The future of our Planet is earning growing importance in the mind of consumers, as well as in the business model of organisations, increasing the urgency of reducing the negative impact of people's activities on the environment and society. Tourism hasn't got a good reputation, as it is often seen as an industry that disrupts the life of residents and harms the local environment.
Exploring the growing importance of prioritising sustainability as the central component of a destination strategy.
The future of our Planet is earning growing importance in the mind of consumers, as well as in the business model of organisations, increasing the urgency of reducing the negative impact of people's activities on the environment and society. Tourism hasn't got a good reputation, as it is often seen as an industry that disrupts the life of residents and harms the local environment.
Take the example of Helsinki Marketing, creating a brand new initiative called Zerobnb, listing all the sustainable, green, self-sufficient accommodations existing on Airbnb, and asking for a new filtered search that responds to the need of the most eco-friendly customers.
Two important concepts truly matter within marketers: Greenwashing and Green-Pressure. The first one is known by most and symbolises the businesses' behaviour of making conscious choices to hide some malicious practices; green-pressure is a more recent term and it describes a shift in consumer behaviour, which pushes people to select companies that are socially and environmentally responsible in their operations. This is valid also in the travel industry, where visitors pay more and more attention to making conscious choices and undertaking sustainable actions.
Many DMOs are expressing a certain interest in the matter of sustainability and are slowly taking actions to make destinations more sustainable.
We have categorised the steps DMOs are taking in this sustainable journey into a framework, dividing some best practices into 3 main areas:
The DMO makes it explicitly clear to their potential visitors what their plans for a sustainable future are. Yet, these claims may need to be substantiated. For example, various DMOs have launched Pledges: they have created content around the promise of respecting the destination that the visitor must make.
Visit Palau has managed to create an amazing film that, playing on storytelling, reminds the spectators of the importance of a harmless experience of the destination.
In the doing category, we consider all the DMOs that take small but concrete steps that will eventually lead to a more sustainable way of operating in the future. This proves that there are feasible actions that can be taken today and can lead to a wider vision that encourages taking care of the environment and local communities and that will be then part of every operation the organisation is making.
An example of DMOs taking concrete and bold actions is Visit Jackson Hole, a destination in the US, that to protect the wilderness of the destination, went against the traditional way of using social media and decided to forbid the ordinary geotagging on Instagram, providing visitors with an ad-hoc geotag called "Keeping Jackson Hole Wild". This is devolved to avoid overcrowding and exploiting of the destination.
The ‘Succeeding’ part of our framework is where the DMO considers sustainability as a key pillar of their strategy. A major focus is set on the actions the destination is taking with a 360-degree sustainable vision.
This is the case of Helsinki Marketing, which started an industry programme to provide businesses with guidelines on how to grow and operate sustainably.
To allow you to see more examples of sustainable practices and of destinations working across the three different phases, we have developed a Mural board. You can click on the link below to access it.
Sustainability Best Practice - Mural board
Exploring the growing importance of prioritising sustainability as the central component of a destination strategy.
The future of our Planet is earning growing importance in the mind of consumers, as well as in the business model of organisations, increasing the urgency of reducing the negative impact of people's activities on the environment and society. Tourism hasn't got a good reputation, as it is often seen as an industry that disrupts the life of residents and harms the local environment.
Take the example of Helsinki Marketing, creating a brand new initiative called Zerobnb, listing all the sustainable, green, self-sufficient accommodations existing on Airbnb, and asking for a new filtered search that responds to the need of the most eco-friendly customers.
Two important concepts truly matter within marketers: Greenwashing and Green-Pressure. The first one is known by most and symbolises the businesses' behaviour of making conscious choices to hide some malicious practices; green-pressure is a more recent term and it describes a shift in consumer behaviour, which pushes people to select companies that are socially and environmentally responsible in their operations. This is valid also in the travel industry, where visitors pay more and more attention to making conscious choices and undertaking sustainable actions.
Many DMOs are expressing a certain interest in the matter of sustainability and are slowly taking actions to make destinations more sustainable.
We have categorised the steps DMOs are taking in this sustainable journey into a framework, dividing some best practices into 3 main areas:
The DMO makes it explicitly clear to their potential visitors what their plans for a sustainable future are. Yet, these claims may need to be substantiated. For example, various DMOs have launched Pledges: they have created content around the promise of respecting the destination that the visitor must make.
Visit Palau has managed to create an amazing film that, playing on storytelling, reminds the spectators of the importance of a harmless experience of the destination.
In the doing category, we consider all the DMOs that take small but concrete steps that will eventually lead to a more sustainable way of operating in the future. This proves that there are feasible actions that can be taken today and can lead to a wider vision that encourages taking care of the environment and local communities and that will be then part of every operation the organisation is making.
An example of DMOs taking concrete and bold actions is Visit Jackson Hole, a destination in the US, that to protect the wilderness of the destination, went against the traditional way of using social media and decided to forbid the ordinary geotagging on Instagram, providing visitors with an ad-hoc geotag called "Keeping Jackson Hole Wild". This is devolved to avoid overcrowding and exploiting of the destination.
The ‘Succeeding’ part of our framework is where the DMO considers sustainability as a key pillar of their strategy. A major focus is set on the actions the destination is taking with a 360-degree sustainable vision.
This is the case of Helsinki Marketing, which started an industry programme to provide businesses with guidelines on how to grow and operate sustainably.
To allow you to see more examples of sustainable practices and of destinations working across the three different phases, we have developed a Mural board. You can click on the link below to access it.
Sustainability Best Practice - Mural board
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