“There are plenty of examples out there where tourism is actually promoting equity and really helping the wider community, not just those who are actively involved in tourism.” — Ben Lynam

Too often, tourism revenue is concentrated in the hands of a few, while the jobs it creates are low-paid and unstable. In fact, 50% to 80% of tourist spending typically “leaks” from the destination, benefiting external businesses rather than local residents. But the tourism industry can take action to directly benefit communities, and there are plenty of creative ways to make that happen. New research on building fair and inclusive destinations offers a path forward for driving this transformation.

Set to be released next week, the report from a consortium of researchers and organizations, including Destination Think, will provide actionable steps to make tourism more equitable. On the Travel Beyond podcast, Ben Lynam, Head of Communications at the Travel Foundation, and Bernadett Papp, Senior Researcher at the European Tourism Futures Institute, highlight how these recommendations provide DMOs and industry leaders with practical tools to ensure destinations share the benefits of tourism more fairly.

The report will also showcase inspiring case studies from around the world, showing how equity is already being pursued across economic, environmental, racial, governmental, and cultural areas. In Tofino, British Columbia, the Tribal Park Allies program works with local businesses to charge a 1% fee, which funds Indigenous guardians to lead environmental conservation efforts. Meanwhile, in Uganda’s Kanungo district, Ride 4 A Woman, a rural women’s collective, supports social development through community-based initiatives. 

These examples demonstrate that equitable tourism is not just possible but already in progress. And as the industry continues to grow globally, tourism has the potential to drive meaningful societal change and advance broader community goals.

In this episode, you’ll also learn:

• Why it’s important to study equity in travel
• What kinds of equity travel can contribute to
• The concept of outcomes versus mechanisms of change
• How solutions are already happening to create equitable communities
• Insights from Susannah Doyle, Manager of Tourism for Indigo Shire Council, on working toward equity alongside the Aboriginal peoples in Australia

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Show notes

Beechworth Historic Precinct  — A collection of nationally significant buildings telling the story of how Australia grew and prospered.

European Tourism Futures Institute — A leading institute conducting future studies and scenario planning for leisure and tourism.

Indigo Gold Trail — A self-guided tour of the towns and countryside of Beechworth, Chiltern, Rutherglen and Yackandandah, Australia. 

Meet the Locals — A Swedish program that allows visitors to connect with locals for a shared experience.

Relax, Recharge, Renew — Destination Toronto’s signature social responsibility initiative, providing a break to local parents or primary caregivers of children with complex special needs.

Ride 4 a Woman — A charitable organization set up to support women struggling with poverty, HIV and domestic violence.

Travel Foundation — An independent charity that works with tourism companies and organisations to unlock the positive potential of tourism.

Tribal Park Allies — A voluntary certification system set up to charge a fee to businesses that operate within or benefit from Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation.

Episode transcript

Ben Lynam: We need to start building that evidence base for an approach that isn’t just look, we can put heads on beds and bums on seats and that sort of thing. We’re actually able to contribute to these societal benefits.

Bernadett Papp: Most of the mechanisms deliver equitable outcomes in more than one category, more than one activity type. That requires a holistic integrated approach towards destination management. 

David Archer: Welcome back to Travel Beyond, where we partner with leading destinations to bring you inspiring solutions to the greatest challenges facing communities and the planet. I’m David Archer from Destination Think, recording from Haida Gwaii, the territory of the Haida Nation off the north coast of British Columbia in Canada.

We look at the role of travel on this show and choose to highlight destinations that are global leaders. We talk to the changemakers who are addressing regenerative travel through action in their communities and often from the bottom up. And we’re always looking for the best examples of efforts to regenerate economies, communities, and ecosystems. So please reach out if you have a story to share. You can email me at David at DestinationThink. com. 

Last week we heard from Shannon Guihan, Chief Sustainability Officer at The Travel Corporation, and she told us about the company’s carbon fund and how they’re using insetting as a primary strategy for decarbonization.

And reducing greenhouse gas emissions is critical, we’ve been talking about it a lot, but there is of course more to sustainability, which is all about the long term well being of places and people. So today we turn our focus to a related topic, which is equity, and we’ll hear about a new and soon to be released report called Creating Equitable Destinations that comes from the UK based Travel Foundation.

I’ve had a sneak peek at a draft of the report, and it is impressive in its scope and in the examples of action it provides as an inspiration for others in tourism, and particularly in the UK. Those in destination management. 

