Travel with Care has reviewed the websites of more than 200 leading destination marketing and management organizations (DMOs) around the world. From this assessment and a review of existing research on responsible travel education and communications we defined these six critical features of engaging and impactful programs:
Travelers and local residents are overwhelmed with travel-related messages and marketing of all types. For responsible-traveler messaging to get cut through, it needs to be easy to access, clear and concise, and visually engaging.
Best-Practice Example: Tiaki Promise, New Zealand. Beautiful, polished and authentically “Kiwi,” the Tiaki Promise is a clear, simple and powerfully visual request for visitors and locals to tread lightly in Aotearoa.
Responsible-traveler messaging needs to be integrated across all parts of your marketing and communications. Content and campaigns from itineraries to imagery should reinforce the message to “Travel with Care.”
Best-Practice Example: Do Right Colorado. The original “Care for Colorado” visitor-education has grown into a wide-ranging communications program reaching both visitors and locals — now asking them to Do Colorado Right. The campaign is also supported by an expanding commitment to stewardship and destination management (also see #6).
Responsible-traveler marketing should ask the visitor or local to actively engage and take responsibility for their behavior. Asking visitors to take a pledge and commit to traveling responsibly was pioneered by the Icelandic Pledge in June 2017 followed by the Pacific nation of Palau in December 2017.
Best-Practice Example: Icelandic Pledge. Icelandic tourism marketing has long been masterful at engaging and entertaining with humor. The pledge also has a fun and irreverent style and asks users to click through to take the pledge. See our Case Study here.
Responsible-traveler education and marketing should focus on the behaviors (positive or negative) that are most impactful in your destination. For example, emphasize “respectful visitor” guidelines if visitor noise and parking are issues for your locals.
Best-Practice Example: Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Amsterdam has been a long-time pioneer in shifting from visitor marketing to visitor education. Their sometimes-controversial campaigns both educate visitors (“How to Amsterdam”) and directly ask “nuisance-causing visitors” to stay away.
Effective and impactful responsible-traveler education is a team sport. The message and marketing should be developed and activated in consultation and partnership with industry, government and community partners.
Best-Practice Example: Breckenridge, Colorado. Breckenridge is a stand out for engaging not only with visitors but also businesses and local residents, asking them to “B Like Breckenridge” — “responsible stewards” of their special Rocky Mountain community.
Finally, it is critical to walk the talk. Responsible-traveler education and marketing is just one part of sustainable tourism. Visitor education and marketing should be matched by meaningful investment into protecting and restoring the natural environment, infrastructure and investing in local communities. This demonstrates to visitors that their positive travel behaviors are adding to a genuine commitment to sustainable tourism in the destination.
Best-Practice Example: Visit Scotland. Scotland, host of the COP-26 UN Conference on Climate Change and home to the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Change, is a long-time leader in responsible-traveler education backed by practical action on sustainable tourism as outlined in Scotland’s Sustainable Tourism Policy statement.
