Using the SDGs to Reset Travel and Tourism after COVID-19: Adopting a Culture of Health ^†

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a health crisis with profound economic impacts that served to amplify disruption in the travel and tourism (T&T) sector. Sustainability, health, and business are intimately entwined in T&T such that pandemic risk mitigation measures, from social distancing and closure of airports, resorts, and hotels, materially damaged the sector. While reduced T&T activity may have alleviated some of the negative impacts of T&T on people and the planet, it presented an opportunity for businesses and destinations to consider how they would come back. The sector can ‘build back better’ by pursuing sustainability. More sustainable T&T could help fragile ecosystems to recover and enable the fullest contribution of the sector to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Many leaders of T&T business are now looking beyond improving operational sustainability to think more about strategic matters and the systems in which they operate. This latest pandemic could prove to be an important accelerator in T&T’s pursuit of sustainability and the SDGs. The ‘Culture of Health’ framework could help the sector advance sustainable T&T, drawing out the trade-offs and dilemmas presented by its activities.

1. Introduction

Travel and Tourism (T&T) is a “social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes” [1]. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, T&T represented a major global business sector that was growing fast year-on-year [2]. The pandemic affected the traveler experience across the T&T value chain, whether this was simple closure of facilities or restrictions on travel per se. Even now, some barriers to travel remain, whether actual or perceived, with destination requirements on testing and vaccine mandates affecting the free movement of people.

The T&T sector is a “key driver for socio-economic progress” [3] given its significant contribution to the economy of many countries. It contributed 10.3% to global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 [4]. At that time, it earned over USD 8.9 trillion, representing 10% of jobs worldwide (330 million) and 20% of new jobs over the last five years, with a 3.5% growth outpacing that of the global economy at 2.5% in 2019 [4]. Domestic tourism was 71.3% of total tourism spending in 2019, with the sector employing a high proportion of women [4]. With 1.5 billion international tourist arrivals in 2019, international travel was predicted to grow by some 35% [5], giving 1.8 billion international arrivals by 2030 and domestic tourism up to four times this amount [6,7].

The T&T sector experienced six decades of growth [8], outperforming growth projections by the United Nations during the period 2010–2019, with emerging economies accounting for almost a half of international travel arrivals in 2017 [9]. Late 2019 forecasts predicted tourism arrivals to increase by 3–4% globally in 2020 [10]. International tourism is, however, just a small part of the overall picture, with domestic tourism key in most large nations, e.g., in the U.S., international arrivals account for only 3.3% of person-trips [11]. The growth of T&T looked set to continue unabated, fueled by budget airlines lowering the costs of travel and technology platforms for accommodation and travel searches.

However, with these growing numbers came mounting concerns about the detrimental impact of T&T on people and the planet. Some countries and destinations were overly dependent on financial receipts from T&T, and many destinations suffered from poorly designed tourism infrastructure leading to tensions with local communities. Given T&T’s links to other economic sectors, from agriculture to transport, the sector impacts widely on natural and societal resources from water scarcity to community cohesion.

New terms, including ‘flygskam’, or ‘flight shaming’ [12], and ‘overtourism’ [13], have been coined to draw attention to the negative issues relating to T&T. Given that the international arrivals of just twenty countries together exceed that of the rest of the world [14], these are especially acute. Severe impacts of overtourism led to the closure of Boracay Island in the Philippines to tourists to minimize harm [15] and were the subject of protests by local citizens in Amsterdam and Venice [16]. While destinations and T&T businesses have developed traveler dispersion policies and strategies to shift traveler behavior, such as targeting higher-value overnight travelers rather than day-trippers [14], a more concerted approach is needed.

The worsening environmental footprint and detrimental community impacts of the T&T sector have spurred stakeholders to call for action [17]. For example, the United Nations Environment Program 2050 calls for T&T to adopt more sustainable practices, given concerning predictions of rises by 2050 of energy use (up 154%) and water consumption (up 152%), greenhouse gases (up 131%), and solid waste (up 251%) [18]. Efforts made by private T&T businesses and governments to tackle these challenges and pursue sustainability are important but more concerted action is needed. Some businesses are integrating into their operations more sustainable practices, while others are more focused on corporate social responsibility metrics. Few companies or organizations, however, have mainstreamed sustainability into their business strategy or the traveler’s experience. At the government level, just 11% of national T&T objectives relate to sustainability [19].

