Arnie Weissmann
The tension between universities and the places where they're located is often referenced as a "town/gown" divide. A similar tension can exist between tourists and the residents of destinations they visit; let's call that a "sights/sites" split.
Overtourism is an obvious cause of resident resentment, but there are many more subtle forms. Last week, the industry nonprofit Tourism Cares held a Meaningful Travel Summit in Asheville, N.C., that explored ways to ensure that the bridges between visitors and the visited remain in good repair.
Holding the Summit in Asheville was a strategic decision: That city faced devastating flooding following Hurricane Helene in September 2024. It has been ready to receive visitors for some time, yet visitation is still lagging. In essence, the Summit took place in the midst of a real-time case study of how best to construct (or reconstruct) relationships between tourism enterprises and communities with an eye toward minimizing potential sights/sites splits.
What emerged in panels and presentations was an approach that seems obvious but which often runs contrary to directives from on high. During a panel that I moderated, Destinations International CEO Don Welsh related how, when he headed the destination management organization Choose Chicago, his boss --mayor (and legendary hard-ass) Rahm Emanuel -- was focused only on the percentage of growth in visitation that he wanted to see. Community input was not on Emanuel's agenda.
Not to be one-upped, fellow panelist and USTOA chief Terry Dale said that when he was CEO of NYC & Company, he got a similar directive from his boss, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Also no shrinking violet and, similarly, more focused on growth than citizen input.
Both Welsh and Dale now strongly believe it's critical to solicit community involvement when shaping tourism policy, a sentiment shared by fellow panelists Catherine Prather, president of the National Tour Association, and Carylann Assante, CEO of the Student and Youth Travel Association.
Robyn Basso, senior director of travel industry partnerships for the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau and Dodie Stephens, vice president of marketing at Explore Asheville, were both on a panel moderated by Tourism Cares CEO Greg Takehara. Each of their organizations has had a chance to reset a tourism agenda in response to crises: Basso spoke of how the HVCB worked with the residents of Lahaina on Maui after its devastating fire, and Stephens addressed the ongoing revival of Asheville.
In both instances, giving local communities a voice in rebuilding tourism provided a promising foundation for positive relationships between residents and tourism promoters.
Shortly after returning from Asheville, I had breakfast with Andia Ravariere, CEO of the Nevis Tourism Authority. Nevis is in quite a different position than Asheville; it's a luxury destination in the Caribbean that is still laser-focused on growth.
And residents are helping shape that growth. Upon accepting the job last year, "we immediately started having stakeholder meetings, and not only with hoteliers and tour operators," she said.
Her conclusion at the end of her meetings with residents was that "people are the main differentiating factor" on Nevis.
"They want to preserve who they are, what they stand for," she continued. "There is absolutely no way that we can market, promote and develop without them. Our entire plan revolves around them."
As on other Caribbean islands, some visitors to Nevis seldom leave their resorts, which limits their interactions with residents to front desk personnel or the person who cleans their room. To counter that, she said, "We're discussing an initiative that allows local people who teach golf, who coach tennis, to be at the resort. There's quite a difference between someone providing service to you and someone who may actually be serving to you (in a game of tennis)."
Nonetheless, she describes her approach as "hybrid" rather than community-led.
"Locals may not know the theories to develop a tourism product successfully. But they have the knowledge and understanding of the natural environment. And, of course, they are supposed to be the greatest beneficiaries of tourism development. So we meet in the middle ground."
Which, I think, is what ends up happening most of the time. The combination of people with experience in tourism management genuinely soliciting resident input is key to keeping antipathy toward tourism at a minimum.
I emceed the Tourism Cares Summit for three days and listened to several Ashevillians (seven were among Summit speakers), and I got the sense that, when trying to understand residents' feelings and opinions, it's important to not simply solicit sentiment about tourism but to find out how residents define their unique identity. Universally, they won't want tourism to dilute or change it.
Nevis' Ravariere said it in a different way: "When it comes to tourism development, if your people understand who they are, and we understand who they are, then we are all singing the same song."
And in the best of circumstances, singing in harmony.