about the tourism onslaught, led by Raffaello De Ruggieri, then mayor, who famously told New York Times, “We don’t want tourists,” adding, “it could deplete a city of its soul.” 

On my last evening, the view from my terrace transports me deep into history, bringing to mind Carlo Levi’s words: Matera “seemed to melt away, as if it were sucked back into time ….”

Evening comes to the Sassi Gorge of Matera. Photo: Arild Molstad

A potent cup of espresso kicks me back into the present. With Daniel Craig as Matera’s unofficial, possibly reluctant tourism ambassador, will the film’s spectacular sky dive into the shadows of the gorge spell the end for this still authentic, well-preserved UNESCO site?

The current mayor prefers to take an optimistic view of the worldwide attention that the Bond spectacle can bring to a place still reeling from the pandemic. In a way, I understand. The Matera of today looks and feels like a treasure chest, filled with vitality, culture, priceless traditions, shared heritage – and a need to survive. Its story continues. Clearly, Matera has sent me on my way with an arrivederci – “until we see each other again.”

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

Doing It Better: Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico

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[Above: The town of Tequila. Photo: German Lopez from Pixabay ]

Editor’s note: With this post we offer the second of our profiles of destination organizations that at least partially meet the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s destination-management criterion A1 (formerly A2), 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.”

The requirement seems obvious, yet very few places around the world come even remotely close to meeting it. Below is Ellen Rugh’s profile of another one that does. 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.

The Council of Integral Development of Tequila A.C. (CODIT): Using Advanced Tech for Destination Management

Introduction

The town and municipality of Tequila is in the west-central state of Jalisco, Mexico. Founded in 2013 as a civic association, CODIT presents us with a broad-reaching model of a destination management organization (DMO) that uses 21st-century technological monitoring and data collecting in order to make the most informed decisions on sustainable tourism development and destination stewardship.

With its genesis through Mexico’s Magic Towns program, CODIT has managed to survive, if not thrive, through the country’s changes in government, unlike many of its Magic Towns counterparts.  Today, Tequila’s in-progress drive for certification as an “Intelligent Destination” by the Secretary of Tourism of Spain (SEGITTUR) drives many of CODIT’s core concepts. CODIT’s representative, Federico de Arteaga Vidiella, provided much of the following data. He sits on the Council and is responsible for the Intelligent Destination project.

Context

The CODIT model stretches beyond just tourism. In fact, “Sustainable Tourism Development” represents just one core concept for the organization, with additional branches dedicated to “Social Development, Culture, And Values,” “Development of Infrastructure, Environment and Urban Planning,” and “Economic, Institutional, Jurisdictional and Administrative Development.”

Working towards its certification as a SEGITTUR Intelligent Destination, CODIT gathers data from sensors, apps, smart phones, etc. to increase the effectiveness of local tourism products and services. To promote distinctive experiences, CODIT has installed Wifi access within the entire historic area and created an interactive app with push notification. Tourists can log in to learn the best photo spots, services offerings, and transportation routes around town.  Using big data to measure tourist distribution throughout the city, CODIT’s app strives to incorporate population groups that have not benefited so far from tourism. If you’re a tourist waiting for your chosen restaurant, it can suggest different places to eat or other things to do while waiting, such as a distillery tour or a walk in a different part of town.

CODIT thus opens up new opportunities for businesses, as tourists don’t end up concentrated in the historic center and eating at the few nearby restaurants. This model not only redistributes economic benefit, but also avoids visitor dissatisfaction by lowering restaurant wait times.

Activities

Tequila’s tourist system communicates experiences through different channels, such as through tourist apps, social networks, the state and federal secretaries of tourism, and private companies at the national and international level.

CODIT additionally works with the Directorate of Tourism of the City Council and with the Magic Towns Committee to schedule cultural, sporting, environmental and entertainment events. Residents get involved in a natural way, since Tequila’s society participates in many of these events, processions, and parties, either through organization, communication, direct participation, or assistance. To help develop adventure tourism in the region, CODIT has also sponsored local guides and tour operators to complete excursionist certification courses.

Sustainability and Stewardship

CODIT’s main strategy being sustainability, and the main vocation of Tequila being tourism, sustainable tourism has become CODIT’s keystone. The council considers sustainability multidisciplinary – economic, social, environmental, and institutional – and integrates explicit responsibilities for sustainability into their projects, working groups, international certifications, and more. Working groups for sustainability, innovation, technology, accessibility, and governance operate within the framework of the Magical Towns and Smart Tourist Destination Committee. Each group works to accomplish projects both within and across these themes.

As a Magic Town within the World Heritage agave landscape inscribed under UNESCO and a candidate for certification as a SEGITTUR Intelligent Destination, Tequila must therefore protect the sustainable, natural, cultural, and aesthetic character of the place. To assist in environmental protection, for instance, CODIT has implemented a recycling program and has constructed a nursery to restore endangered native plant species.

