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The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail: Sustainable Domestic Tourism

Written by Stephanie Romero on October 19, 2022. Posted in Blog, Uncategorized.

The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (LCNHT) commemorates the Corps of Discovery’s 1804-1806 expedition of the Louisiana Purchase. Led by Meriwether Lewis and Wiliam Clark, this epic journey contributed to significant changes to the land we now know as America. Ranging from political, social, economic, and cultural, these changes brought on by the Lewis and Clark expedition forever embodied the American spirit. To discover the new, to chart the unknown, and to ultimately, tell the story of our country.

“The Lewis and Clark Expedition is more than the story of two men. It is the story of many: individuals and groups, military men and scientists, a president and a slave, women and men, French-speaking boatment and American Indians. It is a story of loss and hope. It is a story of changes that began in 1803 and that continue today,” – U.S. National Park Service

Solimar has been supporting this project since September 2016.

Where is the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail?

The LCNHT is one of the most extensive national historic trails in the United States. Stretching across 16 states, it is approximately 4,900 miles long from Pennsylvania to Oregon. The trail runs through eight National Park Service units and identifies as many as 50 Native American tribe communities throughout the entirety of the trail. When the National Park Service (NPS) decided to commemorate this historic expedition in 1978, it identified and marked the routes and sites of the trailblazing journey. In doing so, the National Park Service’s mission statement to protect, interpret, and preserve the resources associated with the public’s history fostered a relationship between the past and the present.

The LCNHT – State by State:

Pennsylvania
West Virginia
Ohio
Kentucky
Indiana
Illinois
Missouri
Kansas
Iowa
Nebraska
South Dakota
North Dakota
Montana
Idaho
Washington
Oregon

The LCNHT Today

From its humble but ambitious origins, today the LCNHT reflects the “story of many ” through its place-based authenticity. Today, local communities and cultures near the trail are more abundant than ever. The result of these growing communities has provided an opportunity that encourages domestic and international visitors to experience everything the trail has to offer. As a result, the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Geotourism Program was born.

The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Geotourism Program

Destined to engage tourism stakeholders across the entire trail, the Geotourism program is designed to protect, manage, and promote sustainable tourism on the LCNHT. To accomplish this, local destination management organizations are encouraging increased public participation along this historic journey with a focus on respect for the land and local resources. Local ambassadors and storytellers are working together to increase education about how to be a sustainable tourist along the trail so local communities can reap the benefits of tourism. Additionally, stakeholders have worked in tandem with the communities and nations to ensure the most sustainable and beneficial outcomes. Locals understand what makes their town stand out and know why their town should be a tourist destination along the trail. Solimar has worked on other geotourism projects like the Sedona Verde Valley Tourism Council in Arizona and Four Corners, USA.

All this hard work from the collaboration among the stakeholders led to the travel website (lewisandclark.travel), a visitor themed interactive guide to exploring the LCNHT.

What is LewisandClark.Travel?

The travel website for the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail provides domestic and international visitors with a variety of tools like the interactive map to help plan their vacation. The interactive guided map helps visitors plan their trip depending on five different regions.

The Ohio River (Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania)
The Missouri Traverse (Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa)
The Great Plains (North and South Dakota)
The Plains to Peaks (Montana and Idaho)
The Columbia River (Oregon and Washington)

The geotourism program for the LCNHT is targeted toward travelers who seek authentic travel and historical experiences, but also towards those who care about the preservation of the destination’s history and culture. Because their willingness to pay on vacations is, these travelers are more likely to support small local businesses during their trip. They are more easily encouraged to stay at local hotels and inns, shop at independent businesses, eat locally, and interact with the host communities. The proceeds from those spending behaviors would better benefit the local communities and Native American nations placed along the trail.

Navigating the website

With an increase in local shops, restaurants and sites along the LCNHT, there is so much to see and do. There is something for everyone on the trail. And below are some sections of the website that can help structure your trip:

One of the five regions (Ohio River, Missouri Traverse, Great Plains, Plains to Peaks, Columbia River)
Historic places (e.g., Musée de Venoge, Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site)
Natural areas
Local points of interest
Tribal lands, cultures and sites

Travelers can plan their trip according to where they want to go. If you are interested in outdoor adventure, you can always lose yourself in an Arbor Day themed adventure park. The examples and options to plan your trip are virtually (no pun intended) endless. You could also structure your trip around specific events, like the Amelia Earhart Festival held every summer in Kansas, or if you’re a foodie you can always try out the chocolate crawl in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.

There’s truly something for everyone on the trail! Whether you’re looking to discover new cultures, learn history, or discover new shops, traveling the LCNHT will help you discover new things.

