Tourism Risk Management

🚫 Customers don’t like negativity. There is always a way to focus on a positive message. This is how Copenhagen did it. Tell customers “don’t do this” or “here’s the problem” and you risk the opposite effect. Most companies communicate problems. Companies and governments talks about restrictions. But nobody likes it. 🌍 Great brands (and cities) flip the script. They turn challenges into opportunities. Take Copenhagen. The city faced overtourism. Instead of saying “we need fewer tourists”, it asked: “how can we make visitors part of the solution?” 👉 The result: CopenPay. Tourists earn free meals, boat rides, bike rentals, or museum discounts when they make sustainable choices — like taking the train, helping in an urban garden, or exploring less-visited neighborhoods. The impact? ✅ Relieved pressure from crowded areas ✅ Boosted local small businesses ✅ Strengthened sustainability & community ✅ Created happier visitors ✨ This is CX at its best: no restrictions, no negativity — just new opportunities for everyone. 🚀 The lesson: if you want people on board, don’t focus on the problem. Invite them into a chance to make things better.

“I’d rather donate my vacation money than actually visit. Is this not a better option?” That's a real comment I received this week. Let’s talk about it. Because on the surface it sounds noble. But underneath, it reveals a deeper misunderstanding of how recovery works in small island nations. Here’s what most people don’t realize: 1. After a disaster, donations help people survive. 2. Tourism helps people recover. Two VERY different outcomes. When you donate: → A family buys food for a week → A community replaces a few damaged items → A temporary need gets met When you visit: → A driver gets booked for the whole day → A cookshop sells 20 plates instead of 2 → A craft vendor makes enough to restock → A hotel keeps its staff employed → A farmer receives another order from that same hotel → And all of that money circulates through the island multiple times One is relief. The other is livelihood. Here’s what the data shows: → Tourism accounts for over 30% of Jamaica’s GDP (direct + indirect) → Each tourist dollar touches up to 7 different sectors → 1 in every 5 Jamaican jobs is linked to tourism → Community tourism is one of the fastest ways to stimulate local recovery So when someone says: “I’ll donate instead of visiting,” what they’re unintentionally saying is: “I want to help… but only in the least impactful way.” Let me tell you a quick story. After the hurricane, the first businesses to reopen in the west weren’t the big ones. It was the small ones. The ones with no PR team. No insurance buffer. No investors. Just people. A fish vendor at "border" who rebuilt his stall with scraps. A boutique hotel staff member who went to work even though her roof is gone. A guide in Ocho Rios who showed up with a smile even though he has no light. These are the people donations reach last. Tourism reaches them first. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Donations help Jamaica. But tourism sustains Jamaica. The blueprint if you want to help for real: → Visit local communities, not only the resorts → Eat at the small cookshops that reopened against all odds → Book local guides, local drivers, local experiences → Share their stories on social media, that’s modern word-of-mouth → Support community tourism projects that keep money in the parish You want to help? Beautiful. But help in the way that creates long-term impact, not short-term comfort. If you want to support Jamaica in the most effective way, participation beats distance every single time. ♻️ Repost so your network sees what recovery looks like here.

After two years of engaging deeply with the subject, I'm thrilled to finally publish a study that I hope will make tourism businesses pause and re-evaluate their response to climate change! "Future-Proofing Tourism" - published as a collaboration among Regenerative Travel, Aurora Collective and Climate Conscious Travel - offers actionable insights and strategies on climate adaptation and community resilience for travel businesses, as well as key recommendations for DMOs and policymakers. 👉 It’s abundantly clear by now that the tourism sector is highly vulnerable to climate impacts. This year again, we've seen extreme weather events like floods, cyclones, droughts and heatwaves, and erratic weather patterns, disrupt tourism across the globe. 👉 As natural, cultural and community assets get impacted, tourism destinations become less appealing to travellers. Businesses need to understand the climate risks facing them, and build resilience in their supply chains, itineraries, assets and target markets. This is not just about survival, but also about unlocking new opportunities. 👉 Local communities are essential as guardians of their living culture and natural resources. They’ve contributed the least to planet-warming emissions, yet are the most vulnerable to climate impacts. A climate justice approach can enable businesses to truly centre local communities through more equitable and less extractive tourism models. 👉 Against this background, we analysed 30 case studies of tourism businesses adapting to the impacts of a warming planet. These span 6 destinations (Maldives, Kerala, Peruvian Andes, Swiss Alps, Bangkok and Amsterdam) across coastal, mountainous and urban terrains. 👉 The paper offers a climate adaptation framework and key strategies for tourism businesses of all shapes and sizes - including tour operators, hotels and community-run initiatives. These strategies will enable businesses to secure their revenue models through resilient tourism products, targeted communication approaches, and close partnerships with local communities and the wider industry. Download the report here —> https://lnkd.in/dZg6atV3 I’m deeply grateful to my co-author O'Shannon Burns for helping me turn my academic research into a valuable resource for the industry, and to Amanda Ho and her team for anchoring this white paper. My whole-hearted gratitude also to my research advisors Michaela Thompson and Richard Wetzler, as well as my fellow DCE capstonians at Harvard University for supporting this journey. And to everyone who generously shared their valuable insights and resources for this research. #climateadaptation #climatechangeandtourism #sustainabletourism #tourismadaptation #tourismwhitepaper #tourismresearch #climateresilienceintourism

