How to save tourism from itself | Doug Lansky | TEDxStockholmSalon

in 1950 there were 25 million international travelers last year 1.4 billion

tourism

is now one of the largest industries in the world it's amazing when you think about it, it's come a tremendously long way and I can sum up the global strategy for

tourism

in one word more more wait What's more, we have been driving this gas pedal tour bus for too long, if you want to get where you really want to go, avoid obstacles, get there safely, even get there faster, you have to hit the brakes from time to time. from time to time. and we've been neglecting it, so it's no surprise we've reached a tipping point in many ways: too many visitors on city attractions, national parks, hiking trails and beaches, ruining coral reefs, clearing forests to make fields golf. pumping sewage into our beautiful oceans and polluting our beautiful blue skies with ships and planes and leaving trash almost everywhere we go, how can we put an end to this madness if we can't come up with a better strategy than not? have?

We are not going to be able to save tourism from

itself

and without a strategy we are likely to fall for the next attractive thing that comes our way only to regret it soon after, so what I want to do today is redefine what success in tourism means, so we have some real goals to try to hit so we know when to hand out the bonuses. I have a plan for four things that will improve tourism for the traveler and for the destination; In other words, they are going to make things better for you, whether you travel or live in a city that attracts travelers, so here's the game plan: protect the quality of life of the locals, which is number one, in In my opinion, they have been left out of the equation for too long if tourism doesn't do it.

I work for locals, it doesn't work now. I'm going to go ahead and assume that everyone likes to travel, but let me ask you this: Do you like to travel so much that you wouldn't care if, say, 50 tour buses pulled up? on your street and you parked there right in front of where you live every day they kept the buses running unloaded about 1500 tourists walked up and down your street they were loud in the morning loud late at night they threw trash in your bushes They took over the playgrounds where your kids played, they took over your favorite coffee shop on the corner but they left a little extra money in that coffee shop and gave a nice economic boost to your neighborhood.

Would it be worth it? Is that trade-off worth it? I don't believe it. I don't think it's worth it for any of us. The thing is, this is what is happening everywhere we go. Cities around the world. The most beautiful cities and the most beautiful parts of those cities have been given to tourists. And what have the locals done? We just stepped back and thought, oh, that's a tourist area, now we're not going to go there just down the street from where we are now. This is happening in Stockholm, in the old town, tons of tourists and locals stay. far away it's happening in Copenhagen it's happening in Bergen just to name a few Nordic examples it's happening in places all over the world what are we going to do about it?

I don't think it's right, is it, we need to do something in a city. It may have tourists but tourists should not have the city. I'm going to say that again a city can have tourists but tourists shouldn't have the city so here's the thing, this is the word that describes it about tourism, it's a phenomenon. but I don't think that's the right word, it makes it seem like there are too many tourists everywhere and normally that's not the case, it's not like that, it's more like that, where that road that takes you to the city center is rush hour . the traffic that everyone needs is the one that's crowded and it's like those super popular must see attractions and the rest of the capacity those other roads are like the attractions you've never heard of, you probably wouldn't want to go and the thing is that you drive on those roads just because they are empty even though they don't take you where you want to go.

Would you be happy traveling to the other side of the world and then not seeing the attractions you most want to see? This is what is happening everywhere. now and this is where you get to the destination capacity and here's a really simple way to think about it, think of it like a dinner party, right, you want to have 12 guests, so you do a quick inventory check and say, okay, we have 12 plates. but we only have two forks, we have seven spoons and seven knives, etc., you could run to the store, but if the guests showed up right now, would you say that you had too many guests or you were short of forks and that's why I don't like the word?

Over tourism, I prefer unbalanced tourism, it implies that measures can be taken to solve the problem and this is exactly what is happening in cities. There is a balance. If you want to maximize the passengers and planes that can arrive at an airport, maybe that means there are also too many people for the hotels or the pedestrian street or the parking lots or the attractions. Likewise, if you maximize the hotels, maybe there are too many people for the airport or for the pedestrian street and the hotels, etc., etc., if you want to grow a destination. it needs to grow organically and this is what I try to help destinations do around the world and you know who does it very well.

