Afbeelding
CELTH takes control of research with Agenda Conscious Destinations
CELTH has put together a multi-year knowledge agenda for the hospitality domain and will invest one and a half million euros in it over the next three years. Knowledge on five urgent themes is being developed around Conscious Destination. (Knowledge) partners are challenged to co-invest and thereby strengthen the much-needed knowledge foundation under the hospitality domain.
CELTH has put together a multi-year knowledge agenda for the hospitality domain and will invest one and a half million euros in it over the next three years. Knowledge on five urgent themes is being developed around Conscious Destination. (Knowledge) partners are challenged to co-invest and thereby strengthen the much-needed knowledge foundation under the hospitality domain.
CELTH is the only Center of Expertise of the leisure, tourism, and hospitality sector and with its 'Agenda Conscious Destinations' (ABB) responds to the call of the Council for the living environment and infrastructure (Rli). This advisory body of the Dutch government stated in its advice 'Valuable Tourism' (2019) that the current knowledge base for the hospitality domain is thin. The Rli believes that knowledge is the foundation for high-quality policymaking and therefore recommends establishing a multi-year agenda for building and maintaining a powerful knowledge infrastructure. CELTH and its partner universities of applied sciences Breda University of Applied Sciences, NHL Stenden Uniservsity of Applied Sciences and HZ University of Applied Sciences are now coming up with a concrete plan: the 'Agenda Conscious Destinations'. CELTH, together with the universities of applied sciences, is investing 1.5 million euros in the Knowledge Agenda over a three-year period and is calling on other research and knowledge institutions to co-invest. By working together with partners and responding to national and European research funds, CELTH aims to at least triple its investment.
The Agenda Conscious Destinations serves as a guideline for CELTH's knowledge and education partners to develop new relevant knowledge and skills. “The Agenda will thus make an important contribution to strengthening the knowledge foundation for policymaking in the hospitality domain”, says Dr. Jorrit Snijder, chair of the Executive Board of CELTH and BUas. “The agenda is ambitious, proactive, and adaptive and will be a signpost to inspire partners of CELTH to develop skills and knowledge that can be used for destinations within and outside the Netherlands. In addition, with the Agenda, CELTH provides space for state-of-the-art applied and academic research, the Agenda offers the perspective from which funds can be tapped and provides building blocks for sustainable curriculum development in education, for the professionals of tomorrow."
In the knowledge agenda, the conscious destination is paramount. CELTH emphatically opts for the destination level because that is where all the different sub-sectors and actors come together. At the destination, hospitality and value is created for tourists, residents, and companies. In short, there the domain interacts with its environment. This is where synergy or competition with other sectors arises, and the full complexity of the hospitality domain is expressed. At the zoning level, the domain can also play an important role in social transitions and tasks.
CELTH points out that at destination level there is a great need for knowledge development around questions such as: Why are we focusing on the hospitality domain? Whose destination is it? Who benefits from the hospitality domain and how? What are the (social) costs and benefits? How do we ensure that the destinations remain in balance? And how do we go from reacting to fait accomplish to anticipating what is to come?
Diana Korteweg Maris, member of the ABB management team on behalf of Hogeschool Zeeland: “We see the same issues recurring everywhere: in municipalities, at regional level, at provinces. Many of those questions are now included in the Conscious Destinations Agenda. By developing knowledge from CELTH and linking it to the knowledge and experience from all those areas, we hope to help everyone further.”
A conscious destination has been thought out for CELTH: “There is a story, vision, strategy, data and knowledge, and skills to deal with this. A Conscious Destiny is proactive. There is leadership, initiative, and innovation, which contribute to a high degree of organizational capacity. We consciously deal with (possibly conflicting) interests and there is coordination between those involved. A Conscious Destiny is also adaptive. People are worldly wise, so sensitive to change from near and far; people are innovative and, supported by data and expertise, can consciously anticipate or deal with developments such as the global network society, the globalizing economy, technological developments, and natural processes. They know that this requires the right conditions, so that destinations can be resilient.”
dr. Stefan Hartman, member of the ABB directing team on behalf of NHL Stenden, sees the destination as a place or area where a tourist, visitor or holiday maker is prepared to go. “Sometimes for a short (day) visit, sometimes for a longer stay.” At first glance, this seems like a simple system, but it is not: “It is often a composite tourist-recreational product, a complex whole of, for example, catering, facilities, infrastructure, cultural-historical heritage, and the natural environment. It is the scale at which many parties are active (entrepreneurs, governments, social organisations, education, residents), collaborate, seek coordination and can also have conflicting interests.” In the view of CELTH, this must be managed in the right direction so that the quality of work, the quality of life and the quality of the experience are optimal.