Of course, I’m a little biased because Destination Think is a partner and sponsor on this project with the Travel Foundation, but this has been an intensive international group project involving many supporting organizations and researchers, including Bernadett Papp, Senior Researcher at the European Tourism Futures Institute, who is one of our guests on this episode. Bernadett is one of the principal authors of this report, and she helps us to understand the meaning of equity in the first place, what kinds of equity can travel contribute to, as well as what the mechanisms of change are. How is change happening, and what strategies can we use? 

You might also take inspiration from the report’s many case studies that illustrate exactly how tourism initiatives are contributing to equity. Among them is the Tribal Park Allies Program from the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation around Načiks, or Tofino. You can scroll back to our Tofino season to learn all about that in detail.

We’re also joined today by Ben Lynam, Head of Communications at The Travel Foundation, who has also been deeply involved in the report’s creation and its release. Speaking of which, this report will be freely available starting next week, that’s the week of October 21st, 2024, and you’ll be able to access that at thetravelfoundation. org. uk.

This is a slightly condensed version of the conversation that we published as part of this year’s 24 Hours of Travel Innovation event that happened on World Tourism Day. And just another note before we begin, that session will was originally introduced by Susannah Doyle, the Tourism Manager at Indigo Shire Council in Australia.

And you’ll hear from her at the end of this episode. She shared a few great examples of how that destination is working toward equity alongside the Aboriginal Peoples in their part of Australia and why that work is so important. So I’ve included that at the end. And now, here are Rodney Payne, Ben Lynam, and Bernadett Papp.

Rodney Payne: The topic for this section is examples of equity in tourism. And I’m joined by two people who are working on a research project to uncover examples of progress related to equity in the travel space and share strategies that other leaders can use. Ben, could you quickly introduce yourself, tell us your name and role and what you do?

Ben Lynam: Hi, Rodney. Uh, So my name is Ben Lynam. I’m Head of Communications at the Travel Foundation. Uh, so, um, I get involved in the work that we do for advocacy, and that brings me into the research sphere. And, uh, we we try to push out some thought leadership reports at least one or two a year, just to push the travel sector to to think about, the possibilities.

Rodney Payne: And Bernadett, what is your area and focus? 

Bernadett Papp: Yes. Hi Rodney. And first of all, thank you for the opportunity. It’s great to be joining you today. I’m a Senior Researcher at the European Tourism Futures Institute at the NHS Danden University. We are based in the Netherlands. In my research, I focus mostly on on questions related to strategic destination development.

Um, these are questions that are in my view, critical for the long term, sustainable development of our of our sector. And most importantly, for our understanding on the impact the sector has on on destinations and destination communities. 

Rodney Payne: Terrific. Now, Ben, we’ve got a little, uh, a little bit of an exciting announcement today. I’ll let you share the news. 

Ben Lynam: Great. Thanks, Rodney. Well, over the past year or so a team of us including Destination Think as a partner and at Feed the European, uh, Sources and Futures Institute Have been working on our next report, and it’s around creating equitable destinations.

Just in the final stages now, and we will be able to publish that in the middle of next month so middle of October. And it’ll be freely available for everyone to get hold of and download. And we really hoping that it’s going to push us forward with this important concept and and on topic particularly with these practical examples that we think everyone is looking for and needing right now to make progress.

Rodney Payne: Ben, Destination Think is really proud to have been able to sponsor the report and our team has really enjoyed working alongside both of you and the others involved. Can you explain why this report was commissioned or how the project began and why is it so important to study equity in travel? 

Ben Lynam: I’m gonna give lots of credit to Bernadett here. I think this is in many ways her brainchild, but we have had a long running partnership with Bernadett and Etfie Europeans and Tourism Futures Institute. And we have produced some quite, I think, influential reports in the past through that partnership, including the Envisioning Tourism in 2030 report, but and also towards destination stewardship, which I think was really the sort of stepping stone to thinking about, you know, about destination stewardship, about that kind of, what, what, destinations are trying to do. And we can see that destinations are evolving, that DMOs are evolving their mandate, their, their, um, their role in their place. And they are increasingly feeling the need to or even feeling the pressure to contribute to local agendas. You know, what are the key concerns and hopes of their communities?

And how can they show that tourism can be part of the solution, contribute towards that? So, all of that has kind of been happening that, you know, we all know that kind of from marketing to management sort of debate, et cetera, et cetera, what we really felt was that we hadn’t, that it was really unclear what the tools are, what the practical mechanisms we call them in our report that can be put into use by DMOs to actually ensure that destinations are experiencing the benefits in a way that is equitable, because I think one of the key points here is that you can bring in jobs, you can in revenue you can bring in more tourism. That doesn’t necessarily equal a fairer community. It can actually do the opposite, right? It can create inequalities within a within a place. 

