2021 Tourism will be all about big money - Carbon Market and Destination Monetisation will change the tourism world while little operators and interpretation/virtual tourism will satisfy tourist’s hunger for new experiences...

The Carbon Market: don’t throw out the doable good in favour of the unattainable perfect. Ex Bank of England chief Carney says global market is imperative and EUETS is a good model - $100bn a year size immediate potential. Read more in www.SustainableTourismReport.com

Sustainable Tourism Radio: I’ve done a series of fascinating in depth interviews with top global tourism executives from the World Bank/IFC; GSTC; ITB; Green Destinations; SunX; and more. You can listen to them here https://www.bathradio.org.uk/the-future-of-travel

Massive funding for destinations in 2021+ Canny destinations could capitalise their assets, protect and monetise their intellectual property and realise €$£ BILLIONS for sustainable, harmonious development. Read more in the www.SustainableTourismReport.com

Read You Lucky People It’s fun, factual and all about the joy of tourism REALITY! Get a FREE taste at http://www.youluckypeople.com/news--stories

This is the way tourism marketing is going in 2021! Destination-focused, highly researched, customer value, source market based, sustainable tourism ethos, high level of hand holding interpretation/value added. Example: www.BestofRomagna.com

Survey: Travellers hungry for new tourism experiences:
Read more: https://news.gtp.gr/2021/02/02/survey-travelers-hungry-new-tourism-experiences/

Just think lots and lots of beautifully-created active profit centres delivering satisfaction and sustainability!

The Experience Economy will give you higher profits, better, more satisfied clients, more destination sustainability, more creative employment opportunities. Be like Disney but better! Think creating beautiful profit centres. Read about it in the 2021 Sustainable Tourism Report.HERE

The Tourism Industry has no barriers to entry - it has opportunities for all, regardless of race, class, religion, orientation, homeland, access. Read about how it REALLY works in practice - in You Lucky People - this week's episode "My Big Fat Romagnolo Birthday Party here.

Six informed key global tourism executives discuss tourism - the past, present and FUTURE in depth radio interviews start this week on Bath Radio. Listen HERE

And the icing on the cake for Travel Agents? Brilliant Best of Romagna FAM experiences later in 2021 HERE

Have a great, fulfilling profitable and sustainable week!

Valere

17th Annual Report now released for travel agents, destinations, students

One of the events that affected me most last year was an art exhibition called ‘Tour Operator’ created by Italian artist Massimo Sansavini. All the works of art on display were made of bits of the boats which carried refugees to Sicily. Each artwork had a web page attached showing how big the boat was, how many refugees it carried and how many died in transit.

More than anything it showed me how inextricably travel - the business of dreams - is related to the real world.

In the real world... the pandemic is still not under control, populist authoritarian regimes are spreading like wildfire, LBGTQ, women, minorities of all kinds are still discriminated against, there are still over 26 million refugees, human rights and workers’ rights are consistently infringed in tourism, over 40 million human beings are still held in some kind of modern slavery... and a climate disaster is already upon us.

Although the writing has been on the wall for nearly forty years, the global travel and tourism industry, with notable exceptions, has paid little but lip service to sustainability until now.

Now it’s all change.

There are three forces that have the power to change the global travel and tourism industry dramatically - the market, big money and cohesive powerful global government action.

In 2021 these forces will be in a dynamic conjunction.

The market has already indicated that sustainable tourism will be number one; Governments are lining up behind the Paris Accord on Climate Change outbidding each other in emissions reductions and many trillions are now in a burgeoning global Carbon Market.

The timeline has been painful but it looks like, finally, sustainability and tourism may merge to form a truly durable activity.

This will create enormous changes.

As the global carbon market grows - now powered by a group of people led by ex Bank of England Governor Mark Carney - finally the airlines will have to ditch toothless CORSIA for a tough financial solution. As far as emissions are concerned (and airlines represent 80% of travel emissions) they will have to cut their cloth to fit their flights.

All the forecasts now show that the market will require sustainable tourism practices from season 2021. Clients will look for valid confirmation that their suppliers are actually practising what they preach - they have had enough of fake news - they will not tolerate greenwash.

And now it looks like a change of direction is taking place and the USA will rejoin the Paris Accord - this will mean that our global vision will change.

Destinations will attract massive new funding from global institutions seeking to promote their sustainability credentials. This will enable them to fulfil visitor demand for sustainable local initiatives - in particular food and drink, artisan and produce related. The Experience Economy will change our destinations for the better and offer locals quality employment opportunities creating places that are good to live in and to visit.

Visitors will get a healthier, wider, more fulfilling experiences.

But watch out for China - their trillion dollar Silk Road - now the One Belt One Road infrastructure project may change tourism in a less beautiful way.

We’ve got a long way to go but we could still get there if we choose not to treat our clients as numbers.

