Civic Tourism: A Conversation with Dan Shilling

[planeta]

A new amalgamation of our favorite tourism trends is called 'civic tourism' -- http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/d ... html#Civic -- and puts cultural tourism, heritage tourism, ecotourism and geotourism into the pot and focuses on place. Civic tourism reframes the purpose of tourism from an end to a means. Says Dan Shilling, "Civic tourism is about appreciating tourism as a public good, valuing it as a public responsibility and practicing it as a public art." This changes tourism from a market-driven growth goal to a tool that can help the public preserve and enhance what they love about their place.

Planeta.com begins an online conversation with Dan Shilling and we welcome your comments and questions.

Keep an eye on this concept. Rhode Island hosts the Civic Tourism Conference II from Oct. 15-18, 2008.
http://www.civictourismconference2008.com

Civic Tourism Website
http://www.civictourism.org

Civic Tourism Review and Excerpts
http://planeta.wikispaces.com/civictourism

[planeta]

Launching the Q&A ...

Dan, can you introduce yourself and share your views on the benefits of civic tourism?

[Dan Shilling]

Hello. I wanted to quickly introduce myself, as I'm on the road, about to keynote the Pennsylvania tourism conference, to be held in Gettysburg. Like a lot of places, here's a town that has a rich historical and natural landscape, but it is being threatened by top-down tourism development. This "industrial age" approach to tourism is obvious in a place like Gettysburg or many of our gateway communities, but my concern is that the same paradigm is playing out in many other places, to the detriment of healthy economies, social networks, and environments. For about 20 years we've been asking why a lot of our place-based tourism doesn't work, and that's what we set out to study with civic tourism. You'll see a lot of references to Aldo Leopold in our work. Just as Leopold urged us to relate to nature in something other than an economic way, we're asking communities to "reframe" their approach to tourism so it is seen as something other than an economic tool. I'm not naive about this - it's hard work but I think our strategies are sound (especially the connection to natural capitalism and similar trends), and with the many groups like Planeta involved in the same work (and what I see happening in universities today), I'm hopeful. I'll post something about the Gettysburg conversation in a few days. Thanks! Dan Shilling

[planeta]

Thanks, Dan. It's a pleasure to have your reflections in this forum. I was surfing Flickr and found the Gettysburgh group -- http://www.flickr.com/groups/gettysburg -- inspiring. Relatives on my father's side of the family fought there and this place has great meaning in personal and national histories. We look forward to your news and insights from the conference. If there is a website focusing on the event or a Flickr group of its own, please include the URL.

Background question - How is Pennsylvania developing tourism? Is it civic?!

[planeta]

Happy World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development! It's a week of celebration with International Museums Week and tomorrow's International Day for Biological Diversity.

As I was reading your book, I came across this wonderful line: "Because the whole is more than the sum of its parts, those who study nature's
ecosystems recognize diversity as a key to healthy 'wholes' and 'ones.'"

My question -- do you have any tips for improving our respect for cultural and environmental diversity in tourism?

[Dan Shilling]

I was surprised that the Gettysburg conference was the first statewide tourism conference ever held in PA, especially since tourism is so central to the state's economy -- and becoming even more important, as Gov. Rendell told us more than once. It's clear that much of PA's tourism is place-based -- it's remarkable scenery and equally remarkable history. But more than a few at the conference expressed concern that their sense of place was being buried beneath outlet malls and theme parks, which is true of the Gettysburg experience, much of which looked like Anywhere USA. There was also concern that tourism development has focused too much on advertising, at the expense of the resources, such as historic homes and parks. I encouraged the place-based community to become more political, not to assume they will receive support because "they do good stuff." I'm not sure how "civic" their tourism development is yet, except to say I heard many good things about my presentation, received several inquiries to return, and have already written an article for a small-town magazine where they are trying to do the right thing. You can find more information about the PA conference at this link: http://destinationpa.visitpa.com/. But they are to be commended for not only featuring civic tourism, but for inviting several other place-based programs, such as geotourism and many ecotourism and cultural tourism examples. Also, about half of the attendees were from the environmental and cultural community, so that's a great start.

