Nikki White is head of destination sustainability at Abta
Another year of World Travel Market completed. It was an interesting time to be talking to destination ministers and their officials about the challenges for the coming year. This time last year, who would have thought we would have had major mass market destinations thrown into turmoil from the Arab Spring to the Eurozone crisis? Each year at WTM the destination services team and I meet many different destinations to give honest and direct feedback. It was fair to say that this year I had no idea how we would be received.
WTM is our opportunity to give destination officials an update on the UK travel market and feedback any operational challengess. They are not always easy subjects that we need to discuss, whether its infrastructure challenges or sensitive subjects such as how to handle cases of assault. Ultimately though our agenda is non-commercial so we are the honest voice who can tell it how it is.
I was pleased to see the travel industry is increasingly managing the long-term as well as the short term challenges. The awareness, and more importantly engagement in sustainability was the strongest I’ve ever seen it at WTM. And not just by those who already understand the issues. There was a definite sense of more businesses and governments getting engaged and understanding how these issues impact the product that the industry sells.
However this year I was expecting it to be far more challenging to have conversations about any kind of investment given the economic conditions everyone is facing. Solutions often require investment in infrastructure or training, from water treatment facilities to health and safety training of hotel employees.
But it was quite the opposite reaction. If there’s one thing this industry is it’s resilient. That’s not to say it’s at all easy but the industry does face difficulties head on. So it was very heartening to come away with confirmed programmes of work for the year ahead, both for short term operational issues and for long term sustainability collaboration.
I’ve been asked a few times why we don’t promote more of the work that these destinations are carrying out for the benefit of tourists and local communities. It’s been far more successful to work quietly behind the scenes and encourage the destinations to work on these issues. Were we to publicise specific issues we would be far more likely to face resistance and denial. The balance between achieving results and raising awareness is one we discuss with our members and destinations week in week out. I’m encouraged that despite all the turmoil there is a genuine drive by destinations and the industry to see the sector emerge strong and safe.