I’ve asked some friends to help us understand the plethora of information and projections that are swirling around us confusing 2021. So report subscribers will be treated to six big podcasts. Each a full thirty minute interview with a globally important, powerful and informed individual. Each with a big story. People I’ve known for years.

In the 2021 Sustainable Tourism Report you’ll read something of tourism’s past, a little of its present and a lot of its potential future.

That’s largely because 2020 held very little present - that had been taken by COVID 19 and governments’ measures against it. Something like 90% of tourism activity wiped out.

In the report we deal with with the subjects that will certainly be of critical importance in 2021 and those that will present the biggest, most sustainable opportunities.

Best to understand them now!

Sustainable Tourism is the 38-year-old big issue of 2021 the subject embodies everything that is really important about tourism. We’ve been writing about it specifically for over 20 years. The issue hasn’t changed but it is more important than ever as is sustainable tourism’s dark side - Greenwash and Fairwash - we published the definitive report 10 years ago. This cynical meretricious practice hadn’t changed either, except to get more malicious.

Now we’re in the grips of the pandemic which has stopped tourism and its side effects, but not for long. Maybe its time for something different, less harmful and more fulfilling, can Virtual Tourism help? Can the Experience Economy make holidays both more sustainable and more fulfilling - plus more truly profitable?

What dangers are there on the horizon? Is China’s Silk Road a massive tourism takeover or an opportunity and the Carbon Market is it trillion dollar greenwash or a massive opportunity?

Finally, in this report we explore truly new and amazing structural and financial opportunities for Destinations and the delectable opportunity that Food Tourism presents.

Plus for the first time each report subscription includes six exclusive 30 minute informative podcast interviews, each an in depth talk with a truly powerful global tourism executive. The World Bank and IFC; the GSTC, Green Destinations; ITB, SunX, and one of the world’s top sustainable destinations - they are all there

I hope you enjoy. More importantly I know this report will inform your actions.

To find out more click HERE


Valere Tjolle

Valere Tjolle was for 15 years the sustainable tourism editor for TravelMole.com, the world's largest global online community for the travel and tourism industry. He is now an independent commentator and CEO of Tourism Vision Ltd.

As principal of TotemTourism consultancy for the last 18 years Valere has specialized in the ethical development and marketing of sustainable tourism projects.
Projects have included tourism developments in Africa, USA, UK and Eastern Europe for clients as diverse as the European Union, the World Bank, UNWTO, UNEP, the Department for International Development and local and international travel and tourism entrepreneurs.

Valere has published the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite since its inception in 2003.

The Sustainable Tourism Report has been published annually since 2003. Subscribers include: Club Med, Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Rezidor Hotel Group, Northern Ireland Tourist Board, University of Brighton, Tourism Ireland, The Nature Conservancy, Cleaner Climate, Virgin Group, Micato Safaris, Hilton Hotels Corp, Visit Britain, Canada Tourism, Tourism Innovation Group, Dublin Institute of Technology, Sabre Holdings, EplerWood Consultancy, Nichols Tourism Group, The Adventure Company, Exclusively Canada, University of Wales, University of Guelph, Sustainable Side of the Street, IFC, Discover Ltd, Griffith University, Australia, Yukon Tourist Board, Ipswich College, Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum, The Tourism Company, Citizen Development Corps, University of Hertfordshire, Disney Corp, Anglia Ruskin University, Kidderminster College, Olive Green Group, Six Senses Group, and many, many more.

The new world of tourism opportunities


If you ever wanted to make a fulfilling success in the travel and tourism industry now is the time

If we are to continue, or begin to make a success in tourism obviously we need to know what the geography of the whole territory is; where we can find a profitable place in it; and what the short, medium and long term opportunities are.

So it is really important to understand how the travel and tourism industry works now and going forward.

Who are the players and what do they do?

King or Queen of the whole industry is and has always been the client, personal, corporate or organisational. Obviously they all want value above all. And the industry responds with better and better, cheaper and cheaper offers. Like cheap food, cheap booze and cheap drugs, cheap travel is very addictive - and very wasteful.

The crowd of supplicants seeking to fulfil the clients’ perceived needs range from local travel agents through upmarket personal travel agents to modern day massive price cutting online travel agents. None of these are principals - in other words they own nothing, they just work on a commission basis. They seek to take clients hostage one way or the other.

It also includes tour operators who create specific holidays with or without specialities, often have a stake in the game (hotels, cruise ships, DMCs and sell their products through travel agents and direct to clients.

Our supplicant crowd also numbers those players who really have a big stake in the game and want to bye-pass the commission agents going direct to clients and save payments to intermediaries. They include airlines (particularly low cost carriers) and hotels/hotel groups.

Our supplicant crowd is also served by their own supplicant crowd made up of transport companies and destination services - hotels, destination travel agents (usually known as DMCs - Destination Management Companies) plus, of course the DMOs - local tourist boards.

