Lab assists
communities with incorporating sustainable tourism, ecotourism,
geotourism, civic tourism principles into strategic planning process
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Billington wins "North American Travel
Personality of the Year" from World Travel Awards
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The Tourism Paradigm for the 21st century is shifting as
sustainable planning principles emerge
A growing number of local, state and national governments
throughout the world are recognizing the need and value of
incorporating sustainable tourism principles into their strategic
development planning process. Strategic planning processes that make
optimal use of environmental resources, respect the socio-cultural
authenticity of host communities, and provide socio-economic
benefits to all stakeholders provide for a cleaner environment,
stronger economy, higher quality of life for residents and an
enhanced experience for visitors tourists.
According to the World Tourism Organization: “Sustainable tourism
development guidelines and management practices are applicable to
all forms of tourism in all types of destinations, including mass
tourism and the various niche tourism segments. Sustainability
principles refer to the environmental, economic and socio-cultural
aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be
established between these three dimensions to guarantee its
long-term sustainability.”
The Sustainable Tourism Planning & Development Laboratory offers
an experiential learning program that assists clients with learning
about and creating sustainable tourism plans for their community or
region. Through lab programs, clients
LEARN the techniques of sustainable tourism planning,
development, marketing and promotion.
UNDERSTAND the essential role the community plays in place-making
tourism development.
CREATE a comprehensive tourism plan, to include economic, social,
historic, cultural, commercial and environmental values.
space
INVOLVE key stakeholders in your tourism development strategy
implementation.
DISCOVER the importance of creativity, commitment, confidence and
leadership in tourism destination development.
EXPERIENCE a community applying sustainable tourism planning to
emerge from an industrial landscape to a successful visitor
destination.
Lab programs include:
- Individual workshops
- Half day, full day or multi-day conferences
- Speaker’s bureau
- Strategic tourism planning development
- Ongoing consulting
Benefits of the lab include the following:
- Staffed by professionals with over 20 years of international
expertise in building visitor destination
- Customized programs and services based on needs and budget
- Programs conducted throughout the world
- Handling all aspects of managing and marketing conferences and
administering lab programs
- Networking connection to the global sustainable tourism network
and related fields
- Benchmarking and best practices
During the past few years, the lab has conducted a number of
workshops and conferences, and assisted several communities with
their strategic tourism planning. In addition, its parent agency,
the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, was recently awarded the
World Trade & Tourism Council’s Destination Award in part for its
efforts at incorporating sustaining tourism principles into its
programming and promotion of tourism in the Blackstone Valley region
of Rhode Island.