And the best part of it is that your trip doesn’t have to be cut short. There are many charming local options for lodgings to rest and relax before starting the next day of your expedition. From famous local bed and breakfasts to campgrounds, why stay in a run of the mill corporate hotel chain when you can enhance your experience by staying with welcoming locals?

Check out www.lewisandclark.travel to plan your next road trip along this historic trail.

What are the Different Types of Tourism?

Written by Veronic Santapa on October 13, 2022. Posted in Blog, Uncategorized.

As one of the most powerful industries in the world, tourism has a great potential to become a force for good when driving economic and social development. However, this can only be achieved by appropriate planning – and with so many different types of tourism, it can sometimes be hard to accomplish. This article is about the main types of tourism that Solimar supports – sustainable, regenerative, geo- and ecotourism. While their definitions may overlap, here are their definitions and reasons that make them significant to the industry.

1. Sustainable tourism

What is sustainable tourism?

Many definitions of sustainable tourism exist, but at its simplest – it is an umbrella term describing tourism that aims to minimize the negative impacts of the industry’s activities. According to the World Tourism Organization, “sustainable tourism takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental aspects, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities”.

Tourism can take a great toll on the environment, especially in fragile places such as marine ecosystems or coasts. However, the lives of local people can be disturbed too, with over tourism and gentrification becoming growing phenomena. Moreover, sustainable tourism is also about the economic development of destinations. This can be, unfortunately, suppressed by economic leakages, which means that revenues generated by tourism are not used for the destination improvement; instead, the international multi-chain companies use them solely to gain profit. Sustainable tourism aims to ensure the aforementioned aspects are prevented, so that tourism can become an actual force for good.

Is sustainable tourism even possible?

Despite some challenges, tourism has the power to be sustainable – and this can be achieved by so many different initiatives!

First of all, community-based tourism can be implemented to limit the negative impacts of tourism on the livelihoods of local communities. This type of tourism falls under the term of “sustainable tourism” and aims to highlight the importance of host communities in tourism planning by using a bottom-up approach. Tourism can also be used as a tool to support conservation, which covers wildlife, cultural and environmental types of preservation. As tourists, we can have a great influence on conservation efforts by choosing and supporting the right organizations.

Sustainable tourism is about making decisions that have a positive influence on destinations, and it is a responsibility of all the industry’s stakeholders, including visitors, hotel managers, supply chains, local or national governments. Therefore, collaborating is crucial to maintain the sustainable tourism development.

2. Regenerative tourism

What is regenerative tourism?

While sustainable tourism ensures that visited places are preserved for the future generations, regenerative tourism takes a step further. This newly emerging approach seeks to go beyond not causing harm when traveling, but rather strives for a “leave it better than you found it” approach. This requires a more holistic mindset that makes travel experiences connected with nature and local communities. Regenerative travel is travel that actually contributes to restoration and revitalization.

Regenerative tourism builds its foundation on nature-based solutions, which are actions that “manage, protect, and restore nature”. These practical solutions need to be implemented to protect and rebuild ecosystems and communities. Regenerative models emphasize creating value for the communities, which can only be achieved when tourism is recognized as an interrelated living system in which local knowledge is integrated.

Why is regenerative tourism important? Is it an effective type of tourism?

Given the rapidly growing climate crisis, there is a need for more resilient frameworks and systems that result in the actual regeneration of communities and ecosystems. Many adverse changes stemming from global warming are irreversible – therefore, sustaining the environment is no longer enough. Climate change should be addressed by action and regeneration. Regenerative tourism is often referred to as a paradigm shift that should become the only way forward.

What are the examples of regenerative tourism?

Regenerative Travel is a cutting-edge example of how tourism can support regeneration. It is a platform and community for boutique eco-hotels that share a common vision of creating positive social and environmental impacts for local people and their surroundings. Regenerative Travel supports its members with continual evaluation and provides knowledge of the best sustainable practices to ensure greenwashing is avoided at all times.

Regenerative tourism already exists in many indigenous-owned companies. Seeking regeneration is already rooted in their way of thinking, as they deeply care about the environment and possess the essential knowledge that positively impacts the land and local communities. There is so much to learn from the Native tribes, as they are the ones that live in a deep connection with our planet.

To learn more about the practical examples of regenerative tourism, read the latest white paper published by our Director of Conservation & Community Development – Chloe King, who worked alongside Regenerative Travel and The Long Run on this outstanding research project.

3. Geotourism

What is the definition of Geotourism?

The definition of Geotourism was coined by National Geographic and it describes tourism as a force capable of enhancing and sustaining the geographical character of a place including its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and locals’ well-being. . It clearly shares few of the aspects of sustainable tourism, but differently from it, Geotourism is not considered a niche market. In fact, according to a study published by the Travel Industry Association of America in 2003, American travelers had already embraced geotourism before the concept and practice of sustainable tourism became of global importance.