Looking ahead, the actions of governments, companies and individuals will influence the nature and speed of the recovery of the T&T sector from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report on pandemic recovery [20] warned against a return to ‘business as usual’ and recommends that whatever its shape or duration, sustainability is held to be a mechanism to ‘build back better’. As the recent pandemic revealed fragilities in our economic and societal models, it also served to remind us that we are social animals desirous of novel experiences in support of physical and mental health. As such, there is an untapped resolve to travel again and connect with people. In this context, adopting the ‘Culture of Health’ framework [21] that places well-being as a strategic business priority could help accelerate the sustainability journey in T&T and the recovery of the sector.

2. Culture of Health Framework

The Culture of Health framework can be useful to help guide a reset in T&T after COVID-19, with Quelch’s argument [21] being that “Every company, knowingly or unknowingly, impacts public health…”. The framework connects health and business directly across fours domains that are highly relevant to the impact of the T&T sector:

• Consumers: through the products and services a business delivers to consumers.
• Employees: including supply chain: how a business treats its employees and supply chain workers.
• Community: how much a business invests in the health of the communities in which it operates.
• Environment: the impacts of a business on the environment.

In 2008, the United Nations (UN) Foundation, UN World Tourism Organization, UN Environment Programme, and the Rainforest Alliance developed the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC) [22]. These establish the “minimum requirements that any tourism business or public destination management authorities should aspire to reach to protect and sustain the world’s natural and cultural resources while ensuring tourism meets its potential as a tool for poverty alleviation” [22]. There is, however, no universally accepted sustainability standard or certification for T&T, perhaps reflecting the complexity of the sector. Conscious consumerism as a trend is encouraging the sector to act, e.g., on single-use plastics [23]. However, only a few companies and destinations embrace sustainability holistically and the sector to date lacks a widescale commitment to sustainable T&T [24].

Using the Culture of Health [21] framework could help the T&T sector’s pursuit of sustainability, especially at this moment after COVID-19. Health, while not called out explicitly in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) models, is a key factor in most. The framework’s inclusion of the consumer and community as important pillars [21] alongside employees and the environment could help businesses better appreciate healthy people, a healthy planet, and healthy prosperity. In this way, T&T can explore the wider scope of sustainable practices. In a world after the COVID-19 pandemic and living with the virus, businesses that adopt a Culture of Health could emerge more environmentally and socially sustainable, as well as more economically viable [25]. The model sits comfortably with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [26] that can be positioned as a shared purpose around which to build a culture of health. This offers a way for the sector to both foster sustainability and reset after the pandemic. In this way, T&T, as a force for good, can help recover global economies and livelihoods while accelerating its efforts to attenuate and repair its negative impacts on the environment.

2.1. Consumers: Through Products and Services a Business Delivers to Consumers

The pandemic is unlikely to affect the desire for travel, with tourism connecting people and places. As tourists make decisions about where to travel, when, why and how, their considerations will likely focus more on health alongside other considerations such as affordability. This will include health across all its domains, from understanding safeguards should they fall ill while traveling to assurances that the staff and destination take health seriously. Travelers will embrace more conscious consumerism, with a focus on responsible T&T businesses. New opportunities are anticipated in health and wellness, as tourists prioritize trips that offer peace and tranquility and seek immersive experiences in nature and focus more on domestic travel.

2.2. Employees: How a Business Treats Its Employees and Supply Chain Workers

The pandemic brought to the fore employee health and well-being and the case for protecting frontline workers, as well as those in the supply chains. Lockdowns and trading restrictions have had a disproportional effect on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that support tourism [27]. Investment in supply chain resilience could help promote local sourcing with consequent reductions in environmental impact. The pandemic also revealed inequities related to the social determinants of health that showed up among workers.

