In June 2020, the Travel Foundation joined five other travel organisations to launch the Future of Tourism Coalition. It sets out 13 Guiding Principles for a ‘better’ recovery. Ian Youngman urges the medical tourism sector to take heed.
After the greatest ever global health scare, the Travel Foundation has stated that going back to normal or even an undefined “new normal” is not the best way to restore and rebuild tourism in a sustainable way. The foundation argues that everyone, from governments, multinational corporations, NGOs and travellers, wants tourism to be better.
Now is the time, says the Travel Foundation CEO Jeremy Sampson, to move beyond the ‘Build Back Better’ catch phrase and agree what better tourism looks like and take action. Real substance is needed, with actionable ideas for how tourism should return, avoiding past mistakes and being intentional about creating change.
For the medical travel sector, this means that it is no longer a race to get the most medical tourists to a destination, but instead to attract those who spend the most and offer the most long-term profit for the country as a whole.
Stronger public-private sector collaboration
The Travel Foundation’s 2019 report Destinations at Risk: the Invisible Burden of Tourism , illustrated how unchecked growth can quickly lead to degradation of social, environmental and cultural assets, all vital for the tourism product. Following the near collapse of tourism during the pandemic, growth is sorely needed, but if the industry simply reverts to its old ways, the sector will return with the same vulnerabilities that were abundantly evident before the pandemic, including low margins, seasonality, economic leakage, overcrowding, overconsumption and overdependence. The report states that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Increasingly, companies are recognising that some controls and limits are needed to ensure a fair and level playing field, so that tourism can grow and develop in a way that is better for the destination and ultimately better for their business. Destinations are frequently ill equipped to manage the impacts of tourism as they lack the data, the skills, the resources, and the mandate. They are not set-up to deal with these challenges effectively.
The Travel Foundation is advocating a new model for tourism, one that places destination communities at the heart of decision-making, management and development.
The foundation recommends that communities need to have a seat at the head of the table in the conversation around what better means for their destination, based on a complete picture of the overall costs and benefits of tourism. This means a stronger public sector voice that collaborates with the private sector to create a shared vision, action plan, and measurable targets that both can contribute towards. By doing this, success will be reframed as something more balanced, that goes beyond traditional growth metrics such as arrivals and GDP to incorporate indicators based on residents’ quality of life, equitable spread of benefits, diversity and inclusion, and impact on resources and biodiversity.
Launch of Future of Tourism Coalition
In June 2020, the Travel Foundation joined five other travel organisations to launch the Future of Tourism Coalition. It sets out 13 Guiding Principles for a ‘better’ recovery.
These principles give a much clearer sense of what better looks like and over 350 organisations have signed up to show their support.
Thirteen guiding principles
1. See the whole picture
Recognise that most tourism by its nature involves the destination as a whole, not only industry businesses, but also its ecosystems, natural resources, cultural assets and traditions, communities, aesthetics, and built infrastructure.
2. Use sustainability standards
Respect the publicly available, internationally approved minimum criteria for sustainable tourism practices maintained by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) for both industry and destinations .
3. Collaborate in destination management
Seek to develop all tourism through a collaborative management structure with equal participation by government, the private sector, and civil society organisations that represent communities.
4. Choose quantity over quality
Manage tourism development based on quality of visitation, not quantity of visitors, so as to enhance the travel experience while sustaining the character of the destination and benefiting local communities.
5. Demand fair income distribution
Set policies that counter unequal tourism benefits within destination communities that maximise retention of tourism revenues within those communities.
6. Reduce tourism’s burden
Account for all tourism costs in terms of local tax burdens, environmental and social impacts, and objectively verifiable disruption. Ensure investments are linked to optimising net-positive impacts for communities and the environment.
7. Redefine economic success
Rather than raw contribution to growth in GDP, use metrics that specify destination benefits such as small business development, distribution of incomes, and enhancement of sustainable local supply chains.
8. Mitigate climate impacts
Strive to follow accepted scientific consensus on needed reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Invest in green infrastructure and a fast reduction in transport emissions involved in tourism – air, sea, and ground.
9. Close the loop on resources
When post-pandemic safety allows, turn away from use of disposable plastics by tourism businesses, and transition to circular resource use.
10. Contain tourism’s land use
Limit high-occupancy resort tourism to concentrated areas. Discourage resort sprawl from taking over coasts, islands, and mountain areas, so as to retain geographical character, a diverse economy, local access, and critical ecosystems.
11. Diversify source markets
In addition to international customers, encourage robust domestic tourism, which may be more resilient in the face of crises and raise citizens’ perceived value of their own natural and cultural heritage.
12. Protect sense of place
Encourage tourism policies and business practices that protect and benefit natural, scenic, and cultural assets. Retain and enhance destination identity and distinctiveness. Diversity of place is the reason for travel.
13. Operate business responsibly
Incentivise and reward tourism businesses and associated enterprises that support these principles through their actions and develop strong local supply chains that allow for higher quality products and experiences.
Medical tourism: take heed
The medical tourism sector has not in the past and now, in part, may not be prepared to comply with many of these guidelines. This is often because medical tourism promotion tends to be short term and working against each other rather than together.
The biggest take from these principles is that it is no longer a race to get the most medical tourists, but instead destinations must attract those that spend the most and offer the most long-term profit.
Whether or not a destination or business should promote medical and health tourism to international medical travellers also now needs to take into account all locals and all businesses, not just patients.
Medical tourism needs to ‘build back better’ in a way that helps businesses and countries over the medium to longer term and in a way that will provide profit.
At a time when medical travel businesses may be clinging on to survival by their fingertips this may be hard to do, and a few short-term fixes may be necessary for survival. But to ensure medical tourism does not become a forgotten niche, destinations must look at the future too in a more responsible way.
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