Geotourism principles

As we mentioned, geotourism includes some elements of sustainable tourism, but how is it possible to identify one type of tourism from another? National Geographic thought of that and established the three key principles of geotourism.

Principle 1: Environmental responsibility – Geotourism focuses on appreciating, protecting and maintaining natural resources and biodiversity.
Principle 2: Cultural responsibility – Geotourism aims to preserve and enhance the local communities’ heritage, traditions and culture.
Principle 3: Synergy

The third principle determines how geotourism can be achievable: with synergy. In other words, it is vital that all the geographical characteristics of a place are combined to create a diverse, rich and fulfilling travel experience for different types of travelers.

Geotourism destination example: Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (USA)

A great example of geotourism is the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail linked to the historic expedition of Lewis and Clark. The route of the trail is a part of the National Trails System of the United States. It extends for 7,900 km crossing 16 states- from Pennsylvania to Oregon. The Lewis and Clark trail offers travelers the opportunity to retrace the explorers’ steps through spectacular landscapes and to learn about interesting history and the unique culture of each town that is along the route.

Solimar International has been working on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail project since 2016 to improve the connection among the services and tourists’ products available along the route and to make them easily accessible to visitors. Solimar helped to launch the website Lewis and Clark Travel, where the local stakeholders can advertise their business to visitors. Navigating through the website is simple and there is an interactive map which facilitates the visitors’ search through areas of interest on the trail!

4. Ecotourism

What is ecotourism?

Ecotourism aims to reduce the negative impacts of tourism and it is in line with the environmental concerns of the sustainable tourism practice. This niche market is becoming more and more popular among travelers as a sustainable substitute to mass tourism.

Type of tourism definition: ecotourism

The International Ecotourism Society defines ecotourism as the responsible way to travel to natural areas. Ecotourism is important as it involves conservation, interpretation and education of such environments, as well as aiming to sustain the well-being of the local people. Ecotourism is a nature-based form of tourism practiced by tourists interested in experiencing nature and appreciating the traditional cultures established in those natural areas.

Why is ecotourism important?

To better understand what ecotourism is , what it offers and why it is important, we will briefly go through the main benefits of this practice.

Increase environmental awareness: Tourists and local communities engaging in ecotourism activities become more aware of a range of environmental issues such as global warming, loss of natural resources and endangerment of wild species.

Preservation of the environment for future generations: As a result of the positive implications of ecotourism activities in certain areas, many environments can be protected and preserved for future generations.

Boost cross-cultural knowledge: Tourists participating in ecotourism have the opportunity to experience native communities closely, learn more about their culture and appreciate their traditions.

Support the local economy: In most cases, ecotourism is practiced in remote areas, where the local population does not have many job opportunities. This form of tourism can contribute to reducing poverty by creating job opportunities for the locals and generating revenues to re-invest and to improve the locals’ quality of life.

Ecotourism destination example: Liberia

Liberia is home to the Upper Guinean Rainforest, and its ecosystems contain the highest levels of biodiversity in the region. Ecotourism practices would preserve the environment and the endangered species of this area and reduce the threats such as poaching and deforestation. Additionally, ecotourism would create opportunities for sustainable local economic growth. Solimar has been working on a 5-year conservation project in the country to assist all the local activities in order to establish ecotourism. Solimar aims to develop an inclusive, multi-sectoral approach that engages communities in the management of protected areas, enabling them to be capable of conserving Liberia’s rich biodiversity and ensuring sustainable long-term economic growth.

So, what is the best type of tourism?

While there is no definite answer on which type of tourism is the best one, there’s one thing we know for sure: tourism is best when it uses its power to generate positive impacts on the environment, local people, and the local economy of the destinations.

Interested in learning more about these types of tourism? Keep up with Solimar and our new projects- don’t forget to like us on Facebook and LinkedIn!

Blog by Veronica Santapa and Izabela Soja

Tourism Development Internship: Get to Know Solimar’s Fall 2022 Interns

Written by Jenny Lundt on October 13, 2022. Posted in Blog.

Solimar International is pleased to announce our Fall 2022 Travel Writing and Tourism Development Internship Cohort! This semester’s cohort is comprised of 14 inspired individuals with a common interest in sustainable development and tourism. As you will see, each intern has a unique background and experiences that will be highly beneficial to our work. We hope to equip these interns with the knowledge and skills they need to become industry leaders by providing them with hands-on experience in several of our current projects and actively participating in the vision and mission of Solimar International. Without further ado, this fall’s outstanding class of our tourism development internship!

