Communities-as-Destinations, Destinations-as-Communities

This is the third article in the series associating communities with destinations and the degree of responsibilities that flow each way.

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Typically, people understand tourism from personal experiences and the purposes attached to our roles as travelers, hosts, guests, or simply from working the frontlines.  As residents within our own communities, however, we think of tourism as the business of serving or catering to visitors coming from out-of-town.  We may know little about their reasons for doing so, though we suspect they are visiting either for pleasure, business, or personal reasons. 

On the other hand, knowledge of travel and tourism, for those of us involved in the industry, often comes from tourism’s academies, also that which is statistical – hotel occupancies, arrivals and expenditures of people coming for different places, differentiated in accord with method of arrival (air, sea, road, rail), and length of stay (day-trippers as compared to overnighters). 

As marketers, we may think we are privy to their socio-demographic or lifestyle profiles.  While on the frontlines, however, our awareness and actions are based on our encounters with those we serve…hopefully putting life (and health) into lifestyles or, as Italians would say, “Bel Paese”.

General awareness comes from knowing about the visitor hot spots – clogged highways or places we often avoid (or take advantage of) when tourists abound. 

When we talk about travel and tourism amongst ourselves it’s usually about escapes, runaways, or quick breaks or to famous world tourism cities, exotic getaways or holiday locales, far removed from the hustle, bustle, or boredom of our hometowns.  We rarely read travel publications to learn about our own communities, only about other places.

As a result, many residents do not know that much about the importance of travel and tourism or visitor economies within their own communities, the purpose(s) it serves (e.g. revival of downtowns), and the investment communities and people make in assets (physical and social) intended to generate value over time. 

At its root everyone knows tourism is about mobility, the freedom to travel where we like, regardless of reasons (personal, pleasure, business, education, meetings, or health).  We may not know why papa was a rolling stone, but we have learned to accept travel as a right, the freedom to chase cars and move as we might.  While we might take these borderless freedoms of movement for travel for granted, we’re aware they are increasingly under threat.

When it comes to encouraging an increase in travel and tourism to and within our own communities, however, some of us can become quite circumspect.  Tourism may serve to validate our communities, but rarely do we form them to enhance their appeal and attractiveness as destinations per se.

Certainly we want to create caring places, improve their affordability, vibrancy, livability, and prospects for livelihoods, but, if tourism dominates (creating dependencies), some worry about what their towns, cities and regions have become, or are becoming - touristy, consider the Alfama neighborhood in Lisbon, Portugal - giving rise to tensions (congestion, gentrification, inflation, over-tourism, unsustainability) and the promotion of hedonistic behaviors and greed.

It’s not that some of us don’t want people to visit; we just want to maintain a degree of sanity, safety, privacy, and normality, through integrated community tourism and “YIMBY” projects.  Such places don’t want to be overwhelmed any more than they already are – a problem if destinations get overcrowded, lose housing stock, generate inflationary pressures resulting in “NIMBY” opposition and controls, for example, short-term rental legislation, visitation restrictions and fees.

Naturally we’re cautious about the image and reputations our communities portray.  So, we utilize branding, marketing and the utilization of appealing community narratives to convey positivity and possibility.  To enhance their merit and magnetic appeal, we resort to the power of place, promotion, and politics (openness to travel, hotels as geopolitical instruments, the right of hospitality or the mitigation of risk) to influence and shape thoughts, emotions, and actions. 

We also rely on rural and urban planning, bylaws, taxation, design, zoning and building regulations to oversee and regulate tourism’s development (maybe in attempts to encourage a semblance of net zero sustainability).  But, let’s not forget:  community development actually precedes and is a determining factor in tourism development, what and how it develops, how it is designed, and who it attracts…too often with emphasis on assets, status and privilege.

Communities-as-destinations are accepting so long as people behave, spend money, have good reasons to stay (but not over-stay), keep returning, and provide a mixture of benefits, while considering if not negating the nature of some externalities (e.g. neo-colonialism in some locales), or any off-putting costs and negative impacts that may be difficult in the short-term to rectify or measure.  

