Once Upon a Climate Crisis
“Fine Weather We’re Having To- No Wait A TORNADO!” A tale of (positive) change that you can believe because we can prove it.
904 ViewsWritten by Jess Henson
Setting the Seen (sic)
– You wouldn’t want to go there but that’s exactly where we’re headed.
– The harder we look away, the more certainly it’s coming, and each of us is creating it with every breath.
– It won’t be pleasant, and it might well be the death of community, city, and legacy.
If we’re going to mobilise to change the future to a place we can look forward to seeing and being in and be proud to have helped create instead of destroy, we need a new narrative. We need a narrative that can guide our actions towards an effective and compassionate systemic overhaul resulting in regeneration at scale at a pace to match the degradation we’re causing. So, here’s a little story to reset the paradigm. It’s so close to true, there’s just one part missing…
How It Happened
(Not so) long ago, humans created a catalyst called Climate Change.
This crackling catalyst didn’t mean to be mean. It was pure physics, after all, but so is the atomic bomb. Like that bomb, it was created by humans who – consciously or unawares – reorganise molecules for their own benefit at the mercy of all else. It created chaos everywhere it went. Unlike the bomb, it went everywhere, all the time, all at once, and it got worse and worse the more carbon we emitted. No half-life here, only blown planetary boundaries.
It made heatwaves hotter, floods deeper, earthquakes stronger, hailstones harder, and sea level higher. It disrupted ecosystems and hastened extinctions. Billions of humans grew more anxious, millions were displaced, and something had to be done.
Tourism Did Not Escape
Ski pistes and beaches disappeared, travellers stayed home from the heat and went home sooner, leaving hotels emptier for longer, and hollowed venues at a loss. It was unpredictable, continual chaos that went on for many decades until (and here’s where the story gets interesting) activated tourism and events got involved.
By then – and we’re talking 2024 now, though the journey began circa 2010 – Tourism and Events already had its fair share of challenges. Without realising it, it could be damaging all by itself, never mind under the influence of Climate Change!
Tourism Probs
Tourism sufferent too many tourists and then too few, natural and social degradation and punctuation, and soon the incumbent economic fallout: the combined impacts of business as usual and a climate corrupted lead to big economic drops, big (event) flops, big waste, and, with climate change curdling reality, bigger risks for DMOs and CVBs trying to adjust or do more than merely cause less harm. So, 2024 was the perfect time for positive change. It was time for Activated Tourism and Events to take the lead role.
A Magic Potion
Rewind to the present tense (both senses). Introduced by their good friend GDS-Movement, which has a magic potion called Data and Doing, Activated Tourism and Events uses the potion to cast a spell called the Regenerative Journey. It helps balance climate change more quickly, kindly, and, most importantly, with longevity.
Sound too good to be real? It’s not magic, though, it’s science. With a natural systems thinking and well-being focus, these degrees of separation, properly managed and radically collaborated on, lead to rejuvenation.
On with the saga! GDS-Movement swiftly joins forces with more and more self-determining tourism and business events organisations (we’re at around 100 cities right now) and uses the science to flatten the destructive curve of human-made and human-fuelled destruction through tourism and events. And this is just the beginning.
Back to the future (circa… well, it’s relative, but let’s try before 2030, shall we?). Whole regions across the earth joined in, and their tourism and events’ many efforts transformed into impacts could be felt by more than travellers. Other sectors picked up the scent of renewal in these cities, because regeneration is not a competition, it’s a system, and a great one, which pays in more ways than just financial, and in an increasingly insecure era, that’s contagious. More regions joined the journey. More sectors. More positive impact. Countries saw the light and became the light. It’s nice story to tell even if it’s a little ahead of its time.
Did they all live happily ever after? No, they collaborated effectively and continually. Because that’s what gets the important work done better, faster, together.
Ok, so that’s the story. Nice story. Nice, rosy future. Nice to dream, right? But, to tie up the timeline – and help us achieve that future now (which is when futures are made), we do need to reveal something we didn’t mention before.
The Secret
It may come as a shock, because you thought you lived in reality (till AI turned it into sci-fi, right? Don’t worry, a generative pretrained transformer did not write this). The truth is that
YOU are the time machine.
You’re the missing piece! If everyone gets involved, we can change our systems and meet the targets that will bring the regeneration we need.
