Building Bridges for Sustainable Tourism in Africa with Ghana Tourism Authority

Bridge in Kakum Canopy, Cape Coast, Ghana

Bridge in Kakum Canopy, Cape Coast, Ghana

Professor Marina Novelli, Academic Lead for Responsible Futures, has joined forces with the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) to establish the Building Bridges for Sustainable Tourism in Africa (BBSTA) Initiative.

Born out of a shared commitment to proactively play a part in the recovery of tourism in Africa, the initiative has now evolved into the unprecedented collaboration of over 40 key stakeholders from Africa and beyond.

BBSTA’s purpose is to advocate for proactive action-based collaborations and initiatives which will inform policy and practice for sustainable tourism in Africa and its agenda is the result of a co-constructed process responding to two key questions:

  • What now (during COVID19)?
  • What next (post-COVID19)?

Four key areas of intervention BBSTA’s have been so far agreed, which are:
1. Digitisation
2. Regional collaboration
3. Research and training
4. Advocacy and PR

Working closely with GTA CEO Akwasi Agyeman, Professor Novelli is part of the BBSTA Advocacy Task Force with a strong belief that creative solutions are needed to address this crisis.

According to UNWTO (2020), it is expected that the crisis could lead to an annual decline of between 60% and 80% when compared with 2019 figures. For most countries, travel restrictions halted tourism in February 2020. Nations, global tourism agencies, academia, destination markets and tourism businesses are collaborating to try and frame this crisis, analyse its impacts and forecast what the ‘new normal’ will be for tourism.

Professor Novelli said:

“The impact on the tourism industry has been significant; the sector is among the worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of livelihoods are at risk and there is a clear threat to progress made in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We are committed to working together to take pragmatic steps towards recovery.”

For more information:

To find out more about the BBSTA Initiative and get involved, send an email to Akwasi Agyeman at: aagyeman@ghana.travel and Professor Marina Novelli at: M.Novelli@brighton.ac.uk.

Responsible Futures supports sustainable business practice

Helping businesses recover from the COVID-19 lockdown

Top experts are coming together to help Sussex businesses recover from the pandemic lockdown.

The University of Brighton’s Centre for Change, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management (CENTRIM), Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership, and Business East Sussex  have teamed up for a four-part webinar series aimed at offering insights and support.

The webinars have been created in response to themes emerging from sessions with businesses since the outset of the pandemic, and form part of a series of initiatives supported by the university’s Responsible Futures agenda which is committed to supporting sustainable business development and practice.

Seminar series poster

The series and CENTRIM speakers:

  • 27 May: The Digital Device Landscape: When to phone, when to message, when to email, when to video call. “A practical, gritty, and hands-on session targeted at businesses which have increased their dependence on digital communications.” Speaker, Paul Levy
  • 29 May: Crisis Innovation. “Offering specific actions that can help managers bring innovations borne out of crisis to fruition.” Speaker, Dr George Tsekouras
  • 1 June: Digital Transformation. “An overview of key considerations for SMEs who are transitioning into the digitisation of business processes.” Speaker, Asher Rospigliosi
  • 4 June: Exploiting Agility for Advantage. “Exploration of the eight types of agility, looking at when each is most likely to be efficient and effective.” Speaker, Dr David Francis

Professor Debra Humphris, the University of Brighton’s Vice-Chancellor, said: “University staff and students have volunteered to help the NHS wherever they can and we now stand with our partners to do the same for businesses which have suffered greatly through this dreadful crisis.”

Professor Debra Humphris

Professor Debra Humphris

Jonathan Sharrock, Chief Executive at Coast to Capital said:

“We are pleased to support the CENTRIM webinar series in collaboration with the University of Brighton and Business East Sussex. We are continuing a strong dialogue with partners on an economic recovery plan and I look forward to hearing updates from the upcoming events.”

The webinars will run between 12-1pm on the above dates and there will be questions and answers.

Events will be hosted via Microsoft Teams Live and links will be sent to registered delegates.

For more information and booking details, please visit Eventbrite.

Seminar logos

Tourism in the post-COVID-19 era – webinar

Image for Overtourism webinar

Professor Marina Novelli has been invited to contribute her expert opinion in an upcoming webinar hosted by the Journal on Tourism and Sustainability on Friday 24 April 2020 from 10.30am (GMT).

Joining the academics with whom she co-authored Overtourism: Excesses, discontents and measures in travel and tourism, Professor Novelli will answer questions relating to the future of tourism in the post-COVID-19 era.

Visit this web page to register

Topic: OTS Webinar Series: After the Virus

Description: E3. From Overtourism to a COVID-19 Immobile world

Tourism like any other industry will need to be regulated and managed in a post COVID-19 era. The third webinar will focus on issues concerning the crisis surrounding the tourism industry. The aim is to explore possible directions in which tourism and hospitality might be heading. The debate will focus on managing the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 on attractions, hotels, restaurants etc… Questions to be considered:

Are we witnessing the end of overtourism or mass tourism, and the end of ‘vulgar’ tourism? Will the flow of visitors require an alternative solution and more responsible management? Will destinations that are faced with economic catastrophe cause a survival of the ‘fittest’ scenario?

Viewers will debate current issues concerning the rebirth of regulated tourism and suggest solutions in the management of the industry.