But, with all the positives and negatives factored in, everyone’s version of the derived (net) benefits varies or wavers – “good or bad it’s hard to say”, especially if saturation occurs, values are compromised, and certain visitors and forms of tourism are unwanted - cannabis tourism, birth tourism, crime tourism, over-tourism – or downtowns implode. 

What’s learned is often through innuendo or learned experiences.  Benefits accrue but aren’t easily quantifiable or net positive.  They may end up as proxies for purpose but tend to be distributed unevenly, …which raises questions:  How can communities create the right conditions for travel and tourism and utilize each to create meaningful value and serve higher-order purposes for and beyond economic reasons – as if the complexity of economics and the competitive nature among destinations are understood?

How do we become more astute about strengthening neighborhood economies, our emotive place-making economies and everything that make communities unforgettable, even if they only act as hubs or staging points for urban adventure, wilderness and nature-based travel? 

When it comes to tourism, the task is not simply to rush into the development of visitor-serving enterprises, but to step back and listen to how cities and communities actually talk back to us – how proximity to others affects our behavior; the poetry of place, sometimes expressed in despair, sometimes resulting in an attack on individualism, a community’s multi-functionality, its quietness, quaintness, and quality-of-life.

As a subset of community psychology it’s instructive to appreciate how the “psychology of ownership” can be applied to understanding the feelings toward tourism in communities-as-destinations.  How communities and individual neighborhoods encourage feelings of attachment among non-residents or visitors – in essence as an extension of themselves, whether through stories that help make sense of places.  How people live their lives.  Or how communities present themselves (their performed self), often expressed these days through branding, asset-based community developments, or emotional service design.

Ideally revealed when everyone agrees:

“It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood”

Deeper appreciation for community psychology helps in determining how best to activate the distinctiveness of their cultures, as well as manage the juxtaposition between a community’s traditions (including time) and the inevitability of tensions arising from tourism. 

Done effectively, it becomes possible to pre-determine strategies and choose the tactics, actions, attitudes, and behaviors that will offer the best prospects for achieving the specific goals and aspirations that both hosts and guests desire – actions and behaviors that can deepen people’s sense of community, and lead to purposive action that (supposedly) can be placed under local control, whereby citizens can initiate, plan, design, execute, change, monitor, and evaluate the actions in accordance with their values and priorities.

As residents of communities nobody is happy when tourism overwhelms and visitors represent a concentrated and time-compressed flood of strangers and revelers (spring-break in Miami Beach) often due to social media influence and trophy hunting that amplifies the pull of certain cultural sites and works of art - the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. 

Tourism can be hydra-headed, but do the typical responses suffice?  There are different ways in which both consumer psychology and the “psychology of ownership” associated with communities-as-destinations can be disruptive, but surely tourism can be tamed and be perceived as trustworthy. 

To do so, communities-as-destinations must avoid certain social sins (consequences) and be protective of the soul of their communities by managing mass tourism before it manages communities…if indeed “mass tourism” is a fair or accurate characterization of reality. 

And yet, prior to learning how to think ahead in an age of recklessness, many wonder what life would actually be like without travel and tourism.  No longer is this an unusual approach, as scenarios denying travel as an inalienable right (just a privilege?) are coming to pass. 

But what are the antonyms for travel and tourism? They are hard to find in any thesaurus.  But if you imagine your community stopping visitors (strangers, foreigners) from entry, certainly the word “exclusion” would pop into mind. 

Amazingly we’re also familiar with people being denied the opportunity to leave.  “Baby please don’t go!”  Are there other words, feelings and thoughts, or consequential scenarios that might describe the feelings and outcomes?  After all…

If we stop going, we stop learning

Anonymity, isolationism, and loneliness are bound to ensue, causing immeasurable angst and economies to collapse.  As an existential human and community requirement, civility can be compromised.  Anyone attempting to enter is likely to be branded potentially threatening or suspect (including friends, relatives, or those people coming in from out-of-town to purchase an item or attend an event). 

Fear becomes more prevalent.  Human rights and participatory democracy can be jeopardized.  Free market principles can cease to exist. 