2.3. Community: How a Business Invests in the Health of the Communities in Which It Operates

Within the community pillar, the T&T sector needs to pay more attention to the needs of residents and the preservation of local traditions and culture. Destinations can focus more on enhanced visitor flow management, use of technology and infrastructure investments. Given restrictions and barriers to international travel, a focus on driving up demand among domestic and regional travelers has encouraged citizens to explore their own countries and their different communities. This increased interest in localism, as well as the opportunity for many to work remotely, could see a rise in ‘slow’ tourism [28] with travelers spending more time in a destination and experiencing more authentic local events.

2.4. Environment: The Impacts of a Business on the Environment

Within the environment pillar, products and services offered by T&T providers as well as their pricing should reflect their total impact. The deleterious impact of the sector, including its input to carbon emissions, freshwater use, and waste needs to be balanced alongside its positive and restorative contributions to conservation efforts and equity, with further consideration of its impact on cultural and heritage artifacts and ways of living [29]. Research that develops a ‘true’ cost for T&T, using, for instance, the impact weighted accounting principles [30] or total impact measurements [31], would be tremendously valuable for the sector, as it would extend ESG reporting to include the health of the natural world as a key metric. There is a significant opportunity to further develop multinational and global coordination to advance sustainability policies and frameworks in T&T.

By focusing on sustainability as health across all four pillars of the Culture of Health framework (see Figure 1), T&T can focus its reset on sustainability and make its fullest contribution to the SDGs in helping global economies and livelihoods recover [20].

3. Conclusions

Considering the devastating impact of COVID-19 on T&T [32], there is a unique opportunity to reset T&T by embracing sustainability through the SDGs with deliberate re-opening strategies that seek to advance the many positive contributions of the sector and attenuate its deleterious impacts. Careful stewardship of T&T central assets of nature and culture requires all stakeholders to work together accompanied by appropriate regulatory oversight and responsible personal choice. We are already seeing demand for T&T begin to recover [33]. Whatever the sector does to rebuild after the pandemic, people’s health (customers, employees, and workers in the supply chain, and those in the community) and the environment are central to sustainable T&T. The sector must consider explicitly its impact on people, planet, and prosperity, in advancing economic interests and the quality of life in destinations. Applying health as a strategic lens for business is a way to connect these agendas.

The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated the interconnections among human health, planetary health, and economic health. The foundation of sustainable T&T is paying attention to the human health impacts of human-caused disruptions to the Earth’s natural systems. The SDGs can be adopted as a shared purpose for T&T to fuel a reset of the sector in its pursuit of sustainability. In this way, T&T can be a force for good in helping safeguard fragile communities and ecosystems and create a more sustainable economy. While lockdowns and reduced T&T business during the pandemic may have enabled us to savor cleaner air or traffic-free roads, stopping travel for business and pleasure is not the answer to progressing a more sustainable sector. Rather, T&T needs to be core to a sustainable global economy [34]. The pandemic showed us that gathering humanity around a problem to work collectively with a global mindset works; this is a blueprint for tackling climate change. The next normal for T&T can be defined by the pursuit of sustainability. Travelers are already more intentional about the experiences they seek and the impact they have on our world, with growth in experiential, immersive, and community-based travel for education and learning [35,36]. T&T enterprises can now better integrate triple-bottom line accounting and sustainability management systems to ensure companies track and report results transparently.

The Culture of Health framework [21] could help the T&T sector ‘build back better’ after the COVID-19 pandemic. As T&T businesses join forces to accelerate the sector’s sustainable recovery, actions they might consider:

• Including health as a specific domain within their ESG reporting and Sustainability Strategy, selecting appropriate metrics.
• Accounting for the public health benefits of switching to renewable energy sources and/or transitioning to electric vehicles using available impact models.
• Re-framing corporate social responsibility projects as a strategic corporate social innovation agenda, capturing investments in community endeavors.
• Connecting investments in workforce development, education, and training to advancing a culture of well-being.
• Promoting healthy behaviors among all stakeholder groups.
• Ensuring equity is understood as a key outcome of a healthy business culture and operations.

The T&T sector can create and sustain shared value by protecting people and the planet over the long-term, delivering against a global mission to create a world where “no-one will be left behind” [26]. This is the time for the T&T sector to forge a new social contract, with the Culture of Health framework a driver of radical transformation to reset the sector after COVID-19 by embracing the SDGs.