Meet the Current Tourism Development Internship Cohort:

Ellison Fellers

Ellison holds a BS in Sustainability in Business from Ohio State University and is currently enrolled at the University of Copenhagen, obtaining her MSc in Global Development. Ellison comes with experience working for a US-based NGO within the field of public health, leading volunteer trips to Argentina, Tanzania, Indonesia, India, and Kenya. Ellison currently works within the tourism sector on a development and innovation team striving to promote more sustainable and inclusive tourism experiences. As an avid traveler, her thirst for exploring every pocket of the planet continues to fuel her adventures abroad. She’s hoping to continue to combine her passions by exploring the intersection of tourism and development through regenerative and community-based applications.

Lalith Chowdary Kankanala

I am a master’s student in Hospitality and Tourism Management from the Manipal Academy of Higher Education in India. I am currently enrolled at Sustainability Management School in Switzerland, pursuing a Dual CAS in Sustainable Hospitality and Tourism Management. I have experience organizing trips, particularly in the sustainable tourism sector, where I emphasize the importance of sustainability and help people understand why it is so important. I hope to gain more experience in gastronomy tourism and project management through this internship at Solimar International.

Lassana Ndiaye

Lassana Ndiaye is a senior at the African Leadership University in Kigali, where she studies Global Challenges Studies with a focus on Wildlife Conservation and Environmental Related Studies. His passion for environmental and wildlife conservation began during the fall semester of 2019 when he had the opportunity to study abroad in Rwanda. During his internship with Maliasili, he learned how wildlife management affects indigenous communities. He worked as an intern in Climate resilience and Anticipatory Action Early Warming (AA) with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO). Lassana is fluent in English and French. Lassana hopes to pursue a career in climate resilience and write a policy for a government agency due to her international experience. When he is not reading about current events around the world related to disasters caused by global warming, he enjoys basketball, football, and morning running.

Grace Jaworski

Grace is a third-year student at The Ohio State University working towards her bachelor’s in Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability, specializing in Business and Sustainability and a minor in photography. After spending the spring collaborating with university leaders on projects focused on energy consumption, Grace decided to shift gears and pursue her passions for photography and sustainable travel more directly. This internship at Solimar International has already shown her how a love for photography can be connected with marketing sustainable travel, and Grace is excited to connect with others who have similar passions!

Eileen Dinn

Eileen Dinn is currently a senior at the College of William & Mary in historic Williamsburg, VA where she studies Government and Integrative Conservation. She has a variety of work experience but, most notably, was recently co-leading the development of an administrative proposal regarding future strategic planning for James Monroe’s former property, Highland, located in Albemarle, VA. Through this project, Eileen could dive deeper into the concept of sustainable tourism and incorporate those principles into the proposal. She is enthusiastic about traveling and learning more about the world around her and always strives to find solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.

Tom Hinkel

Tom Hinkel holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and is currently a graduate student at American University’s School of International Service. He has professional experience in both sustainable development and conservation as well as in the government SaaS industry. His undergraduate professional experience gave him knowledge of various conservation efforts, such as protecting the Okavango Delta in Namibia. He is also an avid researcher with academic interests in Europe, Eurasia, and sub-Saharan Africa. With these interests, he has beneficial knowledge of the political context of numerous regions.

Tom studied abroad in Berlin and utilized this opportunity to travel throughout Europe. He was fascinated by the local Catalonian government’s actions toward establishing sustainable tourism practices in Park Güell. During his internship, Tom is excited at the opportunity to further his understanding of sustainable tourism development and how the sector interacts with national governments.

Noelle Faiza

As a child, Noelle’s annual trips to visit her family in Tunisia during US school breaks planted a seed that evolved into a passion for travel. Her dual nationality made her curious about the world’s diverse cultures and political systems. At 16, she moved to the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she lived for two years as a United World College (UWC) Davis Scholar. The UWC mission of making education a force to build bridges has become a lifelong philosophy for Noelle, which she applies to many areas of her life. In line with this ethos, she believes travel is one of the most engaging forms of education possible. This past summer, she was awarded the National Security Language Institute for Youth Scholarship to study Arabic in Amman, Jordan, for six weeks. Aside from academic travel experiences, Noelle has backpacked through Montenegro and Croatia, biked 250 kilometers through Bosnia and Herzegovina, and explored the Côte d’Azur via public transportation. Through every experience, she seeks to learn from the people who live in the places she visits to understand the location in a multi-faceted way.

Madison Tomaso

Madison Tomaso is currently taking a gap year and plans to study Political Science. She is from Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina. She is passionate about preserving cultural heritage, traveling, and studying foreign languages. As an experienced traveler, she is interested in learning about sustainable tourism. Madison is thrilled to have the opportunity to intern with Solimar International to expand her knowledge. She is excited to bring her skills to Solimar to help benefit the communities along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

Mavi Wilches

From an early age, Mavi was able to adapt to a nomadic lifestyle from the moment she left Colombia, where she was born, and as she moved from the United States to Brazil, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. She recalls this lifestyle was a life-changing experience, without a doubt, but it was only years later that she truly realized its long-lasting impact. The academic and personal experiences she has gained by transiting through these cultures has allowed her to develop soft skills based on empathy, respect, and appreciation for diversity. As a result, these lessons on multiculturalism, cross-cultural skills, and multilingualism have awakened in her interest in combining development goals with the sustainable tourism paradigm in an attempt to advance social inclusion, community empowerment, and gender equality. She believes this is precisely where Solimar’s Fall Virtual Internship Program fits in!

