World Tourism Day is an annual event in the travel calendar, where those in the industry are encouraged to think about the impact of tourism on the world: in social, cultural, environmental and economic ways.  

Each year, this annual observance is characterised by a specific topical theme, which reflects on important tourism trends in the sector, from impact of COVID-19 in recent years, 2023’s focus on innovative solutions for ‘people, planet and prosperity’, opportunities to reflect on and rethink how we do tourism to this year’s focus on ‘tourism and peace’. Defined on the World Tourism Day's website, this year's theme explores how:

“Tourism can play a vital role as a catalyst for fostering peace and understanding between nations and cultures and in supporting reconciliation processes.”

World Tourism Day is important for travel agents to be aware of, and consider, as it can help:

• Learn about industry best practices
• Find new business opportunities  
• Raise awareness and knowledge  
• Promote sustainable tourism
• Reveal travel habits and future trends  
• Improve your travel offerings  

So, can you take this year’s theme of ‘tourism and peace’, which is a wide-reaching topic, and apply that to the every day?  

Promoting Peace and Community Resilience through Tourism

Tourism, often highlighted for its role in economic development, also plays a significant role in fostering peace.  

On a global level, where nations are interconnected and interdependent, Tourism, an industry made by people and for people, emerges as a compelling and dynamic force to defy stereotypes and challenge prejudices.

Did you know?  

• Countries with a more open and sustainable tourism sector tend to be more peaceful.
• Tourism spreads philanthropy and leads to regional cooperation.
• Tourism aids post-conflict recovery.

Success lies in empowering local communities to actively engage with the rich culture, while also minimising conflict with the natural environment and any external forces – such as tourism.  

Real-world example: West Maui and the town of Lahaina was recently devastated by one of the worst wildfires in American history. Tourism reopened several months after the fact, and there were new considerations for more mindful travellers: would their stay in a luxurious hotel displace residents in temporary accommodation there following the destruction of their homes?  

And while West Maui accounts for 15% of Hawaiian tourism revenue, many locals shared the opinion that the period of rebuilding Old Lahaina was a chance to address issues like overtourism, environmental degradation, and economic imbalance. 17,000 residents signed a petition to delay the reopening of tourism, to focus on the needs of working class Lahaina residents. However, with the estimated loss of $9 million in tourism dollars each day since the fire, the Hawaii Tourism Authority implemented the Maui Marketing Recovery Plan to help rebuild travel demand.

What happened was a key chance for mindful, intentional travel. A focus on regenerative tourism that reinvests in people, and places, and encourages ‘long-term renewal and flourishing of our social-ecological systems.’  

It was vital that the tourism mindset shifted from ‘me’ to ‘we’, for visitors and locals alike, to develop empathy, and kick-start collaborative action. Many travellers were inspired to add several volunteering experiences onto their itinerary upon seeing business owners' livelihoods burned down, and residents respected most the behaviours of travellers who engaged with patience and understanding while also giving back to the community.

How can you as agents encourage this type of travel?

• Encourage travelers to support local businesses and volunteer – these are key ways to continue that shift towards intentional travel that benefits host destinations.
• Promote alternative destinations – try sister locations to places that are suffering from severe consequences of overtourism.
• Practice what you preach - promote a mindset for travellers grounded in intention: for example, one that asks 'where can we snorkel that's most respectful' instead of 'where do locals go?', and then incorporate that into your own travel!
• Be aware of the wider industry and world – keeping informed as to any local challenges, initiatives or movements within the destinations that you’re recommending.ping informed as to any local challenges, initiatives or movements within the destinations that you’re recommending.

Incorporate these considerations into your consultations with travellers, to help create beneficial travel experiences for both local communities and visitors alike!

Top tip: Did you know that in February 2024, the General Assembly officially declared 2027 as the ‘International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism’? The next few years are a prime opportunity to take the travel industry even further when it comes to pioneering sustainable, beneficial initiatives.

Engaging with Authentic Voices and Preserving Local Heritage

Cultural tourism is marked by visitors’ eagerness to discover, experience, and learn about a particular destination. Whether that’s by discovering new cuisines, living with remote rural communities, supporting local business owners and artisans or travelling pilgrimage routes, interest in cultural immersion is skyrocketing.

Ensuring that travel experiences are grounded in the heart of a place is also in the interest of travel providers from a success point of view, too:  

• Cultural and historical travel accounts for 40% of all tourism globally.
• 73% of millennials report being interested in cultural and historic places.
• Cultural tourists spend 38% more per day and stay 22% longer than other traveller types.

Many countries and organisations around the world are already showing how it’s possible to balance economic development with retaining vital cultural heritage, and sustainable transformations.  

