September - December 2024

UXUA's Tale - Coping with Political Hostility

You are creating a sustainable, lovely, fair-labor beach resort in the state of Bahia, Brazil. Unfortunately, a less-than-fair local establishment doesn’t appreciate it – stressing their point with an act of demolition. The Uxua hotel’s co-owner Bob Shevlin describes the process then needed to rework community relations.

“Going it Alone” With Your New Resort May Not Be Wise

International hoteliers do not like to see their new business knocked down by a bulldozer. For any reason, let alone because they practiced sustainable tourism. But we learned that anything is possible when you attempt to go...

Park Protection the Indigenous Way

It is still unusual for a national government to make a conservation deal with Indigenous groups, even more so when it means repeatedly shutting down a heavily visited national park. The team from Colombia’s Tayrona park explains this successful agreement.

In Tayrona, Colombia, Indigenous Values Give a National Park Time to Breathe

“The Law of Origin is embedded within the ancestral territory itself—in every sacred space, in the sound of the wind, in the song of the birds, in the water, in the animals, in the lands, and in their arrangement...

Conference as a Stewardship Model

Wes Espinosa, Executive Director of CREST, explains why the structure of the innovative 2024 two-day meeting he organized in Atlanta models the collaborative principles of good destination stewardship, up close and personal.

A Tourism Event Can Demonstrate Community Engagement for Destinations

In September 2024, CREST held its annual World Tourism Day Forum, but this time we tried something new. In addition to convening it in Atlanta, GA, we designed the two-day Forum to break traditional molds of tourism...

Opinion: Cruise Crisis

Things in the cruise world are getting dire, even in progressive Norway, where a CEO suggests a tax on his own passengers. Journalist and consultant Arild Molstad offers his own thoughts.

A Modest Proposal to Tamp Down Crowding

Norway’s long coastline, always a popular cruise destination, is now joining other such places in experiencing a massive increase in traffic. Part of the reason is affordability due to a surprising decline in the Norwegian...

Cultivating Stewardship

Would you like to transition from herding tourists to stewarding travelers? If so, Ivana Damnjanović has some ideas. Underlying them lies the reality that tourism focused on authentic experience is beneficial for destinations. Here she addresses travel entrepreneurs.

Tips for Travel Professionals

Transformational tourism, as I define it, is an approach to both the design and experience of travel. We need an invitation to actively enhance ourselves, the natural world, and the communities we visit and belong...

The GSTC2025 Global Sustainable Tourism Conference will take place in Fiji from August 5th to 8th, 2025. It will consist of panel discussions and interactive workshops, including destination workshops where participants will gain practical insights and tools.

Artículos en Español: The Destination Stewardship Center has begun to offer DS Report articles in Spanish, courtesy of Chile-based Cuidadores de Destinos.

Tip for Gmail users: If Google files your DSReport under "Promotions," just drag it to "Primary" and future issues should appear there instead. Also, look for "Message clipped" at the bottom and click it to see the entire Report e-mail.

Submission requests: The Destination Stewardship Report relies entirely on submitted articles and notices. Submissions must pertain to some aspect of destination stewardship, be shorter than 1,000 words, and avoid self-promotion. Photos welcome. What story can you tell that would help others? Contact us with your ideas.