Mavi looks forward to learning from destination management planning as she assists in simultaneous projects taking place in Tunisia, the Congo, and Timor-Leste, among others. Her goal is to use this experience to decide the next steps, as she just graduated from Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo, Brazil, and now holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration.

Kat Orellana

Kat holds a BS in Biology and Environmental Science from Duke University and is pursuing a Master’s of Environmental Science and Management (MESM) at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Bren School of the Environment. Kat has worked on conservation initiatives through National Geographic’s Big Cats Week and Saving Nature’s Corridor Reforestation Projects. Through her time spent living, working, and backpacking abroad, she witnessed the impacts travel can have on terrestrial and marine ecosystems, as well as its effects on the surrounding communities. Her experiences have instilled a love of travel and an urgency to protect our world’s wild places. Kat is motivated to increase benefits for both biodiversity and local communities through tourism and is excited to join Solimar International’s tourism development internship cohort to create a larger space for sustainability and responsible tourism within the travel industry.

Marissa Volkman

Marissa’s interest in global affairs began in high school when she had the chance to meet with representatives of the United Nations to discuss unemployment in the European Union. She went on to study at Colgate University in order to take advantage of the school’s ample study-abroad opportunities. As an undergraduate, she majored in English and double minored in philosophy and writing/rhetoric, choosing courses highlighting international perspectives. Outside of the classroom, she edited her school newspaper and pursued extra-curricular opportunities in linguistics to fulfill her ardor for cultural exploration. After completing her B.A. in May 2021, Marissa earned a TEFL certification and began teaching English online. In February 2022, she traveled to Germany to intern at a non-profit, where she worked to highlight locals’ cross-national social histories while fostering community engagement. Her internship demonstrated how tourism could be used to reinvigorate a small town and shifted Marissa’s career goals back towards her passion for international affairs, now focusing on the tourism sector. As an avid backpacker whose zeal for preserving linguistic and cultural diversity directs her travels, Marissa is thrilled to be breaking into the sustainable tourism industry by joining Solimar’s tourism development internship. She is dedicated to using her time here to ensure tourism enriches both travelers and developing touristic communities around the world.

Catherine Padgett

Cat has just completed her master’s degree in Food Security from the University of Edinburgh. As part of this master’s, she completed a dissertation on the intersections of food security and mangrove conservation efforts in Bangladesh’s Sundarban Delta. Solimar was a project partner in this research, providing local connections and project supervision. Through this research opportunity, Cat could travel to Dacope, a sub-district of Bangladesh’s Khulna district, to conduct in-person fieldwork. Here, she worked with one of Solimar’s Bangladesh project partners: Bangladesh Environment and Development Society, a local NGO. This opportunity cemented her drive to pursue research as a career path, supporting projects that center on smallholder livelihood development, local perspectives, and community-based initiatives for the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Megan O’Beirne

Megan is passionate about sustainable development, regenerative travel, and environmental education. For the past five years, she has worked as a sustainability professional in the luxury hospitality industry, first in Laamu Atoll, Maldives, and then in Cartagena, Colombia. She has bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Studies and Global Studies from the University of California Santa Barbara. She is currently working on a dual master’s degree in International Affairs, Natural Resources, and Sustainable Development from American University in Washington, DC, and the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica. She will be working on Solimar’s Climate Adaptation Project in the Maldives, which aims to incentivize the private sector to invest in nature-based solutions. Megan is an avid bike commuter, scuba diver, nature photographer, and international cook/eater.

Anaïs Prado Cornaro

Anaïs grew up in Switzerland but coming from a multicultural background, as her parents had both grown up in various countries, she has a passion and curiosity to explore and get to know new cultures and ways of life. From a young age, she has been drawn to nature and its preservation. Hence she plans to study Environmental Engineering at ETH Zurich. While traveling, she has seen many of the wrong sides of tourism and is immensely interested in Solimar’s work incorporating the local communities. Grateful for being a part of the Tunisia project, she hopes to gain clarity on some of the central issues and how Solimar solves them.

Want to learn more about Solimar International’s tourism development internship? Read more and apply for our Spring 2023 internship program here.

Blog by: Lassana Ndiaye

DMOs destination management planning across many maps

Why DMOs must be about Management, not just Marketing

Written by Veronic Santapa on October 11, 2022. Posted in Blog.

