Promoting sustainable tourism through policy Strategic planning of tourism is a complex issue. There are many interests and different views that need to act together in some type of unison. The starting point of a touristic development of an area is usually through an enthusiastic entrepreneur or a group of entrepreneurs that have found a trend or a market need that can be satisfied through activities in the local area. It can also be a result of enthusiasts’ effort of creating a determined sports or any other event. The destination may have a historical, gastronomic, natural or any other unique highlight that someone has discovered and want to communicate, spreading the word. Once the influx of tourists begins, the need of strategic planning is getting crucial. Local politicians are to a higher extent judged by the electors of how they cope with tourism and how the benefits of it can reach all inhabitants of the destination: maybe some groups find the development of tourism harmful towards other businesses or their daily life. The speed in which tourism develops is way faster than traditional business and since the main asset often is the destination and the people living there, this can easily create unease and misunderstanding between locals, tourism businesses and politics. It takes for instance much longer time to create the infrastructure for a certain amount of visitors than to attract and convince the same amount of visitors to come to visit a place. Hence, tools are needed to embed sustainable practices already from the beginning of the strategic planning of tourism. Tourism cannot be treated as a produced export product that only needs to be efficiently produced since this way of thinking quickly deteriorates the main asset itself, the Destination. The unique sameness of European municipalities Municipalities around Europe work differently with the same issues, most of them feeling alone in their unique challenges and failing to see similarities with other European counterparts. They may have different economic needs, different starting points and also different political/public policy. Moreover, the steering tools may organizationally be in hands, usually in isolated silos, that are not directly involved in the actual result which can cause frustration and hopelessness among the civil servants to actively work with these issues strategically. Another issue regarding the civil servants is the fact of not being aware or sufficiently aware of sustainable practices and how small but coherent changes in policy has great impact for visitors and local inhabitants alike. So, when speaking about sustainable tourism we need a common ground of discussion and start from there. UST Project 8
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