Tourism is a massive economic engine and a key driver for social and economic development.

Tourism is a very broad and diverse sector, often referred to as the visitor economy. It encompasses anyone who is spending money away from the area they live in, whether they are on holiday, taking a business trip, studying, visiting friends, family or travelling for any other reason.

The Covid-19 pandemic may make 2020 the exception, but over the past five decades tourism has grown year-on-year and overcome many global crises to become one of the fastest growing economic sectors worldwide, surpassing even oil, food products and automobile exports.

The worldwide growth of tourism creates economic and employment benefits in many related sectors from arts and culture, agriculture and construction to technology, transport and telecommunications. It creates 1 in 10 jobs across the world and many developing countries rely on tourism as their main source of foreign exchange earnings.

In addition to creating economic growth, the ongoing and increasing demand from travellers to experience new cultures and engage with local people creates the market incentive to protect cultural traditions or invest in new creative talent. Equally, the desire to travel to unspoilt natural places and see the wildlife and biodiversity they support is a strong motivation for communities to protect and conserve their environments.

To enable the communities and places that host tourism to benefit from it requires a careful balance between generating economic wealth, creating social inclusiveness and protecting the environment. Destination managers, businesses and visitors all need to play their part. 

Destinations need to be well planned and managed. They need an in-depth understanding of what different travellers want, what local communities need, the products that will satisfy demand, and the ability to market those products, services and experiences. They also require the skills to monitor these activities so they can evaluate their impact. 

At Acorn Tourism we work with both developing and well established destinations to help them stimulate tourism as a driving force for economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability. Our work is aligned to the people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).