In the view of CELTH, a Conscious Destination focuses on the social value of the hospitality domain. The aim is to achieve an outcome in which the hospitality domain has the greatest possible social, ecological, and economic impact and which leads to the highest possible quality of life, experience, and work. That is not easy because the hospitality domain operates in a complex context. This has to do with different levels of scale, multiple actors across various domains, social developments that each develop at their own speed and different goals that can be achieved via various paths. Moreover, each destination operates in its own context. This complexity ensures that Conscious Destinations do not just arise. By now developing knowledge on five topical themes that contribute to solving the challenges, and by teaching us to better understand how the entire destination system functions, CELTH can help destinations develop into Conscious Destinations. In this way, these destinations can strive for the highest possible quality of life, experience and work through integrated policy and well-founded interventions.
Afbeelding
What choices does a Conscious Destination make?
A Conscious Destination places the social value of the hospitality domain at the centre, realised through striving for an as positive as possible economic, social, and ecological impact (in other words, the Triple-P values people, planet, and profit). These impacts are experienced by residents (and directly affect their quality of life), visitors (in the quality of experiences), and employees and companies within the hospitality domain (quality of work).
The knowledge, partly developed by the Agenda, enables companies, governments, knowledge institutions and other stakeholders to cope with the increasing complexity and dynamics in the hospitality domain. CELTH does this by:
- Active knowledge sharing and exchange of ideas with the internal and external network;
- Structured use of budgets for the development and implementation of regional, national and international research projects;
- Inviting schools and universities (both MBO, HBO and universities) to participate in the development of these research projects.
CELTH sees that its approach to integrally optimizing a destination is gaining more and more support and expects that this will become dominant in the (near) future, not only in the Netherlands but worldwide. Social and political pressure is mounting to reconsider the usual approach that only leads to growth or that sees the hospitality domain as a mere threat. The conscious choices underlying the optimization approach are in line with the CELTH vision on Conscious Destinations.
Afbeelding
Interactive visual Agenda Conscious Destinations
Would you like to get to know the Agenda Conscious Destinations in a fun way? Then go on a journey of discovery through our interactive visual.
In the ABB, CELTH opts for five core themes: living environment, human capital, organizing capacity, smartness, and leisure offer. According to CELTH, these themes currently have the highest priority given the situation in the hospitality domain. Within each of these themes, concrete core tasks and priorities for knowledge gaps are identified. Together with partners, CELTH wants to tackle these tasks with research and knowledge development.
Briefly, the five core themes include the following:
- Living environment: There is a reciprocal relationship between the hospitality domain and the living environment of residents. The domain is part of the living environment and can damage it but also revive it. The aim of the ABB is to increase the quality of life through the hospitality domain. This is also to the advantage of the domain itself, as a favorable living environment also keeps the destination attractive for visitors.
- Human capital: Faced with challenges such as facilitating 'Lifelong Learning', shortage of qualified personnel, finding the right balance in the workforce (young, elderly, part-time, full-time, etc.) and the need for new skills (social, digital, sustainability) the parties within the hospitality domain need more data and insights about the labor market and the options available to find, train, 'grow' and retain employees for the domain.
- Organisational capacity: Destination development is an interplay of various actors, the most important of which are the private, public, and non-governmental parties, the residents/local communities and the visitors. While some destinations are well able to bring parties and interests together and coordinate cooperation, other destinations see that connections and skills are lacking and some parties are underrepresented. The complexity of destination management, as well as its importance, is increasing due to the stormy growth of the domain (tourism, recreation, events, festivals, catering) the call for optimization of the impacts has increased.
- Smartness: Up-to-date, complete, and reliable data at destination level are essential to steer and direct decision-making and development of, among others, entrepreneurs, and policymakers. On the one hand, this theme concerns substantive data on demand, supply, and impacts as a basis for all strategic tasks. On the other hand, it concerns methods and access to knowledge, including optimization and (national) coordination of data collection, its methods (including AI and machine learning), and the applications and communication of data. To this end, the possibilities of innovative (smart) technology must be explored and used.
- Leisure offer: the offer is the core of the hospitality domain and is therefore an essential part of the ABB. There are a few important tasks within this theme. Making the business model robust at the provider level is crucial for the long-term healthy survival of the domain. The quality of the experience is the essence of the domain; providers would like more insight into this experience and how it can be stimulated. Finally, the challenge for entrepreneurs is to integrate the tasks identified in the previous themes into their business model: increasing social value and minimizing negative impacts, strengthening, and utilizing human capital, playing a clear and active role in organizing capacity of the destination and more data-driven working.
