Resources

RESOURCES


RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Cynthia Messer, Ingrid Schneider & Okechukwu Ukaga
School/Work Place : University of Minnesota, USA
Contact : cmesser@umn.edu
Year : 2007

Communities have a variety of interest levels in tourism overall, including sustainable tourism (WTO, 2002). While we have witnessed increased awareness and discussions about sustainability and sustainable tourism, there is often a lack of shared definitions of means and ends among stakeholders, ambiguities in what is meant by sustainable tourism, and constant debate over specific policy and practice options for achieving it (McCool et al, 2001).

Thus, to enhance understanding and application of sustainable tourism principles and practices, a program based on best practices across the U.S. was developed. The program enhances and facilitates progress in sustainable tourism by addressing environmental, economic or social issues as identified by the community. A case study of program application and evaluation is presented for discussion and replication.

The Tourism Resource Team (TRT) program provides technical assistance to community tourism organizations that have encountered an obstacle to realize their sustainable tourism goals. The University based TRT program is grounded in three principles: 1) active citizenship of local citizens in designing and implementing projects, 2) addressing issues according to sustainable development principles; and 3) a vibrant relationship between citizens and their University. The program’s process includes an invitation to communities to submit a proposal, objective evaluation of the proposal, and, if/when selected, ongoing interaction for more than one year related to the sustainable tourism obstacle.

Upon selection, the community creates a broad reaching community tourism team, provides a packet of information to the TRT and prepares for a 2-3 day visit. Based on the community’s needs, an expert TRT team participates in 2-3 days of site visits and meetings, and prepares a presentation with recommendations to discuss with the community. A final report is crafted within
one month of the visit and presented to the community. Program evaluations are conducted immediately, as well as 6 and 12 months following the visit. These immediate, short and long-term evaluations provide various feedback mechanisms and insight for the program and community.

To date, three iterations of the program have ensued leaving a list of lessons learned and successes from which to build. Issues of concern to the communities are similar to those encountered elsewhere (Nickerson and Kerr, 2000) and include: gateway community tensions with federal and state land owners, seasonality, and integrated community relations. Lessons learned and affirmed from the cases include the necessity for full community participation, need to educate about sustainable tourism, and the delicacy of community relations.

All program implementations met with success and measurable outcomes. Along with an immediate increased understanding of sustainable tourism, community leaders and citizens expressed recognition of the consequences of mass tourism development and development that occurs without public involvement. Longer-term community benefits identified include opportunities for organization, a sense of collaboration, and increased understanding of sustainable tourism. Lessons learned include insight on team formations, community culture, and resource allocation.

The TRT program has proven a valuable tool to address community-driven sustainable tourism issues. The program expands local understanding of sustainable tourism, encourages community participation in using sustainable practices to address local issues, and generates outcomes and long-term impacts for communities. The model can easily be replicated.


List of Articles
No. Subject Viewssort Date
414 Think Tank XVI Can Tourism Businesses Foster Better Inclusion for Peo... file 387 Jul 02, 2016

It is difficult to deny that despite its increased popularity, the concept of social entrepreneurship has not received a clearer understanding in a theoretical context. Zahra, Gedajlovic, Neubaum, and Shulman (2009) list 20 definitions of s...

Author: Kristof Tomej 

Year: 2016 

413 Think Tank XVI Volunteering and donations for biodiversity conservati... file 425 Jul 01, 2016

In 2010, the newly elected government of New Zealand, of neo-liberal orientation, has adopted its Business Growth Agenda. This has been implemented through a series of legal, policy and organizational changes, affecting the governance of th...

Author: Valentina Dinica 

Year: 2016 

412 Think Tank XVI The moderating role of values in planned behaviour: th... file 439 Jul 02, 2016

In the past five years, we (a group of researchers from the Leeds Becket University and the Open University of Catalonia) have been working on different studies about the CSR motivations, barriers and practices in tourism small and medium e...

Author: Lluís Garay, Xavier Font & August Francesc Corrons 

Year: 2016 

411 Think Tank XVI Certification for Sustainable Tourism in Germany – Ove... file 443 Jul 02, 2016

Certification schemes for sustainable tourism can be seen as a key voluntary instrument to measure, verify and communicate the CSR management and performance of tourism businesses. Today a large number of such schemes can be found around th...

Author: Wolfgang Strasdas 

Year: 2016 

410 Think Tank XVII Finding and Fostering Our Future Tourism Leaders: Unde... file 487 Aug 17, 2017

The hospitality and tourism industry is facing a serious skilled manpower shortage globally, and the best way to meet the manpower needs of the industry is through training and education. The shortage of skilled talent is a global issue in t...

Author: Grace K.S. Ho & Rob Law 

Year: 2017 

409 Think Tank XVI eTraining for Sustainable Tourism: Investing in Skills... file 496 Jul 02, 2016

This proposed presentation examines the current state of “eTraining” opportunities (e.g. distance learning programs, online courses, live seminars) supporting professional skills development for tourism professionals, with a particular focu...