Regulatory landscape against greenwashing 🌎 Regulations to prevent greenwashing are becoming increasingly stringent as governments and regulatory bodies worldwide seek to ensure that environmental claims are accurate, transparent, and verifiable. Historically, misleading green claims were regulated under general consumer protection laws, but the growing prevalence of sustainability-related marketing has led to more specific guidelines. Authorities such as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Commission have introduced new frameworks, including the Green Claims Code and the Green Claims Directive (GCD), to provide stricter oversight and enforcement. These initiatives aim to prevent businesses from using vague or deceptive sustainability claims to mislead consumers. Regulatory enforcement has intensified, with an increasing number of lawsuits and penalties for companies found guilty of greenwashing. In recent years, consumer protection agencies and advertising regulators in the US, UK, and EU have taken legal action against major brands that have misrepresented their environmental impact. Beyond government interventions, watchdog organizations and class-action lawsuits are holding companies accountable, resulting in substantial financial and reputational consequences. One of the key areas of regulatory focus is third-party certifications, which many companies use to validate their environmental credentials. However, the credibility of certification schemes varies widely, and some have been criticized for lacking independent verification or rigorous standards. To address this, the GCD explicitly bans self-certified sustainability labels and mandates that all new certifications undergo prior approval before being used in the EU. Only those that demonstrate meaningful environmental impact and transparency will be permitted, reducing the risk of misleading claims disguised under weak or unregulated certifications. Another significant shift in greenwashing regulations is the requirement for companies to consider the entire lifecycle of their products when making sustainability claims. As regulations become more stringent, companies will need to proactively adapt their sustainability strategies to remain compliant and credible. The shift towards greater transparency, stricter verification processes, and lifecycle-based assessments signals a new era of accountability in corporate sustainability. Businesses that fail to meet these evolving standards risk legal action, financial penalties, and consumer distrust, while those that embrace more rigorous sustainability reporting and certification processes will be better positioned to build trust and demonstrate genuine commitment to environmental responsibility. Source: Anthesis Group #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #climatechange #greenwashing

🌏 Destination Stewardship in the Age of Overcrowding: What Bali Must Learn from Global Cities The World Travel & Tourism Council’s latest report is both a wake-up call and a roadmap. Titled “Managing Destination Overcrowding: A Call to Action from the Travel & Tourism Private Sector”, it makes the case that the real risk to popular destinations like Bali isn’t tourism itself — but the failure to manage it systemically. 📉 In Europe, the report warns that reducing tourism to “average” levels could erase $245 billion in GDP and nearly 3 million jobs within 3 years. But it equally shows that unchecked visitor pressure, if not addressed with evidence-based planning, threatens the very essence of place — and with it, long-term competitiveness. So how does this apply to Bali? 👉 Bali is not “over-touristed” — it is under-managed. Much like Venice or Barcelona, Bali faces the consequences of: High visitor density in a few iconic nodes (e.g., Canggu, Seminyak, Ubud) Inadequate reinvestment of tourism revenues into public infrastructure Fragmented governance and regulatory asymmetry across regencies Resident alienation and diminishing pride in place What the WTTC proposes is highly relevant: ✅ Build a multi-sector Destination Stewardship Body with real mandates ✅ Co-create a shared destination vision, aligned with both residents and investors ✅ Deploy data-led visitor management and crowd-monitoring systems ✅ Ring-fence and transparently reinvest tourism taxes into mobility, waste, water, and culture ✅ Empower residents through meaningful participation and pride-of-place programming This isn’t about saying “no” to growth — it’s about saying “yes” to resilience, regeneration, and recalibration. 🔎 Bali can — and must — avoid the trap of simplistic solutions like blanket moratoriums or tourism taxes that are never reinvested. Instead, we need what this report calls “evidence-based governance” and a long-overdue pivot from destination marketing to destination management. 📣 As an advisor engaged across Bali’s tourism corridors and a proponent of a value-over-volume model, I urge our public, private, and community stakeholders to treat this report as a blueprint. Let’s not wait for the tipping point to act. Let’s make stewardship Bali’s new signature. Check out the report at: https://lnkd.in/g_Q9jUve #Bali2030 #TourismStrategy #DestinationStewardship #WTTC #SustainableTourism #ResilientDestinations #VisitorEconomy #ValueOverVolume #DataDrivenDecisions #HospitalityStrategy