Think about it. If we insert you into the story, we turn the story into reality, and it’s a reality you can shape, especially if we work together. But we can’t tell the story for you. This is a “choose your own adventure” kind of tale, after all. Are you ready to write right it?
If returning to the headlines and deadlines makes you want to run a mile rather than invest a smile (whether sardonic or innocent), then stay, and walk with us! We welcome the jaded and the hopeful alike! We’re optimistic because we have evidence that regeneration is not only possible, it’s viable. It requires a mindset shift and that’s not always easy when the systems that are supposed to work are killing us. Thing is, nobody we’ve ever met has ever looked back from it. And here’s a secret that is standing out in the open so it’s often overlooked when we look at the mess we’re in together. The marathon to mitigation starts with a single step which we can help you take. And we’ve got proof that it works…
Six Truths
These six trends from GDS-Movement’s research fit right into that fictional story, and they are fact.
In fact, they were drawn from the 2023 GDS-Index data, which we independently assessed the participating cities on their tourism and events’ efforts to make their places more sustainable. We use our own, evolving methodology and criteria, updated annually, and we’ll be releasing the latest 2024 results from 16 October this year. Here are the six pillars of destination sustainability right now:
1. Increasing Integration into Climate Strategies
85% of all cities have a climate mitigation and adaptation strategy. While this is an increasing trend, only 33% of cities have integrated tourism and events into their climate strategies. It remains a key priority and a game-changing step for destination management organisations (DMOs)to become an integrated part of their city’s response to climate change.
2. Wider Stakeholder Engagement
Destinations are getting better at engaging with stakeholders, yet there is a need to enhance multi-stakeholder collaboration. Presently, only 35% of destinations engage with a comprehensive range of stakeholders encompassing industry, clients, government, and the community. Of the new destinations, 55% are engaging stakeholders in their strategies, whereas this number is 95% among the returning destinations.
3. Growing Third-Party Certification
Index data reveals that certification is gaining significant traction worldwide. Certification rates for hotel rooms vary across regions: the Nordic region averages at 70%, Western Europe at 28%, Asian Pacific destinations at 15%, and North American (including many Canadian) destinations at 32%. Venues are leading the change. In Nordic destinations, 84% of venues are certified, followed by 71% in the Asia Pacific, 46% in Western Europe, and 14% in Eastern Europe.
4. Formalising Social Impact Strategies
Over the past year, there has been an increase in Convention Bureaus formalising their social impact strategies. Leading destinations with well-integrated business events and tourism master plans, coupled with clear sustainability strategies, have been at the forefront of this transition. 44% of cities are facilitating partnerships to help clients generate a long-term, positive impact and legacy in the destination.
5. Increasing focus on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI)
There has been a focus on DEI issues in 2023, especially in North America. 47% of destinations now have an action plan for DEI. Of the top 40, 75% of cities have DEI policies and initiatives. Overall, 48% run internal training courses and 35% run external training courses. In 2022, these figures were 32% and 25% respectively.
6. Greater storytelling
53% of destinations are talking about their sustainability efforts and strategies via their websites. Advanced destinations are getting better at telling stories that engage and move audiences. They are creating experiences and senses of place and space based on data that bring their destination’s commitments and efforts to life. Newcomers can follow their example and create compelling stories of change and optimism.
Get much more data in the full 2023 GDS-Index report:
The End?
Not a chance. We’re just getting going. We know now that we can cast good spells at scale if we co-create at a pace to match the spiralling feedback loops pushing us closer to those planetary (societal, financial) boundaries faster and faster. We also know there is no end until every company in every destination is empowering its economic bottom line and its visitors, residents, and clients to leave a place better by being there. That’s what we’re about. And about the animals, plants, insects, soils, air, clouds, and stars.
Join the Global Destination Sustainability Movement today and let’s get quantum together.
If You’re Still Unsure
Here’s a cheat sheet so you can see the storyscape you might want to leap into and so you can figure out where you lie in it right now (we can help you with both, of course)
Need a recap? Here’s a dynamic table of contents. Just click or tap to jump to section!
Actions You Can Take Right Now to Make a Positive Difference
- Learn how to tell your own very not-so-fairy story
- Get destination sustainability news and views
- Meet with peers at the 2024 GDS-Forum for an un-conference with no limits
- Start measuring your city’s tourism and events sustainability contributions so you can better manage them
- Power up your destination sustainability with hands-on help tailored to you
- Empower your event to leave a more positive impact and legacy
