From overtourism to undertourism?
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an opportunity to think fundamentally different and more strategically about how we want to organise tourism together. I believe that the focus should not only be on overtourism, as in recent years, but also the other side, namely that of undertourism.
What is undertourism?
Undertourism is not a new term. In practice, it is often used as a marketing term to draw attention to undiscovered gems that have not yet been "ruined by mass tourism". But it is also good to think about the management aspects of undertourism. How do you deal with areas where tourism plays a minor role or where the influx of tourists has ceased?
Building resilience during COVID-19
COVID-19 shows that the drying up of large numbers of tourists has a huge impact on companies, resulting in losses, bankruptcies and layoffs. How should changing circumstances be dealt with? In science, we often talk about resilience of a company, sector or area when faced with rapid or slow change. Being too focused on one target group or industry makes you vulnerable, with all the consequences that entails.
Responsible tourism destinations
In order to achieve more balanced development, we at CELTH are busy designing the "Agenda Responsible Destinations", in which a number of matters remain relevant: a shared vision, monitoring, making the sector more sustainable and professionalisation through training. For example, there are many issues in our tourism sector that we, entrepreneurs, governments, educational institutions and researchers, will have to work on together in the coming years. At CELTH we are happy to take on our role as a knowledge partner in this process.
Read the entire article (in Dutch) by our program manager Jasper Heslinga on the NRIT Media website.