No normal is the new normal and tourism’s business model is broken
The fabric and infrastructure of Tourism has been profoundly disrupted by Covid, particularly in Asia and it is unlikely that the low cost high volume and extractive model on which success and growth was based will ever return in the same way.
Navigating the transition now depends upon the tourism system adapting in smart ways to immediate challenges as well as repositioning itself for a post normal future .
Tourism must now navigate a strange ‘between’ place
What Is SBTI
The Sustainable Benefits Tourism Initiative is a network of system thinkers and practitioners focused on assisting policy makers and destinations to navigate the transition.
BECAUSE The future for many destinations requires innovative thinking about the process of restarting (dealing with ongoing volatility as a permanent feature of the future for instance) and also reimagining or rethinking what might be possible in the “there will never be another normal" reality.
BUILDING on a series of important partnerships and deep demonstrations, SBTI has designed—and is evolving—an engaging and robust framework that creates:
o an argument or plan for change (the story);
o a deliberate process for learning about how to evolve and strengthen destination identity (differentiation);
o a framework for conversation and action that integrates both of the above so that the negative effects of over-tourism are avoided on then hand and more of the benefit flows to those that create value in the first place and the sustainability of attractions (sustainable benefits) on the other.