Even with tourism development being its main focus, CODIT extends its reach into other areas related to destination stewardship. For example, CODIT assisted in supporting one young local resident’s project relating to street dogs, sharing their technology and data to help him map the area, identify the location of the dogs, and decide the safest place to move them.

Managing Tourism Sustainably

CODIT states that Tequila has not yet had problems with overtourism in the destination. Tequila’s desire to achieve a sustainable tourism plan right from the beginning intrinsically incorporates the management of mass tourism. Using their Intelligent Destination technology, CODIT compares year-over-year peak season visitor statistics and identifies the major hotspot locations. With this data, they can identify the amount of traffic around the more heavily touristed historic area, for example, and install the necessary infrastructure to meet demand. They also measure transportation types and levels to ensure that people are dispersed better throughout the city, thus improving economic development.

Grilled corn vendor in Tequila. Photo by Gzzz.

Community Engagement

CODIT claims federal, state, and municipal participation, as well as inclusion of private business associations, NGOs, and local universities. These stakeholders came together to collectively set CODIT’s initial goals and long-term strategic plan. During this start-up phase, CODIT says that the stakeholders agreed upon about 70 to 80% of issues. Any issues with unsettled differences or concerns were removed, so that the long-term vision statement could be set with everyone in agreement.

CODIT cites the most effective element in their governance process has been the election of decisive leaders who represent the collective interest of local stakeholders and truly want to make changes. The council’s representative, Federico de Arteaga Vidiella, bluntly states that in certain situations extended deliberation among all community stakeholders may not be the best method to achieve results. Instead, CODIT encourages the voice of local residents through their representation by the board’s Citizen Co-President, and through consultation on specific projects. CODIT additionally urges participation from local universities, because many students and faculty are local themselves. CODIT also recognizes that local engagement depends on the character of the place. Here, where tourism and tequila production are the main vocations, they must make sure the voices of tequila farmers, distillers, and more are heard as well as hotels, restaurants, and tour operators.

For specific projects, the council understands that active communication with local stakeholders is crucial to success and local acceptance, because the residents will believe more in projects with which they can participate. On a neighborhood renewal project, for example, CODIT wanted to bring vibrancy to some less-trafficked areas with bright, new paint colors. For this simple project, CODIT conducted surveys, spoke directly with locals and civil society groups, and consulted architectural institutions in local universities to decide on the best colors to represent Tequila.

Organization Structure and Governance

CODIT was strategically founded as a civic association in order to make the organization less susceptible to changes in government and thus able to create long-term plans that would not rely on any particular political party for survival. This legal arrangement was also intended to increase business investment through tax incentives and to allow leverage of resources from international organizations, such as the Inter-American Development Bank.

CODIT does not hold scheduled internal elections and tends instead to act on consensus. Every year, for example, the council has to agree that the current citizen co-chair should continue in that role. The council does have the ability to vote out a person if needed, but so far it has never done so.

CODIT comprises of a multifaceted governance arrangement, currently composed of 44 members who fall within four main groups: founding members, active members, honorary members, and operative members. Each provides a certain level of support within the organization.

Operations and technical structure: CODIT incorporates active members, operative members, and a technical council into their organization structure. Four technical advisors and three operative personnel support the team. CODIT says that a key to their success is having a full-time, paid coordinator, as well as having both operative and strategic management on constant basis. External alliances provide crucial technical and operative resources.

Administrative and representative structure: The Board of Directors includes a citizen co-chair, a government co-chair, a secretary, a treasurer, and a spokesperson, who hold the final decision-making authority. A group of additional advisors play a role in strategic planning, including a representative from the Tequila Route and one from Grupo JB, a private company best known for their Jose Cuervo tequila. Thus a broad range of organizations can have some voice in CODIT affairs.

A jimador, an agave farmer, tends the plants that yield tequila and characterize the region’s inscription as a World Heritage site. Photo: Giacomo Bruno.

Even without formal internal elections, CODIT reports that about 20% of the council changes regularly due to external group elections. Representatives from private organizations, such as hoteliers’ associations, restaurant associations, etc, may shift representation based on their own elections. The government co-chair has rotated as the municipal government changes, with elections occurring every three years. Thus a good, naturally-occurring rotation of voices represents member interests.

Funding

CODIT works on an annual budget of around $150,000, largely financed by the federal and state secretaries of tourism and by Grupo JB. The Inter-American Development Bank has also provided project-specific funding in the past and helps support the CODIT website. Members must additionally contribute to the council through expertise, money, in-kind support, or time. One business member, for instance, seconded one of its own people to work in CODIT for a full year, documenting all tourist products offered in Tequila.