🛫 Asia’s travel boom is a tipping point - and a test. Tourism in APAC is a US$3T engine (10% of GDP), supporting 185M jobs and welcoming 650M visitors. But growth without design can concentrate benefits in a few hotspots, strain infrastructure, price out locals, and trigger boom–bust cycles. Given tourism’s weight in our economies, we must build now so its benefits are lasting and widely shared.   This week, I spoke about the future of tourism at the Singapore Hotel Association's Hospitality Exchange 2025. Here are some of the thoughts I shared on what this “building” should look like:   🔍 Move beyond headcounts: Today, anonymized spend data can reveal where visitors go, how they move, and what they value. These insights help destinations anticipate demand, guide flows, and protect fragile sites before congestion hits.   🌐 Reimagine travel hubs as launchpads: Not just arrival points, but orchestrators of regional tourism, connecting visitors to lesser-known destinations and easing pressure on city centers and mainstream attractions.    🚆Build layered connectivity: Invest in and integrate hard infrastructure like airports with regional flight connectivity, high-speed rail, and room capacity, with soft infrastructure like digital readiness in the form of interoperable payment 💳 and transit systems to enable seamless journeys for tourists and locals alike.   🤖 Activate AI agents: Shift from search to end-to-end curation—connecting travelers with authentic, purpose-driven experiences, enabling seamless navigation, and dynamically managing visitor flows. It’s the new paradigm for smarter, more sustainable tourism.   The goal: tourism that enriches communities, preserves culture, and strengthens local economies. More than riding the wave, this is how Asia can define the next era of global travel.

Copenhagen just launched one of the smartest responses to overtourism I’ve seen. A tourism strategy that rewards contribution over consumption, and it’s working. Tourists in Copenhagen can help maintain a community garden in return for a freshly made lunch. Or even earn a free kayak rental just by collecting rubbish along the way. It’s all part of CopenPay, an initiative from Rikke Holm Petersen and the team at Wonderful Copenhagen that might be one of the most progressive tourism strategies I’ve seen in years. At a time when cities like Venice and Barcelona are overwhelmed by overtourism, and I’ve shared my strong opposition to visitor taxes, Copenhagen is offering a new model: Contribution-based tourism. The idea is to shift the visitor's mindset from passive consumer to active participant. The data proves it’s having an impact, with Copenhagen projecting 24% tourism growth by 2030. For travel marketers, does this represent a credible pillar in your destination positioning? Should you be designing campaigns around value exchange rather than value extraction? If it helps redistribute tourist flows and reduce pressure on overburdened places, I think the answer is fairly obvious. I’d love to hear from any tourism marketers that are doing this or have examples where this is being done, so we can share it on Beautiful Destinations! Image Credit: Adrienne Murray