Authoritarian nationalism, virulent sectarianism and identity politics can prevail.  Outsiders become demonized.  Social injustice can prevail.  Hostilities erupt.  The rhythm and sounds of life alter.  The exchange of goods, services, knowledge and ideas between communities/countries virtually grind to a halt, along with exports and imports…regionalization and globalization interrupted.

The lexicon associated with the “geography of nowhere” extends to “confinement”, “disengagement”, and “detachment”.   People feel “uninvited”, and “unwelcome”. 

Viewed in this manner, cessation of travel and tourism curtails trade and economies based on relationships…all restrictions negating human contact, engagement, social networking and exposure to outside worlds for which there are no suitable substitutes. 

Unfortunately, the entire world has become more capable of imagining the impact of walls and seclusion, even what might happen when internet access is blocked.   No wonder “Welcome Back” is re-emerging as a theme song in some communities.

It doesn’t take much to realize that, as a transnational practice, travel and tourism are essential to facilitating our open-source, connection-based economies (of being out and about, seeing and being seen, buying and selling, developing face-to-face relationships, encouraging the exchange of value). 

They are invaluable antidotes to loneliness providing the means towards improving comradery, self-worth, mental health, happiness, meaningfulness, wellness, creativity, and most importantly, trust (important for hosts as well as visitors).  They encourage, if not facilitate, the exchange of knowledge, ideas, cultures, goods and services (trade) that comes about through active engagement with others, with our own imaginations, and with our natural world. 

Travel and tourism are the connective tissues and binding agents that help hold the fabric of civil society together, as well as repair it in ways that transcend social distance.  We get to know, understand and appreciate ourselves through understanding the “other”, (travel as a political act) especially through personal contact, conversations and carnivals. 

In other words, travel and tourism provide affirmation as to our community’s relevancy in being part of an open society, as well as the vital importance now associated with renewing democracy.  Following COVID-19 we now know what’s precious, who’s precious. “Ain’t no sunshine” when they’re gone.

In many ways, travel and tourism can go far in fueling our aspirations and help in fostering community development that supports rather than fragment our lives – communities as places that attempt to balance the hard, standardized, and cost efficient with the natural, beautiful, healthful, and joyful – thereby making us content in, more appreciative of, our particular forms of uniqueness. 

As some realize, travel and tourism can help clarify who we are and what makes us special; how each facilitates and is essential to trade and all forms of commerce, including all forms of development (economic, social, and cultural) and our desires to live full and fulfilling lives.   

Unfortunately there are always those who remain anxious about engaging in new and better forms of civic revival and “civic tourism” – a commonweal project that has to emanate from feelings of inclusiveness, our communities’ social and cultural rootedness.  As a recent SKIFT report notes, there is no time like the present to make them happen, so long as we respect the reality of peoples’ varying expectations from tourism and ensure that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

But how?  How do we incorporate progressive ideas about inclusivity and mass flourishing, for example, without tarnishing the allure of exclusivity that so many visitor-serving enterprises and communities-as-destinations seek?  And if, as seems to be the case, that visitor-desire follows exclusivity, and having exclusivity requires the need to create heterotopias or boundaries, then how do we mediate inclusive impulses if destinations prefer development that skews to the luxurious…if communities become exploited by privileged interests; if the gentrification of neighborhoods (e.g. San Francisco) becomes increasing prevalent; and, if branding privileges certain people and is at odds with the aims of social, racial, and environmental justice? 

Clearly, if some destinations are to move forward, these are questions that will necessitate debate (where are you now?) starting with whether exclusivity and inclusivity are mutually exclusive concepts or ideals.

Despite COVID, the overall growth and expansive momentum of tourism will rebound.  More and more people have the wherewithal and want to avail themselves of the opportunities associated with, and the need for, travel and tourism. 

But, concentrated volume growth will remain problematic (especially the ensuing social, cultural and environmental ramifications) in overly popular “sponge” attractions and destinations unless we understand and manage visitor flows. As we know only too well, many popular destinations are at risk and require protection. 

Obviously, policies will have to be put in place and networked technologies employed to restrict access, limit vehicular traffic, encourage dispersion, as well as to prevent egregious behaviors. 