Author: Ayako Ezaki 

Year: 2016 

408 Think Tank XVII Lack of transparency - a barrier for the diffusion of ... file 543 Aug 17, 2017

Throughout the last two decades, the tourism industry has changed due to the revolutionary development in the realm of information and communication technologies (ICT) (Amaro & Duate, 2013; Law et al., 2004; Minghetti & Buhalis, 2010...

Author: Sven-Olaf Gerdt, Elisa Wagner & Gerhard Schewe 

Year: 2017 

407 Think Tank XVI Reaching the hard to reach: CSR and employee engagemen... file 560 Jul 02, 2016

As the duties and behaviour of organizations within the tourism industry evolve to accommodate expectations of pro-sustainable business change, so too does the role and responsibility of employees within these organisations. As key actors i...

Author: Kelsy Hejjas, Caroline Scarles & Graham Miller 

Year: 2016 

406 Think Tank XVI Examining Corporate Social Responsibility in Tourism: ... file 571 Jul 01, 2016

One of the biggest challenges facing the tourism industry and policy makers is the emerging and fast growing ‘sharing economy’. Keeping abreast of this, disruptive but potentially transformative phenomenon has been challenging for industry,...

Author: Stephen Wearing & Kevin Lyons 

Year: 2016 

405 Think Tank XVI The Influences of Hotel Contexts on Tourist Behaviour.... file 610 Jul 01, 2016

Sustainability deals with the relation between people and their environment. The configuration of this connection and the communication between the two are decisive when talking about a socially acceptable, ecologically compatible and econo...

Author: Stefan Raich 

Year: 2016 

404 Think Tank XVI United we stand, divided we fall: Strategies for engag... file 656 Jul 01, 2016

Many tourism corporate responsibility programs require the support and/or compliance of guests or customers, yet little attention has been paid to the design of strategies to encourage this compliance. Research in the areas of tourist inter...

Author: Karen Hughes & Gianna Moscardo 

Year: 2016 

OPA: 2016 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

403 Think Tank XVI Empowering communities and enabling conservation: Revi... file 674 Jul 01, 2016

The Africa Foundation a non-profit organization was founded in 1992 when Conservation Corporation Africa (since renamed and rebranded to &Beyond) was founded in South Africa. A central principle of the Conservation Corporation, safari l...

Author: Kevin Mearns 

Year: 2016 

402 Think Tank XVI Spirituality and corporate social responsibility in to... file 682 Jul 01, 2016

This ongoing study investigates the role of spirituality for corporate social responsibility (CSR) by tourism businesses in lesser developed countries and the implications this has at the destination level. While much of the world’s tourism...

Author: Alexandra Law, Putu Indah Rahmawati & Terry De Lacy 

Year: 2016 

401 Think Tank XVI Polar bears, Climate Change, CSR and Sustainable Tourism 711 Jul 02, 2016

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Author: Jeremy Pearce 

Year: 2016 

400 Think Tank XIX Organizational drivers of sustainable behaviour and it... file 735 Oct 23, 2019

Key words: Sustainability, organizational capabilities, entrepreneurial orientation, customer satisfaction, financial performance Page: 79-85 Organizational drivers of sustainable behaviour and its consequences for customer satisfaction and ...

Author: Julia Koch, Sven-Olaf Gerdt, and Gerhard Schewe 

Year: 2019 

399 Think Tank XIX Fun with Fungi in the Forest: Making Tourist Experienc... file 736 Oct 23, 2019

Key words: sustainable tourist experiences, interpretation, stories, rainforest Page: 58-74 Fun with Fungi in the Forest.pdf Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table N...

Author: Karen Hughes and Gianna Moscardo 

Year: 2019 

398 Think Tank XVI Responsible High Performance Sport Travel – Opportunit... file 742 Jul 02, 2016

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Author: Kerstin Heuwinkel 

Year: 2016 

397 Think Tank XVI Rural communities’ participation in the planning and m... file 761 Jul 02, 2016

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Author: Limpho Lekaota 

Year: 2016 

396 Think Tank XV Protected areas and community wildlife-based tourism i... file 805 Jul 27, 2015

Tourism planning in protected areas (PAs) entails addressing two partly competing and overlapping goals: preserving heritage and providing access. Resolving potential conflicts between these two goals is particularly challenging at the inter...

Author: MorenTibabo Stone & Gyan P. Nyaupane 

Year: 2015 

395 Think Tank XIX Perceptions of sustainability practices in hospitality... file 806 Oct 23, 2019

Key words: Sustainability, Sustainable Hospitality, Sustainability Measures, Sustainable Experience, Environmental Psychology, Forced Choice Assessment Pages: 52-57 Perceptions of sustainability practices in hospitality.pdf Normal 0 false fa...

Author: Sven-Olaf Gerdt, Julia Koch, Elisa Wagner and Gerhard Schewe 

Year: 2019 

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