The California Travel & Tourism Commission (CTTC) has put out a Sustainable Tourism Marketing Handbook that was put together in partnership with Cal Poly’s Recreation, Parks, & Tourism Administration (RPTA) Department.

The handbook provides examples of best practices for sustainable tourism marketing from 30 California based organizations, from LEED certified hotels to the California Academy of Sciences and many CVB’s.

Sustainable Tourism marketing handbook

Each of the 30 organizations was asked to name the marketing tools it used to turn its sustainability into dollars. The tools that were named the most were social media, business partnerships/networking, specific web pages and online PR efforts.

Social Media – 16
PR Articles – 11
Press Release – 11
Word of Mouth – 10
Branding sustainable efforts – 8
Newsletter – 1
Partnerships/ Networking – 17
Facility Design – 7
Signage – 6
Specific Web Pages – 11
Certifications – 7
Directories/ Maps – 8
Events – 9
Discounts/ Sweepstakes – 5

One of the best examples provided in the handbook is the case of BART, which was sitting on a pile of green tourism gold and didn’t know it. 

The Bay Area Rapid Transit was always a model of sustainable transportation service, since it started out as a green company with all-electric vehicles that produce electricity when they move. But it was for local transport, and had very little to do with tourism. BART began targeting tourism in 2005, and since then ridership from SFO to downtown San Francisco has increased by 400%.

They got into distribution through online travel sellers to expand their business nationally and internationally. They implemented a voucher system and partnered with the CTTC and the San Francisco Travel Association (formerly SFCVB).

BART has also taken advantage of social media marketing through Facebook and Twitter, and markets through the Internet by holding viral sweepstakes on their web site.

The CalPoly handbook has adapted the 37 standards of the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC) and it will be used to introduce sustainable tourism within the California tourism industry, with TourBench (www.tourbench.info) as a benchmarking resource.

If you need more help with integrating sustainability into the business, the UNEP has a step-by-step business management guide for integration of responsible environmental, social and socio-economic practices and principles into the day-to-day operations of a tourism company.

CalPoly-CTTC Sustainable Tourism Marketing Handbook – Download (pdf)

The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB) just launched a Corporate Social Responsibility program that allows business groups to take part in volunteer projects that contribute to the sustainability and greenness of the Hawaiian Islands.

Hawaii Convention Center

This program is a part of HVCB’s Added Value Resource Center, a resource for meeting planners to help them plan affordable and efficient meetings and conventions in Hawaii.

Michael Murray, VP sales and marketing for HVCB’s corporate meetings and incentives division, says that “Being green, sustainable, and socially responsible is an expectation in today’s meetings industry and being able to accomplish this in Hawaii makes doing business here an even more rewarding experience.”

In addition to the gratification of doing something good, there’s also the fact that a little bit of voluntourism will help deflect any perceptions of corporate excess, otherwise known as the AIG Effect.

In fact, Hawaii is only the latest in a series of DMOs & CVBs that are offering to arrange for corporate voluntourism programs for groups. The Seattle CVB hooks up meeting planners with Seattle Works for turnkey volunteer projects.

The Philadelphia CVB has a partnership with Greater Philadelphia Cares, which matches volunteers with local organizations in need. Both New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are in need of as many volunteers as they can get, and their CVBs provide detailed information on how to go about it.

Voluntourism.org has a full list of all the DMOs/CVBs actively working to connect business groups with volunteer organizations. The list is partially republished below, with the HVCB as a new addition.

Business Aloha (HVCB)
Colorado Tourism
The Gulf Coast CVB
The Idaho State Office of Tourism
The New Orleans CVB
The Norfolk Virginia CVB
The Philadelphia CVB
The Seattle CVB
The Metropolitan Tuscon CVB
Tourism Vancouver

The quote reflects a sentiment widely echoed in destinations which get more than their fair share of tourists and tourism dollars.

Anti-Tourist Sign

The point here is not to pile on tourists or tourism, but to list the reasons why many locals end up feeling contempt or hatred for tourists.

NYC tourist sidewalk

1. Alley Rage:- Earlier this month, some wag in New York painted up a divider on a sidewalk, instructing pedestrians that one side was for New Yorkers and the other side for Tourists.

It was quickly wiped off, but not before Mark Armstrong (Director of Content for Bundle.com) took a picture of the segregated sidewalk and generated enough buzz to attract Mayor Bloomberg’s attention.

In Venice, Italy it’s called Alley Rage. Massimo Cacciari, the Mayor of Venice, has even talked about an ‘entrance tax’ for the over 50,000 daily visitors.

If you have locals feeling aggrieved about tourists, start by educating locals about the need to be polite. Spain last year organized ‘friendliness seminars’ to teach grumpy Spaniards to smile and be nice to tourists.

Hawaii Superferry

2. Quality of Life:- The 2010 Mercer Quality of Living survey of 221 cities showed Honolulu as the second most pollution-free city in the world, with little traffic congestion and plenty of clean water and fresh air.

One of the main tenets of responsible tourism is not to harm the environment. But with the economy heavily dependent on planeloads of tourists, concerns about the quality of life of locals in the Hawaiian Islands is not very high up on the list of priorities.

That leaves small communities to defend their way of life on their own. The Hawaii Superferry, for example, was a spectacular failure largely due to heavy opposition from locals and environmental groups. 

Note to Hawaii and similar utopias – Come up with some sort of long-term sustainable tourism plan which doesn’t pit locals against tourists.

Orlando

3. Urban/Rural Divide:- In many states, one city sucks up all the tourist dollars while the rest of the state is left trying to deal with the fallout. 

Millions of tourists make their way through Central Florida every year without spending a dime on the way to the theme parks in Orlando, where they then shell out thousands of dollars.    

Tourists visiting NYC spend heavily, and then visit Buffalo and Niagara Falls for cheap day-trips. Nevada has the same problem with Las Vegas and Reno.

The state governments, tourism bureaus and county officials here need to come up with an action plan to promote more destinations and develop facilities to entice visitors to stay overnight, instead of passing through.

Forks, WA twilight tourists

4. Culture Shock:- Sometimes a destination gets unwillingly thrust into the limelight. Like Forks, WA which is now famous as the setting of the Twilight books and movies. Twilight author Stephenie Meyer chose it specifically because of the miserable weather.

Not exactly a tourist magnet then, and the kind of people who enjoy living in Forks won’t be the kind who enjoy twilight parties with drunk vampires and a carnival atmosphere out on the street. 

No big surprise that they hate the tourist groups, the entrepreneurs and tourist service providers who have moved in to cash in on the Twilight boom.

This is the same as the Dutch cannabis coffee-shops or the Indian slum tours made famous by Slumdog Millionaire. The locals want to be left alone, but they’re too famous an oddity to hide from curious tourists who come to gawk and take photos.

In such cases, tourism bureaus should issue brochures and train tour guides to help tourists understand the difference between cultural immersion and invasion of privacy.

Photo credits (from top) – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5