Insights to Inspire: Twelve Hours of Impact and 12 Talking Points to Drive Change.
Last week, The Long Run made history by hosting the tourism industry’s first-ever Virtual Impact Show. Over 12 hours, 300 individuals were captivated by the insights of 30 sustainable tourism and conservation leaders. Each presenter took us on a unique journey, unveiling their commitment to making an impact, their strategies for achieving this mission, and the tangible outcomes for people and nature.
This approach, fusing storytelling with data, helps travel businesses inspire and educate travellers. As our Executive Director, Anne-Kathrin Zschiegner, said in her opening remarks, “Driving positive results for people and nature is no longer a nice to have; it’s a license to operate.”
So, what did we learn? While we prepare the recordings of the presentations and the insights on communicating impact, here are 12 practical talking points for immediate application. Interested in joining the conversation or sharing a suggestion? We welcome your thoughts at holly@thelongrun.com
Over 30 leaders in sustainable tourism and conservation from all corners of the globe took part in our first Impact Show.
1. Investing in Infrastructure.
Tourism businesses—operators, DMCs, and accommodations—are well-placed to invest in much-needed local infrastructure. The most successful projects are co-created with the local community and designed to become financially independent over time.
2. Financing Conservation.
Despite global recognition that we urgently need to invest in nature, funding for critical conservation work is lagging. Tourists rarely opt out of conservation levies, making this a quick and effective way to contribute to local conservation goals and projects.
3. Embracing Strategic Frameworks.
Creating long-term impact requires a strategic overview of needs, priorities, challenges, and capacity. For Long Run members, embedding the 4C framework and strategic thinking into business planning and decision-making is essential groundwork.
4. Working Beyond Boundaries.
Island or silo mentality significantly limits impact. Instead, we must seek alliances, partnerships, and projects extending beyond geographical and business borders. Looking beyond our immediate remit helps to share knowledge, extend ambition, and bring others on the journey.
5. Going Slow
Encouraging travellers to slow down can be a subtle and fun way to embed environmental and social sustainability into a trip or experience on offer. Operators and DMCs don’t need to label impact to make it happen.
6. Leading with Humility
Striving for sustainability, regeneration, system change, and the rest is a hugely complex and challenging journey. No business or project is perfect. Embracing this as a team or organisation has been crucial for Long Run members to continually improve. Humility leads to asking for help and greater cooperation, which raises the bar for everyone.
7. Aspiring for System Change
Deep thinking about how tourism can drive positive impact often converges in one place: shaking up the system! Wherever Long Run members are in their journey, they recognise that we need system change. Sharing challenges and solutions to drive this at a business, sector, or regional level is helping to make it a reality.
8. Thinking Global, Acting Local
Understanding global frameworks and needs elevates the ambition and relevance of local conservation or community projects. The most successful Long Run members have taken time to understand how they can contribute to the global agenda even with a tiny remit.
9. Communicating with Integrity
Providing exceptional experiences that do good requires many layers of trust — with the local community, destination partners, employees, donors, sales channels, and customers. Embedding accountability and transparency throughout all communications is the only way to generate and maintain the kind of brand trust that cuts above the noise.
10. Keeping it Fun
Adopting a more sustainable way of life, doing business, or travelling requires curiosity and imagination. Whether working with your team or your customers, rewarding this open mindset with fun is a sure way to encourage longer-term behaviour change.
11. Building Partnerships
Any business or project that is serious about maximising impact will adopt a partnership model rather than striking out alone. Although it requires more work to set up, it will lead to better, long-term results. Partnerships are particularly critical in conservation work, where it’s important to feed into and work with existing experts and projects rather than potentially compete with them.
12. Facilitating Human Connection
Every story shared by Long Run members during the Impact Show had one key ingredient: passionate people. Connecting with these people in a meaningful, un-staged way, whether artisans in Delhi or conservationists in the Cerrado, is why we travel and how we travel with the empathy and compassion needed to drive positive impact.
Global Ecosphere Retreat® Nikoi Island shared how it's addressing key challenges across the 4Cs. Photo: Nikoi Island, Indonesia.