So we were really interested in that and wanted to understand that better and then demonstrate that there, there is plenty of examples out there where tourism is actually promoting equity and really helping the wider community, not just those who are actively involved in tourism, but the wider community to feel the benefits of tourism.

And we’ve seen plenty of examples this summer, even, of residents feeling the need to protest in places, and we’ve seen the headlines all around that with the kind of, you know, connected mainly to over tourism. As far as we’re concerned, if tourism isn’t seen to be able to give back benefits to a community, it’s hardly surprising then, as the level of tourism builds, that there is some sort of unrest and discontent. So we’re working to that really to say, look, we, we all understand that this model needs to be one that gives back to the community at large. Let’s. Try and understand that 

Rodney Payne: That theme that you hit on there of solutions existing everywhere is, has been a really key insight for us as an organization in the last couple of years. In, you know, you sort of alluded to many different problems that destinations face as they grow centering around, powerful interests, often extracting from a community that can’t stand up for itself.

And I think there’s, there’s so many examples around the world that we see within tourism businesses or within communities or led by destinations or the cities that they work within that can be spread and maybe obscure. And that’s one of the most exciting things about some of the examples we’re going to share today as a little bit of a sneak preview to the report that will be released in a couple of weeks.

Bernadett, could you maybe just explain what kinds of equity have been studied and how did, how did you approach the research? 

Bernadett Papp: So equity is a very, very complex topic and it can be approached from many different perspectives. What we did we created five categories and four of these categories actually are based on existing definitions.

And these four categories are economic equity, Environmental equity, spatial and cultural equity. And just to give you some examples of what these refer to, for instance, economic equity would refer to fairness in access to economic opportunities, but also fairness in, in the representation of local workforce in the tourism supply chain.

Also, the representation of locally owned businesses in the tourism supply chain with special focus on, for instance, micro and small enterprises. But what the most important here is that it extends beyond just benefiting a handful of players or privileged groups, or, you know, just specific individuals. It really is about redistributing economic benefits to the broader wider society. 

Environmental equity in our view refers to fairness in, in the use and also the maintenance of environmental resources. And very important to point out that again, it’s about not having any segment or group of society being in a disadvantage situation when it comes to dealing with environmental impacts that result from tourism development. 

In terms of spatial equity, we talk about fairness in infrastructure development or fairness in access to facilities, or amenities, so all community groups should have just fair access to these facilities that are linked to tourism development.

Cultural equity would refer to the representation and fair representation, but also acknowledgement of different community groups in tourism policies or tourism marketing or tourism product development. And here we talk about diverse ethnic groups, but also people with disabilities or people with different socio economic status or citizenship status even. 

So these are four categories that we took from, from existing theory and knowledge and then we have a 5th category which we called tourism experience equity. And tourism experience equity refers to initiatives that focus on local participation in tourism experiences and especially the participation of groups that would otherwise not be able to, for instance, because of high costs or affordability. 

So these are the 5 main categories. And then there is a 6th category, which is political equity, but we believe that political equity underpins all these 5 equity types. And. In the report, we argue for a so called equity driven management approach, which again, refers to the fair representation of diverse community groups in, in decision making processes and policy making processes.

So we believe that political equity as I said, underpins all these other five types of equity. And the final thing I would like to point out is that even though we have these categories, we we recognize these categories are interconnected. So they shouldn’t be dealt with in isolation. And that is because most of the mechanisms deliver equitable outcomes in more than one category, more than one activity type.

And I think that’s very interesting to recognize because that requires a holistic integrated approach towards destination management.

Rodney Payne: Ben, what are some of the best mechanisms that you see if you look across all the different examples and research, if you had to sum up, , a lot of thinking and a lot of writing, what are some of the key takeaways for you? 

Ben Lynam: Yeah. We identify kind of categories of mechanisms.

I think a lot of them boiled down to where the money goes, really. So there’s, there are mechanisms that I suppose are connected to ideas around things like tourism taxes but other kind of ways of revenue building and sharing. And that’s an obvious, I suppose, way of seeing how benefits can be created and shared. 

And we, I think we will probably want to talk a little bit more about an example on Vancouver Island in a moment where, basically that model happened. I think there’s a lot there as well about sort of incubation of local community talent and outside of things too, which again will be probably familiar in many ways to DMOs.