Measures of Success

CODIT attributes their success to the clear indicators and pre-established goals outlined in their long-term strategic plan. Every month CODIT evaluates progress using the indicators established by SEGITTUR within the tourism pillars of governance, sustainability, innovation, technology and accessibility. (Unfortunately, we have so far been unable to obtain any examples of progress reported.)

My Commentary

CODIT’s technical innovations and big data solutions show a new side to destination management, perhaps eliminating some of the problems that destinations face before they occur. Accessibility and connectivity drive visitors into the city by creating easy-access to information. CODIT has a firm vision and organization structure, with careful consideration taken during its inception process to ensure long-term governance that can withstand political changes affecting funding.

While CODIT has said that their funding has varied based on political changes over the years, the council’s survival attests to its careful management, especially in comparison to many other destinations originally designated under Mexico’s Magic Towns initiative.

Alternatively, CODIT can do more in terms of stewardship. I would love to see CODIT take a stronger role in partnering with local stakeholders to further develop distinctive tourism experiences. Additionally, the data collected shows little evidence of any vetting process for their promotional materials that places greater emphasize tourism businesses who have championed sustainability or supported their communities through impact tourism.

Local stakeholder engagement is key to holistic destination management. Compared to our other case studies, this council does not stress community deliberative processes, although they do gather project-specific community feedback and include a wide array of public, private, and civil society interests within their governance structure.

In this case, further research would be required to collect more evidence of outreach to ensure local resident satisfaction, or evidence of adaptive strategy. Additionally, while CODIT champions sustainability and transparency, we found difficulties in accessing the documents relating to the performance of CODIT in terms of SEGITTUR’s specific indicators. This is crucial to understanding their exact performance in project implementation and sustainability, and establishing credibility beyond self-reported claims.

We welcome comments from those with knowledge of Tequila and its stewardship.

19 Lessons from 41 World Heritage Sites

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[Above: The Roman aquaduct at Segovia, Spain. All photos by Swen Lorenz.]

Insights from a 2016 World Heritage Whirlwind

This past year I have visited 41 World Heritage sites, reaching the 38-site goal I set on my Facebook page in January 2016, plus three that I had visited before. Here are the things this mad dash to some of the world’s most incredible places taught me:

  • As of 2016, there were 1,052 World Heritage sites. I have now seen a total of 100 of them. The World Heritage Committee adds 10 to 30 new ones to the list each year. Seeing 41 in a year makes you realise just how many amazing places there are on this planet, and that you really don’t stand a chance ever to see them all.
  • They generally are darn cool! Before I visit a country, I now habitually google “World Heritage” plus the country name and look through the local list. I am two-legged evidence for the World Heritage designation being a driver of tourism.
Inside the Escurial Monastery, north of Madrid, Spain.

Inside the Escurial Monastery, north of Madrid, Spain.

  • Architectural and cultural sites tend to be in good condition, and will probably remain in good shape because buildings are in some ways easier to protect than many natural sites.
  • For natural sites, I generally fear the worst, with a few exceptions. Not necessarily because I visited many this year (only two that were new to me), but because of what I hear from other sources and from having worked in such a place myself. (For 3 years I was CEO of the Charles Darwin Foundation in the Galápagos Islands, the very first World Heritage site to be listed.)
    Exploitation of resources, mass tourism, overpopulation—the threats to these natural sites often seem as overwhelming as the organisations working to protect them seem under-equipped and insufficiently effective.
    How is it possible that in the year 2016, several large iconic species in Africa face extinction? Industrial-scale poaching of elephants, for instance. The continent has seen the worst reduction in elephant populations in 25 years. Less than 500,000 elephants still survive there, compared to 26 million in 1800. Extinction is now a real risk. If we can’t even protect elephants, what can we protect?

Before It’s Too Late . . .

  • Thus my number one take-away of the year: I want to see natural World Heritage sites before they get destroyed or irreversibly changed. There are 203 of them worldwide, so there’s plenty to see. I will prioritise the ones in developing countries because that’s where problems tend to be the most severe.
  • The other sites I want to visit sooner rather than later are the hyper-popular places that suffer from ever-increasing crowding. The Taj Mahal now gets over 100,000 visitors on some days; Venice is drowning in mass tourism to a degree that the local population has started to protest; visitor numbers at Angkor went from a few thousand in the 1990s to a staggering 2.1 million last year, etc. With these floods of visitors come McDonald’s branches, T-shirt shops, street vendors, and other annoyances that alter the character of a place. Few sites have the good governance of the Alhambra in Spain, where a strict and limited ticketing system is applied.
  • If there was a way to visit World Heritage Sites through virtual reality, then I would do that for some, but not for others. I hope VR will eventually be on offer. I’d pay for it. For a good number of sites already overloaded with tourists, a virtual visit may be the only way to accommodate future visitor interest.