DMOs are crucial organizations within the tourism industry. They were primarily established to promote destinations. However, with the rapid growth of tourism, the need for its sustainability and management of the sector eventually emerged. Therefore, whether DMOs should focus only on marketing or broaden their activities and be a management organization is part of the future agenda. At Solimar, we have seen time and time again why the M in DMO must also be about destination management, and not just destination marketing.

Let’s define what a DMO is, what roles they fulfill within a destination, and find out why these roles are mostly related to the management of the destination:

What is a DMO?

DMO stands for Destination Marketing/Management Organization. At times, the role of a DMO is mistakenly perceived to be limited to the marketing efforts, but in reality, DMOs contribute majorly to the development aspects of a destination too. Effectively, the UNWTO defines it as “the leading organizational entity which may encompass the various authorities, stakeholders, and professionals and facilitates partnerships towards a collective destination vision”. Thus, DMOs are not only about marketing, but also about management. But what do DMOs manage exactly?

Why are DMOs important?

Originally DMOs were established to competitively market the destinations by image-making, branding, and advertising what a place has to offer to tourists. However, in order for a destination to be successful, applying good marketing strategies or setting up an outstanding promotional campaign is no longer enough. Strategic management of the destination is also extremely important. Thus, it is clear that for the future of more sustainable tourism, DMOs must take the lead, as they hold the skills and the knowledge to support the destination through the management of tourism activities. Additionally, they have the ability and the tools to monitor the destination’s performance, allowing them to create the most suitable and sustainable approach to destination development.

To effectively manage a destination, DMOs should:

Manage the variety of different stakeholders involved in tourism. This is also connected to the creation of a common website platform, where stakeholders can engage and contribute to the destination’s development
Consult visitor-related sectors, namely, accommodation, food and other services related to tourism. To this regard, DMOs also facilitate the introduction of quality standards in service
Help communities become more visible. Developed and advanced communities raise the sense of pride among their residents
Support local economies
Encourage sustainable development of tourism

As shown, apart from marketing and brand image creation, DMOs can truly contribute to developing sustainable destinations.

What is destination management?

DMOs are vital for touristic destinations, especially where national or local governments struggle to manage and control all the activities related to tourism. DMOs are especially crucial in the destinations with emerging economies and the tourism sector. The roles of DMOs involve destination development, management of all the available assets and monitoring of the tourism impacts at the destination. DMOs’ ultimate goal is to maintain the destination successful, competitive, and socially and economically developed, and in order to achieve that, it is necessary to create and implement the destination’s development plan.

Destination Development

DMOs’ main role is destination development. Destination development includes a range of different activities, such as marketing efforts, improvement or diversification of tourism products and quality of the services supplied. For DMOs, it is crucial to create a development plan which will lead all the activities in the short or long-term perspective. With the development plan, DMOs set the target goals and indicators for businesses, communication, marketing and product development. All the actions taken by the local stakeholders and the DMO itself should be in line with the destination development plan.

Much of Solimar’s work is oriented on destination development, as many destinations and, consequently, DMOs need facilitation and support at their early stage.

Management and coordination of destination assets

Every destination comprises a variety of resources provided by different organizations, and these resources need to be coordinated accurately to develop a competitive and sustainable tourism offer. The development and maintenance of a tourism destination is a complex process, and it requires a strategy capable of generating and sustaining synergy among all the various elements involved in the sector.

Local stakeholders, entrepreneurs, government, citizens and visitors have their own roles at the destination, and they are all part of the development process. It is the DMO’s prerogative to bring together representatives from each group to establish integrated and regular interactions and collaborations. These collaborations are essential to create the tourism product, the destination strategy, policy and crisis management plans to foster investments and funding and to evaluate the overall destination’s performance. Moreover, DMOs are also expected to provide services related to the improvement of physical and human resources, supply assistance and advice for hospitality and tourism businesses.

Solimar International’s examples of DMO and asset management

Solimar recognizes the value and importance of DMOs – collaborating with them is a key part of many of our projects. But most importantly, we strategically assist destinations where such institutions are inexistent, but are essential for a sustainable tourism development.

For example, in our current project USAID Visit Tunisia, we are supporting the country in differentiating its tourism offer by promoting six lesser known regions in the country. In most cases, tourism in Tunisia is solely managed by the national tourism organization. The lack of regional DMOs compromises these emerging destinations’ possibility to create and implement a tourism strategy and development plan adequate enough to support the emerging destination and its success.

For this reason, Solimar is assisting these destinations by encouraging and facilitating the dialogue between the public and private sector and the local communities at a regional level. Under the guidance of our expert Solimar team, the local stakeholders are collaborating and drafting destination development plans, which they are also using to advocate for a local DMO to be established with the help of the national tourism organization. Through this project, we are also supporting Destination Dahar, the first DMO in the country.

