Tourism and Media: Taking Responsibility

SEE IT HERE

Today I watched the live-streaming coverage of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Tourism and Media Conference live from Marsa Alam, Egypt. Writes Ron Mader of Planeta.com

Hashtag: #tourismmedia Storify: #tourismmedia Video streaming by Ustream

Kudos to the event organizers for making this conference public. I’ve long pestered tourism event organizers to provide real-time coverage so this a long-awaited step forward.

That said, there was no way that those online could really participate. There was no good way to determine who was speaking during the roundtable discussion and no way to ask questions. These glitches aside, the conversation was candid and polite and quite informative about how different stakeholders view things differently. I wish there had been a ‘Who’s Who’ to figure out which voices were from the journalists and which were from the contracted public relations agencies.

The major talking point from the event was that of responsibility and the participants returned to this point time and again. We saw how easy it was for participants to interpret ‘responsibility’ in different manners. Taking responsibility, therefore, will be a challenge.

I found it curious that in no instance did anyone talk about ‘responsible tourism’ – fodder for another discussion!

There was one particular comment I disagreed with. During the online streaming one of the blurry participants said with great authority, "The objective of the media is …." which I disapproved solely because the statement was singular. Media – perhaps journalism – is in a state of flux as the digital renaissance has offered transformational change. There are as many objectives as there are many expectations. My question is how do we manifest these aspirational goals as a practical action plan?

I also read a tweet quoting or paraphrasing one of the participants who said that "Storytelling is about building personal relationships, trust. Immediate and long lasting engagement." This is certainly the goal, but there have been some stones in the road. One of the obstacles for tourism and media pros alike is that there the high job turnover in professional sectors. Without continuity, it’s all but impossible to build relationships and trust. Again, I would love to explore this in depth as we learn how to build long-lasting engagement. The future will be decided on the basis of whether we cultivate high trust environments.

In fact, there were quite a few terms that riled the conference participants. From the journalists who simply did not want to "partner" with tourism officials and those who questioned what constitutes contemporary journalism or simply ‘media.’ Huffington Posts’s @andrewburmon knocked the very concept: "The media as a concept is useful for discussions but beyond that it doesn’t exist." What did the event organizers make of that?!

What’s needed is a construct that looks at contemporary coverage. Borrowing from Jay Rosen’s ideas of how political coverage is broken, the same could be said about travel journalism. To figure out what’s being reported, let’s use his model divided into four quadrants:

Bottom left: Appearances rendered as fact. Example: the media stunt.
Top left: Phony arguments. Manufactured controversies. Sideshows.
Bottom right: Today’s new realities: get the facts. The actual news.
Top right. Real arguments: Debates, legitimate controversies, important speeches.
Appearances-Realities / Arguments-Facts

Your thoughts? Post as a comment below. The conference is over. The conversation lasts our lifetime.
Special kudos to On Fooooot for her blog: Is it media’s responsibility to raise awareness of the importance of tourism?

Ron Mader
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