{"id":3748,"date":"2025-03-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siteglobal.com\/touristship-how-to-be-better-allies-in-incentive-travel-destinations\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T14:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T14:17:10","slug":"touristship-how-be-better-allies-incentive-travel-destinations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siteglobal.com\/blog\/touristship-how-be-better-allies-incentive-travel-destinations\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cTouristship\u201d: How to be Better Allies in Incentive Travel Destinations"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Presenter Miranda Ji (Destination Greater Victoria) introduced 2025 SITE Global Conference attendees to the concept of \u201ctouristship\u201d during one of this year\u2019s breakout sessions.<o:p><\/o:p><\/h2>    <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pioneered by Chieko Tanaka, a Japanese scholar and Representative Director of the General Incorporated Association of Touristship, Miranda walked breakout attendees through her personal discovery of the concept during a family trip to Kyoto.\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/h3>    <p>Kyoto is where Chieko launched the academic and observational work that underpins our understanding of \u201ctouristship,\u201d Miranda explained, pointing to the formation of a nonprofit organization in 2019 to promote the concept around the city and Chieko\u2019s appointment as a Kyoto City Tourism Ambassador in 2022.\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>    <p>Loosely defined, Miranda said, \u201ctouristship\u201d is when visitors adapt a mindset of wanting to proactively consider, contribute, and communicate with the destination.\u00a0<span>\u00a0<\/span><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>    <p>She then provided examples of the kinds of behvaiors and responsibilities that fall under each of these categories, including:\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>    <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Consider: conducting general research about where you\u2019re going; strategizing and planning smart times to travel or move around the destination to avoid stressing systems or inconveniencing locals on stricter schedules; staying mindful of your environmental footprint and minimizing waste<o:p><\/o:p><\/li><li>Contribution: understanding cultures and traditions where you\u2019re visiting to help shape positive attitudes toward residents and the destination; supporting local businesses to give back economically\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/li><li>Communication: don\u2019t just interact with the scenery \u2014 embrace opportunities to connect with locals, too!\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/li><\/ul>    <p>While Chieko Tanaka originally created the touristship framework through a wider leisure and more general travel lens, Miranda offered up several ways for incentive professionals to adapt this work and take touristship into consideration when planning incentive travel rewards.<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>    <p>Starting at the DMO level, Miranda pointed to the growing number of impact and legacy programs offered by DMO teams, including her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.destinationgreatervictoria.com\/meetings\/planner-resources\">own work<\/a> with Business Events Victoria.\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>    <p>Oftentimes, she said, these programs will partner and help vet local nonprofit or give-back partners, that incentive organizers can then tap to instantly boost the local community level-impacts and touristship-friendly elements of their programs.<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>    <p>Simply making sensitive and strategic programming choices when building out your group\u2019s program design can also go a long way, Miranda added \u2014 giving examples specific to this year\u2019s Global Conference host destination like refraining from using undeveloped lands for activities; understanding drone restrictions for photo &amp; video teams; and staying mindful of water use in an area that can be impacted by shortages.\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>    <p>Miranda closed out the session by encouraging attendees to share their takeaways on postcards that will be sent back to Chieko: a nice nod to SITE\u2019s aim of continuing to bridge cultures across destination and continue building positive working relationships with tourism professionals around the world.\u00a0<span>\u00a0<\/span><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>    <p><em>Thank you to Miranda, and to all of our 2025 SITE Global Conference presenters, for sharing their industry knowledge with us!\u00a0<o:p><\/o:p><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Japanese concept winds its way to Mexico during SITE Global Conference 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_views_all":70,"_views_30d":13,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-3748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-ideas"],"custom_author":{"byline":"SITE 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