Why DMOs must monitor tourism impacts

As the tourism market and destinations change and evolve, they create an immediate urge of monitoring the impacts created by the tourism activities. This is crucial to evaluate and manage the change and respond to the challenges.

The main goals of monitoring are:

To understand the effects of tourism
To identify improvements or/and challenges. This will help the future planning and response
To enable destinations to remain competitive

Another aim of monitoring is to find out how strategic goals of the destinations are met and measure the main indicators of the destination development. Monitoring impacts helps DMOs collect data on tourism activities. This facilitates the process of analyzing the tourism impacts and coming up with an adequate response, in particular to the most challenging ones. This way DMOs stay responsible, accountable, and fulfill their strategic goals.

DMOs track positive and negative impacts of tourism

Monitoring tourism impacts covers the following main areas: economic, social and environmental. Tourism impacts can be seen as negative and positive. Growing number of visitors positively contributes to the economic growth within the destination. However, it can also cause some threats to the cultural and natural assets of the destination if not managed and controlled properly. For example, in the case of cultural heritage, not well-managed visitor flows can cause damage to the sites.Or in the case of nature, tourism can cause major environmental challenges.

As seen above, monitoring helps DMOs to evaluate tourism impacts and take the appropriate measures. Various projects implemented by Solimar across the globe cover supporting development of DMOs and naturally, this involves facilitating them to acquire different roles, including monitoring the tourism impacts and effectively responding to it. Solimar’s ongoing project Bangladesh Ecotourism and Conservation Alliance envisages supporting one of the most important protected areas – the Sundarbans. With the project, Solimar works to implement a series of interventions in order to improve tourism and natural resources management in the area. One of the outcomes is creating a local DMO, which will unite the private and public sector and contribute to the conservation of the protected areas through sustainable governance.

So, why must DMOs make this shift?

DMOs facilitate the social and economic development of the destinations. This is especially important in the case of societies where tourism and the economy are in their emerging phase. In this process, fulfilling merely a marketing goal is not enough. Through proper management and leadership, DMOs can create inspiring and attractive destinations that will contribute to their socio-economic growth.

Interested in discovering how Solimar can support the management of your destination? Find more information about our services and training courses. And don’t forget to check out more Solimar blog posts to learn everything about the importance of DMOs: here and here.

Blog by Veronica Santapa and Teona Zhuzhunadze

Climate Change and Tourism: How Destinations Are Responding to the Climate Crisis (Part 2)

Written by Shivya Nath on July 22, 2022. Posted in Blog, Uncategorized.

In part one of this series, we discussed how tourism and climate change are inextricably linked. Nature-based tourism is becoming increasingly vulnerable to changing weather patterns, while the nature of tourism itself contributes 8% of global emissions. The landmark Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism – launched at COP26 – urged destinations and the tourism industry to reduce carbon emissions by 50% before 2030, and reach Net Zero as soon as possible by 2050. Solimar Internationa’s recent white paper publication echoed this commitment, designing Five Principles for tourism businesses to invest in Nature-based Solutions to respond to the causes and consequences of climate change (see photo). In addition to a mitigation pathway of measuring and reducing emissions, it is imperative for governments and businesses to simultaneously invest in climate change adaptation – using tourism as a means to build, finance and sustain climate resilient destinations.

Five Principles for Effective Nature-based Solutions in Tourism from Solimar International’s report Climate Action through Regeneration: Unlocking the Power of Communities and Nature through Tourism

The World Economic Forum (2020) estimated that over half of global GDP, US $44 trillion, is potentially threatened by loss of nature and biodiversity, while the transition to a nature-positive economy could create 395 million jobs by 2030, or around one fifth of the total projected increase in global labor force (World Economic Forum, 2020). Global investments in NbS already surpassed US $133 billion in 2020—only 14% of which came from private finance (UNEP, 2021a; UNEP and IUCN, 2021). The UN State of Finance for Nature report 2021 argues this investment must triple by 2030 if we are to meet global climate and biodiversity goals.

The second in this article series showcases how we can increase investment in nature in destinations around the world–including those that we support through our international development projects–to respond to the consequences of climate change by investing in actions that will protect and restore nature and communities.

The Sundarbans Reserve Forest – Bangladesh

The Sundarbans Reserved Forest in Bangladesh is the largest mangrove forest on Earth, home to the Bengali tiger and hundreds of bird, fish, mammal, and reptile species. Spanning three wildlife sanctuaries across 317,950 hectares, including Ramsar and World Heritage Sites, the Sundarbans provides sustainable livelihoods for millions of people and act as a shelter belt to protect communities from storms, cyclones, tidal surges, and seawater intrusion.