There are also of course country tourism marketing organisations whose job is to market their destinations.

Having made their choices the client arrives at their destination and there is served by a wide range of destination facilities - hotels, travel agents, tourist guides, tourist attractions etc.

So that is basically how it works. Now, in 2020, because of COVID 19, the whole global industry has faltered. In terms of international numbers of clients from the 2019 pinnacle of 1.5 billion, we’re back at the 500 million of 1992. For domestic tourism - people who stay in their own country (staycations etc) - figures are difficult to access but the global number is probably down from about 7.5 billion to 2.5 billion.

So where do we go now? Where are the opportunities? For established participants? For new entrants?

Be absolutely 100% sure - THERE ARE NOW LUCRATIVE, SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES and for everybody.

Opportunities that are a precise fit for 2021. Opportunities for accommodation, destination attractions, destination guides, travel agents (new and old) tour packagers - and in completely new travel-related industries.

The Sustainable Tourism Report 2021 will be full of them. It will be published on 5 November 2020 it will cost £200. Subscribe for a review copy now for just £20.

GET IT NOW HERE

We’ve been successfully identifying and explaining opportunities and trends since 2003 - from the OTA’s to the “Sharing Economy” to the “Experience Economy” we were there first.

Valere Tjolle

What they say about the Sustainable tourism Report: "The suite of reports is brilliant.  Packed full of facts from: across the sector, worldwide cases and by a range of stakeholders. A great way to keep up to date with major issues of sustainable tourism and provide my tourism students with knowledge to underpin critical thinking and employability." Dr Angela M Benson Principal Lecturer  - Sustainable Tourism Development  Adjunct Associate Professor University of Canberra, Australia


"What a great read! Whether you are a consumer, travel agent, tour operator or tourism board, this guide provides sage perspective and relevant examples that ultimately will help propel the entire travel industry forward!" Greenloons


"Just finished with reading the Sustainable Tourism Marketing Guide. It provides a both comprehensive and detailed approach focussing in particular on destinations. What I liked most is an excellently presented genesis of modern tourism which I think is crucial for the understanding of sustainable travel. The guide builds a step-by-step understanding of basic underlying concepts, implementation and best practice. I learned a lot!" Lorenz Töpperwien @tourBlogging


"Totem"s Sustainable Tourism Report provides a refreshing and no-nonsense guide to understanding sustainable tourism and how it sits against the backdrop of global issues we face today. With easy-to-read marketing strategies and lists of key players in the industry, it will assist any tourism stakeholder who wishes to transition to sustainability."  Cherie McClosker, advocate of Phillipines Fair Trade:


"I would like to tell you how much I enjoyed your Sustainable Tourism Report 2008. Not only was it an excellent distillation of the current state of a rather vast domain, but it also conveyed -- thanks to your editorial style -- the confusion, urgency, and in some cases irony of our situation at this point. I so enjoyed your tone and point of view". Linda Rivero - Peace Through Travel:


"Thanks for producing such a fine report. I would like to put up a link from my website to an abstract or summary of your report, so that visitors to my website can order it I have finally had an opportunity to read your fine report. I loved your description of the Tourism Development Master Plan … will they ever get there? I wish you lived next door so that we could have a really good chat!" Kate Daniel of Journeys Ahead


"A must-read for those working in sustainability and for colleagues that you're seeking to engage."   Simon Pickup Sustainable Tourism Manager - ABTA


"Again struck just the right balance between informing on international policy development; the latest trends in sustainable tourism practice and innovative developments in the private sector. "'¨ Cape Town Tourism


"The Totem Annual Sustainable Tourism Report is the most comprehensive resource of its kind. It seems to hit the hot topics every year and gives me food for thought whilst providing concrete links to further indepth content. An important publication."  Chris McHugo Chairman Discover Ltd owners of the Kasbah Du Toubkal, Marrakech, Morocco


"The Sustainable Tourism Report helps us to share interesting and topical issues with our teams world-wide, keeping them up to date with news and developments in sustainability.  They are also great to keep as reference documents and are stored in our online sustainability library providing easy access for all Thomas Cook employees." Jo Baddeley, Sustainable Destinations Manager Thomas Cook UK & Ireland


"This is a really useful resource for any 'not for profit' membership organisation like us to be able to share with members.  It clearly identifies the key issues and trends of increasing importance to visitors as well as providing some great examples of 'best practice' and case studies.  In short there is something for everyone - whatever their size and wherever they are on the sustainability continuum." Eva McDiarmid The Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions


STR subscribers include: The report is specifically created to be of use to: Tourism Ministers, Destination Managers, Travel and Tourism Executives, Higher Education Organisations with tourism courses. Anyone interested in tourism.

