HZ Knowledge Center for Coastal Tourism (HZ KCKT) is one of the contributors to the new report, 'Creating Equitable Destinations: How to Manage and Distribute Tourism’s Value to Better Serve Communities'. The report outlines forty actions to distribute the benefits of tourism more fairly across popular destinations. Currently, this distribution is often unequal. For example, in sunny destinations where tourists stay in international hotels, only a small group benefits from tourism, while local entrepreneurs and residents benefit very little.
In addition to HZ KCKT, other contributors include the Travel Foundation, the Centre of Expertise in Leisure, Tourism and Hospitality (CELTH), the European Tourism Futures Institute (ETFI), Breda University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions (NBTC), and Destination Think.
Due to the current, often skewed distribution, tourists enjoy all that beautiful destinations have to offer, while residents sometimes only feel the negative effects, such as crowding and rising housing prices. How can tourism revenues also reach local populations? The report provides destination managers and similar organizations with a clear roadmap of practical recommendations, such as:
- Taxes, revenue-sharing, and financing models: Through taxation programs and revenue-sharing, tourism income can be invested locally, for example through tourism taxes used for projects like infrastructure improvements and housing.
- Promoting local entrepreneurship: By supporting business incubation and training programs, local entrepreneurs can better benefit from tourism. In South Africa, such programs have led to the growth of small businesses in the tourism sector.
- Market regulation and regulatory tools: This includes licensing, ethical supply chains, pricing models, access regulations, and zoning practices.
- Tourism products that enhance local culture and nature: By creating tourism activities that highlight local culture and nature—such as ecotourism in Costa Rica—travelers gain a unique experience, and the community benefits in the long term.
- Collaborating with local residents: A key lesson from the report is that destination managers should collaborate more closely with local communities and other stakeholders. This way, they can understand the needs of these groups and ensure that tourism genuinely supports them.
A Roadmap
The report includes forty actions from which both travelers and locals can benefit. Most of these actions require collaboration among groups. "This report is a roadmap for a management approach focused on equity. You start by identifying the community's key goals and related inequalities. Then, you look at how tourism can help achieve these goals. You explore effective ideas and examples we've gathered and review our practical tips for implementation and impact measurement. This helps you decide what works best for your situation,” says Bernadett Papp, lead author and researcher at ETFI of NHL Stenden. The report is available for free on this website.