Role of Communication in Linking Sustainable Tourism Products to Markets, The

This 32-page proceedings document from an e-conference on tourism development, organised by the World Bank Development Communication Division, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Development Communication and Sustainable Tourism Unit, and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), states that tourism, as the world's largest economic sector, can be a powerful tool for economic growth, poverty reduction, and for the conservation of natural and cultural resources. It discusses the role of communication for development in sustainable tourism. The cross-sectorial range of issues involving multiple local and national stakeholders includes trade and investment policy, employment and labour laws, enterprise development, public-private partnerships, community and urban planning, infrastructure development, conservation of cultural heritage and biodiversity, management of natural resources, safety and security, and education and workforce development.

The positive aspects of effective communication in sustainable tourism include facilitating management, exchange of stakeholder opinions for consensual solutions, links to markets, and visitor safety. Further, as stated here: "A comprehensive communication strategy, which should identify how information, awareness creation, advocacy, network building, conflict mitigation, and communication platforms will be supported, is essential for any successful sustainable tourism development activity."



The fourth session, pp. 15-22, on communication for linking sustainable tourism products to markets discusses demand-driven production, uniqueness, study tours, advertising, efforts to increase use of local products, the Destination Management Model (DSM), collective marketing initiatives, labelling as a communication tool, and the role of the internet in promotion.


The strategy suggested for analysing demand and testing the market is to survey tourists already visiting a given location with open-ended marketing-oriented questions to learn to expand markets. The document suggests that by organising themselves in larger networks of similar businesses - Destination Management Organization (DMO), small- and medium-sized producers may have greater opportunities to learn from one another and gather information about their clients, as well as track and analyse survey information and keep in touch electronically with clients for promoting future visits. Visiting other tourism providers, as stated here, may have positive and negative results, providing information, but sometimes skewing pricing or reinforcing errors. Indirect internet marketing through reviews of the destination, client referrals, word-of-mouth storytelling, and third party endorsements were cited as practical because tourists use web searches for multiple web sources.


Conference participants observed that linking local suppliers to the tourism industry needs requires good facilitation between hoteliers, restaurants, farmers, and extension activities to build capacity to meet the demand, increasing the local benefits from tourism. Building demand might include, for example, raising tourists' awareness of local organic food. Labelling for understanding the benefits of "buying local" is another strategy cited. Joint marketing is another, in which joint organisations could take over some of the promotional and sales activities of individual suppliers.


Two suggestions involving sustainability include educating suppliers on aspects of competition inherent in the tourism product cycle, and initiating a mandatory checklist for checking the sustainability practices of suppliers.
This could be required of tour operators who use a traceable supply chain and could result in operator inclusion in national registries for ecotourism. A communication tool described in the document is the Destination Management Model (DSM) which is an information technology (IT) infrastructure used by a destination organisation for the collection, storage, manipulation, and distribution of information for marketing, supply purchase, and other purposes, including the transaction of reservations
and other commercial activities. The document offers keys to successful DSM management.


Strategies for internet use as a communication tool for corporate social responsibility (CSR) tourism include educating national and regional tourist board staff on sustainable tourism and tourist destinations; policy advocacy for CSR; online data storage of sustainable products, and tour operator contacts that can be used by partners all over the world; direct marketing through, for example, email "buzz" campaigns; and indirect internet marketing, as mentioned above.
Cautions on expectations for the role of the internet include: limited use due to the digital gap between developed and developing worlds, and, as a marketing tool, advertising by professionals using "green washing" - overly exaggerated sustainability advertising.


The document includes travel publication marketing suggestions. The aggregate strategies to influence travel publications to cover sustainable destinations, as stated here, are:

• Promote the destination, not a specific business or development
  project.
• Focus on the experience, since that is what most readers want.
• Use “sustainability” language less than experience and destination language.
• Send information and press releases often and widely because unknown tourism locations don't make the guidebooks.
• Target specialty publications.
• Press trips work. Invite the press.