The Sustainable Tourism Report has been published annually since 2003. Subscribers include: Club Med, Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Rezidor Hotel Group, Northern Ireland Tourist Board, University of Brighton, Tourism Ireland, The Nature Conservancy, Cleaner Climate, Virgin Group, Micato Safaris, Hilton Hotels Corp, Visit Britain, Canada Tourism, Tourism Innovation Group, Dublin Institute of Technology, Sabre Holdings, EplerWood Consultancy, Nichols Tourism Group, The Adventure Company, Exclusively Canada, University of Wales, University of Guelph, Sustainable Side of the Street, IFC, Discover Ltd, Griffith University, Australia, Yukon Tourist Board, Ipswich College, Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum, The Tourism Company, Citizen Development Corps, University of Hertfordshire, Disney Corp, Anglia Ruskin University, Kidderminster College, Olive Green Group, Six Senses Group, and many, many more.

Half a million micro firms turn over 200 billion dollars and extra juicy profits up for grabs!
 
Once upon a time travel was about going there doing stuff and coming back. The key was… Where was there? The pulling power of the destination dragged the passengers in.
 
Now 50 years later the business has become bigger, ordered and homogenised margins are as thin as ever.
 
Ever a leader, TUI, with its 30 million or so pax, has morphed into something really interesting. No longer a tour operator, TUI has reconstructed itself as an experience-provider.
 
Why? Because they can, not only make much more money out of experiences, they can also own them. If you want a TUI experience (like a TUI cruise or a TUI hotel) there’s only one place you can go – that’s TUI.
 
In this way they can pick the best out of an astonishingly fragmented market - globally about 450,000 suppliers turning over some $200 billion - and give their clients great curated experiences backed up by TUI credibility.
 
So, their 30 million or so clients get to their destination with their holiday paid for, a wish to enjoy themselves on a new experience and money in their pockets.
 
This is a massive profit, branding and customer satisfaction opportunity. Look at the power that TUI has -
 
Their customers already trust them, TUI knows who they are and are already in communication with them, they probably already know what they want. They’re not out in the webspace looking for business - they know who their customers are, they are travelling with them after all.
 
The only competition is local excursion/experience suppliers (who TUI probably already work with) or internet suppliers like Airbnb and Tripadvisor who offer a random, un curated, un guaranteed range.
 
What a risk clients would take if they booked outside the box at this stage.
 
And it’s a massive financial opportunity too. Margins on experiences are much higher than the bread and butter of travel and accommodation alone. Plus with TUI it’s a branded value-added offer, no-one else can offer the same or as good.
 
On top of all that, TUI can use the experiences rather than the destinations to widen their brand appeal and pulling power.

So TUI starts 2020 as another kind of company entirely. Like in the 1970’s they have become more vertically-integrated and focused on fulfilling customer needs rather than competing in the rush to the lowest price.
 
The Experience Economy is a new world for tourism – one in which there are opportunities for all.
 
The Sustainable Tourism Report 2020 deals in depth with this subject and outlines the opportunities available for everybody. A limited number of review copies may be subscribed now at a 50% discount
 
Valere Tjolle
 

 
 

CORSIA envisages 2035 as the date that airlines are compelled to take responsibility for their emissions - it is too late.
 
In 1947 after the war global economic activity needed to be kick-started hence the Chicago Convention was agreed by the UN which gave airlines everything they needed to prosper. They were to pay no tax on fuel or spare parts and everything was done to help them to expand
 
Success! They expanded beyond anyone’s dreams. Now, 73 years later they are still expanding and have fostered an industry which supports 10.1 million jobs directly - making planes, in airports, and operating airlines. The International Air Transport Association claims that airlines create $2.7trillion in global economic activity.
 
And the future is enormous - massive expansion is still forecast for the years to come as international travel increases apace.
 
However, in the seeds of their success there is also, now, danger. Obviously, air travel pollutes. Some 80% of tourism-related emissions come from air travel and, as international travel grows, this gets worse year by year.
 
Even though the airlines still claim the benefits of the Chicago Convention of 1947, they have used this authority to endorse their claim to fly free of carbon emission restraints. And they have powerful friends to make their case.
 
So, when the European Union sought to include intercontinental flights via Europe in their EUETS cap and trade system in 2012 (which has so far contributed to reducing the carbon footprint of the European aviation sector by more than 17 million tonnes per year), world airlines fought their case in court. Having lost the case, the airlines brought in their friends including the plane-makers like Boeing and the US government. They fought a full-on no-holds-barred battle. The result? After the set-to with the EU - it was agreed that an effective plan re global airline emissions was to be created by the ICAO (the organisation set up by the Chicago Convention). The plan was to be in operation by 2016.
 
The result is a plan called CORSIA, announced in 2016 which, to say the least, does not treat the situation as a climate emergency - here are its demerits:

• CORSIA is voluntary - not all airlines need to join until 2035 by which time emissions will at least be doubled.
• CORSIA only covers Carbon Emissions rather than the broader Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• If the airlines break their emissions caps eventually they'll have to invest in forests through carbon offsets to mitigate their emissions. Given current forecasts of growth the world will become one enormous forest - until the trees die when all that stored carbon will be released.
  

