The Future of Tourism Toolkit offers a variety of tools, resources and services around the topics of climate action, metrics + measurement, destination stewardship, and supply chain. To help signatories get the most out of the toolkit, we've organized key tools and resources around specific topics. First up, we share ways to incorporate destination stewardship into your sustainability goals.
How do we best take care of the places we love?
First, we suggest reading this framework on Destination Stewardship, which outlines the benefits of a stewardship approach, different stewardship scenarios and a governance diagnostic framework, along with this report on tourism’s ‘invisible burden’.
The Impact Tourism Handbook is another treasure chest of information to support the development of sustainable tourism programs.
Sign up for the Destination Stewardship Report. All past issues are available online and supply a great archive of examples of other destinations.
How do we best protect sense of place?
Sense of place can stir the soul, inspiring song, art, literature, and passionate allegiance. It is the ultimate test of good destination stewardship, the sum total of what makes one place different from another. Sense of place means enrichment—in terms of money, knowledge, and experience—for both residents and visitors.
Make it happen by checking out the Destination Stewardship Center’s extensive page on Valuing Sense of Place with lots of practical help and references.
Looking for assistance on a destination stewardship approach?
Green Destinations runs a Sustainable Tourism Destination Management course as does Cornell University. Both are available online. Taking a destination stewardship approach is complex so we can also support DMOs grappling with some of the big questions surrounding place and people.
Those who are interested in certification should head to Green Destinations, who can help assess destinations to a GSTC recognised GD Standard or the UN SDGs. And don’t forget to align against our Guiding Principles, too.
Both CREST and the Destination Stewardship Center can help with the early stages of forming your own destination stewardship council, in keeping with Destination Criterion A1 of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.
What if you are already well on your way?
Enter the Green Destinations Top 100 destinations awards, or join our Stories Initiative, to promote the amazing work you are doing. Sharing your work will also allow other destinations to learn and incorporate best practices into their own efforts.