It’s just. I think a lot of what we’re doing is just trying to provide the framework and the processes and the and actually even thinking about the measurement side of this as well, because we need to start building that evidence base for an approach that isn’t just look, we can you know, put sort of heads on beds and bums on seats and that sort of thing.

We’re actually able to contribute to these societal kind of benefits. But one, you know, one of our takeaways was that, we, yeah, we, yes, we have lots and lots of examples of this, but, we need a more kind of consistent approach to build that evidence base for everyone. So that we can all start to really demonstrate the role of tourism, get that seat at the table, with other placemakers and show that, yes, you should be listening to me because look what I can do for you.

I think that that’s, really important for us. I think we’ve ended up with something like 23 different case studies and many, many more examples on top of that, of ideas for mechanisms that you can can run with. And at the very least that helps you to see that this is possible in real life.

You can have this kind of the impact that you’re looking for, whether or not those case studies are exactly right for you. Probably not, right. But that’s, but the point is that you can sort of see in principle, the principles behind each of these case studies and think about how you can apply those in your own context.

So let’s go to Vancouver Island and the example that you mentioned and, and talk through what’s happening there, because I think this is a terrific example of of a bottom up effort that’s been really fueled and supported by the tourism sector and another destination as well.

Rodney Payne: Uh, you wanna explain what you saw in, in Tofino and, and some of the learning there? 

Ben Lynam: So this is the Tribal Park Allies initiative, which some people may have heard off. We hope that many more will. But by the time the report is published so it’s based in Vancouver Island in the district of Tofino and Tla-o-qui-aht, who I hope I’ve pronounced well, Indigenous community basically have come up with an idea that will allow them to benefit from the tourism that is developing on their lands.

And particularly to recognize the value that they are bringing in terms of community development and protecting ecosystem services and outside of things. So they introduced this scheme basically encouraging tourism businesses to be allies. And that involves a voluntary charge of 1 percent of turnover.

And that is funding places for guardians who are basically paid to do all sorts of programs around tourism. Monitoring the environment, rebuilding and protecting habitats, doing things like beach cleanups, that sort of thing. And what I think is nice about this, kind of going back to what Bernadett was saying in terms of once you get to the point of interventions, you realize that they are more likely to have many benefits. So, the primary objective here was around recognizing that tourism has impacts on the environment and understanding that the Indigenous community had a role to play in protecting that that environment.

But sort of another benefit to this to this scheme is that it’s really connected the Tla-o-qui-aht community to the way that tourism has developed. And so they now feel like they’re much more able to have a say and to be part of the discussions around tourism and the impacts that tourism is having.

So I think it’s a really nice example on, on many different levels then, so there’s the very obvious sort of funding benefits for the community, for the Indigenous community. But there’s the environmental benefits that follows. And then there’s this kind of, this almost political equity side of things that Bernadett was saying where a community that has, you know, struggled to tap into the benefits of tourism has found its own way to do that, and is now experiencing those benefits in a really positive way for both sides of that partnership.

So, so, yeah, it’s a lot. So lots there and, and you can see how that can be replicated in so many other ways, not just from environmental perspective, not just for Indigenous communities. It’s just thinking about how the the tourism community can partner with other communities to make something happen.

Rodney Payne: Bernadett, in Uganda, you found a very interesting example. Do you want to share that? 

Bernadett Papp: Yes, of course. Ride 4 a Woman is is a rural women’s collective tourism enterprise in the district in, in Uganda. And this is a very interesting initiative and can be suitable for destinations who want to support social development through community based initiatives.

I had the opportunity to speak with the founder of the initiative, Evelyn Habassa, who is doing a wonderful job over there. It’s a very complex initiative with multiple mechanisms in place. They do business incubation. They deliver skills development programs focusing primarily on women from the local community.

But also there is a microfinancing scheme and there’s a child sponsorship scheme as well. And so when I talked to Evelyn we discussed a lot of the challenges that she and her team were facing in the past years. The initiative started in 2009, so it’s been running for some time. But we discussed some of the challenges and we discussed also some of the success factors because the initiative is is quite successful.

And that is partly due to factors like transparency. In, in terms of how they use the donations or the revenue that they generate at the community center, the way this is reinvested into the community. So, transparency plays a very important role, freedom to act according to the best interest of the community.

It is a challenge, but it’s, it’s absolutely crucial for making initiatives like this a success. We also talked about stakeholder cooperation. And she pointed out the role, for instance, the Uganda Wildlife Authority plays or the Uganda Tourism Board plays. They play a very important role in, in promoting the community center.