Time to Spruce Up the World Heritage Brand

  • The World Heritage website of UNESCO is outdated from a user-experience perspective. I use it to check the names of sites, then research everything else elsewhere, usually starting with Wikipedia. Another useful resource is www.worldheritagesite.org, a website run by Els Slots, a volunteer enthusiast.
A neglected World Heritage sign—too common a sight.

A neglected World Heritage sign—too common a sight.

  • It’s sad to see that sometimes there seems little effort put into local representation of the World Heritage brand, its message, and its mission. Sometimes you see a sign. Mostly you don’t, and if you do, it may be rusty or hard to find. Among my friends— a well-travelled, well-educated lot—my year-long anecdotal survey found that hardly anyone really knew what World Heritage does, how it functions, how it’s funded. Doesn’t bode well for this institution. There is some pretty scathing criticism out there about the entire World Heritage system, e.g. in the Guardian and the Economist.
  • At every single site, I would have been happy to toss $30, $50, or $100 into a hat to donate to protection efforts and support for the local community—funding with no strings attached and no questions asked. It would have just required a hat and a sign. The problem is, they rarely asked. World Heritage may be the world’s worst case of missed on-site fundraising opportunities. Based on my own research, there are many hundreds of millions of foreign visitors to World Heritage sites each year. To my knowledge no official, consolidated statistics exist. But in any case, it’s a staggering number, and that’s not even counting still greater volumes of local domestic visitors.
Yakushima Island, Japan.

A burbling stream on Yakushima Island, Japan.

  • Folks always ask me which 38 were my favourites. In 2016, the winners were Wadi al-Hitan (“Whale Valley”) in Egypt, Lebanon’s Temples of Baalbek (at least on par with the pyramids), and Yakushima Island in Japan (beautiful natural heritage and well protected). The Alhambra and the Taj Mahal were close runner-ups. Below is my entire 2016 list of 41 sites, which came together through a mixture of personal interests, availability of cheap flights, and opportunities to combine business trips with personal pleasure.
  • If someone asked which sites were the worst, I’d say that actually all of them were great in some way. The nomination process administered by UNESCO is pretty solid! But I put a question mark next to the fabulous Soclet House in Brussels. It’s a private house, which kind of defeats the purpose (although it may still be opened to the public one day). Others were less spectacular than I anticipated, but had a fabulous history to discover, such as the Selimiye Mosque and its architect, Mimar Sinan.

WH Sites Need Citizen Reviews—By Visitors Who Take Time

  • I would have loved to feed my observations and photos into a giant database hosted by UNESCO to help them police the sites. Imagine a global army of millions of citizen observers armed with smartphones, an app, and a mission to report their observations to World Heritage HQ using short surveys and other simple mechanisms. Such citizen reviews could go into the sites’ regular evaluations and be used to improve matters (including which UNESCO signs are covered in rust and dirt and need to be polished).
    By now, I understand that this idea is naïve, as the people in charge of a site probably wouldn’t want visitors to participate in such a way. It’d shine a light on all sorts of problems and force the authorities to respond publicly—or even act! If such a mobile, networked alarm system were desired, it would already be in place, given that technology and software doesn’t cost much these days and there is a growing number of philanthropic funders who’d be interested in this kind of automatisation and data collection. Sad to see a good system being so behind the curve.
  • My practice of rushing through these places really didn’t do them justice. Establishing a goal based on a number of sites to be visited was really quite stupid—bucket list tourism. For the most part these sites deserve spending quality time to see them. I also regret not having had more time to read a few books (old and new) about each site beforehand. Reading up on my iPhone in the taxi to a site simply isn’t good enough.
The historic center of Porto, Portugal.

The historic center of Porto, Portugal.

  • On a positive note, visiting the sites quickly allowed me to identify which ones I want to read a lot more about and then re-visit. First among them is Baalbek, then anything in Egypt, followed by the Alhambra (also because Granada is a lovely gateway town that has kept its character so far. A nice place to visit in itself).
  • In terms of the conservation of these places, one of the coolest organisations I came across was CyArk, who are using new technologies to create a public, 3D online library of the world’s cultural heritage sites in case they get lost through natural disaster, war, etc.
  • If I ever need an idea on where to host the ultimate birthday party, a product launch, or a celebrity event, then the list of World Heritage sites will serve me as inspiration. Some of them are for hire.
  • There are probably more World Heritage sites in your own country than you’d think. At least that was the case for me in the UK: 30!
  • I am glad that I read up on the World Heritage Convention; it’s a fascinating system. The best book about it is from Mechtild Roessler, called Many Voices, One Vision. Expensive, but to my knowledge simply the best thing written about the subject, and goes to show what incredible intellect went into the entire system when it was created.

