BONUS ITB Berlin 2026: Why Sustainability is Just the New Baseline

Looking back at the Responsible Tourism Track sessions from ITB Berlin 2026, Samantha Smits shares her insights from the world's biggest travel trade show. Learn why sustainability is becoming the bare minimum for the industry, the difference between inward-looking businesses and regenerative thinking, and why it's time to move out of your head and start building systems that actually close the 'say-do' gap.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The current tourism model is so destructive, and that relates to all the points that are coming about sustainability being the new bare minimum, it should be the new standard of how tourism is run. So it's the whole logic and the way we run tourism that we have to change. Hi, I'm Samantha Smith, and welcome back to the Sustainability Edge, the tourism podcast. No yargon, no fluff. We're breaking down sustainability and especially how to turn sustainability in a practical tool that gives you more profit, more time, stuff that's staying, and a business you can be proud of. Let's get started. Hello, hello, and welcome back to the podcast. It is good to have you here again. And today it's actually the first bonus episode, which means this one was not pretty made up, but it was requested. It was requested if I could record an episode with my experience of ITB, which is the Internationale Tourismbörse, if I pronounced correctly, Surrey Germans, which is one of the biggest travel tourism trade shows or fairs in the world. And I noticed it was my second time to attend it, and unfortunately, because of developments going on in the world at the moment, without speaking about 2026, it was beginning March. My first time, but still, it's I keep making the comparison to my friends that sometimes when you have a dream, you have there are people in the same room who are not supposed to know each other, that are logistically not able to be in the same room. But when you think about I to B, they are there. It is possible. I have I will always see people from every single part of my art tourism journey so far, from the studies, from the internships, from the voluntary parts of thesis researches and clients, and literally the entire world is there. So I mean if we talk about sustainability, that is obviously not exactly sustainable. But hey, if we're all there at the same time for just once a year, yeah, no, I don't think that really fully excuses it, but it is still happening. You will notice this is a bonus episode, there's definitely less structure, it's much more of sharing my random thoughts, which apparently people appreciate at their times. So, hey-ho, let's go and let's see where this ends. I will grab a little bit of structure. I did make a carousel on LinkedIn about some of my main insights. I mean, there were a bunch, not all of them could be shared, or especially in the carousel. I don't want to have very elaborate texts, but I will use that carousel as a little bit of a structure and discuss anything else that comes up as we go. So this one, their insights that I've shared, they were mainly about the sessions that were held on Thursday. Tourism, there was on Thursday, there was a responsible tourism track, which is cool that there was a like a full day dedicated to the topic. Apparently, if I hear other people that have been more often, it was one of the first times that it actually happened. So it's great to see that it's getting more and more attention on such a big stage in the world where anyone can attend. But then indeed, when you attend, it's not always a full room. And during the entire RTB, there were also sessions about AI, which is very interesting. If the topic is about leading tourism into balance, and you discuss both responsibility, sustainability, regeneration, and AI. Yeah, we can argue for some kind of balance, but maybe not the one that we're hoping for. But alright, let's go for what I've seen on that specific Thursday. And there was a session, I mainly liked the sessions focused on regenerate regenerative tourism or travel, or which what I do remember specifically is something that Anna Pollock has said multiple times. It's not even about regenerative tourism, it's more about regenerative thinking. This it's not just a mindset, but the way how you approach things, the way how you design things. It is not just applying another label to tourism that already has so many, but applying the thinking to truly everything. And that also brings us to this whole discussion of oh, but is regeneration not a new title for sustainable tourism? Aren't we trying to achieve the same thing with sustainability and regeneration? This whole discussion has already been going on for some time, and maybe for some yes, they are trying to achieve what regeneration means if you look it up in a dictionary, while they are saying sustainable tourism. But at the moment it's more I think it actually resorts back to indeed looking at what's said in the dictionary, because to sustain something beyond just sustainable tourism, just the verb, is indeed to make something durable and to last, make it last longer. And as you've seen in tourism in practice, it's about reducing the negative impacts and making your business last longer. And what I actually at the time of recording this podcast, I think today, I saw it in scrolling Instagram. There was a podcast where my uh business friends, Sarah Ofidal and Jamie Burr, were on, and I believe Jamie Burr was saying that at this point sustainable sustainability is becoming a new baseline where it is the bare minimum that will be expected of companies, and at the same time, the bare minimum that is needed to sustain the tourism industry, because that is the whole issue with tourism or the way we run it today, it is destructive. And if we were to move it entirely to sustainable tourism, it could sustain itself, but it would unfortunately not be enough. So I really liked how he claimed that, and I believe even I've unfortunately forgot who said it. I believe it was also last year at ITB, or it might even be have been WTM London last year. There was said that it raises the floor, but not the ceiling at the moment. But being raising the floor means raising the minimum standards and making it the bare minimum and making it the baseline, which is something I really like. And if I even look at the way that I'm running my business and the work I'm doing for my clients, I don't really recognize that because, for example, I always start with the baseline, and it's my goal to help accommodations and toolators to make them see that, for example, in my case, certification is accessible and that they can then safely make a claim about being sustainable, which for some people seems like something so far and so impossible to achieve. But nowadays it is becoming the bare minimum. It is becoming the standard that agents are looking for, and that governments, even on an EU level, are requiring and