The generally accepted tenet is “The polluter pays”
 
Airlines are polluting our atmosphere now. They need to pay immediately, not 15 years from now when the bill for the human race will be unpayable.
 
Whatever their benefit to the global economy as a result of expensive powerful lobbying they have kept their perks far too long and they should not add to them an emissions free ride.
 
Some airlines are coming up to the mark now - including Easyjet who are offsetting all their emissions now. OK offsetting is not perfect, but at least it is NOW not in 2035.
 
Maybe more airlines will be shamed into following their lead.

Air travel emissions are becoming a bigger and bigger issue - the subject is discussed in detail in the latest Sustainable Tourism 2020 ...It will take a truly objective view.
 
The Sustainable Tourism Report 2020 deals in depth with this subject. A limited number of review copies may be subscribed now at a 50% discount HERE
 
There will be a masterclass to discuss this and other sustainable tourism matters – location Bath, date 7 February. To register for a place just email valere@tourismvision.com
 
Valere Tjolle

OK so it’s cheaper to go to a country that cares less about human rights than the tourist dollar. Maybe it presents better ‘value’ but actually when the holiday is over do visitors take the value home with them or their memory of the total experience?

We live in a dangerous world. A number of governments are at odds with their citizens - there are still many human rights abuses. This leads to disempowered citizens, millions of climate and political refugees, and fosters the growth of both regional and international terrorism.

Add to this challenging background of the internet, 24 hour news and the fact that disasters are good press and you have very good reasons for people with grudges to use violence to get them aired internationally using tourists to do so.

Moreover in many less developed countries with human rights issues hospitality workers are very low on the food chain, it stands to reason that they do their jobs for money, not for love and see rich tourists simply as full wallets, which can often lead to resentment when they are treated with distain.

Another issue that stirs anger is the changing of historic local culture to entertain tourists. In many cases host communities’ culture is the little that they have to hold on to, and to see foreigners, who know little about their history, treating them as items of entertainment, photographing their families and their homes as though they were unpaid exhibitd can understandably lead to irritation and bitterness.

Against this background it is easy to see how tourists can form political targets particularly in countries that are already subject to unrest.

In many countries the difference between rich and poor is insurmountable, and, naturally it is the powerful that control tourism. Foreign tourists often are just fodder for an economic machine that extends globally.

As the world becomes more unequal it is likely that tourists will become more segregated from the host community. Is this a formula for a happy relaxed holiday or would tourists get a better, more fulfilling experience in a destination that was more harmonious?

OK so it’s cheaper to go to a country that cares less about human rights than the tourist dollar. Maybe it presents better ‘value’ but actually when the holiday is over do visitors take the value home with them or their memory of the total experience?

Bhutan is leading the way with Its Gross National Happiness policy - a philosophy that guides its government. It includes an index which is used to measure the collective happiness and well-being of a population. But there are other countries that are also making strides to deliver holidays with real hospitality.

And there are many other countries and destinations following Bhutan's lead.

Why not deal with a happy country in 2020 for your holiday rather than a troubled one just because it's cheap?

Security is becoming a bigger and bigger issue - it is discussed in detail in the latest Sustainable Tourism 2020 ...It will take a truly objective view.

Maybe 2020 is the time?
 
The Sustainable Tourism Report 2020 deals in depth with this subject. A limited number of review copies may be subscribed now at a 50% discount HERE
 
There will be a masterclass to discuss this and other sustainable tourism matters – location Bath, date 7 February. To register for a place just email valere@tourismvision.com
 
Valere Tjolle

How Globalisation has commoditised addictive travel and creates a big opportunity for a better world.
 
I do it all the time - watch the crowds in leisurewear with name badges, often in matching Pac a macs, circling in the great queue round the duomo in Florence; almost filling St Marks Square and all the way around the lagoon to the Arsenale in Venice; in the Abbey Churchyard in Bath; in the Quadrilatero in Bologna; in Piccadilly Circus in London. I watch squadrons of 50 in marching order tramping behind flag-waving guide/leaders sometimes on bikes or segways in Paris or Prague or Amsterdam or wherever there is a tick-box sight to be seen and photographed.
 
And I think are they enjoying their experience of anonymous mass tourism?
 
They stay in a nice hotel or on a cruise ship, possibly eat some foreign meals, see some world famous sights and maybe meet some nice people. But at the end of the day they probably won’t remember much. But they did escape for a little while.
 
Was it worth it? After all, the price they’ve paid has been high. There’s not only the hefty price they’ve paid to the tour or cruise operator, travel agent or whoever, there’s also their time and commitment and the stress they’ve endured to get there.
 
