WTTC Report Provides Basis for Destination Stewardship

Caribbean News…
25 July 2021 8:10am
WTTC

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has released a major new report which reveals how destinations can grow responsibly, using the Destination Stewardship model.

The report was launched in partnership with the Travel Foundation and the European Tourism Futures Institute (ETFI) at NHL Stenden University, in the Netherlands. 

“Towards Destination Stewardship: Achieving Destination Stewardship through scenarios & a Governance Diagnostics framework” lays out how destinations can balance the needs of visitors and residents, with the involvement of both the public and private sector.

Destination Stewardship is based on the responsible use of shared or ‘common pool’ resources, which provide diminished benefits if each individual participant or group pursues their own self-interest.

The WTTC report offers scenarios and ways forward for organisations such as Tourism Ministries and Destination Management Organisations that seek to better understand how changes in governance structures could support greater destination stewardship. 

It presents four Destination Stewardship scenarios, based on varying levels of engagement from the public and private sector, which show how differing levels of support can produce different outcomes with the aim of creating a commonsense roadmap towards greater stewardship. 

Destination stewardship requires a shared understanding of the common good, and effective platforms for collaboration with shared objectives and measurements of success that go beyond traditional growth metrics, such as visitor arrivals and overall spend. 

These new models of collaboration must deliver on market expectations while at the same time also supporting the needs of host communities. 

The report lists the most important triggers of Destination Stewardship, from managing supply and demand, destination governance, sustainability, the evolving visitor economy and resilience to social inclusion.

Barriers to Destination Stewardship, includes lack of a clear mandate, clashing cultures and agendas, insufficient knowledge and data, as well as a fragmented Travel & Tourism sector.

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