In Part 1 of this story, we talked about a couple of great ways the travel industry is changing. Part of it is due to the requisite pause Covid has taken,
To re-cap, the first part we focused on how traveler's choices about how to travel are changing. They're wanting to be a part of the solution and they're making conscientious choices. In Part 2, we're focusing on how the industry is changing both at the community level and at a more macro-level.
Communities Taking Action
A traveler's choice to be a conscious traveler is important. But personal actions can only go so far if policies don't help create a system that protects communities. For some communities, the Covid-imposed travel pause helped open up new potential to welcome tourists while maintaining better balance.
Sustainable Brands highlighted a few of those communities finding new ways to limit the impact of overcrowding. One example is Key West, FL, where prior to Covid, the town of 25,000 residents received up to 10,000 cruise ship visitors a day from large cruise ships. Not only did these visitors spend less money than overnight guests, crowded locals out of the historic downtown and the ships wreaked havoc on the coral reef ecosystem. So in November 2020, Key West residents voted to keep cruise ship visitors to 1,500 per day.
Other examples the article includes are Gothenburg, Sweden that created a campaign to promote activities beyond the city to encourage travelers to visit a wider geographical area. And Amsterdam, The Netherlands sought to limit marijuana sales to locals to reduce low-budget travelers.
Another over touristed locale, Venice, has banned cruise ships and is now charging entry to visitors to enter some of the most popular piazzas.
These local policies are, in effect, promoting deeper travel to experience the place in a more immersive way. And it could be the key to these over touristed locales to recover while still being able to experience the economic benefits from tourism.
Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice in Tourism
The other major change in tourism that is adjacent to the pandemic-induced changes, but not necessarily about the pandemic. It's a focus on diversity, equity, and social justice. What came from the 2020 racial justice uprisings after the murder of George Floyd was greater attention paid to how systemic racism existed within the travel industry. From the exclusion of Black and brown voices within travel media to the white-washing of places that were part of a place's racist history.
While the enthusiasm for racial justice work among White folks has waned since the initial sense of urgency in the summer of 2020, the travel industry is still experiencing a racial reckoning that is an important one travelers should also pay attention to. This June 2021 New York Times by Tariro Mzezwa story provides insight into how this is happening. To summarize, she writes about several things taking shape.
One of the efforts Mzezwa points to are organizations helping travelers find ways to investigate the histories of public places more deeply. The Monument Lab, based in Philadelphia, is doing just that with public monuments around the United States helping people to engage with these places more critically. While not referenced in the New York Times article, many of the plantations in the Southern U.S. are also helping to reframe the narrative around the history in those places. Specifically, they're focusing on the experience of the enslaved people there rather than white-washing the history (check out my friend Brinda Shah's great article about tips on how to travel consciously in the Southern U.S. that addresses just that).
The other important issue Mzezwa's article focuses on is the need to create a pathway for Black professionals to enter the travel industry. Having more Black travel professionals in the field ensures that travel experiences (and travel media for that matter!) are tailored to the needs and nuances of Black travelers. The Black Travel Alliance emerged because of that to create that pathway to ensure more Black travel professionals can enter that sphere.
And of course, this moment offers the opportunity to think about travel through a more critical lens. White travelers can always be more aware of how their privilege helps them travel more safely throughout the world. Travelers can also be aware of the businesses they're supporting, whether they're owned by people of color or historically marginalized people. And making these more conscious choices can also make for an even more meaningful and educational travel experience in the process.
It's clear that the last two years has changed travel in so many ways. It's heartening to see these positive trends and we hope this continues. We hope that travelers around the world really are following through with their intentions to travel differently and with more intentionality.
And now we want to hear from you: How has your approach to travel changed in the past couple years?