Along with many other industries, Canadian domestic tourism took a hit following the COVID-19 pandemic. However, according to Statistics Canada in 2022 "all provinces have recovered at least 89% of their pre-pandemic domestic tourism activity". As tourism rebounds, we thought it was a good time to evaluate how tourism development can better align to the principles of sustainability.
People often think of sustainability as minimizing our environmental footprint, but it is much broader and more all-encompassing than that. Sustainable Tourism Destinations are designed to achieve a balance between economic growth, human well-being, and environmental health. They strive to reduce tourism's negative impacts and maximize its positive benefits for communities, cultures, ecosystems, and the planet. Long term balance must be established amongst these dimensions for a destination to qualify as sustainable. How exactly do we do that?
The United Nations World Tourism Organization says sustainable tourism should achieve the following things:
Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity.
Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and tolerance.
Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation.
The starting point for any sustainable tourism development, is a well-structured stakeholder engagement plan. All relevant stakeholders must participate in the development of the tourism strategy. These stakeholders include businesses providing tourist goods and services, the governing body of the host community/area, the destination marketing organization, the residents of the host community/area, and finally the tourists themselves. A stakeholder engagement plan helps identify key stakeholders, their interest levels, and their power or influence on the organization or project. Whether a stakeholder ground is a decision maker or merely interested party will determine the type and level of engagement with them.
A guiding tool for sustainable tourism development are the Criteria developed by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. The Criteria serves as global standards and are specific for the type of entity ranging from hotels, tour operators, destination, governments and also travelers. Interpreting the Criteria and knowing how to translate them into actionable plans within a strategy is a tricky task and that is where a business sustainability consultant such as Bridge Sustainability can assist.
Canada has plenty of opportunities to develop sustainable tourism destinations within its borders and ensure long term economic stability for those residents. A few notable BC destinations putting sustainability into action include:
Nelson, BC and Kootenay Lake: Eco-tourism and environmental stewardship is at the heart of their tourism philosophy. Nelson has two hotels with the coveted "GreenKey" rating, which recognizes hotels and lodging for their commitment to improving environmental and fiscal performance along with many others that adhere to a high standard of environmentally friendly practices. They also offer electric plugins across the region to mitigate transportation emissions, and a range of ecotourism options from hiking, biking and backcountry skiing tours.
Sunshine Coast, BC: Sustainable Sunshine Coast is a partnership of organizations who are managing the region's capacity for sustainable tourism through outreach, shared best practices, and connecting visitors, operators, and locals to resources and innovative ideas. They support tourism business operations and experiences on the Coast that are low impact and regenerative, and that shrink the ecological and carbon footprints of tourism operations while providing rich and memorable visitor experiences.
Tofino, BC: Located in a designated UNESCO Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve, the region is making efforts to sustain itself for the environment, locals and travelers alike. Though the area doesn’t officially limit visitor numbers, as a town on a peninsula with strict building height codes it has a built-in mechanism for limiting the number of available hotel rooms and therefore the number of tourists. To protect the land, flora and fauna of the whole area, the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust helps fund and support sustainable conservation and development. Tofino also has an ongoing “Every Drop of Water Counts” campaign, first launched in 2007, to remind residents and visitors how to conserve water on a regular basis.
Are you a Canadian tourism destination or business operator? If you are interested in sustainable tourism development and stakeholder engagement, we can help. Let’s talk!
Comments