On the other hand,  most communities suffer from “under-tourism” (more so than ever these days) a situation that limits visitation, suggesting that urban planning may need to be reinvented in regard to tourism, how it is portrayed, promoted and placed. 

Without a doubt, tourism demands far closer scrutiny (perhaps a paradigm shift), requiring gatekeeping oversight, insight, foresight (as previously explained by Bina Venkataraman), and cross-sight (linkage within community eco-systems) at local and regional levels…a bottom-up approach to governance.

As recent work by EplerWood International explains in re-building a resilient eco-tourism industry, we shouldn’t begin without first understanding the uniqueness (reality) of our towns, prior to establishing clarity around tourism’s purpose, its moral imperatives and more principled responsive and responsible (future-forward) approaches towards tourism planning and development; the immense granularity and diversity of our communities’ offerings that correspond with a diverse rationale for visitation; and, by recognizing stakeholders as representatives of their communities, not just their communities-as-destinations. 

If travel and tourism are to truly become better “fit-for-purpose” within and on behalf of our communities, more comprehensive and progressive direction-setting and public value-creating, tourism strategies will have to evolve and be operationalized. 

But is this likely if more and more decision-making and governance becomes privatized?  Does the St. Gallen Model for Destination Management provide the necessary answers? 

If communities-as-destinations are to develop more sophisticated and advanced forms and eco-systems of community-based tourism, clearly they will have to become self-healing, self-improving, and “Smarter by design”. Moreover, they will have to jettison concentration of market power and the private intermediation of public policies. 

Such approaches will require adopting some form of what could be called “community patriotism”, a world view for social impact that optimizes social and business value supported through corporate citizenship, impact investing, and efforts to improve a destination’s social/cultural infrastructures. 

At organizational levels, it might help if some enterprises identified as, or became B-Corps, or completed B-Impact Assessments which would encourage them to adopt more sensible “living business” ideals and solutions, supported by the B-Team.

Fortunately, through travel and tourism, we’re gradually learning how to embrace our sense of being “in between” (liminality), thinking globally and acting locally – incorporating global mindsets into local mindsets. 

But if we are to enhance the importance of travel and tourism we’ll have to re-learn how we think so as to manage our communities-as-destinations (as Happy Cities); clarify what matters (e.g. combating loneliness, prioritizing streetscapes) and serves to enrich community life; and, decide how to go to battle to protect them. 

Imagine encouraging CEOs to do good; linking our efforts to the Bogota Commitment and Action Agenda, and recognizing the overlap with the United Cities and Local Governments’ (UCLG) report on Co-creating the Urban Future.

Obviously if we are to enhance our psychological and physical well-being, especially our ability to thrive over the long-term, we must challenge the short-sighted ways in which we sacrifice the future for the present. 

Indeed, as nation states and supranational institutions start to flounder (as some seem to be these days), it’s becoming increasingly obvious that our communities really have to become the true beacons of hope.  They have to find new ways to prioritize and muscle their way to policy-making tables.

The more we strengthen our relationships within and between our own communities, the more we’ll learn about acting more responsibly, responsively and humanely.  But, how can we use our design-minds to be better shapers of communities-as-destinations (creating livable communities); responding to the inner city blues that make us wanna holla; reviving businesses, re-building toxic relationships and trust? 

What more can we do to advance the Freedom or Right to Roam, along with our curiosity and pursuit of a fuller life through accepting and embracing others, all while dealing with the localization of tourism?  How do we re-activate self-determination, link and underpin our business, commercial and agricultural interests, educational programs, historical and cultural resources, with and through travel and tourism?  Or, are our ideals for higher degrees of connectedness and networked cooperation in for a rough ride during times of economic stagnation, illiberal times and transitions?  If so, here are some strategies.

After all, the potential for travel and tourism to drive prosperity is usually premised on the competitive, comparative, and cultural advantages present in each location, and the ability of communities to have a clearer sense of how best to adapt, utilize, enhance and protect the unique value propositions that stem from these advantages born over generations. 

If individual public and private enterprises are to create and draw value from them, it’s essential that the value propositions drive development and policy priorities for strengthening each community’s specific assets and capabilities, exemplified through, for example, place-based cultural tourism (a tapestry of place) requiring the need for strategists to bolster their signature strengths. 