The Sundarbans Reserve Forest in Bangladesh. Photo by Chloe King

A total of 7.79 million people live in the Sundarbans Impact Zone, with about 28 percent of people from this zone directly dependent on the Sundarbans for their livelihoods, including as woodcutters, fishermen, and gatherers of honey, leaves, and grass. However, according to a recent study, Bangladesh lost 73 percent of mangrove forest cover since the 1960s, with only 11 percent of the country remaining forested (Bangladesh Forest Inventory). Nearly 2.5 million people depend upon the SRF for their livelihoods (Gopal and Chauhan, 2018), and the mangrove forest naturally shields millions from increasingly erratic weather events, such as Cyclone Amphan that hit the coast in 2020, the most powerful to strike Bangladesh in 20 years (AlJazeera, 2020). Unsustainable development, such as the Ramsar Coal Fired Power Plant, under construction only 4km away from the buffer zone of the SRF may provide jobs, but ultimately risk undermining the natural climate protection the SRF offers (Chowdhury, 2017).

USAID/Bangladesh, in partnership with the Bangladesh Ecotourism and Conservation Alliance (BECA) implemented by Solimar International and the Government of Bangladesh, is currently focusing on interventions in and this iconic tourism destination and arguably most important protected area. By ensuring that tourism develops sustainably and is better distributed to local communities, this project hopes to reduce pressure on natural resource extraction, while also deterring environmentally destructive industries from developing around the periphery of the reserve. The communities living around the periphery of the last great mangrove forest cannot afford to lose the living lungs of the Earth. Without nature and wildlife, humanity can neither address the climate crisis as a whole, nor save those who are most vulnerable to its consequences.

Climate Change Adaptation in the Maldives and Sri Lanka

Climate risks in the Maldives and Sri Lanka are growing in frequency and intensity. Sea level rise, coastal storm surges, and flooding pose a significant threat to the Maldives, where more than 80% of the land area is less than one meter above sea level. Flooding and drought in Sri Lanka are among many of the consequences of climate change that negatively impact the most important elements of Sri Lanka’s economy. For these reasons, both countries have policy frameworks in place that identify climate change risks and prioritize adaptation strategies.

The USAID Climate Adaptation Project (CAP) is a five-year project in the Maldives and Sri Lanka where its purpose is to enhance the adaptive capacities of the public and private sectors and local communities to respond to the impact of climate change. The first year of the activity (2022) is focused on the Maldives, and Solimar International is leading the private sector engagement for the project. CAP will help identify and scale up solutions to climate-related challenges, strengthen governance to address climate-related risks, and improve access to high-quality information for decision-making to reduce vulnerability to climate change. Solimar will support this work by identifying innovative solutions to adaptively manage climate-related risk through market-driven private sector and community engagement.

Tourism operators in the Maldives have the unique ability to take advantage of increased interest in and funding for Nature-based Solutions for climate mitigation, while simultaneously utilizing these same solutions to respond to societal challenges and help their respective destinations adapt to the realities of climate change. Tourism can play an important role in helping communities adapt to this new reality and build resilience to future risks. For example, many of the resorts and tourism businesses in the Maldives are already investing in coral reef restoration through organizations such as Reefscapers. However, interviews with businesses revealed that this restoration work is not being done in a consistent or effective manner, with lack of national policy guidelines for tourism operators.

Coral reef ecosystems in the Maldives are threatened by climate change and coastal tourism development. A more sustainable industry can help to mitigate both of these threats. Photo by Chloe King

An example of nature based solutions include mangrove tourism projects. On the Maldives’ Huvadhoo Atoll, mangroves were covered with sand to reduce mosquito populations; however, flooding also increased as a result. Local communities pushed for restoration and the construction of eco-huts which linked tourism and mangrove restoration. Solimar is exploring opportunities for destination management at other mangrove sites in the Maldives, linking mangrove ecotourism to support conservation. These models of nature based solutions can be further explored to link tourism and climate change adaptation.

Another opportunity for tourism to be involved in climate adaptation includes creating structures that protect and nourish sand and shorelines in ways that are nature-based and nature-positive. For example, living sea walls can be created as a blend of hard engineering seawall solutions that foster growth in coral and other marine life. This could offer an opportunity to resorts in the Maldives that are looking to invest in sea walls to create more environmentally-friendly and adaptive solutions.

Are you a tourism business or destination with innovative ideas for climate adaptation? Are you financing nature restoration or protection in new or exciting ways? Take our survey here for a chance to be a featured business in an upcoming white paper publication: https://tinyurl.com/enterprise-nbs-survey

By Shivya Nath, Alexandria Kleinschmidt, Annie Combs, and Chloe King

WE DEVELOP, MANAGE, AND MARKET SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DESTINATIONS

Tag: sustainable tourism