The Future of Tourism
Like A Local Tours is proud to be a signatory for the Future of Tourism Coalition, a collaborative effort to chart a new, more sustainable direction for tourism and shift the status quo. The Coalition is pursuing a shared global mission: to place destination needs at the center of tourism’s new future.
Interested travel and tourism stakeholders are invited to show their support and become part of the movement by joining as signatories. Visit www.futureoftourism.org.
The Guiding Principles provide a clear moral and business imperative for building a healthier tourism industry while protecting the places and people on which it depends. Those Principles call for signatories to:
- See the whole picture
- Use sustainability standards
- Collaborate in destination management
- Choose quality over quantity
- Demand fair income distribution
- Reduce tourism’s burden
- Redefine economic success
- Mitigate climate impacts
- Close the loop on resources
- Contain tourism’s land use
- Diversify source markets
- Protect sense of place
- Operate business responsibly
The foundation of these principles was built on a firm belief that taking a holistic approach to responsible and sustainable tourism is the only way to secure the future the Coalition stands for.
More about the Future of Tourism Coalition:
The Coalition is comprised of six non-governmental organizations that have come together for the first time and stand united in their appeal for change. These organizations are: the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST), Destination Stewardship Center, Green Destinations, Sustainable Travel International, Tourism Cares, and the Travel Foundation, with the guidance of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).
Decades of unfettered growth in travel have put our world’s treasured places at risk: environmentally, culturally, socially, and financially. Despite earnest attempts to counteract the trend by many responsible parties, widespread degradation has persisted. While the members of the Coalition have always seen the need for a fundamental shift in how tourism works, COVID-19 has added urgency to this matter and further highlighted both tourism’s positive and negative impacts on destinations around the world. Tourism now faces a challenge and a choice in how to recover, and an unprecedented opportunity to unite around a new vision and chart a better course into the future.
The Coalition has collaboratively developed and launched a set of Guiding Principles that outline a bold vision for tourism’s path forward. The 13 principles provide a clear moral and business imperative for building a healthier tourism industry, while protecting the places and people on which it depends.
The Coalition is calling upon tourism agencies, travel companies, governments, investors, non-governmental organizations, and destination communities to sign on to these Guiding Principles. By voicing their commitment, signatories agree to align their strategies and actions behind this transformative set of principles as they move forward from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Coalition will support signatories in this journey to build a new future and aide them in advancing their long-term sustainability strategy. The Coalition is currently assessing the needs of signatories so that it can provide more targeted, in-depth and personalized resources that will help them align to the Guiding Principles.