There are, of course other costs too - mainly those that are borne by the rest of the world (“Us” in other words). Travel does not come without its environmental, social, cultural and economic costs - airline, hotels and land travel emissions spewed into our communal atmosphere.
 
Then there are the costs paid by the destination host community like higher priced homes, the commodification of their local culture, crowded markets. In other words the social costs of hosting visitors.

But, tourism is thought to be one of the world’s great success stories increasing from just 1 billion international and domestic travellers a year in 1970 to around 8 billion today.
 
Amazing, but how did all this happen so quick?
 
Globalisation caused it. As usual globalisation simply created prices that are just too good to miss.
 
In the same way that the rich west has gorged on cheap tech, cheap designer clothes, cheap coffee and tea, now we have become addicted to cheap holidays too.
 
Globalisation means that modern day slaver companies don’t need to move their slaves around the world to produce, for instance, addiction-creating sugar from cane. They can leave them at home to work on similar working conditions to produce clothes, tech, drinks and, since the 1970’s, holidays.
 
Of course, eventually, there will be a brick wall. Currently, the inhabitants of the developed countries consume resources at a rate almost 32 times greater than those of the developing world, who make up the majority of the human population. We simply can’t consume as much as we do on a long term basis. It is simply environmentally unsustainable.

Also we can’t holiday forever in areas where there are human rights and workers rights problems - like Sri Lanka, Turkey, Egypt, Mexico, Myanmar, Dubai and the Maldives. It is simply politically unsustainable.
 
And we won’t be able to pile in to top iconic destinations that are now overfull like Venice, Florence, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris or Santorini. It is simply not socially sustainable.
 
Finally, without the massive demand and the mass numbers of tourists, the big global purveyors of commodity travel become economically unsustainable.
 
Of course there is a better way. At its heart tourism is an amazing activity with enormous benefits for everybody, but while we are all addicted to cheap throwaway clothes, easily replaceable tech and cheap holidays we are not likely to find it...
 
It will take a truly objective view. Maybe 2020 is the time?
 
The Sustainable Tourism Report 2020 deals in depth with this subject. A limited number of review copies may be subscribed now at a 50% discount HERE
 
There will be a masterclass to discuss this and other sustainable tourism matters – location Bath, date 7 February. To register for a place just email valere@tourismvision.com
 
Valere Tjolle
 
 
 

The most ambitious infrastructure plan in world history – China will change tourism for ever
 
China’s tourism route to massive global economic power and political influence
Great New Silk Roads trillions already committed
 



Just imagine that you’ve woken up on the first of October 2049 - the hundredth anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. How do you see the world?
 
Well, for a start, the world of tourism has dramatically changed. China has seen to that. By now the massive economic area free trade zone envisaged by the ‘Belt and Road’ scheme - has come into full operation as forecast. Extending all the way from inner China to the heart of Europe, Chinese high speed trains are bringing avid travellers to stay in Chinese branded hotels, to buy Chinese manufactured goods and souvenirs and to eat Chinese foods.
 
Today in 2020 China is number 1 in outbound tourism with around 200million international travellers a year. By 2049 at the present rate of growth the figure is likely to be more like 600 million even maybe a billion. All of these travellers will have billions to spend and you can be sure that China’s centrally-managed tourism will make sure that it is spent where China wants it to be spent.
 
The Chinese government calls the massive Belt and Road initiative "a bid to enhance regional connectivity and embrace a brighter future". Cultural and economic initiatives are merged in tourism and the Silk Road tourism initiatives will certainly be geared to Chinese tastes. There have already been plans for major Las Vegas style casino cities and winter sports centres in and around Kazakhstan and there will certainly be more.

All along the central Silk Road, through China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan all the way to Hungary and Europe, to the US via the North Silk Road and Africa via the south will be interconnected in economically-protected tax haven free trade zones. This is also likely to bring to the fore historic Silk Road Cities (of which there are hundreds) such as Samarkand, Kabul, Shiraz, Almaty, and many more. Add to these the destinations in South East Asia and this equals massive economic power.

The initiative calls for the integration of the region into a cohesive economic area through building infrastructure, increasing cultural exchanges, and broadening trade. Apart from this zone, another area that is said to be included in the extension of this 'belt' is South Asia and Southeast Asia. Many of the countries that are part of this belt are also members of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). North, central and south belts are proposed. The North belt would go through Central Asia, Russia to Europe. The Central belt goes through Central Asia, West Asia to the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. The South belt starts from China to Southeast Asia, South Asia, to the Indian Ocean through Pakistan. The Chinese One Belt strategy will integrate with Central Asia through Kazakhstan's Nurly Zhol infrastructure program.

