Last week I was invited to attend the 19th Meeting of the Committee on Tourism and Sustainability of United Nations that was held in Costa Rica.
I typically don’t participate in many “political” events but in my position as President of the Costa Rican Ecotourism Chamber, I accepted the invitation.
Experts from around the world got together to review the global tourism agenda. The topic of
overtourism was among the most discussed during day one. What especially caught my attention was the intent of the speakers to replace the word “overtourism” with “overcrowding” and that the problem was not really overcrowding but rather “undermanagement.”
Interesting…
What became very clear during the discussions is that many of us in the tourism sector are feeling some kind of guilt about the negative impact that tourism has caused. Some feel more guilty than others depending on what country they operate or what kind of tourism activity they are involved in.
I have always believed that tourism is like fire. If used responsibly, it can be a force for the good. But if left out of control, it can be vastly destructive. But just like as humans we are not going to stop to use fire, we won’t refrain from travelling for pleasure. Tourism is going to be around for good and will continue to grow in the years to come. So we better make sure we manage it responsibly.
One of the participants mentioned that tourism is very much needed in today’s polarized and exhausted society and as Mark Twain said:
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.
I believe that travel is a force for good. Especially for the visitor. We all love to travel. It makes us feel good. It recharges our batteries. It gives us purpose.
Where we have to change our thinking patterns a bit is that travel also has to create a positive impact for the visited. And as we have seen from the demonstrations of the people of Mallorca, the Canary Island, Amsterdam, Venice and Hawaii and other heavily visited destinations, this is not always the case. Bali just announced that it stopped the construction of new hotels, villas and nightclubs.
What can we do about this? This discussion as well as the recent headlines about overtourism (or should I say overcrowding) caused me to reflect on what we can do as hoteliers to make sure that we positively impact the local communities and its people. How can we avoid that our neighbors next to our hotels are not turning their backs on tourism as it actually makes their lives worse?
Thinking on a global level and participating in UN Tourism meetings is inspiring, but it is crucial to bring this back home and so here are some reflections of what we do at the Cayuga Collection and what we should be doing in the future. How can we positively impact community well-being?
1. Keeping the Wealth in the Community
Almost all of the hotels that we manage are locally owned and we work hard to keep “leakage” at a minimum by buying, hiring and reinvesting our profits locally. In some destinations like the Caribbean, up to 80% of every tourism dollar spent leaves the country.
“Tourism leakage is a phenomenon that occurs when the money that a tourist spends in a country ends up leaving the country, instead of circulating within the local economy.”
We don’t have recent studies or numbers on leakage in Costa Rica, but at the Cayuga Collection Hotels, we estimate leakage between 10 and 15%.
2. Being a Good Citizen
This sounds simple but is crucial. When you run a hotel, it is imperative that you pay your taxes, you pay social security, insurance and follow all environmental laws. Don’t pollute. Don’t take scarce local resources like water from the locals. And pay living wages to the staff. Make sure that there is inclusion and review that you don’t have a gender gap. Especially in leadership positions.
All of those actions will “trickle” through positively to the locals.
3. Attracting the Right Kind of Traveler
We are very strict on not allowing prostitution or drug consumption at our hotels. We encourage our guests to go on nature and culture-based tours with a local guide. We don’t promote activities like ATV Tours, Booze Cruises and Sportfishing. We don’t want our guests to have all meals at our hotels. We encourage them to go out and “spread” their spending in restaurants in the community.
4. Engagement in the Community
We are active in conservation programs and cultural activities in the communities we operate. We encourage our staff members to be active on school boards, environmental committees or in local politics. We believe that you can’t have 5 Star Hotels in 1 Star Communities.
Here are some topics where we should do better. Affordability of our hotels and housing. We are a luxury hotel group. Few locals can afford to stay with us. We offer local rates, but they are still quite high. However, with our Employee Stayover Program, every staff member is allowed to bring family members to the hotel and enjoy a stay with all meals and activities covered.
In some areas, it gets harder and harder to find affordable living due to the increased popularity of short-term rentals. In some cases, we offer housing or housing stipends to our staff members or provide transportation to and from nearby communities where housing is still more affordable.
What are you doing to make sure that tourism works for the visitor AND the visited? How do you make sure that locals are proud of their destination and feel socially empowered?
I would love to hear your ideas and experiences. Write to me at [email protected].
