This is a resource page for sustainable tourism insights aimed at providing practical sustainable tourism tools and ideas for travel companies and destinations.
As sustainable tourism practitioners and consultants working in tourism strategies, tourism product development, and marketing, we've seen the spectrum of sustainable tourism development. In our articles and case studies we want to bring you best practices of sustainable tourism, how to integrate sustainability more into your tourism products, destinations and operations.
What is sustainable tourism?
It's important to remember that sustainable tourism goes beyond environmental protection and reducing one's carbon footprint. It includes the following three pillars, which all work together for sustainable development:
- Reducing environmental footprint and conservation of biodiversity.
- Socio-economic benefits in the community through increased local employment, fair wages, and small business growth.
- Preservation of local cultures and cross-cultural understanding.
And, here’s another thing about sustainable tourism: it often creates deeper and more immersive travel experiences, thereby providing strong differentiation and USP for your tourism products and destinations.
Sustainable tourism development in action
Sustainable tourism development focuses on tourism development that benefits the local socio-economy, preserves local culture and optimizes use of resources to reduce environmental pressure. It also ensures that local people and public-private stakeholders are involved in the process and take ownership for local tourism development. What does this look like in practice? Here is a selection of sustainable tourism models and case studies from our projects around the world.