Tourism Destination Climate Action: The enabling environment

Our presentation reports on a Living Lab research project set up in 2022 by Leeds Beckett University and The Travel Foundation to explore the practical support needed by destinations to commit to and implement Climate Action under the Glasgow Climate Declaration (GCD). The aim being to understand the enablers and barriers to climate action for destinations.

Principally the research sought to:
•Examine the state of development of Climate Action Plans (CAPs) across a sample of signatory destinations;
•Examine the issues involved, challenges and enablers in developing CAPs; and
•Elicit the barriers to involvement in the GCD and CAPs amongst a sample of non- signatory destinations (primarily from the Global South).

Desk research facilitated two subsequent rounds of data collection. First, one-to-one online interviews were held with 17 signatory destination management organisations (DMOs) comprising national, regional, and local (city/town) levels. The DMOs provided geographic representation from North America, Latin America, and Europe.

Second, to understand the barriers and challenges to climate action planning, 7 online interviews/focus groups took place with 12 participants from a sample of non-signatories to the Glasgow Climate Declaration. Representation within this group was predominantly from national organisations and the geographic representation was from Africa and Latin America.

The empirical research findings highlighted key barriers as (but not limited to) a lack of clear and relevant climate policies and regulation; lack of funds; poor understanding of the scope and sphere of the destination management organisation itself; literacy, and technical knowledge across the destination; and a lack of data sharing and user-friendly measurement tools.

In contrast enablers included a clear mandate and resources available for the CAP; availability and use of funding; integrated, clear, and effective governance to mainstream climate action; strong partnerships and effective communication to engage all stakeholders; and climate literacy training; advocacy and capacity building across the destination.

To this end our research identified several areas in which Climate Action Planning can be moved forward, namely via guidance on how to develop CAPs; clarity on climate action communication and terminology; knowledge exchange and transfer; and clarification of stakeholder roles and responsibilities.