Here’s how:  

• Urban regeneration – a ‘Special Area Plan’ in George Town, Malaysia, balances conservation with economic development, allowing local owners to restore their homes and set up businesses, while protecting historic buildings from tourism-induced redevelopment.
• Prioritising native industries – to avoid over-reliance on sole economic drivers, like tourism. For example, in AlUla investments are being made into native industries such as agriculture. Diversifying the local economy creates increased revenue for residents and lessens the strain on economies that rely on tourism as a main driver of revenue.  
• ‘Living heritage’ – the ‘Beirut Housing Rehabilitation and Cultural Creative Industries’ project offers small grants to local artisans, while the regeneration of the historical Mar Mikhael train station aims to reactivate cultural markets and businesses.

A key way for agents to incorporate sustainable cultural tourism into your day-to-day is to bring local communities to the forefront of your experience recommendations.  

Doing so satisfies the current trend for authentic, experiential tourism in a way that creates longer-lasting positive impact for the host community and economy, as well as keeping you as a business engaged with customer wants. 

By actively engaging with the local communities, the tourism industry can ensure that the generated revenue stays within the community, where it can have the most significant impact.

Promoting Travel that Champions Sustainability

In 2015, the United Nation Member States all adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs), which aim to 'improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.' 

Tourism offers a great many opportunities to impact and contribute to the goals: through quality tourism training, which invests in education and skills; by investing in sustainable infrastructure; working to further eco-conscious transformation in communities, economies and mindsets including initiatives to decarbonise the sector; investing in innovative travel technology and upskilling tourism’s workforces all around the world.

Sustainable tourism is a major focus for the travel industry, with the appetite for sustainability showing no sign of easing: 83% of global travellers believe that sustainable travel is important!  

For the environment -  

One of the key concerns not just for the travel and tourism industry but for the wider world within the context of sustainability is single-use plastics. The hotel industry alone generates 150 million tonnes of plastic per year – much of which ends up polluting the oceans.

Given this, marine and coastal conservation programmes are also a great example of how to promote experiences that satisfy customer needs while abiding by sustainable practices.

Real-life example: Based in Cap Ternay research station on Mahé Island - which can be accessed via the Seychelles International Airport for overseas visitors, located near the capital of Victoria – GVI offers several volunteer and study projects where participants can spend their time scuba-diving to help underwater research, snorkelling to collect data on marine life, or even hiking through palm forests.  

Experiences like these are the perfect example of how agents can promote sustainable travel which not only aligns with the needs and desires of the customer, but that also benefits the host destination!  

How Bedsonline Helps

We’ve looked before at how important is to offer single-use plastic-free options for travellers (as just one example of sustainable tourism) and how this can and should become part of every travel agent’s strategy.

But one way we’re making it easier for travel agents to offer sustainable tourism is by offering sustainable experiences in our Booking Engine! Including PADI-approved diving centres for those eco-conscious marine adventures, as well as thousands of other in-destination activities and experiences that offer tangible benefit to both traveller and host.

Plus, our ‘Sustainable Hotels’ filter in our Booking Engine makes it simple to refine your searches to hotels that run with sustainability at the forefront of their operations.

In fact, hotels are only shown in this filter once they have achieved industry-certified sustainability levels such as the Hotel Sustainability Basics certificate by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and the GSTC Industry Criteria offered by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).

Register your travel agency today to discover our sustainable hotels and expand your portfolio for the travel options so important to today’s traveller.

For local communities -  

Overtourism is also a unique tourism-induced issue which many popular destinations around the world face.  

Initiatives like sustainable tourism tax, introduced in the Balearic Island of Mallorca, helps support conservation of this popular destination. While in Kyoto, Japan, has implemented several measures to alleviate the strain of overtourism, including traffic congestion and even using social media to broadcast alternative routes and information for visitors.

It’s important that you’re doing your part as an agent to promote destinations in a sustainable way. After all, as the gateway for your customers, you’re the one putting travel opportunities into the hands of travellers in the first instance.

Top tip: discover a wealth of eco-conscious in-destination experiences via our Bedsonline Booking Engine, including conservation opportunities, regenerative experiences, tours and experiences run by local guides, and much more.

Not only this, but our global portfolio empowers agents with comprehensive sustainable options as a full-service provider, including green transfers and car hire, and single-use plastic free and sustainable hotels.

Read about how Bedsonline helps you promote sustainable tourism here!

Tourism Helps Create Meaningful Connections

Travel, in its purest form, is an act of broadening horizons. It’s even been suggested, via in-depth research, that ‘tourist affiliation with nature and connection with local people’ are ‘critical determinants of positive psychological outcomes’; that travel fundamentally improves wellbeing.  