having greenwashing claims for. So it is where everyone has to go to, but definitely not an end destination. So this whole discussion about sustainability and regeneration remains super, super valid. And I loved how Anna Pola was mentioning that sustainability is an inward-looking way inside of the business where regeneration asks you to look beyond to actually help communities flourish. And that she I love she always has these five direct one-liners move out of your head and start feeling 1000%. And there was also something more technically said by David Leventhall, he's the co-founder of Regenerative Travel. I also did a course a while ago. I loved the course. I it had a lot of detailed, very high production with case studies, and he was mentioning that sustainability helped with the resources and the profit and loss sheet, but that regenerative thinking, again, we're talking about thinking, not necessarily regenerative tourism, regenerative travel, regenerative, blah blah. Regenerative thinking has to become your balance sheet. Because that again will be a way that you start running your business, so that you at least start with sustainability, it's gonna be the bare minimum, but that the next the best practice has to be regeneration, and basically, if you are doing regeneration, you're doing sustainability as well. That was said last year. I also believe by Anna Pollock, that doing regeneration, sustainability will be an outcome. Having discussed now with you how sustainability is becoming the new bare minimum and the baseline, this also links to something that David also has said that it is key to establish a baseline first, because as he said, knowledge starts with measurement, but not all measures are knowledge. So to know whether you make any impact at all, or to, as I always say, to make your priorities because you cannot do everything at once, it will be way too much overwhelming. Such a baseline will really help you to determine your focus. That applies with everything really in business, but especially if we talk care about where you're going to take any responsible, sustainable, regenerative actions. Also relating to this, there's a lot of I also said that there's already a lot of talk, there's already quite some awareness when you're in the right corners, all the pioneers are there, but as we've been saying for many years, the action is lacking. There's this implementation gap, the say do gap, there's many names for it. It just means we talk but we don't walk. And I believe, yeah, that was Matthias Bayer, Mascontur, who said something about this. There's this gap between ambition and actual implementation, where we talk about resilience, sustainability, regeneration, or any topic you can imagine, but there's no systems built to support it. And when we actually focus on closing this gap, we will finally start moving forward and not have many more conferences with a lot of talks, but no walks and no action. But one of the arguments given is as well, and this was all discussed in the climate adaptation gap in tourism from risk to resilience session during ITB, that sometimes there is no support really from governments or funds, and it's very hard to get these funds or to participate in projects. And Jeremy Sampson was briefly but making a lot of points. It was actually going a little bit too fast for me to note everything. He was stating a lot of facts. He's the CEO of the Travel Foundation, and one of the reasons that tourism is not often taken seriously is that people look at it as a soft economy, and he was talking about we have to show more of the outcomes that tourism brings. Tourism is interrelated with so many other infrastructures. A specific slide was shared. It can go to agriculture, obviously. There's so much it relates with. Then linking back to all this talk and all these ideas and how to move behind such a gap, having these visions, having these ideas is more focused on having a mindset. But to reach the practice, a design is needed. We need systems, they have to be plans, and without the right systems in the middle, a vision will never become reality. This is again where we are collaborating between private sector, public sector, and again proving the point of what an infrastructure tourism really is. And here I also like this quote of the sea of sameness, which you might have heard. It was made by Elke Dance, Global Director of Travel to Tomorrow. She was explaining how a lot of tourism destinations are competing in becoming the best destination or even the best company, and actually in this competition with each other are a little bit becoming like each other. I mean, of course, cuisine and stuff you might not really be able to change, even though you could cater technically. But the point is where in this competition towards being the most interesting destination to visit, they're actually drowning themselves and becoming all the same and offering similar experiences and losing their unique identity. That's why Alco is claiming to stand out. You have to be a place specific, even within the destination, because you cannot copy and paste a unique identity. And I liked when I posted this, I believe someone made a case of the Philippines in the comments that they were still doing this very well and they haven't been in this competition of the sea of sameness. And I'm sure you can come up with plenty of other examples. Another discussion, which I found a very interesting one and found in more places than one, is about asking the right questions for both the traveler, the client, but also the tourism business or even the destinations. Because very often when we are choosing where to travel to, what our next destination will be, we of course ask what does this place have to offer for me? And but Elka here, again from Global Director of Travel to Tomorrow, was kind of reflecting the question back to you. You have to ask what can you do for the place rather than what can the place do for you. At the same time, as a business, dare to choose your clients. Usually the more specific, the better. So there to choose your clients. Who is most interested in what you have to offer if you as a destination? But at the same time, what client will be good for your destination? Not just money-wise, impact-wise, what is the most rewarding for you? Because the stereotypical mess tourist is not actually the highest quality tourist that you can attract. But I also had this conversation with someone I'm coaching to travel life about a very different topic, just being sure if there's specific activities that can happen in your country that you don't support, that you already filter out, that such a client would never book through you in the first place, which can be harder if you are in DMC. But there are people out there who are having these conversations with their agents or the other way around. There's always one who initiates it, with saying we do not want to serve this kind of clients and we do not want to provide