Holistic management the way for sustainable city tourism

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SUSTAINABILITY: (From left) Grothe, Diaz, Chew, Jamieson and King are pictured at the forum prior to the conclusion of GTCC 2013. Proactive management initiatives from the public and private sectors are needed to sustain global city tourism.

KUCHING: Proactive management initiatives from the public and private sectors – rather than marketing – are needed to sustain global city tourism, according to a panel of industry experts at the conclusion of the Global Tourism Cities Conference 2013 (GTCC 2013) held here.

The panel guiding the forum, entitled ‘Building a Sustainable Global Tourism City of the Future: Balancing the Socio-economy and Environmental Aspects’, consisted of Prof Dr Walter Jamieson, Angel Diaz, Prof Brian King and Stefanie Grothe while being chaired by Dr Chew Cheng Sim.

King was quick to point out the distinction between destination marketing and destination management, opining that that most destinations had done destination marketing and promotions.

“When it comes to even basic management, to exercise influence over what is going on – never mind sustainability in its most complex – most destinations are very far short of doing that.

“We have to think from this slow progression that we’ve made from realising that it is not just about destination promotion.

“It’s more complex. It’s management and then suddenly it’s multi-faceted and holistic.

“I think that it manifests itself in the fact that in many destinations, the communications between the government and private sector (and even between government departments) is sometimes tense.

“It’s very functional oriented and I feel that tourism, which is multi-disciplinary, tends to lose out,” he said.

He added that in terms of social media, now the consumers are gathering information and comparing notes and hence the idea of the source market and the destination is changing.