Photo: Postcards from Oaxaca (Some rights reserved)
Collaboration = the action of working with someone to produce or create something
Essay
Lack of collaboration is a proverbial stone in the road for those developing ‘sustainable’ tourism.
Many tourism players are aware that improving collaboration is a worthy objective, yet they feel stymied by how to put practice into action. We talk about collaborating and then find it an impossible task. Can we instead make a public commitment to collaboration?
Benefits of Collaboration
That said, if the people come together they end up creating something that could not be accomplished individually. Also, the ‘end product’ is often something that was previously unimagined as the process itself generates new developments.
Solutions
Let’s be clever and work smarter, not harder. Some are technical – shared collaborative documents. Some are philosophical – how open do you want to be? Also, how do we structure actions so that they engage shier people – those who don’t want to attend a public event or committee meeting?
Slideshare
We explored this topic during the 2011 Responsible Tourism in Cities Conference in Durban, South Africa.
Slideshare
Posters
How many people does it take to make a reality?
Stray Observations
How we broaden the base allows us to climb higher. A rising tide lifts all boats.
Collaboration is different than cooperation in that it includes different players with various interests, some of which may be at odds with one another.
Planeta