THE CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABILITY AND TOURISM FOR ALL ITS INFLUENCE ON THE TERRITORIES

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1 THE CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABILITY AND TOURISM FOR ALL ITS INFLUENCE ON THE TERRITORIES -SOME STRATEGIES AND OPERATIONAL PROPOSALS- JOSÉ MARÍA DE JUAN ALONSO Member of the Board and Responsible for International Cooperation within the alliance EARTH-European Alliance for Responsible Tourism & Hospitality with ISTO/ OITS- International Social Tourism Organization (Brussels). Founder and Co-director of CETR-Spanish Center for Responsible Tourism. Representative of Green Destinations in Spain.

2 THE CORE MEANING OF THE ALLIANCE ISTO/ OITS + EARTH Alliance of AITR-Italy, ATES-France, KOAN/ CETR- Spain, DIESIS-social and cooperative economy in EU, KATE-Germany; as to other NGOs, consulting companies, destinations, social bodies and tour operators within the field of sustainable and responsable tourism. Allied from 2017 with ISTO/ OITS-International Social Tourism Organization, working with seniors, families, young, accesible tourism, less developed social groups; in order to guarantee the universal access to a sustainable tourism. Generating new social business models for the social tourism and productive alliances with donors, companies, foundations and destinations. Sample projects: MIGRANTOUR, RETOUR LAB, SENINTER, UPSKILLS, EUROPEAN NATURE SYSTEM, SUSTAINABLE FOOD DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM. Starting point: the set up of social and sustainable tourism dynamics can generate positive impacts within the territories in four perspectives: social, cultural, environmental, economic-entrepreneurial.

3 WHY JOINING SOCIAL AND RESPONSIBLE TOURISM? Stakeholders of both sectors share the same global approach of tourism: an activity focused on services to people and to communities a holistic and humanist vision of tourism. Very often, especially in EU developing regions, stakeholders as well as public in general put these concepts of social/fair/ responsible/community tourism in the same basket where tourism supply & practice refers to a logic of social inclusion, respect of cultures and environment and that wished to serve general interest. Although EARTH was existing at the European level, there was no international organization who was specifically dedicated to fair and responsible tourism.

4 THE KEY BALANCE: SUSTAINABLE DESTINATIONS, RESPONSIBLE TOURISTS, COMPETITIVE LOCAL PRODUCERS 2017 International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development: a good ocassion for visibility of sustainable and social tourism. The three pillars of the sustainable tourism are fully aligned with the philosophy of the social tourism and the solidary economy, as to with the triple bottom line development schemes. We are building new productive structures based in the social innovation, but as competitive as the traditional tourism industry, in order not to be erased from the market by the big industry. Based in the market intelligence and the knowledge of the international tourism system. Challenge: generally speaking, scarce attention is paid to the economical and entrepreneurial sustainability of social and local community based tourism projects, within the local and regional development.

5 GLOBAL TRENDS AND PRACTICAL FACTS A growing percentage of international tourists show the interest to pay more for sustainable services, including social sustainability committments, codes, good practices, and/ or certifications. UNWTO and EU are promoting (supporting) strongly the development of social economy structures in parallel to the enhancement of the responsible tourism at global level. Tourism for all policies generate new business and employment opportunities from the perspective of the offer and the demand. New segments are coming continuously to the market from the social side of tourism.

6 MARKET INTELLIGENCE: THE MAIN DEMAND PROFILES The responsible tourists The LOHAS: lifestyles of health and sustainability The BOBO: bohème bourgeois The WHOPS: wealthy healthy old people The solidary tourists The social interest grows over the environmental interest in mature outgoing markets The certification systems include progressively more social sustainability indicators, including parameters of tourism for all

7 SOME PRACTICAL VISIONS AND ACTIONS Developing coopetition schemes in order to guarantee the economic and entrepreneurial sustainability of local initiatives and companies (avoiding neo-colonialism of the mainstream tourism industry). Inserting, when adequate, small and social local tourism producers and tour operators within bigger networks and companies, in order to guarantee their access to the market. Cooperating with specialized NGOs to reduce and compensate the social and climate impact of tourism: ECODES, COPADE, SANNAS. Designing inclusive but competitive social tourism business models. Giving more space for the rural areas. Profiting the opportunities of the technology available: smart social tourism destinations.

8 SOME PRACTICAL VISIONS AND ACTIONS Finding opportunities for the social tourism within the frame of the social economy. Avoid the social tourism based in social bad practices. Proposing basic and simple codes and management systems of social and responsible tourism, suitable and accesible for small companies. Benchmarking and developing the best solutions in marketing and communication of the social and responsible tourism. Looking for market opportunities in the real sharing economy (not in the fake one, whose objectives in the practice are exactly the contrary of the ones of the social and responsible tourism).

9 SOME PRACTICAL CASES AND EXAMPLES Using the PPP-public private partnership model to get dynamizing funds from the companies CSR to develop local products and community based services, including namely handicrafts, tourism and food production. Professionalizing and specializing the human resources (EU NATURE SYSTEMS, EU UPSKILLS, EU IDEATE) Designing and promoting direct, alternative and non-formal distribution channels and platforms for the socially produced tourism services at local and regional level (Better Places, FairAway, Book Different, TOPS-tour operators promoting sustainability) Generating new models of governance for the social and sustainable tourism, together with the destinations and the local community (Green Destinations, Travelife) in cooperation with the GSTC: Global Sustainable Tourism Council.

10 THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION José María de Juan Alonso Some practical data: