From FOMO to FOF – How to react to a scary future
Dear reader,
the second half of the year AD 2026 has started with a strong reminder for everybody in travel and tourism that Climate Change is creating the necessity to build a new business model in the form of a Meaningful Tourism Economy. Major attractions like the Eiffel Tower and the Louver had to close, public swimming pools were overcrowded, European citizens of many countries were asked not to use transport systems with railways in several of them stopping completely, while temperatures reached new record levels, triggering shortages of electricity and water.
The ”super” El Niño 2026 will lead to further weather changes also across North America, bringing wetter and stormier conditions to the south and drier, hotter temperatures to the north. Exceptional levels of drought will include the Caribbean, Central America, northern Brazil, central and northern India, central and southern Africa, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia.
Results in changing travel behaviour patterns are already becoming obvious. Potential visitors are hesitating booking summer beach holidays in southern Europe and Turkiye, fearing the next heat wave, forest fires and algae infections of the sea, “heatcation” travellers from Northern India are bringing 90% occupancy rates to hotels in Nepal, air-conditioned shopping malls are celebrating a comeback in many city centres.
Speaking of unpleasant developments, the summer of 2026 is also witnessing a worst-case scenario in the USA, Mexico and Canada of how to destroy a successful global product. Football/soccer was turned into a multi-billion dollar business long ago, but until now it has been possible to keep up the façade of being a “people’s sport”, creating a way of local identification and a ladder to climb in the society for poor South American and African kids. Football clubs are still named after and associated with cities, even though in most big teams almost no players born in these cities are present anymore and the owners are more likely to be Qatari, US-American billionaires or energy-drink producers than local citizens association.
By taking the heart and soul out of football, by maximizing profit with ticket prices beyond the reach of the average fan, and by even changing the basic regulation of dividing the playing time into four quarters instead of two halves to create more advertisement time, the cognitive dissonance between the love of fans for the club and the players they follow and the openly presented concentration on printing money by the organisers of the game is reaching a tipping point. Many true fans, reliable customers for a lifetime, are turning away looking for alternatives.
In many areas, the same has happened, and continues to happen, to tourism. The concentration on growth and the homogenisation of offers in mass tourism have destroyed the image of welcoming, of hospitality, of being a person-to-person experience, of serendipity. Taking out the heart and soul of the leisure tourism business is profitable in the short run, over a longer period it is alienating the customers and pushing revenue down. The combination of frequent extreme weather events, lack of customisation and increasing availability of smart AI Apps is already starting to threaten the very existence of whole sectors of the industry and the importance of regions used to decades of growing arrival numbers.
Schumpeter’s “Creative Destruction”, based on insights and tools from the Meaningful Tourism paradigm, offers the opportunity for those not closing their eyes to change the direction and start moving towards a form of tourism bringing benefits and satisfaction to all stakeholders.
The FOMO Fear of Missing Out is step by step replaced by FOF, the Fear of the Future. If you are not familiar with this acronym, it is not your fault; your humble editor just made it up. So, remember, you first heard it here in the Meaningful Tourism Weekly!
Time for your business or destination to think about which services centred on health, wellbeing, rebooting and transformation you can offer to the growing number of customers seeking to fight FOF and the anxiety, stress or even depression coming with it.
The full edition of the Meaningful Tourism Weekly this week includes, besides this editorial, also information about the Online Event on July 9th, 2026, celebrating the Chinese Tourism Welcome Award 2026 winners, presenting their Best Practice Examples, and also starting officially the new partnership between the Tourism Institute (Brussels/Vientiane) and China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI), a section of the Meaningful Tourism Centre. If you are interested to include in your Meaningful Tourism development strategy the biggest international tourism source market – and you should – do not miss this event.
So, if you are reading this Editorial on LinkedIn, make sure to move to the full edition of the Meaningful Tourism Weekly newsletter on https://meaningful-tourism-weekly.ghost.io/. If you subscribe to the full edition on Ghost, free of charge, you will receive the complete weekly edition in your email box.
As always, all best wishes from the Meaningful Tourism Weekly team in Kathmandu and Manila, and from the whole Meaningful Tourism community to all our readers!
Book chapter on AI and Meaningful Tourism at the publishers
Eight authors, including your humble editor, six Certified MTC trainer and one additional colleague wrote a chapter for the Handbook of Tourism Transformation: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Integrate Technology and Sustainability, called Towards an AI-Supported Meaningful Tourism Economy: Climate Resilience, Governance and SMART Key Performance Indicators.
The authors include Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt, Dr. Ali Akaak, Dr. Eyong Ayuok Ako-Ebot, Gaurav Bhan Bhatnagar, Dr. Nurgül Boz, Dr. Amit Bhatia, Raveesh Mrigendra and Karunya Sreeraam. MTC Head of Office Sakshi Paudel also helped with the organisation of the cooperation of the authors across three continents.
This week, the editor Berta José Fernandez Costa confirmed that all texts have been finalised and are now with the publisher SPRINGER, to be hopefully published soon online and offline.
Meaningful Tourism Weekly will keep you updated.
CTW Award online event multi-language invitation videos available
COTRI and Tourism Institute are organising the online Award event on the 9th of July. For details see the event section further down. MTC has also published four videos with an invitation to the online event in English, Spanish, Hindi and Chinese, with your humble editors avatar speaking in different tongues.