Theme parks if they want to grow, they had a new attraction, if they had a new attraction, they had a new ticket counter. they had a new ticket counter, they had a new bathroom, a new snack stand, a new restaurant and they're growing organically and that's how it works. The thing is, there are some people who are doing it right. There are some interested parties like here in Utah, the wave is. They call this beautiful rock formation, they only allow 20 people a day and they give it out lottery style at the tourist office because they want everyone to have a really cool experience and get a photo like this or here in the Cinque Terre in Italy in the coast.

They didn't have tickets before and about 2.5 million people walk that trail between these beautiful towns every year and they just implemented a ticketing system, but they only printed 1.5 million tickets, they intentionally wanted a million fewer visitors, Is that a bold move or here on the island of Fernando de Neruna off the coast of Brazil they only allow 460 at a time can they even make more money this way by limiting it? By putting the limit again on capitalism, can they become more profitable? all other interested parties do so. If they have a maximum capacity, also the hotels, also the tourist groups, also the attractions, why not complete destinations.

This brings me to point two: maximizing local economic impact. Presumably, most people in this industry are in it to make some money, but instead of looking at the number. of visitors or income, why not profits, they are not considering it now and they need to do it because they need to consider some important costs and leakage costs, such as electricity, the water that the beach collects after the tourists clean the streets and all these international franchises. the money doesn't always come like a hotel, for example those international franchise hotels around 16 go directly to the mothership at the international headquarters they don't even reach the destination or those really convenient booking sites around 25 go directly to their headquarters corporate never enters the destination now I'm not saying that these things are bad, they are bad and they shouldn't have them, I'm just saying that a destination must be smart and take it into account in the calculation because, after all, it is the tourists who are there, sorry.

The locals who are there are paying the price by having all those tourists they have to put up with and this is another problem. Destinations can grow too quickly. It happened recently in Iceland, the world average for growth and tourism is four percent. They were growing. at 24 a year I spoke to the CEO of their tourism group and she said they were growing so fast they had to build so much infrastructure to handle all the extra visitors they were having trouble making money they were growing so fast they couldn't make money Money is a crazy phenomenon and it doesn't have to be that way.

This is an attraction that you have all heard about in Orlando, Florida, one of the most famous in the world. They fell three years ago. They dropped in visits and increased four percent in profits. less visitors more profits how they did it this is how they did it and this is something destinations can do right now this is the trick: have good bathrooms everywhere clean after each use because with the wealthier travelers and maybe some of You are among them, you go back to your hotel room and use the bathroom there and while you are there you turn on the TV, you take a nap, the kids start playing on your phones and you are out of the consumer loop.

If you want them to keep buying, which means you also want to have great opening hours. Between 30 and 40 percent of purchases are made after 6 p.m. m. and many places close at 6 p.m. m., the other thing you want to do is get rid of queues when people are queuing. They are not spending, they are out of the consumer loop and they are miserable. There is something called time ticket entry that is available for all attractions. It means you book at a specific time, you show up, you walk right in, you don't have to wait for anyone.

It's all about spending up front, so when you book a ticket to a museum maybe they can sell you lunch while you're there or an audio tour and the more you spend up front, that's last month's budget, you booked it last month. past when you presented That day you don't reach for your wallet to pay the entrance fee, you are more likely to impulsively buy at the gift shop and spend more money and then want to separate the spending from the money. That's why casinos force you to exchange your money. fries doesn't feel like real money, that's why hotels let you sign in for drinks in the room, it doesn't feel like you're buying anything, if you use these tricks you can get more money with even fewer visitors, this is The low hanging fruit of tourism Thirdly, you want to improve the visitor experience, this is what has been happening for about 200,000 years or so.

We've been hunter-gatherers, we've just been doing this modern tourism for the last 75 years and we're not really programmed. because you know, the thing is if you look at what has evolved more easily, hunting and gathering has evolved to dining and shopping, it's what we're best at, it still feels like what we're best at, it's crazy because tourism is traveling. without a purpose we're not fleeing a disease outbreak we're not fighting a religious war we're not opening new trade routes we're just walking around and looking at things and the thing about that is it's a little hard to tell.