Here is the list of my trips this year. I posted a set of photos and some brief travel notes from each site on Facebook:

  1. Tower of London (UK)
  2. Maritime Greenwich (UK)
  3. Westminster Palace (UK)
  4. Newgrange Stone Age Passage Tomb (Ireland)
  5. Soclet House (Belgium)
  6. Brussels Palais (Belgium)
  7. Pyramids of Giza (Egypt)
  8. Wadi al Hitan / Whale Valley (Egypt)
  9. Old Centre of Cairo (Egypt)
  10. Agra Fort (India)
  11. Temple of Fatephur Sikri (India)
  12. Red Fort (India)
  13. Taj Mahal (India)
  14. Humayun’s Tomb (India)
  15. Qutb Minar (India)
  16. Ancient capital of Nara (Japan)
  17. Yakushima Island (Japan)
  18. Hiroshima (Japan)
  19. Horju-yi Temple (Japan)
  20. Itsukushima Shinto Shrine (Japan)
  21. Gunkanjima / Battleship Island (Japan)
  22. Temples of Baalbek (Lebanon)
  23. Ruins of Anjar (Lebanon)
  24. Selimiye Mosque (Turkey)
  25. Old Town of Istanbul (Turkey)
  26. Akropolis (Greece)
  27. Old Town of Porto (Portugal)
  28. Venice (Italy); not for the 1st time
  29. Galapagos Islands (Ecuador); not for 1st time
  30. Old Town of Quito (Ecuador); not for 1st time
  31. Alhambra Palace (Spain)
  32. Palau de la Musica and Hospital de Sant Pau (Spain)
  33. Gaudi’s works of architecture (Spain)
  34. Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct (Spain)
  35. Old Town of Avila (Spain)
  36. Historic City of Toledo (Spain)
  37. Aranjuez Cultural Landscape (Spain)
  38. Monastery and Site of the Escurial Madrid (Spain)
  39. University of Alcale de Henares (Spain)
  40. Historic Walled Town of Cuenca (Spain)
  41. Old City of Salamanca (Spain)

What To Do About Overcrowded Destinations

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[Note: The following post is adapted from a presentation by Travel Foundation CEO Salli Felton at the Green Destinations Day conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 27 Sept.2016. Above: Tourists crowd Florence, Italy. Photo: Matt Haughey]

Tourism Leaders, We Have a Problem

Let’s take a tour to Venice. An amazing destination (below).

Venice's Grand Canal. Photo: Ian Dolphin

Venice’s Grand Canal. Photo: Ian Dolphin

Those of you who have been to Venice know that the reality is a little more like this:

Piazza San Marco, Venice. Photo: Gary Bembridge.

Piazza San Marco, Venice. Photo: Gary Bembridge.

If have been watching the news, you will know that the people who live in Venice are saying they’ve had enough. We’re seeing headlines like these:

“Residents fear visitors are destroying their city”
“Mass tourism and soaring property prices have stifled life in the city”

I don’t want to criticise Venice. Instead I want to use it and a few other destinations to highlight the increasing, unchecked growth in tourism.

Barcelona Tourism Overkill

Barcelona tourism overkill. Photo: Evan Bench

The same problem exists in Barcelona – where this sort of messaging you see at right is appearing on the streets. Or more disturbingly, “Tourism is a bigger problem than poverty”.

For tourists, this doesn’t exactly feel like a warm welcome. Destination authorities are being forced to respond: “The Mayor ramps up efforts to introduce caps on visitors”. The trend continues in Berlin and many other cities that are on the global bucket list.

The problem isn’t just restricted to cities. We’re seeing it on islands like Majorca, and in beach holiday destinations like Thailand.

For decades, tourists have chosen Thailand for a holiday because they want to see and experience this:

Maya Bay, Phi Phi Islands, Thailand. Photo: Phalinn Ooi

Maya Bay, Phi Phi Islands, Thailand. Photo: Phalinn Ooi

But these days, similar to Venice, what they are actually getting is this:

Maya Bay, Phi Phi Islands, Thailand. Photo: Niruth Darid Bannob

Maya Bay, Phi Phi Islands, Thailand. Photo: Niruth Darid Bannob

So what’s the impact of all of these people?

Well, if you start with the tourists, they don’t seem to be that happy about it. They are being very vocal in telling their friends, family, and the wider TripAdvisor world that Maya Bay is “overcrowded and horrific”.

Ouch—not a way any destination wants to be described. Even more concerning, if you dig a little deeper, it quickly becomes apparent that the natural environment there is on the point of collapse. Nearly all the coral in the bay is dead or close to it. And like Barcelona, Thai officials are recognising the seriousness of these impacts. They are taking drastic action to stop the damage before it is too late. If in fact it’s not already.

Now all of these examples are from within the past 12 months. It’s pretty uncomfortable reading for anyone who loves to travel.