Links to the videos in the MTC YouTube channel (shorts):
English: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GUa9n-F1zh4
Spanish: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6BVjJdUFeFs
Hindi: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/auqEljc9gpw
Chinese: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/soxIZ2T6fn4
Meaningful Tourism Community: The Meaningful Tourism Transformational Game Workshop Trainer
Karunya L. S. - Certified Trainer for Tamil Nadu, India
Karunya L. S. is a NET/JRF-qualified academic and Ph.D. scholar in Tourism Studies at a prestigious Central University in India, with a strong blend of consultancy and research experience. She has worked as an Associate Consultant in a renowned Big Four firm, contributing to major tourism PPP projects in Puducherry and advising government clients in Tamil Nadu through feasibility assessments, strategic planning, and stakeholder coordination.
Passionate about teaching and sustainable tourism, she has published in reputed journals, presented at national and international conferences, conducted extensive fieldwork, and mentored undergraduate and postgraduate students. Known for her courtesy, analytical skills, and service-oriented mindset, she is committed to advancing tourism development and shaping future industry professionals.
Meaningful Tourism Weekly: What is the current situation of tourism in Tamil Nadu, India, and how can the Meaningful Tourism Paradigm help to support its development?
Karunya: India’s tourism industry in 2025 is rapidly recovering and expanding from pandemic and global issues and concerns, driven by both international and domestic travelers.
According to recent data, India recorded approximately 56 lakh foreign tourist arrivals and 303 crore domestic visits in the first eight months of 2025. Tourism contributed about ₹15.73 lakh crore to the GDP in 2023-24 and supports over 84 million jobs, highlighting its economic importance. States like Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu remain key domestic destinations, while iconic sites such as the Taj Mahal continue to attract millions annually. The government is actively investing in infrastructure and skill development with schemes like Swadesh Darshan 2.0 to promote thematic and heritage circuits across the country.
The Meaningful Tourism Paradigm aligns well with India’s unique socio-cultural and ecological contexts, offering a sustainable pathway for the sector’s development. It emphasizes responsible travel that benefits local communities, respects cultural heritage, and conserves biodiversity.
For example, community-managed ecotourism initiatives in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve empower local stakeholders to protect landscapes while generating livelihoods. This approach reduces the detrimental impacts of mass tourism, ensuring that authentic cultural and environmental assets are preserved and valued.
By focusing on smaller group sizes, immersive experiences, and locally driven tourism products, meaningful tourism can diversify India’s offerings beyond traditional hotspots. Niche segments like medical tourism, wellness retreats, cultural tourism, and rural/indigenous tourism present strong growth opportunities and help distribute economic benefits more equitably across regions.
In the current world, meaningful tourism strengthens resilience by fostering healthier visitor behaviours, community trust, and environmental stewardship. This paradigm supports India’s dual goals of scaling sustainable tourism growth while safeguarding its diverse heritage and ecosystems, thereby ensuring long-term visitor satisfaction and local well-being.
MTC Certified Trainers
Please find below an overview of all our Certified Trainers for the Meaningful Tourism Transformational Game Workshop, along with the World Map showing the countries currently covered directly or indirectly.
The network of MTC Certified Trainers is constantly growing. As shown on the map, many countries and regions worldwide are already served by dedicated experts. However, MTC is continuously looking for professionals with experience in training or lecturing and a passion for sustainable tourism to join the network and fill the blanks on the map.
Online event for the Chinese Tourist Welcome Award 2026 – July 9, 2026
Chinese outbound travellers are getting more mature and sophisticated. Gone are the days of mass market package tours, concentrating on shopping and taking photos of the main attractions.
Special interest tours for Chinese visitors interested in culture, food, wellbeing, health, music, architecture and looking for new destinations can populate low seasons and less-travelled regions, with visitors staying longer and paying good money for good services.
China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI), a section of the Meaningful Tourism Centre, and the Tourism Institute, active since more than 20 years in the Chinese market, are joining their extensive VIP networks inside and outside of China to offer the right way to attract the right kind of Chinese visitor with the help of creating communication on the decision-maker level for inbound and outbound travel to and from China.
On Thursday, July 9, 2026 (10 am London time, 11 am Berlin time, 2:45 pm Kathmandu time, 5 pm Singapore / Beijing time), Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt and Reza Soltani (President of Tourism Institute) will co-host an online show introducing the new structure and offers and also unveiling a new website dedicated to tourism into and out of China.
The main content on July 9, however, will be the presentation of the winners of the CTW Chinese Tourist Welcome Award 2026. The online CTW Award presentation will start with a brief analysis of the current situation of international tourism to and from China. The five gold winners will be invited to give a short presentation each about their award-winning activities. These great Best Practice Examples will be helpful for anybody working in the Chinese market.
To join the online event, register for free here: https://institutetourism.com/chinese-tourist-award-2026/
More information is also available here: https://cotri.meaningfultourismcentre.org/chinese-tourist-welcome-award-2026/
About Meaningful Tourism Weekly
Meaningful Tourism Weekly is published every Thursday by Meaningful Tourism Centre (MTC) - London and Kathmandu in collaboration with Travel Asia Now, led by Rhea Vitto Tabora.
Each issue features an Editorial, updates on MTC activities, a Best Practice Example, a profile of an MTC-certified trainer, news about upcoming events, and, occasionally, additional op-ed pieces from guest authors. Carefully selected news items, including videos and podcasts, are also included, with links to their original sources in the Meaningful Tourism News section.
Subscription to Meaningful Tourism Weekly is free, with the addition of a paid content section that includes a library of surveys, exclusive articles, conference presentations, and statistical data, offering subscribers invaluable resources.
Sponsorship opportunities are available for those interested in supporting this initiative.
For more information about MTC's training programs, market research, product adaptation, consulting services, conferences, strategy development, and marketing, visit our website or email us at info@meaningfultourismcentre.org.