When you're done, there's no clear beginning or end, so your kids tug on your sleeve and say, can we go now? After five minutes, we've created this fun little tourist ceremony that you may have done yourself, in fact, many of you have probably said, take a photo and let's go, it's not like you're collecting trophies, it's just a nice little ceremony that closes this without beginning or end, and another thing that is happening is that we are also copying. a lot of best practices, you're probably familiar with this too, you saw that the London Eye was a big success and everyone saw it, so they said, well, we should put one in Helsinki, we should have one in Singapore, we definitely need one in Seattle and We need one in Cape Town and we need one in Chicago and we should have one in Shanghai and there are another dozen I could have put here.

That dilutes the travel experience, doesn't it take away some of that motivation to leave the house? It's strange that way, but there is an opposite, there is a success story and here is just a small sample of what it looks like. This is just a food hall in Brooklyn, but they have an interesting policy. If you want to be here, you can't be anywhere. Otherwise, they want a unique experience, so people have to go there to experience it. It is a smart idea and the last one is to protect key assets. This is so simple I can't even believe I have to say it. out loud, but you have to protect the things that tourists come to see and so many people, don't you see the headlines about this all the time?

This is in bad shape, these resorts and they don't really want you to swim in them. the water, the beaches are disgusting, this is all crazy, we are damaging the reefs, even the Unesco designated tourist centers are becoming illiterate, this is crazy and the reason this is happening is that tourism organizations They are created to be promotional, that's what I meant when I said drive. the bus using only the accelerator pedal what we need politicians around the world to do is create new organizations to manage destinations or they will have nothingto promote very soon so these are the four things again, they are not just For the industry, these are things that affect us all, but you may be wondering what we can do now to help.

Let me start with a fun poll, it's kind of interesting. 69 percent of people in this survey said sustainable tourism is very important to them, but in that same survey 75 said they don't even know what it is, it sounds crazy but in some ways it's hard to know that it can mean almost anything. thing these days, but what might be more topical if flying this is the big question are we to blame for the co2 we are talking about and some people say we shouldn't be fine I feel two things about it part of me says that We should definitely stop flying and there's another part of me that says well, I can still imagine that someone will be flying in three years and in five years and in 10 years there will be airplanes in the sky and wouldn't it be great if they were all powered airplanes? hydrogen or electric, environmentally friendly and sustainable energy, how cool would that be and how will we get there if we stop flying, if many of us do, how does an airline suffer financially?

How are they going to get the money for research and development? How are they going to buy these really cool eco-planes? And indeed we have come a long way so far. This is an electric plane that actually flies. NASA is working on it. There are a lot of companies developing these things right now. We may be closer to this. you think, but it's going to close if everyone stops flying, it's a weird vicious cycle that way and Norway has this brilliant idea, they have a national plan for electric planes for their domestic flights in the near future, how cool would that be?

It would be if more governments signed a plan of this type and more airlines started investing in this and we, the customers, started demanding it, that is something we can all do today and this is the other good news in the last 10 years: planes, long-haul flights have gotten more fuel. efficient at 27, but this also creates confusion because there are planes in the sky that are less efficient and more efficient and when you go to book a flight like, for example, from New York to Singapore, you can see how much it costs when it leaves and how long . the flight is but you can't see how much gasoline they are burning and that is a really important question because there is a big difference between the planes that currently serve that route between 1.3 tons per passenger or 0.9, it is difficult to know which It's a big difference if we're looking at a round trip for two people that adds up to 1.6 tons of CO2 and if you're not sure what that looks like, this is what a ton looks like, it's hard to imagine there's anything we can do. do once we get to that.

Destination like reusing our towels and taking an ecotour will generate that amount of CO2, but we can do a few things to get started. We don't have to fly very, very far to get to a beach. We could choose one that's a little closer. home and if we are going to fly or if we want to travel closer to home we don't have to fly we can take trains or buses when possible there are other things we can do to have a better effect on the environment but not everything has to cost money or require technology this is one of my favorite solutions the island of palau puts a stamp right in your passport and they ask you to sign it and make the palau pledge it's beautiful it's almost poetic if you look down it says the only footprints i will leave are those that will erase how amazing it is, what a great and cost-effective way to get us to help commit to this, of course we should do it anyway, whether they put a stamp in our passport or not now I said before that tourism is traveling without a purpose, but that doesn't mean we can't make it more useful, no matter if you're responsible for an entire destination or booking your next trip.

Why not be part of the solution? A solution that takes us to a better future, a future that allows the next generations of travelers to see this amazing planet in the same way that we have and that is how we save tourism from

itself

.