Sustainable Destination Management
Strategies in the OIC Member Countries
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less well compared to the Global Best Practice examples at a national level. This implies a
substantial ‘gap in governance’, whereby destinations are often left to sort things out on
their own. In the case of Venice and Barcelona, there is a growing discourse that tourism
has gone too far in terms of a wide range of impacts including crowding, the impacts of
platform economies such as Airbnb, and the wide range of associated environmental
impacts.
To address these issues, destinations need to be proactive in working with a wide range
of stakeholders to develop effective carrying capacity policies and practices, which
includes monitoring (as described above).
The main point is that destinations need to pay careful attention to questions of carrying
capacity. Failure to do so almost always results in what Elizabeth Becker has termed
“Overbooked”. This remains one of the primary challenges for sustainable tourism.
A number of approaches have been discussed in previous sections of this report, and the
specific approach should be determined by the needs of a particular destination. For
example in Sweden, regional and local organizations implementedmeasures to extend the
tourist season, including for example, focusing on attracting tourists from various markets
targeting their different holiday schedules.408 In Italy, The Tourism Strategic Plan aims to
better distribute visitor flows into areas that are not recognized as tourist destinations
with the objective of decongesting saturated areas and improving competitiveness by
widening the product offer and establishing a more sustainable model.
Uganda Tourism Board has focused on organizing regional signature events to attract
domestic tourists during low seasons. These events include a world tourism day event,
wildlife marathons and cycling, etc. In Jordan, the Economic Growth Through Sustainable
Tourism Project, with funding from USAID, seeks to boost marketing efforts and
encourage tourism at secondary sites.
4. Managing Environmental Impacts – National Level
Embrace the Paris Climate Agreement: It is imperative that governments commit to
implementing the Paris Climate Agreement that aims to combat climate change, as well as
increase the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.
In New Zealand, several funds are dedicated to the promotion of sustainability practices
and the conservation of the environment, including the “Waste Levy and Waste
Minimization Fund” which supports initiatives to improve resource efficiency and recycle
waste.
In Italy, an agreement was signed between the Ministry of Tourism and the Italian
electricity and gas distributor ENEL to promote, develop and improve electric
infrastructure for sustainable touristic mobility, including charging stations throughout
the major destinations, villages and roads. This aims to reduce noise and air pollution. In
addition, a tax credit system was introduced in 2015 for the renovation of tourism
accommodation establishments, with particular focus on energy efficiency and anti-
seismic measures. The tax credit covers between 30% and 65% of the cost and from 2018
408 OECD. (2018). OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2018 . Paris: OECD Publishing.