The Silk Road Land Corridors:
 
·      The New Eurasian Land Bridge runs from Western China to Western Russia through Kazakhstan, and includes the Silk Road Railway through China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany.
·      The China–Mongolia–Russia Corridor will run from Northern China to the Russian Far East. The Russian government established the Russian Direct Investment Fund and China Investment Corporation, a Chinese government investment agency, partnered in 2012 to create the Sino-Russian Investment Fund, which concentrates on opportunities in bilateral integration.
·      The China–Central Asia–West Asia Corridor will run from Western China to Turkey.
·      The China–Indochina Peninsula Corridor will run from Southern China to Singapore.
·      The Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor, runs from southern China to Myanmar and is officially classified as "closely related to the Belt and Road Initiative".
·      The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (also known by the acronym CPEC), also classified as "closely related to the Belt and Road Initiative is a US$62 billion collection of infrastructure projects throughout Pakistan that aims to rapidly modernize Pakistan's transportation networks, energy infrastructure, and economy. On November 13, 2016, CPEC became partly operational when Chinese cargo was transported overland to Gwadar Port for onward maritime shipment to Africa and West Asia.
 
Maritime Silk Road
 
The Maritime Silk Road, also known as the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" is a complementary initiative aimed at investing and fostering collaboration in Southeast Asia, Oceania, and North Africa, through several contiguous bodies of water:  South China Sea, the South Pacific Ocean, and the wider Indian Ocean area.
 
Like its sister initiative the Silk Road Economic Belt, most countries in this area have joined the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
 
Ice Silk Road
 
In addition to the Maritime Silk Road, Xi Jinping also urged the close cooperation between Russia and China to carry out the Northern Sea Route cooperation to realize an "Ice Silk Road" to foster development in the Arctic region. China COSCO Shipping Corp. has completed several trial trips on Arctic shipping routes, the Transport departments from both countries are constantly improving policies and laws related to development in the Arctic, and Chinese and Russian companies are seeking cooperation on oil and gas exploration in the area and to advance comprehensive collaboration on infrastructure construction, tourism and scientific expeditions.
 
East Africa
 
In May 2014, Premier Li Keqiang visited Kenya to sign a cooperation agreement with the Kenyan government. Under this agreement, the Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway was constructed connecting Mombasa to Nairobi. After completion, the railroad stretches approximately 300 miles (480 km) costing around $250 million USD.
 
In September 2015, China's Sinomach signed a strategic, cooperative memorandum of understanding with General Electric. The memorandum of understanding set goals to build wind turbines, to promote clean energy programs and to increase the number of energy consumers in sub-Saharan Africa.
 
Hong Kong
 
During his 2016 policy address, Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung's announced his intention of setting up a Maritime Authority aimed at strengthening Hong Kong's maritime logistics in line with Beijing's economic policy. Leung mentioned "One Belt, One Road" no fewer than 48 times during the policy address, but details were scant.
 
These are just a few of the hundreds of mega-million dollar initiatives. There will certainly be more.
 
China is already no1 world tourism source market, it is unlikely that this position will change for the foreseeable future particularly given the fact that it is forecast that up to 3billion Asian residents will become middle class by 2050.
 
Already the power of Chinese tourism is having a major effect on the Silk Road countries, for instance around Lake Baikal in Siberia there is local agitation as Chinese people buy property; near Almaty in Kazakhstan a major tourism development is taking place to attract Chinese to gamble and relax, also in Kazakhstan a mass tourism ski development is taking place to attract Chinese skiers.
 
It is a short step to Chinese branded hotels, restaurants, shops and other Chinese-run businesses all along the Silk Road even to Germany and Italy. It is an even shorter step to China centrally-organised tourism taking place from China to the Mediterranean.
 
Furthermore, China will own land, railways, ports and duty free shopping centres all along their road. The fact is that they already do.
 
The benefit to China? Wielding economic and political power through outbound tourism.
 
Bournemouth University’s tourism school has been seeking to gather a wide range of knowledge and study. They say “While there has been considerable scholarly work on soft power and the Belt and Road initiative (BRI), the political and economic investment in Chinese outbound tourism deserves greater attention. Whereas the number of trips abroad taken by Chinese citizens was in the tens of thousands in the 1980s, the current figure is well over 130m per year. While it may remain a marginal phenomenon in demographic or trade terms, tourism is a crucial issue in contemporary China, a major object of governmentality and a means to push soft power initiatives to receptive countries. As China exercises soft power using outbound tourism (and arts and culture more broadly), the growth of Chinese tourism has on the surface benefited the economies of Southeast Asian countries, who were traditionally reliant on long-haul, seasonal travellers from the west.”
 
“Tourism has been used by the Chinese authorities to enforce the construction of borders and boundaries in the South China Sea, leading to rising tensions. Just as many countries have eased their visa requirements for Chinese tourists, China has increasingly sought to police ‘low-end’ tourists who might undermine the Chinese authorities as they attempt to boost their influence on the international stage. The authorities have sought to attract members of the overseas Chinese community to Chinese through Root-Seeking Tour Summer Camps, organized by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, so as to teach the Chinese language and culture.”
 
