Coping with Success. Harold Goodwin Responsible Tourism Partnership Institute for Place Management, MMU

Coping with Success. Harold Goodwin Responsible Tourism Partnership Institute for Place Management, MMU

What do we mean by success? The beds are full all year Competitive & sustainable International visitor arrivals Short term or long term These products must be kept fresh and unsullied not just for the next day, but for every tomorrow Sir Colin Marshall, Chairman British Airways 1994

Sir Colin Marshall, Chairman British Airways 1994 Tourism and the travel industry is essentially the renting out for short-term lets, of other people s environments, whether that is a coastline, a city, a mountain range or a rainforest. These products must be kept fresh and unsullied not just for the next day, but for every tomorrow Who collects the rental or user fees?

Does anyone enjoy this?

What of the sacred and the profound?

Not just an urban phenomenon August 2013

Sustainable Development: a long history? 1972 World Commission on Environment & Development 1980 World Conservation Strategy 1987 Brundtland Report & Our Common Future 1992 Rio Environment & Development UN Commission on Sustainable Development 2000 Millennium Development Goals 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development 2012 Rio+20 Sustainable Development Goals Very little to show for it

UN IY of Sustainable Tourism for Development 1. Make optimal use of environmental resources 2. Respect the sociocultural authenticity of host communities 3. Provide socioeconomic benefits to all stakeholders Continuous process requires Informed participation of all stakeholders & strong political leadership High level of tourist satisfaction 2004 Technical Definition

Experiential Tourism The experience economy Seeking memorable experiences Driving increased tourism Viral marketing Engagement in culture, community and the environment Shared product of host and guest Quality, depth, create memories You can taste the difference?

In December 2009 residents and traders in Raval sent over 500 Christmas cards to city officials with candid photographs of prostitutes, drug dealers, and tourists using the street as a toilet and having sex in public "Volem un barri digne!" (We want a dignified district!)

Not a new problem The challenge of managing tourism sustainably for residents, tourists and day visitors has been recognised for twenty years. Clements 1989 Boissevain 1996 Bosselman, Poeterson & McCarthy 1999 Fyall & Goddard Kotler demarketing 1971 We now have a pejorative word for it overtourism rebellious tourists and rebellious locals

Overtourism Google Advanced Search 125,000 Google Scholar 10 Too many tourists Google Advanced Search 368,000 Iceland 10 Google Scholar 1,240

The moments and times we treasure? Temporary resident The back streets That conversation or encounter with the other Hosts & Guests

Overtourism the antithesis of Responsible Tourism Responsible Tourism Making better places to live in and better places to visit In that order Running up against the limits to growth Overtourism Overtourism describes destinations where hosts or guests, locals or visitors, feel that there are too many visitors and that the quality of life in the area or the quality of the experience has deteriorated unacceptably.

Bukchon Hanok Village Tourists are fine until you see them every day Issues externalities of noise, litter, loss of privacy, crowding and now falling property prices visitors and tour companies are free riders,

Causes: research themes? Low cost of travel and its larger scale. Disintermediation creating supply and reducing costs Propensity to consume We take our behaviours and mores with us. New originating markets Public realm is free Distribution strategies chips with everything Whose place is it? The marketers? Seasonality maybe a good thing Value (in cash and status) of tourism jobs Honeypots

In December 2009 residents and traders in Raval sent over 500 Christmas cards to city officials with candid photographs of prostitutes, drug dealers, and tourists using the street as a toilet and having sex in public "Volem un barri digne!" (We want a dignified district!)

Barcelona s Tourism Management Strategy Balance & wider spread of tourism a) boost the financial impact of the sector and to attract tourists with high spending power; b) promote its own identity as a tourist attraction; c) reconcile tourists/local community; d) ensure the geographical and multi-sectorial distribution of tourism; e) strengthen the public-private promotional model 1. Shared knowledge base 2. Engagement in the decidim.barcelona participatory process 3. Governance City and Tourism Council 4. Accommodation Managing (distribution, legalities, specialisation) and taxing new forms of accommodation Over development in some areas Unlicensed Emergency Inspection Plan and action against intermediaries

Strategic Tourism Plan for 2020 1. Governing Tourism Collectively 2. Generating and Disseminating Knowledge 3. Promoting the Destination s Sustainability 4. Managing Tourist Mobility 5. Ensure Responsible Tourist Accommodation 6. Ensuring an Urban Balance Spaces of Major Affluence 7. Distributing the Benefits of Tourism 8. Communication a Key Tourism-Management Tool 9. Compensating the Impact the Tourism Has Tax 10. Regulations to Safeguard the Right to the City https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/turisme/sites/default/files/documents/080517_resumexecutiu_v01_en.pdf https://www.slideshare.net/barcelona_cat/tourism-2020-barcelona-postcards?from_action=save

www.fairtourism.barcelona

The Second Deputy Mayor, Jaume Collboni, highlighting the need for Barcelona to handle 100% of its tourist tax to tackle the impact of tourism in the city; asserted that: Tourism has to serve the city and not the other way around. Barcelona is a tourist city, it s a brand with a culture and life style created and shared by citizens and tourists, it has to learn to manage tourism better and it is a leading example of how tourism can be used to make Barcelona a better place to live in, and a better place to visit.

Frogs and ratchets

Theory Park Planning sacrifice zones, carrying capacity and Limits of Acceptable Change Common Pool Resources Tragedy of the Commons Tourism Area Life Cycle System 1 and System 2 thinking and the ostrich problem

Butler s TALC

Research Keen to get some research partnerships going on the causes and coping with success Those managing the issues are keen to have knowledge of what others have done, what works, what doesn t Interventions by different levels or spheres of government What do the different stakeholder think and does it affect their behaviour?

Emerging principles Manage the people who are there residents, commuters, visitors and tourists, Decide what degree of homogeneity is aspired to. Avoid homogenisation and commodification: worry about identity and authenticity Whole of government approach departments and levels/spheres. Evidence based management Sustainability fundamental to competitiveness

Solutions Demand Supply Management Cost of travel Scale of arrival facilities Crime & policing Ease of travel Capping arrivals Ban particular activities Stop marketing Ban particular products Fining bad behaviour De-marketing Timed tickets Hosing the steps Target segments Ban new accommodation Privileged access for locals Change the image Licence and tax the informal provision Deconcentration Alter transport routes/stops Timed tickets communications Research agenda what works in what conditions.

Political Question Will the destination use tourism or be used by it? Tourism is what we make it, hosts and guests, we can make it different. The tourism crisis in Barcelona is further proof of the emptiness of the promises of neo-liberalism that deregulation and privatisation will allow us all to prosper. Of course, the answer is not to attack tourism. Everyone is a tourist at some point in their life. Rather, we have to regulate the sector, return to the traditions of local urban planning, and put the rights of residents before those of big business... Win back democracy for the city put its institutions at the service of the common good Ada Colau 2014 Overtourism is further evidence of the limits to growth

Further Resources http://haroldgoodwin.info/links Goodwin H (2016) Managing Tourism in Barcelona http://haroldgoodwin.info/rtpwp/01%20managing%20tourism%20in%20barcelona.pdf Goodwin H (2017) The Challenge of Overtourism http://haroldgoodwin.info/pubs/rtp'wp4overtourism01'2017.pdf Presentation Coping with Success in Barcelona https://www.slideshare.net/haroldgoodwin/coping-with-success-in-barcelona Further Resources http://responsibletourismpartnership.org/overtourism/ harold@haroldgoodwin.info 37