The Basic Mistake

However my objective is not to be all doom and gloom. I don’t for a minute believe that tourism is a lost cause or believe that all tourism has to result in the types of outcomes I’ve shown you here. I believe that tourism as an industry has one of the greatest potentials to be a catalyst for sustainable growth and economic development, bringing much needed income into local economies. I believe tourism provides a compelling argument for the conservation and preservation of natural and cultural resources. It provides the financial means to support this.

But if this is the case, why are we seeing these trends growing? How has tourism been allowed to go down this path in so many of these instances? To understand this we have to look at the root cause of the problem. You don’t need to be a genius to see that it’s all about putting quantity before quality.

When done badly, tourism focuses only on one simple measure: numbers of tourist arrivals. The assumption is that more people are better. More people mean more money, which in theory means more benefits for everyone. The theory doesn’t always translate into practice. It’s pretty clear that the people of Venice, Barcelona, or Thailand are not realising more benefits.

In the early stages of tourism development, visitor numbers can be a useful proxy indicator, as more visitors often translates into more benefits at this stage. But as destinations become more established, the relationship between volume and benefits weakens and so the measure of tourist arrivals becomes fundamentally flawed. More people might be bringing in more money, but where does it go? Does it stay in the country or does it leak out? And what are the environmental and social costs of more people? Does all this money they bring in cover these costs?

From these examples, more people don’t seem to be making tourists, residents, or destination authorities happier. They just seem to be creating major problems. If destinations are measuring only numbers of tourist arrivals, they can’t possibly have a clue:

  1. Whether tourism is providing economic benefit to all members of a destination community;
  2. Whether tourism is having a detrimental impact on the very resources that sustain both residents and tourists, or
  3. Whether destination residents feel that their interactions with tourists are positive.

The number of tourist arrivals just tell us about quantity, not quality. So, in order to ensure that tourism fulfills its potential to encourage sustainable development, we need to understand what impact tourism is having on destinations. We need to find ways to measure this so that destinations can do a better job of managing tourism proactively.

There is a Solution

This will require global tourism frameworks to set new measures and targets to drive the way tourism is planned and managed for the future. The sorts of questions destinations need to be thinking about are:

• What types of tourism provide the greatest possible benefits at the least cost?
• What is the carrying capacity of the destination? How much is too much?
• What environmental and social costs will be encountered from tourism and how will mitigation be paid for?
• What limits need to be set to ensure destinations prosper from tourism whilst maintaining their long term sustainability?

All of these things will help destinations define what good growth looks like. If we can’t define it, how can we expect to achieve it? Understanding and measuring impacts is essential, but that’s not necessarily evident to the key stakeholders with the power to change existing practice. I’m talking about the government ministries who manage and regulate tourism and the private-sector travel companies who put together the packages that send tourists to the destinations. Aside from such destinations as Slovenia, Bhutan, and a handful of others, it appears that this message has not sunk in very widely.

So let’s think first about the private sector – the tour operators, hotel chains, ground handlers, and cruise companies. Are they measuring the impacts of their activities? Do they know if their businesses are having a positive or negative impact on the destinations they are selling? Maybe for a very small handful, yes—but across the board? No.

And what about the destination authorities, have they measured the impact tourism is having on the natural resources that sustain them? Or the impact tourism is having on the social fabric, such as quality employment, opportunities for small business growth, levels of crime, and the general well being of residents? Are they planning ahead and trying to attract the types of tourism that will provide the greatest positive impact? Again—a very small handful, yes, but generally, no. Why not? Because these things aren’t currently deemed to be the important measures of successful tourism.

This needs to change.

And changing it is. Over the past 10 years we’ve seen a variety of destination management frameworks being created to gather the sort of data that would be required to measure impacts. Among the numerous contributors to this effort are the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, Green Destinations, the European Tourism Indicator System, and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which has published Indicators of Sustainable Development for Tourism Destinations and launched a Network of Tourism Observatories with the aim to begin implementing these new policies and measurements.
metricslogos
So we are heading in the right direction. But it’s too slow, and there are two key issues that we still need to address.

Two Steps to Success

First, it’s clear that only a small number of converted champions are actually using these frameworks. They’re often ignored in destinations feeling the greatest negative impact from tourism or by the companies that help create these impacts. We need to work harder and faster at making these frameworks mainstream. To do this, we need to resist selling these frameworks primarily as a promotion or marketing tool. That is a fortunate by-product, not the reason to do it in the first place.

Instead we need to show companies and destinations that these frameworks add real value. The data and information they provide show where things are going wrong, how to fix things proactively, and where the greatest benefits can be gained. Simply put, measuring impact is good for the bottom line in the long term. Without it, we are just working in the dark. That is how impact assessment needs to be sold.

Second, the extra step to analyse this data needs emphasis. I’m not convinced these frameworks provide simple, clear, and practical ways for companies and destinations to analyse the data they collect. Destination authorities need to understand the material impacts of tourism. Yet, in my humble opinion, most of them don’t know how to do this. They’re still struggling to work out which indicator scheme to use! Whilst they might be collecting the data, they also need help using it to support strategic decision making.

So I put this challenge to you. The UN has declared 2017 the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. We need to make the most of it and ensure it results in a positive step change. Let’s work together to build a new way to measure tourism success based on impact—and by doing so, unlock its potential to support happy, thriving destinations for generations to come.

Two Billion Footprints: Good News Or Not?

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[Above—A two-hour wait: Tourists queue in drizzle for the cable car up Mt. Huangshan, China, a World Heritage site. Annual visitation c.4 million.  Photo: Jonathan Tourtellot]

Celebrated on Sept. 27, World Tourism Day is an observance championed by the U.N. World Tourism Organization and intended to point out the value of tourism. Initiated 35 years ago, much of the impetus for World Tourism Day sprang from the desire to convince governments and industry that tourism was bigger and more important than they realized. This is understandable, because tourism is bigger and more important than almost anyone realizes. When tourism works well, it’s fun and beneficial. It boosts the economy, helps preserve cultural and natural sites, and educates the public. When it doesn’t…well, that’s the dark cloud inside the silver lining.

This year’s theme was “One billion tourists—one billion opportunities!” Nice and upbeat, but it smacks of the more-is-better boosterism led for years by an officialdom that calls for ever-increasing numbers of arrivals.

This attitude is naïvely out of date. Better to think more realistically of “One billion tourists—two billion footprints.” Tourism, counted among the very largest industries on Earth, is changing the face of the planet and posing challenges with its relentless growth.

Of all the famous malaprops attributed to the late, beloved Yogi Berra, none rings truer in the tourist world than: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

Over the past half century, international travel has increased almost 20-fold in terms of arrivals. Domestic tourism worldwide has kept pace, at four or five times the volume. Growth continues unabated, but the places all these people visit are still the same size. Resorts and vacation homes gobble up coastlines. You can see the press of numbers most clearly in the world’s great cultural sites, from Venice to Angkor to Chichén Itzá.

Early this year, I was privileged to visit Argentina’s Perito Moreno glacier, famed for steadily calving into an Andean lake. It’s in Los Glaciares National Park, a World Heritage site. It lies far, far south in Patagonia, down toward the end of the inhabited world, 1700 miles (2700 km) south of Buenos Aires. In short, not a place you’re likely to visit on the way to some other region. Yet annual visitation ranks in the hundreds of thousands, with over 600,000 people moving through the airport at the booming gateway town of El Calafate.

If we now see that much tourist traffic about as far as you can get from the human population’s center of gravity, it’s no wonder more accessible, better-known destinations are drowning in it. Florence, for example, must cope with 16 million tourists a year, many of them day-trippers who clog the streets while contributing little to the quality of the city.

World Tourism Day should now carry an additional mission. Not just: “It’s big! It’s great!” But also: “We will learn how to manage it better!” We need deeper, more meaningful and memorable travel experiences and fewer busloads armed with selfie sticks.

Another one of Yogi’s sayings was “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.” That impossible ambiguity fits tourism leaders who maintain: Quantity, quality, can’t we have both?

In most cases—no, you can’t.

Cultural Heritage Tourism

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Topic Editor: Lucy Matthews

Heritage, Architecture, Cultures, Gastronomy These links provide resources for enhancing the interaction between tourism and the human story of the locale. Scroll down to see Pertinent Findings: The Case for Heritage Tourism.

Cultural tourism is: “A type of tourism activity in which the visitor’s essential motivation is to learn, discover, experience and consume the tangible and intangible cultural attractions/products in a tourism destination. These attractions/products relate to a set of distinctive material, intellectual, spiritual and emotional features of a society that encompasses arts and architecture, historical and cultural heritage, culinary heritage, literature, music, creative industries and the living cultures with their lifestyles, value systems, beliefs and traditions.” – UNWTO

Pertinent Blog Posts

Organizational Resources

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (US) Independent federal agency that recommends preservation policy for the President and Congress and provides information on how to work with Section 106 and on Training and Education.

African World Heritage Fund (Africa) The inter-governmental AWHF provides grants to support UNESCO World Heritage sites and candidate sites in Africa to protect cultural and natural heritage. 

AIA-ATTA Guide to Best Practices for Archaeological Tourism (US-Global) These useful guides from the Archaeological Institute of America and Adventure Travel Trade Association come in versions for site managers and for tourists.

Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation (US-Global) Learn about opportunities for culturally related funding for developing countries through the US Department of State. 