these kinds of activities. So that you reflect, we simply do not host these kinds of people. We do not host people that are interested in these kind of activities. And actually being more exclusive like that and being more strong opinionated and being so specific in what you do, what you don't, will only give you higher quality clients, even sustainable tourism and responsible tourism. And it will also save you the headache of dealing with the expectation management that failed afterwards. And something that is often used in thinking about growth of businesses or tourism in itself, and the optimistic hope that quite some sustainability consultants had when there was the pandemic. We all had this hope that after the pandemic we would restart tourism in a better way, we would apply better systems, but as quite a lot also predicted, it just grew back even harder than before. I feel like a lot of places are already beyond pre-pandemic numbers. And there was this comparison made by, if I pronounce correctly, she's from Iceland, Asta Kristin Suger Jans Duttich, CEO of Iceland's tourism cluster, that you do not fix exhaustion by doing more. And that really applies to everything in life. Your body needs rest and fixing for resilience, and the same for your business, but also tourism. That we the current tourism model is so exploitative, destructive, and that again relates to all the points that are coming about sustainability being the new bare minimum model. It should be the new standard model of how tourism is run. And then it can still be done even better, but it will at least be much less destructive than what we are doing today. So it's the whole logic and the way we run tourism that we have to change. And this indeed relates to also, I don't remember who, but there was a point made about certifications, where I always listen to, of course, not every certification comes equal, and nowadays quite some certifications are more management systems, and that I do agree with, but can also definitely be a benefit because quite some companies need those, and I do believe every single policy, such as certification or ask you to create, will serve as an SP for your company, and it will provide you with a structure, and it is something I like about certifications that all these criteria makes the concept of sustainability much more tangible because it will tell you what specific points to pursue or criteria. But then if we if we conclude this, everything just results to the same, that all the all the knowledge is there, there are pioneers, there's a a lot of consultants, older generation, very seasoned, and a new generation with all the energy and still somehow optimistic of what can be done, hungry to make these changes and to help companies and to help destinations. But it has to be done. That whole responsible tourism track, it was mainly filled with peers, as in people in the sustainability regenerative space, doing in their separate corners, doing the work. Even in the dinners in the evening, we were talking about it. That I mean, there is many sustainable tourism consultants as well, but we all have our specializations, we all have our corner or bubble in the bubble, as someone was saying, and we're all trying to help. And that's something I find interesting about most of the people in the sustainable or responsible tourism or agenda tourism space, that we all share somehow this, at least when you're a little bit early, you have still optimism, optimism. But even if you're in it for longer, we all have this perseverance, we keep going, we are stubborn, that we believe this can still work, we're still happy if we can help some companies get there, even if it's not the whole destination, that we keep having a vision for the greater good of tourism, and again, how it benefits everyone truly. And slowly, slowly, I just we just hope that tourism operators, accommodations, destinations are starting to see the same. And again, the RK city is already there. But it has to become more globally standard. Alright, at this point I feel like most of my points are leading back to the same conclusion, so that should be made. But really, if you are a tourism business listening to this, a two-perator, owner, or manager, or from an accommodation, the point is to just give it a try, or if you are already doing it to get recognized that you can make all the claims you want and that you deserve to claim your authority. That's at least something that my even again, I'm also an entrepreneur and I'm also learning every day more about business. And I know that my business coach is also telling me you have to be, of course, you have to claim your rightful authority that you have. So if you are a sustainable pioneer, if you are doing something great, you deserve to shout it from the root tops. But nowadays you everything is of course heavily scrutinized, it's picked down, and it will be so good for you if you then have the backup behind it, or if you want to also go this way, but you thought that sustainability has to be super complicated, as the point I just made is just going to be the new default way of doing business that's going to be much healthier for everyone. And then there is much more that we can do about that. But if this all is like woo-hoo to you, and you're like, oh help, I feel a little bit overwhelmed by everything, just have that be your starting point. And that results to that. Do hop on a call with me. I would love to get to know you and see where you're at. Really, if you do not know where you're at, I promise you'll find out. We can have a very casual chat about it and it will work out. And if there's just any of the peers listening, a fellow consultant in the space. Also, let me know what you thought about this episode or if there was any insights that I missed because I couldn't attend all of the sessions, and honestly, I didn't even attend the session on the Tuesday and Wednesday. And I would just love to exchange insights, and I really believe in the power of collaboration, and it can just make more impact together, and it just energizes me so much. Okay, I can't talk forever. This was a slightly unstructured episode, but it was you some of you requested for ITB visions on this. Here it is. And if you liked this, and if you would like me to do more of this ramble or less structured thought sharing about a specific topic, you can let me know through my LinkedIn account, or you can let me know via basically everywhere where my contact points are, and I will take a look at it. Alright, that's it for now. Until next time. Thank you for listening, and congratulations on investing your time today to think strategically about your future, to make sure you never miss a step to understand sustainability better, how to grow your competitive edge. Follow the podcast right now, and if this was helpful, please leave a 5 star rating. It will help other people like you to find these tools. I'm Samantha Smith, and I'll see you in the next episode.