Feeling warm? For me Thursday 25th June (the hottest June day on record) was spent dashing across London in 36-degree heat, and it was truly yucky! Aside from heat meltdown, London’s infrastructure is now failing in the temperatures, with 15-minute waits for delayed tubes (dashing turns out to be the wrong word), and schools closing because buildings simply were not designed for this climate. Also, let’s not forget the tragic human cost. Just one example in the last 5 days alone, 40 people have drowned in France, trying to cool off in lakes and rivers. So, readers may not take a BBC report as good news, that today’s peaks of 40-degree will be more like 45-degree in 20 years’ time. Or we can make that 50° if you happen to be in the Mediterranean. Moreover, for a swathe of popular destinations unbearable temperatures can then be augmented with water and other resource shortages; spiralling rents and housing costs, traffic jams & acute overcrowding. A cocktail yes, but not a pleasant one; either for local residents or increasingly for our visiting clients.

So how is tourism promotion adapting to address these new realities? Well, the inconvenient truth seems to be … not a lot. When talking to the travel trade, national and regional DMO’s alike are inclined to dodge difficult questions. Much remuneration is still based on  “bums on seats” and “heads on beds,” rather than a balanced view of the needs of tourists and the healthy needs of the home population. Clearly many are fearful that any talk of challenges will frighten visitors away or make them feel unwelcome. Ironically of course, this train has already left the station. Local populations in places like Majorca, rightly; or often wrongly; are fingering the blame on tourists and have started to mobilise. Another irony is that when speaking to smart DMO professionals privately, they are painfully candid about the negative impacts for them as private citizens. Many however, clearly struggle to carry this over into the professional narrative. And this is where the analogy with politicians comes in. When they fail to level with us; treat us like adults and tell us what they think we want to hear, (in the face of a reality which is very different), we rightly take them to task. However isn’t this precisely what the travel trade is collectively doing with our customers. Is a grown-up conversation between destinations and the trade really not possible? A senior consultancy owner who handles key promotional activities between destinations and major distributors, told me that sustainable destination curation “never came up” in destination promotional briefs.

This does not mean that destinations do not have a sustainable tourism strategies; rather that they are not making use of what should be a key ally, the travel trade, to implement them. Two weeks ago I was privileged to be part of a panel discussing overtourism in the Costa Del Sol at the ITT Conference in Malaga. The Province has created a visitor charter called the “Trato Andaluz” (Andalusian deal). Faced with the audience of 250 thought leaders from the region’s key inbound market (the UK), the fact that this charter did not get a mention, feels like a real missed opportunity. Changing this requires recognition that our heads have the ability to carry, “two thoughts at once.” So, for example could destinations say, “We want you to visit us, but to experience us as we truly are, not as a fantasy. And when you come, please travel in a way that supports our local life; respecting those who live here so they take pride in the place they call home.” After all, a good place to live is a good place to visit. Hence, it logically follows that more nuanced communication, has the added value of being authentic.

Trailblazers exist, since 2017 when the Telegraph proclaimed that “tourism has ruined Dubrovnik,” the city’s expert tourism management and “Respect the City” campaign, has seen both record approval from residents, whilst simultaneously growing tourism arrivals by 30%. Visit Malta now make use of a highly sophisticated tourism dashboard which diligently monitors 37 different performance measures; from  seasonality, to the environment, social impacts on wages, visitor satisfaction and plurality of reasons to visit. Both destinations have taken the courageous path and reaped the dividends. So now is the moment for the value chain to come together in face of 45° days. Whether you are a destination marketeer, a B2B representation or a decision maker at one of our tour operators; it’s time for a rethink. As a recent quote said, “The time is over for sustainable tourism strategies; it’s now time for travel strategies that are sustainable.”

To discuss further contact us [email protected]

By Patrick Richards (Founding Director)