Florence on the Brink: We all need to SAVE 🛟 the Cradle of the Renaissance from the Crush of Overtourism After 25 years of greeting the Ponte Vecchio, I now battle selfie sticks for standing room - proof that if Florence doesn’t change course fast, it will follow Venice into becoming a beautiful postcard no one can truly experience 🤨…. 🔹 Venice shows us the endgame with roughly 30 million visitors a year - most of them day trippers (coming of large cruise ships) the lagoon city has resorted to an access fee that now doubles for last minute arrivals on 54 peak days. Yet it hasn’t made any difference - earlier this week, I had to call it quits after spending only 3 hours in the city as it was impossible to even get on and off the vaporetta’s. 🔹 Unfortunately, Firenze is sprinting down the same path. 15 million visitors expected this year - against a population of just 350k. In the UNESCO listed centro storico (under two square miles) that works out to 25 tourists per resident, and over 10.5 million people funnelled into that tiny core annually 🔹 The city is pushing back—but the clock is ticking and I don’t think what’s being done is anywhere enough. The moves won’t matter unless the city leaders, businesses, and travelers start to treat overtourism as the existential threat it is. Lose Florence and we lose a living chapter of human creativity (that’s what is at stake here❗️) What Florence should do immediately: ➖ Cap daily arrivals in sensitive zones (the Duomo, Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio, Piazzale Michelangelo) ➖ Introduce a staggered day-pass—priced lower for off-peak hours—to flatten hour-by-hour surges. ➖ Reward longer stays with tax discounts that keep money in local hands and reduce churn. What we as visitors owe the city and must do: ➖ Visit in shoulder seasons ➖ Spend with artisans, not chains ➖ Book locally owned lodging; even if it means skipping that “too good to be true” online deal. ➖ Treat piazzas as living rooms, not food courts; carry in, carry out. I’ll keep coming back, because Firenze still has the rare power to stir the soul. But if we don’t change course now, the next generation will inherit a Renaissance museum park instead of a vibrant Tuscan city with unmatched class and heritage! Let’s prove that love for a place is measured not by how many of us show up, but by how gently we tread when we do. #ResponsibleTravel #SustainableTourism #Florence #Overtourism #CulturalHeritage

As Australians increasingly embrace sustainable travel and many hotels and operators sign pledges to be more environmentally friendly, experts warn to watch for signs of ‘greenwashing’. This is where companies make claims that sound eco-friendly, but lack meaningful action, write academics Rawan Nimri, Liz Simmons and Salman Majeed, PhD in The Conversation Australia + NZ. While major hotel groups including Hilton, Marriott and Accor have also set measurable sustainability targets and some 5,000 hotels worldwide have independent verification, their research shows guests often distrust vague promises. The academics advise to look for credible third‑party certifications such as Earthcheck or Green Key, detailed evidence (not slogans), visible changes such as refillable toiletries, and honesty about a hotel’s limitations. Absolute claims like '100% sustainable' without proof are red flags. “When you know what to look for, you can spot shaky green claims and choose hotels that match your values,” they write. “That pressure matters. It nudges the industry to be authentic, cuts down on greenwashing, and supports the hotels that are actually doing the work, not just putting a green label on the door.” How do you travel sustainably? What more can the travel sector do to be more eco-friendly? Join the conversation in the comments. By Cathy Anderson Image: Getty Images

It's time to stop saying OVERTOURISM. Two weeks on a "grand tour" in Italy, from Milan to Naples, will teach you many things. For one, gelato is great at any time. But more importantly, it forces you to confront a term that’s been floating around travel discourse for years: overtourism. It’s a phrase I think we need to retire. Not because crowds in Amalfi aren’t real (oh, they very much are) but because the word frames tourism as the villain. That’s short-sighted. Tourism is how we build bridges between cultures. It’s how we learn that “different” is not “wrong.” It’s how we see, in real life, that another culture can have an entirely different set of priorities and still be thriving. Note: This is an excerpt from my free newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ehPnMgig The problem isn’t that there are too many tourists. The problem is that they’re all in the same places at the same time. Ten minutes by boat from Amalfi is Minori: a beautiful beach town, relaxed, friendly, with a mix of Italians and international visitors. No gridlock, no cruise ships offloading thousands. Meanwhile, Amalfi is bursting at the seams, largely because of its branding success. This is a distribution issue, and it’s solvable. We already have the tools: AI, data platforms, and smart content targeting, that can guide visitors toward equally great but lesser-known destinations. Imagine dynamic recommendations that push travelers to nearby towns during peak hours, or highlight festivals in neighboring villages. Instead of funneling everyone to the “top 5” list TripAdvisor’s algorithm happens to love, we could design systems that spread demand across a region. AI can make this smarter. Predictive models could anticipate crowd surges, reroute tour buses, or package itineraries that combine headline destinations with hidden gems. That’s good for local economies, good for visitor experience, and good for preserving what makes these places worth visiting in the first place. So let’s stop saying “overtourism” as if the solution is fewer people experiencing the world. As I keep saying (and strongly believe) tourism fuels economies, deepens cultural understanding, and makes the world a little less “us versus them.” The challenge is not demand: it’s distribution. Call it “under-distributed tourism,” “tourism bottlenecking,” “Destination imbalance,” or something catchier, but let’s make the conversation about balancing the distribution, not blaming the people who are going out of their way to see other cultures. Because yes, Amalfi for an afternoon by boat is delightful. But so is Minori for three days. The world (and Italy) has more than enough beauty to go around.