Arizona Geotourism Stewardship Council

Photo © Jim Dion

A Geotourism Stewardship Council is a nongovernmental or public/private entity. A Council may be national, regional, or local. It may go by any name, or coalesce around an existing group, but has the characteristics described below.

The Council’s task is to oversee and advise on the four elements of a geotourism strategy:
• identifying,
• sustaining,
• developing, and
• marketing the geotourism assets of a place.

Council advice and activity should be in keeping with the interests of the communities, with good conservation and preservation practices, and with responsible economic development. The Council encourages appropriate tourism in appropriate places, and discourages inappropriate tourism in unsuitable places. The Council should subscribe to the principles embodied in the Geotourism Charter and in the geotourism definition: Tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place—its environment, heritage, aesthetics, culture, and the well-being of its residents.

Council activities are intended not only to promote geotourism assets to visitors but also to be a catalyst for local people—to help them discover their own distinctive tourism assets and provide economic benefits and an incentive for protecting them. The Council should monitor sustainability and ensure that tourist capacity is appropriately managed, still encouraging maximum benefit per visitor (local spending, volunteering, etc.) Catalyst activities might include:

• Creating a Geotourism MapGuide with National Geographic or a local university, and extensive local participation
• Hosting an annual festival to build local pride and awareness, while garnishing tourism spending in the destination.
• Reviewing and providing recommendations on tourism developments and proposals.
• Advising on threats to geotourism assets and opportunities for enhancement.
• Serving as ongoing gatekeeper and clearinghouse for online community-generated geotourism information for the Internet and handheld devices. In cases of a National Geographic cobrand, the Council oversees the needed quality control.
• Overseeing an Geotourism Code program for local businesses.
• Evaluating progress.

One feature of a Council is to convene representatives from each distinctive facet of a place around the same table, so as to think about their destination as a whole, the way an inquiring visitor sees it. Council members should represent the following:
• historic preservation
• natural conservation
• communities
• indigenous peoples and other cultural minorities
• traditional arts (craft, music, dance, theater, storytelling, reenactments, etc.)
• destination management and marketing organizations
• farm/restaurant programs, agritourism, Slow Food
• beautification programs (signage, architecture, landscape concerns)
• other stakeholder groups emblematic of the locale
• government (tourism, planning, culture, and environment, for example)
• businesses compatible with geotourism, especially distinctive local businesses

Local collaborators and advisers potentially include:
• Geotourism innovators—guides, innkeepers, restauranteurs, tour operators, etc.
• Local arts, craft co-ops, music groups, or other heritage groups
• Agricultural cooperatives, historic preservation groups, conservation organizations (including ecotourism leaders)
• Community leaders or individuals with deep knowledge of the area’s heritage, especially older individuals
• Church groups, school associations, universities, volunteer/charity organizations
• Local geographical or historical author who covers the region
• Historians, naturalists, librarians
• Local minority or heritage groups and experts
• Specialists in locally based food and drink
• Business people with profitable and sustainably appropriate operations

Council Procedures
There is no formal, prescribed method for choosing council members and sustainable funding of council activities. These vary considerably from one place to another, and each place must tailor an approach appropriate to local circumstances. Generally, to ensure continuity, government should not control the Council, although it should have a significant role. Operationally, the Council can work in a continual cycle:
Plan—Planning, including identifying stewardship aspects and establishing goals
Do—Implementing, including training and information dissemination
Check—Monitoring and progress reviews
Act—Taking corrective action as indicated

For more information, contact the Center for Sustainable Destinations at 1-202-857-7349 or CSD@ngs.org.