2024: our year so far

As we find ourselves in June, it's hard to believe how quickly the first half of the year has passed. This is most likely due to the number of projects and travel the team has undertaken.

This year, we have worked in both new and familiar destinations and with frameworks we recently developed, including the Sustainable communications and marketing framework for national tourism boards. New destinations include Thailand, Tajikistan, and Sint Maarten. We have continued our work in Jordan and started a new project in The Gambia, a country we worked in a couple of years ago. Our sister company T-Stats has also had a very exciting year with a new project for the Southwest of England.

Alison and the team have been busy working on the Niche Market reports for the CBI Netherlands. We are deep into our second year of research and development of these reports, keeping the team extremely busy. Recent reports will soon be published, including LGBTQ+ travel, Gen Z, Managing Risks and Agritourism.

In February, Alison spent two weeks in Jordan as part of the five-year CBI project focused on the sustainable development of the country's tourism sector. More information about this visit and the new milestone can be found here. Alison also travelled to ITB Berlin as part of her work with the CBI. In this event, the conversation and presence of sustainable and regenerative tourism is increasing yearly. An overview of her trip can be seen here.

After that, in March, Alison also travelled to Thailand to lead a training workshop for the National Tourism Board and other key players in the Thai tourism market. This work came from a project we undertook in 2023, which saw us develop a Sustainable branding, marketing and communication training manual for national tourism boards. This was commissioned by ECEAT and SWITCH-Asia. Find out more about this original project here.

Additionally, Alison and the team worked on a new stage of work for VisitEngland, building on the sustainability landscape research we undertook last year. This work supported them with further research on national tourism boards' approach to sustainable certification support for the private sector. The team was asked to present the findings of both stages of the study to the internal VisitEngland team and at the LVEP conference in Birmingham.

Alison also serves as the Tourism Management Institute's sustainability lead, running a Sustainable Working Group. There have been some fantastic and inspiring events and conversations around the sustainable development of destinations within the UK, which provides members with a space to share their concerns and learn from others.

In February, Kevin travelled to Tajikistan as part of a collaborative project with Keios Development Consulting to develop a tourism master plan for the Sughd region in the North.

Kevin has also spent lots time working in the Gambia, a country we travelled to back in 2022 as part of a World Bank, Circular Economy Project. This new project focuses on recommendations for a new and improved system of tourism statistics. Kevin has been working with the Gambia Tourism Board and other local tourism stakeholders to develop these recommendations and undertake training. On Kevin's second trip to the country, he was invited to speak about the project live on West Coast Radio!

Additionally, Kevin has been working on a new project that looks at the Economic Impact of the Yachting and Maritime Sector in Sint Maarten.

T-Stats Update

Firstly, in January, the T-Stats team discovered they had been awarded the contract to develop the new South West Visitor Economy Hub. Therefore, Kevin and Jess have travelled to the South West several times to engage with stakeholders. This project has also seen many milestones in the last six months; these can be found here.

This is only a small overview of our project work this year. Keep an eye out on our LinkedIn and website for more information about exciting projects in the pipeline. Or contact us if you want to hear more about our work and whether we could support your destination or organisation.