Tourism Should Recognise Social Responsibility

Tourism need to tap a rising mood of social responsibility and self-improvement.
Speaking at this week's national Tourism Futures conference on the Gold Coast, New York trend spotter Daniel Levine said businesses could flourish in tough times if they sell the right experiences.
Levine, Executive Director of trend spotting and guidebook company Avant-Guide Institute said there had been a seismic shift in tourists' attitudes since the global financial crisis, stating that before the crisis people were hedonistic and wanted to flaunt their wealth.
Now, the focus was on friends, family, health, spirituality, self-improvement, the environment and social responsibility with "experience first, destination second".
Levine said "voluntourism" was a major growth sector, noting companies offering human rights tours and conservation safaris were performing strongly despite the downturn and that tourism companies should realise just how important eco-tourism was going to become.
Levine explained that "environmental issues, green issues, are the number one major trend for the rest of our careers.
"I think a really good example of that is that a lot of experts were saying when the whole economic crisis hit, that green issues would be pushed off to the side and as we all know, that's not the case at all.
"We believe that's because when people are husbanding their money and are spending less freely, they're looking about at what's really important, and what's really important to them is the world around them."
Levine said today's society had high expectations and were willing to spend up on things that spoke to them adding that "customers are seeing this high demand being answered in every part of their lives.
"They're seeing car companies answer that demand, they're seeing washing powder answer that demand, and they're looking for those same trends to be answered in the travel industry."