Even if destination models 3.0 intend to address social and environmental concerns by reducing the negative impacts that the tourism activity usually creates, it may not be possible to eliminate them completely, for it is necessary to foresee and monitor these impacts to obtain a holistic assessment on the mission accomplishment.
Furthermore, this section should also explain to what extent the destination model manages to reduce these kinds of costs in comparison to most conventional models. So long as the mission is not only to create positive impacts, but also to reduce negative impacts, it is necessary to gauge the negative impacts that the model manages to save in the social and environmental spheres.
There should be established a set of goals in relation to this intended impact reduction. For this purpose, a series of performance metrics are to be designed, along with those for measuring the positive social and environmental impacts. Once a year, a social and environmental audit should be carried out to assess the impact reduction in relation to previous years.
Some indicators on environmental negative impacts could be:
- Air pollution
- Acoustic pollution
- Forest land reduction
- River or sea water cleanliness
- Survival status of endangered species
Some indicators on economic, social or cultural negative impacts could be:
- Employment seasonality
- Employment insecurity
- Satisfaction of residents in tourist areas on the cohabitation with tourists
- Rise of the real estate prices due to the tourism activity
- Termination or offshoring of non-tourism local businesses replaced by tourism businesses
Would you consider other relevant indicators in either category?