Such a mandate requires a bottom-up and middle out, (not just top-down) approach.  While we may be appreciative of the options, or alternatives to, collaboration, we cannot afford to cave in or betray what matters most to us as communities…we need teamwork so that we are moving together (e.g. Cleveland).

So far the questions and concerns we have in regard to tourism clusters have been in reference to our communities-as-destinations, gateways or points of entry for visitors.  Our communities are also points of origin and departure especially as we set to discover the world in search for answers to the world’s toughest challenges.  

Indeed, it’s the constant inward and the outward flow of people, ideas, monies, goods, services and commodities, that ensures we develop a formidable and dynamic platform for organizational and community growth and innovative activity which, if ignored, deludes us into minimizing if not degrading the scale and scope of our community’s potential, its special qualities, uniqueness and overall sense of place. 

Through outbound travel and tourism, our communities and everyone within them can throw off the cloak of invisibility, particularly if we wish to enter new periods of enlightenment, and rid ourselves of damaging resentments or feelings of disenfranchisement. So, we need to travel thoughtfully.

In this sense, travel and tourism that is in and of the community can broaden the outlooks, options, opportunities, and outcomes for all residents especially in their roles as entrepreneurs, businesspeople, learners and cultural ambassadors…not simply as hosts. 

Travel and tourism are inter-twinned with, and inseparable from, the totality of our community’s economic, social, cultural, natural, financial, political and intellectual capital.  It’s not that all sectors benefit equally from travel and tourism or reinforce each other’s munificence, but that the outward flow of travel and tourism represent invaluable investments with future-forward SDG payoffs or paybacks as we strive actively to become vanguard communities, optimizing their potential for doing good and dedicated to building a better world…a goal espoused, for example, through the efforts of the TUI Care Foundation, or a version of Welcome America.

Fortunately, most communities or destinations are open societies, productive assets providing useful flows, nodal points that create a confluence or merging of ideas, people, goods, services and monies.  Through travel and tourism, we are simultaneously hosts, guests and travelers woven into cosmopolitan tapestries at the interplay of work and leisure.  

In determining their destiny, communities and their citizens need to be far more curious about travel and tourism’s unlimited and unbridled potential, and its ability to make substantive contributions – contributions that can contribute immensely to regional/national/ international realities and to the notion of communities as fully functional, networked, and well-integrated into, but beyond, hub economies.

As one might expect, the tourism literature has given voice to community-based tourism (most often in terms of precautionary notes)…usually referenced as being the local control of tourism development in small indigenous villages (exemplified by CBT Travel), and accomplished in such ways that protect and enhance their social, cultural, environmental, and economic requirements, e.g. in Jamaica and other rural areas.

But couldn’t such a definition be extended (but modified) to include all communities, cities, regions, and destinations?   Why limit or define community-based tourism as a means of managing or controlling vulnerability based on being small in size, isolated, impoverished, or reliant on funding through agencies, such as USAID, or that which is available in the EU?  

All communities are interested in appropriate control and desirable outcomes (see the Porto Declaration on Tourism and Cities). But let’s not forget, they may encounter headwinds (lack of infrastructure funds, for example) if they run counter to democratically-determined national or state-wide decisions regarding tourism, or if tourism’s purpose isn’t clarified, and sound community-based strategies, policies and practices aren’t developed and operationalized.

If astonishment is to weave its magic, emphasis needs to be put on identifying peoples’ aspirations for their communities-as-destinations, inspiring their involvement and interest in tourism, and encouraging both the development of local living economies and the building of private and public sector partnerships.

If you are wondering where inspiration is likely to be drawn from, imagine being tasked with creating the equivalent of a geographer’s guide to game worlds and achieving realization by re-designing improved versions of communities-as-destinations, destinations-as-communities – versions establishing travel and tourism as super-clusters operating within solution-based eco-systems. 

Seems far-fetched?  Well, if you hope to Astonish! Smarter Tourism by design (my e-book) builds on the Future of Tourism’s guiding principles that pertain to communities-as-destinations, and offers a wealth of provocative “business-as-unusual” points of view.