[Dan Shilling]

Happy World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development! It's a week of celebration with International Museums Week and tomorrow's International Day for Biological Diversity.

As I was reading your book, I came across this wonderful line: "Because the whole is more than the sum of its parts, those who study nature's
ecosystems recognize diversity as a key to healthy 'wholes' and 'ones.'"

My question -- do you have any tips for improving our respect for cultural and environmental diversity in tourism?

I recognize that among ecologists the diversity=sustainability question is still open to debate, at least in some quarters. I, however, come down on the side of Aldo Leopold, who urged us to "keep every cog and wheel." For economic development in general, that means not putting all of your marbles in the tourism basket, and for tourism development that means not putting all of your marbles into one attraction. For example, we sometimes focus too much on ecotourism by itself, without telling the "story" behind the land. The Grand Canyon, for example, is more than rocks and a river; people lived there, there's a story to tell, one that'll help you connect to visitors in another way. In my workshops we do some exercises that encourage participants to look for those land-history-heritage connections -- thinking of a community as a "social ecology."

One thing I also feature is the economic impact of places that do preserve the diversity of their natural and cultural environments, as opposed to those that don't. The numbers are pretty startling. That's one way to get the chamber of commerce, town planners, and elected officials to at least pay attention. They're often not persuaded by ecological or cultural arguments to "save biodiversity," but if we can demonstrate the economic benefits, that's another tool to use.

Still, I still think we're mostly pushing a rock uphill until we induce people to genuinely care about their place, and all of the economic and tourism arguments ultimately are insufficient unless we inspire that pride in place. That, as you know, is a big part of what civic tourism is about -- fostering a commitment to one's community.

[planeta]

One of my favorite parts of Civic Tourism is the way you talk up examples of fragmentation and put forth the case for integration.

I can't count how many towns I've visited where the historical society and art museum seldom cooperate, where the zoo and land trust don't even like one another, where the historic preservation guild and parks department have never met. Fragmentation is the operative word ... Beyond the fact that a fragmented design doesn't invite visitors into the full story, the nonprofit groups and public agencies charged with overseeing the various forms of alternative tourism often don't have the necessary resources or clout to be as effective individually as they might collectively. (pp. 67-67)

The compartmentalization and fragmentation of tourism is something I have seen across the world. For example, in Mexico much of tourism development is financed not by tourism but by departments that handle forestry, crafts and indigenous relations. All well and good but few people talk to each other.

In North America there were a number of talks in the early 00s about North American ecotourism, but we saw more fragmentation than integration and much of the dialogue dissipated as key players including local operators and travelers themselves opted out of the arcane discussion.

Questions: What examples have you seen where integration is the rule rather the exception? Do you have any recommendations to foster collaboration or minimize fragmentation?

[Dan Shilling]

This question has been much on my mind as I'm working on another publication about teaching sustainability which, I'd argue, also suffers from a fragmented approach - the environmentalists do their thing, the economists tackle other problems, the politicians have their concerns, the scientists focus on other matters, etc. And within each of these domains there are even more splinter groups. I just wrote a piece for Arizona State Univ. https://english.blog.asu.edu/?triedWebauth=1 that essentially argues the same thing. What's missing - that is, what can pull these separate approaches together - is a genuine attachment to the land.

I mention Aldo Leopold a lot in the civic tourism discussion, because he was one of the first to recognize this Modern, Cartesian, mechanical approach in land policy - and argue, of course, for a more ecological, holistic, and "natural" method. He also encouraged his students to development an attachment to their place, born of respect and affection. In essays like "The Farmer as a Conservationist" (1939) we get a sense of how he was moving away from industrial farming (a term he may have coined), toward the kind of approach we see today practiced by Wes Jackson and others.

While Leopold encouraged us to "think like a mountain," we're encouraging tourism communities to "think like Leopold thinking about your community." That means abandoning the silo approach and looking for relationships between the parts. One of the first things I encourage communities to do is establish something like a Place Committee, or whatever you want to call it. But move the tourism conversation out of the typical economic development sector; sure, they should be involved, but they shouldn't own the conversation.

