Utilizing a group of staff and professional experts with up to 25 years of experience, the award-winning Sustainable Tourism Lab offers a number of educational and consulting programs and services aimed at assisting communities, regions, government and private sector planners and agencies, and tourism professionals with making the best use of sustainable tourism principles. In addition to our standard programs, the Lab can customize services to best meet your needs, budget, or timetables, from full management and implementation to providing support services to staff.

Programs and services include the following:

Geotourism Analysis

Is your community tourism ready? Are you ready to do tourism right for today?

The Sustainable Tourism Laboratory will assess your community or region using the Geotourism principles developed by the National Geographic Society. The assessment includes a public presentation, prepared report based on destination observation.

Tourism, not properly developed, can be damaging to your community. Geotourism is a method to promote and protect your community. Defined as “tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place—its environment, heritage, aesthetics, culture, and the well-being of its residents,” Geotourism is founded on a set of principles that foster enhancement of sustainable destinations.

One day expert analysis is $475 plus transportation expenses.

Sustainable Tourism Consulting

Whether you are developing an initial strategic plan or modifying an existing one, the Lab can develop, manage, and carry out the entire planning process, or provide support services to agency staff.

Plan components include:

General background analysis Infrastructure analysis and recommendations Visitor attractions and activities, and their improvement Visitor facilities and services, and their improvement Recommended extent and forms of tourism Market analysis and projections

Recommended tourism development policy and structure plan, Economic analysis and recommendations Environmental considerations and recommendations Sociocultural considerations and recommendations

Institutional consideration and recommendations Marketing and promotion recommendations Plan assessment and evaluation Crisis management Plan creation, implementation and monitoring.

Tourism Support Services

Support services may be offered as part of our sustainable tourism consulting program, or as stand-alone services. Services include:

Data collection and analysis Financial analysis Plan writing Sustainable tourism education and training Brand marketing education Tourism marketing education and training

Development of presentation materials Workshops and educational forums Event planning Media and public relations Multimedia development

Public input collection Marketing research Brand awareness Polling and surveys Customer surveys Customer service assessment

Conferences, Workshops & Forums

The Lab offers a number of educational programs, including multi-day conferences, day-long forums and individual workshops.  Programs are targeted to a wide range of government, private agency and tourism professional audiences, and while standard topics are available, all program topics and content can be customized to meet budget and program needs.  As with our other services, the Lab can handle the full management and implementation of programs, or provide staff assistance with planning and implementation. One unique aspect of our programs are the lab collabs, intense small group discussions following the workshops that allow participants to use information learned earlier to begin developing potential strategic and other plans of action.

Topics may include:

Introduction to sustainable tourism The future of sustainable tourism for your state Building a sustainable tourism program River users conference Responsible tourism Social marketing

Civic tourism - creating and marketing your somewhere Sustaining the geographic character of your state Resilient tourism Green tourism Voluntourism

Speaker's Bureau

The Lab can provide a wide range of speakers, including members of our expert staff and partnership team, as well as industry experts from around the world.