Feedback in the field of tourism is already quite present. Think about the last time you went on a trip, didn’t you get at least three emails from any travel agencies, hotels or airlines to give feedback on your experience? And that’s how it should be. Most of the time, travelers even give their feedback spontaneously on platforms like Tripadvisor, even more if they are not happy with the provided services… So there are no issues on that matter. However, there is another aspect in the tourism industry that is often forgotten about: the local community at travel destinations.

The feedback of locals at a touristic destination should not be seen as optional, but as equally as important as travelers’ feedback. Why? Because these are the people whose home town tourists are ‘invading’. To make sure it does not feel like an actual invasion for locals, travel agencies should ask for their input on how to reconcile tourism with keeping an area livable.

There are lots of examples where, today, mass tourism has a negative impact on the area and local population. Venice in Italy – for instance – is constantly flooded by tourists, which makes the city barely livable during peak season for the actual population. On top of that, the environment suffers because of all the large cruise ships entering the lagoon. The local population and government have been addressing their concerns for a while now, but most tour operators and other players in the travel industry refused to act on them. Because the problems are now so far-reaching the mayor of Venice feels obligated to start implementing extra taxes and other measures for tourists. Travel operators are not happy with this and it is not excluded some lawsuits against the City of Venice will follow. Yet, this is not the way to go, according to me.

Sustainable tourism in any meaning of the word should be the goal today. Traveling without (or as little as possible) harming the environment, bothering the local population in a negative way or contributing to global issues such as child labor or animal abuse should be the norm. To achieve this, input of local communities is very much needed. Locals, as a matter of fact, are the real travel experts for their destination and can offer so many valuable insights.

Read the full article about feedback in tourism by Nikita Goossens at FeedbackLabs.