This, of course, aligns with #3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) we mentioned earlier: to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing across all ages.

We see the connection between travel, identity and wellness in:

• Travellers seeking out experiences that align with their personal values, backgrounds or heritage.
• Travel that actively strengthens bonds with cultures or communities around the world.
• 88% of younger travellers saying that travel has impacted their personal growth.
• 72% of Gen Z travellers remarketing that travel is core to their identity, and how they express themselves.

Social belonging is defined as a core human need, a ‘fundamental human pursuit’ - and tourism plays a crucial role in creating opportunities for connection.  

What’s more, this sense of social connectedness is also clear in the shift towards experience-based tourism, where authenticity and genuine connection has become paramount for tourists’ overall experiences.

There’s a lot to be said for the positive impact for travellers and their companions, including strengthening connections amongst friends, loved ones, creating more meaningful experiences and memories, as well as increasing the likelihood of revisiting a destination. 

There is also, a great deal to be explored about the benefits of more connected social relationships between travellers and host communities:

‘Immersion in the local community and socialisation with local people generate learning opportunities for tourists to know different cultures and virtues, which leads to self-reflection and potentially causes personal transformation.’

Real-world example: The experiences of 26 international tourists to Fiji were examined in a recent study, to determine the connection between tourism and psychological wellbeing.

Fiji has high level of tourism, thanks to pristine natural environments and cultural diversity, and derives a great deal of revenue from tourism as a result: 34% of Fiji’s GDP was contributed to tourism, and around 150,000 residents are directly employed in the tourism sector.  

Travellers’ responses were categorised into themes, including ‘gaze’ (how tourists view the people and destinations they interact with and visit), ‘practice’ (a subjective, expressive encounter) and ‘reflection’ (post-trip learnings, related to personal transformation).  

And from increased sense of enjoyment when experiences where shared, a deeper sense of cultural understanding through authentic encounters with local communities and more chances for ‘shared memory’, results showed that travel can be a vehicle that increases social connectedness, personal development and transformation, and improved mental health.

Not only this, but interacting with landscapes and residents who have been relocated due to climate change, or impacted by natural disasters, invokes a sense of awe that is directed not internally, but externally. 

These connections ‘evokes an ‘environmentally responsible consciousness’ in visitors, redirecting ‘personal concerns’ towards ‘more collective dimensions of personal identity’. These are huge factors in wellbeing, and support the notion that travel creates meaningful connections for people across the world.

What are the key takeaways?

• Travel providers (and destination boards) should incorporate group travel into their tourism offerings – discover our article on how to sell group travel and family travel here!
• Accessible facilities are a must for children and elderly visitors – to encourage collective participation in tourism activities and increased companionship.
• Destination loyalty and revisit intentions are increased when visitors feel socially connected.
• Enhancing tourists’ connection with nature, their companions and local communities will result in long-term benefits for providers, local economies and travellers themselves!  

Our Impact  

As part of HBX Group, it’s our ongoing mission to demonstrate through action how much value we place on industry-recognised travel standards, and our own environmental, social and governmental (ESG) commitments.  

Following the development of a new reporting framework, we’re able to anticipate future regulations, and achieve higher certification! Which means that we can work even harder to make travel a force for good.

• 7,889 Volunteer hours completed - contributed by 1015 employees.
• €7612 raised – for global social causes.
• 444.58kg waste collected from forest and beach cleannings.
• 12,000 trees planted – that’s 9.04 hectares of developing forest.
• Carbon neutral in scope 1 and 2 – it's our 6th anniversary of this accreditation.
• Think Big Project – we launched this initiative to help create sustainable micro destinations, to empower local communities in rural areas.
• 40,000 sustainable hotels – including 5000 single-use plastic-free accommodation options as part of our Sustainable Hotels Programme.
• We’ve become a UN Global Compact member.
• Hybrid vehicles – offered in even more global cities.
• Thousands of cultural tours, nature tourism and wildlife-centred activities – available in our Booking Engine, to encourage deeper connection with the environments and habitats of the world.
• Safari, reforestation, sanctuary and eco-conscious experiences – available for our clients to book.
• Purposeful Pause – space for employees to discuss important topics, such as financial wellbeing.
• Health Month – promoting employee wellbeing via yoga sessions, meditation and more.

For a closer look at our parent company’s dedication to making ourselves and the world of travel a better place, you can download our ESG report for 2023 here!  

So, let’s continue to work together to generate positive impact tourism for travellers, host communities, and the world at large!