They also have accommodation facilities, so they help to generate demand. Of course local travel agents and other tourism related businesses in the area again play a very important role. So it’s really a multi stakeholder collaboration which started as a really a idea that that Evelyn had because she wanted to support the local community and tourism provided the means to do that.

The initiative itself has a lot of different outcomes. Of course We can talk about economic equity for sure, but we can also talk about sociocultural equitable outcomes and even environmental because at the community center, they raise awareness of sustainable environmental behavior, use of plastic.

And there are some projects that support, for instance, the installation of solar panels. So there is a lot going on. Currently, I believe there are around 200 women who participate in the program, and also over 100 women received support through microfinancing. So it’s truly an impactful initiative.

Rodney Payne: Yeah that really is very inspiring and something that we hope others can look at and emulate do you have any other standout favorite case studies from all of the ones that you’ve looked at? 

Bernadett Papp: Yeah, to be honest, I think we could talk about all of them. But perhaps an example of cultural equity would be from from Sweden.

There’s an initiative called Meet the Locals, and this is an initiative of the of the West Sweden Tourist Board, which started back in 2017. And this is a program in which locals participate voluntarily, and they offer different types of experiences to visitors. The role of the tourist board basically is that they provide the technical background to the program.

They have a role in terms of coordinating the program. They feature this program on their websites. And of course the program has again a lot of different outcomes, primarily in, in the sociocultural domain. Based on, on, on research that the tourist board did amongst the, those who participated in the program we can see that it generates a sense of belonging, a sense of community, but for me, what was really interesting, actually, was that even though the initiative is not aimed at at business promotion it does serve as a testing ground for new ideas and and new experiences that are developed by the community members. So for me that’s quite interesting. 

If I may mention another example there, there’s an example from Canada, Toronto, which which I found very, very interesting. And this is a program called Relax, Recharge and Renew, and it started back in 2008. It was initiated by Destination Toronto, and they play an important role in running this program. And this is a program that targets local parents and primary caregivers of children with very complex special needs. And it’s a, it’s an excellent example of what we would call a DMO led respite caregiver program or as Destination Toronto referred to it, respitality.

So it allows caregivers or parents to participate in tourism experiences and experience Toronto in a different way, in a way that they maybe otherwise would not have, would not be able to do so. So, I think this is a great example of a social tourism initiating and the way that we can includes perhaps previously underserved groups from the local community in these tourism experiences.

Rodney Payne: We really could talk probably for a whole 24 hours about the many case studies. And again, we’re really proud to have been able to help in how we can and be part of this. Then when the reports released in a couple of weeks, where will people be able to find it? 

Ben Lynam: It will be on the Travel Foundation website.

Yeah. And like I say, completely free to download, as always, with our reports. The main thing is we want to get people thinking and get people doing. And this is hopefully as much a practical guide as it is a interesting read. 

Rodney Payne: Terrific. Well, thank you both for coming to share and give a little teaser today of what’s to come and all of the hard work that you’ve both done and that everyone involved has been doing over the last year.

So thank you both for doing that for the industry. 

Bernadett Papp: Thank you. 

Ben Lynam: So much for being part of it. 

David Archer: That concludes the discussion with Ben Lynam and Bernadett Papp about the Creating Equitable Destinations report, and that will be available starting the week of October 21 at thetravelfoundation. org. uk. And now we’ll hear briefly from Susannah Doyle, Tourism Manager at Indigo Shire Council.

Susannah Doyle: Hello from Beechworth in the state of Victoria, Australia.My name is Susannah Doyle and I’m the Manager of Tourism for Indigo Shire Council based in Victoria’s high country in Australia. I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the Indigo region and the peoples who have walked and cared for the hills, valleys and waterways for millennia. I acknowledge Elders past and present. 

Addressing sustainability and equity challenges is of critical importance to Indigo Shire and its four tourism destinations. The journey starts with education and a rapid knowledge acquisition phase. Like many destination managers, we have expertise in growing the district economy. But the imperatives of environmental sustainability and social equity are as much about being a responsible global citizen as it is about meeting fundamental expectations of existing and future growth audiences.

Put simply, it’s both a social and economic necessity. Australian society has a foundation stone of colonisation, white settlement, with more than 50, 000 years of Indigenous cultural, and peoples displaced and decimated. There is still a long way to go for Australia to achieve social equity. At this time, the Registered Aboriginal Party structure and or native title are the legal frameworks for First Peoples to be acknowledged as the primary guardians, keepers of knowledge and Aboriginal cultural heritage, and it’s related to country, i. e. geographical areas. 