American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association (US) – AIANTA offers resources for indigenous tourism including a Cultural Heritage Tourism planner, trainings, a website for Indian Country travel and more.

Europa Nostra (Europe) “The European Voice of Civil Society committed to Cultural Heritage” engages in knowledge-sharing, site advocacy, and procedures for the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards.

European Capitals of Culture (Europe) This EU program helps promote tourism to destinations throughout Europe.

European Heritage Alliance 3.3 (Europe) Follow links to EU and Alliance member  documents related to heritage policies and promotion.

Global Sustainable Tourism Council (Global) Their Destination Criteria includes a section on cultural sustainability.

International Council on Monuments and Sites (Global) This nongovernmental organization for conservation of heritage collects and disseminates expert information on conservation principles, techniques, and policies. The ICOMOS International Scientific Committees page lists a host of specialty committees that each provide additional information.

National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (US) Find your US State HPO who can help protect your site.

National Park Service (US) Find out how to take local preservation action and how your community can achieve National Heritage Area designation.

National Trust for Historic Preservation (US) This D.C.-based nonprofit offers various services. Hotels occupying buildings more than 50 years old can apply for membership in the marketing program Historic Hotels of America, which publishes a directory and provides a central reservation service. The forum includes networking events, conference and hotel discounts, and announcements about grants, awards, and other opportunities.

National Trust for Historic Preservation Library, University of Maryland (US) This extensive collection of American preservation resources includes books, maps, journals, postcards, architectural records, and more.

Preservation Directory (US & Canada) Preservation Directory provides listings of conferences, grants, articles, organizations, historic real estate and more, along with heritage tourism-specific resources such as museums & historic structures, historic lodging, and historic tours.

The World Tourism Association for Culture & Heritage (Global) WTACH is an NGO membership organization working across stakeholders to balance the needs of tourism and cultural heritage.

UNESCO World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Programme (Global) Facilitates collaboration between tourism and heritage stakeholders for responsible tourism at heritage sites. The page has links to useful toolkits and guides.

UNESCO World Heritage List (Global/Regional) Check out the comprehensive list of World Heritage Sites. Find your regional WH Centre: Africa, Asia & Pacific, Europe & North America, Latin America and the Caribbean.

UNWTO Tourism and Culture (Global) Find links to relevant UNWTO declarations, conferences and research.

World Monuments Fund (Global) Search for case studies similar to your project. The biennial World Monuments Watch highlights heritage sites in danger.

Educational Opportunities

Professional Certificate in Cultural Heritage Tourism (US) This program from The George Washington University’s School of Business in partnership with AIANTA focuses on indigenous cultural tourism.

Undergraduate Certificate, Cultural Heritage Tourism (US) This online certificate program from Indiana University readies students for careers in heritage tourism and related fields, and includes an internship experience.

MSc Tourism Development & Culture (UK-Europe) This joint Master’s program from the University of Glasgow provides opportunities to study part of the time at universities in Malta, Sweden, and Portugal.

MA Cultural Heritage Management (US) This online Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins explores both tangible and intangible forms of cultural heritage.


Pertinent Findings: The Case for Heritage Tourism

Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe The collaborative CHCFE report led by Europa Nostra shows the benefits of heritage for a variety of key European sectors.

Historic Preservation: An Overlooked Economic Driver This 2018 study finds impressive economic impacts of heritage tourism for Rhode Island.

The Case for Responsible Travel: Trends & Statistics 2017 Section 4 of this CREST report discusses Cultural Values, Diversity, and Heritage, including the business case.

The Economic & Fiscal Impacts of Heritage Tourism in New Jersey This 2013 report finds that heritage tourism is beneficial to the economy of the state of New Jersey.

The Economic Impact of National Heritage Areas These US National Park Service  reports from 2013-2017 illustrate the positive economic impacts of Heritage Areas.

The Importance of Cultural Heritage Tourism AIANTA pulled together this infographic with sourced statistics.

Do you have research or links to add to this list? Let us know! Comment or contact us.

Editor for this page: Lucy Matthews.

Tourism Conflict in the Galápagos

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[Above: Souvenir blue-footed boobies for sale in a Puerto Ayora shop, Galápagos. Photo: Jonathan Tourtellot]

A squabble over gift-shop tourist dollars on Santa Cruz island is now threatening to close the renowned, if often troubled, Charles Darwin Research Station, whose work is fundamental to helping keep the islands’ ecosystems as healthy as possible under difficult conditions, including soaring tourism rates. Please read my complete post on the topic at National Geographic Voices.

There has been an unfortunate history of distance between the Research Station and the Puerto Ayora community at its doorstep. One has to wonder: If there had been a geotourism stewardship council in place—with representatives from government, the Research Station, and the retail community all at the table—could this politically motivated impasse been avoided?