“Questions have emerged about the linkages between tourism and politics, tourism and human rights, tourism and international migration patterns, and the impact of returning Chinese tourists on Chinese society.”
 
“These questions place the landscapes of Chinese tourists into a broader context. Chinese media increasingly highlight the growth of outbound tourism to particular counties, potential revenue and links to the Belt and Road Initiative.”
 
“While pitched as tourism projects, China has been accused of hiding its search for political, economic and military influence through tourism. As tourism projects embed infrastructure that supports the development of trade routes (global network of rail, roads, ports, pipelines, fibre-optic cables), does Chinese investment bring wealth, or will it be mainly kept within a closed loop of overseas Chinese communities and state linked businesses?”
 
“In Forest City, Johor Bahru (Malaysia), Chinese tourists are encouraged to buy Chinese-built apartments in a US$100 billion development mean to boast international schools, shopping malls, hotels and an immigration centre for approximately 700,000 Chinese residents.”
 
“The construction of the $1.4bn (£1.1bn) Port City project in Sri Lanka by the state-owned Chinese engineering firm China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) on 665 acres (2.6 sq km) of land is been marketed as a new Dubai, with luxury hotels, shopping malls and a marina.”
 
 While China pledges that the New Silk Road will be open, transparent and environmentally friendly, many of these projects appear to lack transparency and accountability. There are concerns that the standard 99-year leases for these projects will lead to social, economic and environmental challenges, such as opaque funding, exorbitant claims of their tourism potential, corruption, and population displacement. Questions are emerging as the differences between these projects and the past/current ones dominated by the West.”
 
“While the New Silk Road spans 65 different countries, Chinese tourism, more broadly, holds the potential to redefine tourism, infrastructure, economies and even the governance of many more countries, as Beijing establishes its own norms, rules and institutions.
 
A full report on the New Silk Road, it’s challenges and opportunities will be in Sustainable Tourism 2020. You can get a half price review copy if you subscribe now.
 
Independent, Incisive, Iconoclastic, the annual Sustainable Tourism Report has been published since 2003.
 
Subscribers include: Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Rezidor Hotel Group, Northern Ireland Tourist Board, University of Brighton, Tourism Ireland, The Nature Conservancy, Cleaner Climate, Virgin Group, Micato Safaris, Hilton Hotels Corp, Visit Britain, Canada Tourism, Tourism Innovation Group, Dublin Institute of Technology, Sabre Holdings, EplerWood Consultancy, Nichols Tourism Group, The Adventure Company, Exclusively Canada, University of Wales, University of Guelph, Sustainable Side of the Street, IFC, Discover Ltd, Griffith University, Australia, Yukon Tourist Board, Ipswich College, Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum, The Tourism Company, Citizen Development Corps, University of Hertfordshire, Disney Corp, Anglia Ruskin University, Kidderminster College, Olive Green Group, Six Senses Group, and many, many more.
 
Valere Tjolle

We all know that tourism is on a precipice. OK we play up the positives (usually numbers getting ever bigger!). But actually we know in our guts that it can’t go on like this.

Too much tourism related emissions, too many top destinations drowned by tourists, too much of tourism revenue being syphoned off by the OTAs, too many tourism-related terror outrages and natural disasters. Sooner or later the carousel is going to have to dramatically change or stop.

And that will affect all of us.

Whether you work as a DMC, for an OTA, at a DMO, travel marketing company, cruise company, airline, hotel, as a tourism teacher or student, whether you are a travel writer or blogger, if your career depends on tourism - tourism in crisis is going to affect you.

And you will need to make decisions. Then, obviously you will need the best information you can get. Not salesy stuff but quality, unbiased information.

You need to know the next wave so that you can jump on it - and you need to know that from an unbiased, independent, fact based, experience-based source - not from someone who wants to sell you something.

When the first Sustainable Tourism Report was produced some 17 years ago, many thought that it was just about the environment. Then they read it and loved it realising that sustainability means how we go forward - economically, culturally, socially and, yes, environmentally too. We are bound together by sustainability, as without it there would be no future.

In past reports we have highlighted many issues that have come to the fore and now there are many more.

Sustainable Tourism 2020 deals with some hard issues that will affect us all:

Readers will learn about the New Silk Road weaponizing tourism all the way from China to London; Mass tourism as a symptom of global addictions; how global security will play out in our dangerous world; how the airlines will pay for their emissions; how the Experience Economy is replacing tourism; how travel agents will come to the fore and one MASSIVE FINANCIAL OPPORTUNITY for everybody that could radically change our world for the better.

You can not only read it but you can be a part of it too. Subscribe for a report now and agree to write a review and you’ll get it half price HERE

It’ll be the best decision you’ll make in 2019.