In the Indigo region, our four destination towns are heritage listed Goldrush villages with colonial and Goldrush streetscapes very well preserved and surrounded by beautiful National Park. This heritage is celebrated and drives much of the current visitor experience, supported by exceptional food, brewing, distilling, wine sector, cycle and walking in nature.

Equity through centering Indigenous communities, our traditional custodians, begins with acknowledgement of the devastating impacts of colonisation, including dispossession, massacre and social injustices. The north western half of Indigo is represented by Yorta Yorta Nations Aboriginal Corporation, a recognised Aboriginal party.

The south eastern half of Indigo is contested country. Multiple Indigenous groups claim connection to country. This presents a substantial challenge to Indigo Council as DMO with regards to who and how we strengthen relationships and support self determined First Peoples initiatives. As a DMO, our role, uh, when it comes to equity in tourism is to embed First Peoples stories and truths into all facets of the visitor experience.

Reconciliation or equity, and healing, or sustainability, environmental sustainability particularly, are closely intertwined. Truth telling is critical and in Australian context this means exposing historical or ongoing truths as a record of historical experience. Truth telling is multifaceted and it’s an ongoing process which deepens over time.

Creating opportunity for cultural knowledge sharing is the foundation of our actions to centre Indigenous communities. So in practical terms, we’re progressing equity through centering Indigenous communities, truth telling and storytelling, through two current projects. Firstly, an arts led initiative, the Rutherglen Silo Art Precinct Partnership Project.

We’re forming a partnership between Council as the DMO and the Local Registered Aboriginal Party to embed large scale and small scale public art, physical and projection art, into a rejuvenated central town precinct with Indigenous artworks commissioned and flowing from the precinct along an established cycle walk line trail to the nearby river and lake, both of cultural significance.

The artist’s storytelling mechanism with digital integration allowing the richness and depth of cultural knowledge to be detailed and shared with broader educational and event based opportunities created from that. 

The second project currently in progress is a cultural heritage led initiative leveraging world heritage status.

This is an integrated cultural heritage suite of experiences using an established Gold Rush colonial precinct experience as the hub and springboard for centering Indigenous storytelling in culturally significant sites within the natural environment. So the Beechworth Historic Precinct is national heritage listed at this time and with the current Victorian Goldfields UNESCO World Heritage Listing bid, cultural tourism has substantial opportunity for growth.

We’re developing a suite of experiences leveraging the World Heritage status to come and embedding Indigenous storytelling across multiple culturally significant locations. There are three connected initiatives, the Indigo Gold Trail, 40 cultural sites, Gold Rush and Indigenous, in town and national park locations, with walk, cycle and drive journeys to each of the sites.

The Chiltern National Trust play space precinct is creating a storytelling hub that flows into the surrounding National Park. The Yodonba Aboriginal rock art site at Mount Pilate delivers ancient rock art viewing opportunities, cultural interpretation, and a memorable walk through and around Mount Pilate’s rocky landscape.

Across each of projects, integrated storytelling is delivered via physical and digital information channels, including, but not limited to, some on each website’s apps with push pull functionality, audio tours, QR linkages, and printed collateral in businesses and information centres. 

We need to acknowledge that equity is a long and complex journey. The commitment to equity in Indigo is articulated through policy and strategy. Every project and action plan is required to prioritise First People’s engagement and self determined participation, equal to and often strongly connected to sustainability imperatives supported by policy and investment at local government, state government and federal government level.

It’s our role and responsibility to deliver the triple bottom line, economic, social and environmental outcomes in tourism. Equity via centering Indigenous communities is a social imperative. Truth telling and storytelling are the equity drivers, delivering social and economic outcomes, and shining a light on sustainable curation of the land we share.

Thank you, and I hope you’ve found our experience in Indigo of building equity in tourism provides some food for thought. 

David Archer: This has been Travel Beyond presented by Destination Think, and today you heard from Rodney Payne, Ben Lynam from the Travel Foundation, Bernadett Papp from the European Tourism Futures Institute, and Susannah Doyle with Indigo Shire Council. For more resources and show notes, visit the blog at DestinationThink. com. This episode was produced and has theme music composed by me, David Archer. Sara Raymond de Booy is my co-producer. Lindsay Payne, Jamie Sterling, and Corey Price provided production support. If you like what you hear, please give us a 5 star rating. It helps more people find our show. And we’ll be back next time, so talk to you again soon.