We encourage all of the "parts" to be at the table, but the challenge is to move beyond the parts as separate entities, to see how they relate to, are defined by, help to enhance one another, and build toward pride in place. This is that "social ecology" idea. For example, what role did the natural environment play in local history? What does the streetscape say about community values? In the workshops we ask participants to examine some of those relationships - so there is a more complete "story" and so you sort of force them not to privilege the traditionally powerful players. This is about systems, not pieces.

I could give you many examples where it's not working - where the tourism players don't even talk to one another - but I'll not rag on any one town or region here. One clear indication is, when you attend a tourism conference, whether local or statewide, how many representatives of the "place" community are there? The conference I just spoke at in PA was about 50-50, a healthy mix, and it's clear they're moving in the right direction. Most of the conversation was about "place" in a comprehensive way. I think Iowa's "Great Places" project, which involves dozens of state agencies and other organizations, does a good job of breaking down barriers. I believe the director of that project has moved on to Massachusetts, so you may see something there soon. When I was in Ireland recently, and visited with their tourism agency, I learned about their "rural tourism advisory councils," I think they were called, which seemed to be a platform that brought organizations together.

But I ramble. Nearly every community project I've been involved with over the past 25 years has involved this question, and there's no easy answer, since we're dealing with power and personalities and money and turf issues (and "the way it's always been"). But within the place-based tourism context, I think a place to start, especially for a town, is with a platform and manifesto, really, that says you're about trying to figure out this thing called "place" first, and then demonstrate some exercises that point out the benefits of a more holistic approach. I am off to Ohio next week to meet with 5 towns to do that, then 10 towns in Texas. Stay tuned.

[planeta]

Dan, what's next on your calendar?

[Dan Shilling]

Hi. I just finished 4 workshops in Ohio, went very well! I'll post some of the discussion in a few days.

[Dan Shilling]

I just finished a series of 4 workshops across Ohio, which went very well. It's clear that the state has "place" in spades (landscapes, authentic downtowns, culture), and many there want to move tourism toward a place-based approach, instead of just more theme parks. Of course, that's not a view that is shared by everyone, particularly some in the mass tourism industry; but I think you'll see some developments there in the near future. For one thing, the Ohio Humanities Council will be offering scholarships to send people to the October civic tourism conference in Rhode Island - in order to gather more "best practices" to help them design an Ohio program.

A word we heard in every one of the Ohio meetings: "leadership." Particularly among the tourism industry, cultural community, elected officials, and city departments. At every meeting someone made a comment like: "This is important, so why isn't our [mayor, city council, legislator, etc.] here?" All I can say is we're doing our best to bring civic tourism to the attention of decision makers, and hopefully enough grassroots noise will eventually be the tipping point.

Next up: I meet with the Texas Heritage Commission in a few weeks to design a series of 10 workshops for their state that'll be held in early 2009. I'm also speaking at the Indiana CVB convention (Sept., Indianapolis), the US Forest Service conference (Oct., Madison, WI), and the National Association of Interpretation annual meeting (Nov., Portland, OR). I imagine some Planeta readers might be attending the NAI meeting, so please look me up (I'm the first keynote).

[planeta]

Thanks, Dan. Can you share the URL for the NAI meeting?

[Dan Shilling]

Sure, there is information online http://interpnet.com/workshop

I also was just notified that a proposal I submitted to the federal government for a summer institute on Aldo Leopold and sustainability was funded. It'll be a month-long seminar for college teachers, to be held in Prescott, AZ in June-July 2009. As you know, Leopold is central to our concept of civic tourism. More to follow.

[planeta]

Hello, Dan

This week (March 18-22) we are conducting a decentralized discussion about responsible tourism.
http://planeta.wikispaces.com/responsibletourism

The plan had been to have the conversation on the ground in Belize, but that's been delayed until October.

If you were to address a conference, what points would you make about making tourism more responsible?