Agenda-
10:30 – 10:35 Welcome
10:35 – 11:05 Professor Claudio Milano
11:05 – 11:35 Professor Joseph M. Cheer
11:35 – 12:05 Professor Marina Novelli
12:05 – 12:30 Q&A and Closing Remarks

Chaired By: Professor Eugenia Wickens

 

Academics continue with circular design research

Nick Gant

Nick Gant, Principal Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Design, has been using technology to continue with a co-learning research consultancy project with creative leaders across 10 African countries. The Circular Design Lab project, commissioned by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the British Council, is continuing by way of open mapping and community connection software on the creative agency Community21. It has been exploring remote community networking across ‘multi-local’ communities for 10 years.

Nick, founder of the creative agency Community21, said:

“As the crisis has unfolded our methods have not changed, whilst access to materials and interactions on the ground in the different countries have changed radically.

During April, I am communicating with networks in Nigeria and Sierra Leone to exchange experiences of the virus’ impact to grassroots sustainable development there.

And last week we were given access to recent images of a project in South Africa where our students and staff have been remotely co-learning how to transform waste into new opportunities for social cohesions, education and cultural engagement, as well as economic opportunities, over the last four years.”

Nick’s colleague Stefano Santilli in the School of Art presented this work, co-developed with Dr Ryan Woodard, last month at Making Futures Conference in the Philippines. His trip was funded by the British Council and he made it back the day before the lockdown.

“We are feeding these findings back through a range of research fora – but our students (on 3D, MA Sustainable Design and Product Design) are benefiting from these ‘live’ projects that explore remote knowledge nets for productive communities of practice too.

We are planning a new open project for students across the school next year which will link students to this network which will enable the testing of remote knowledge exchange to the network including 50 schools across Malawi and Mozambique.”

The COVID-19 induced tourism crisis

Image advertising Travel pass with Francis Doku radio show

Professor Marina Novelli was invited to comment on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global tourism sector and next steps required to return to some level of normality on 3news radio live in Ghana.

Featuring on Travel Pass with Francis Doku, Professor Novelli gave her expert opinion on the likely implications, scenarios and key considerations for recovery. She reminded listeners that everyone must play their part by observing the social distancing restrictions and staying at home during the lockdown. Decisions to close borders are essential, and although inconvenient, one must remember that:

“This is not a tourism crisis, this is a humanity crisis and we should prioritise health over wealth.”

Professor Novelli acknowledged the difficulty of implementing restrictions, particularly in poorer areas where sanitation and access to water is not readily available. She highlighted the need for a multi-agency taskforce, including ministries, the private sector and third sector organisations, to collaboratively identify specific priorities and urged governments to ring-fence emergency funding to enable coordinated actions.

Although all current quantification of the problem is merely speculative,  researchers are looking at ways to stimulate recovery in the short, medium and long-term spanning from six months to two years from the end of the pandemic. Professor Novelli highlighted the primary importance of containing the pandemic and also managing perceptions by responding quickly and implementing directives from the World Health Organization, and by maintaining the presence of destinations in the market place and consumer confidence in destinations’ health and safety. She referenced lessons learned following the Ebola outbreak where countries untouched by the epidemic nevertheless suffered dramatic decreases in tourist numbers – and the need to be prepared for this happening again, at a much larger scale, and taking far longer to return to previous levels.

In addition, Professor Novelli pointed out that the impact on the tourism sector would be far-reaching. For instance, there are studies which indicate that in destinations in developing countries, for every person in direct employment in tourism, there are on average seven who are dependent upon them; any impact assessment should consider this as well as individuals operating in the informal sector, who are often overlooked.

In her concluding remarks, Professor Novelli stressed the importance of the sustainability agenda and about the importance of looking at ways to preserve the resources, both built and natural, which are normally supported through revenues generated from tourism. She pointed out that it will be crucial to mitigate any adverse impact or risk losing the very assets that will attract future tourists.

The global lockdown provides us with an opportunity to rethink tourism. As an Affiliate Member of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the University of Brighton and Professor Novelli’s message is in line with the UNWTO recommendation to #stayhometoday and #traveltomorrow.

For UNWTO information on COVID-19 and tourism, please visit the UNWTO website.

Listen to Professor Novelli’s full interview on 3news via soundcloud

 

 

Putting the circular economy on the map

In January, Duncan Baker, Senior Lecturer, was featured in the Guardian’s article which discusses the current state of the construction industry which is creating huge CO2 emissions. What if new buildings had to be adapted and reused or built only with materials already available? The article discusses how mindsets are shifting.

Duncan Baker-Brown

While much of mainland Europe is well on the way to reimagining buildings as “urban mines” of potential, the UK is slowly beginning to catch up. Architect Duncan Baker-Brown, who published the Re-Use Atlas in 2017, says the subject has gone from being a niche pursuit to something being discussed at high level in the last year. He says:

“Since Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion, the industry is starting to wake up. National legislation is still way behind, but a lot of local authorities are getting on with it anyway.”

He has been working with Brighton and Hove City Council to instil circular principles into the way local procurement works, and will be running an architectural summer school looking at how waste streams can be harvested from one of the council’s demolition sites and reused.

In addition, as part of the Futurebuild Steering Group, Duncan has helped form the 2020 knowledge programme for this international event in March, aimed at eliminating waste in the construction industry. Find out more about this event and Duncan’s contribution to the debate about making the transition to a zero carbon world by visiting the Futurebuild website.