From Mass Tourism to Meaningful Tourism
Dear reader,
busy weeks for the dissemination of the Meaningful Tourism paradigm around the world. After the Sustainable Destinations Forum last week in Dubai, which saw six members of the Meaningful Tourism community participating, in the coming week, the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF ) has invited your humble editor, PROF M, and our Spanish Certified Trainer Mayte Redondo to Andalusia to participate in the WTCF Europe Regional Conference 2025 in Marbella/Andalusia, Spain.
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt
Under the title “Smart Visions for the Future: Reshaping High-End Tourism”, tourism leaders from Europe, China, and the rest of the world will gather to explore how AI, smart technologies, and cultural innovation are transforming global tourism. Among the speakers will be both top managers of companies like Fliggy (Alibaba Group) and of DMOs like Visit Brussels. WTCF is claiming that “Together, we’re shaping a smarter, more connected, and more meaningful future for world tourism.”
As can be seen from this claim, there is still a lot of work to do to spread the insight that the goal is not a “more meaningful future” but a future based on the Meaningful Tourism paradigm, with a capital “M”.
The goal is not a “balance between growth and sustainability”, as was claimed again several times during the SDF in Dubai last week, balance is temporary as we all know and not sustainable, for joint actions an alignment of interests is needed as the Meaningful Tourism tools can provide for all stakeholders.
Jumping from one beach destination to the next one, your humble editor will move on to Sanya/Hainan, China.
PATA and the Sanya Tourism Board kindly invited PROF M to the 2025 Tropical Coastal City Tourism Event, which will bring together the PATA CEO and top DMO managers from the Maldives, the Philippines, Mauritius, Malaysia, Mongolia, South Korea, Thailand with Chinese tourism leaders.
Of course, you will get updates on the debates and insights during these two major meetings in the coming editions of Meaningful Tourism Weekly. More information and links can also be found in the Event section below.
The Hilton Hotel Group published a new 2026 Trends Report based on extensive research around the world. The result: Travellers are making a radical shift from mass tourism to meaningful tourism.
While here in Kathmandu, where the headquarters of MTC is located, the burned-out skeleton of the Hilton Hotel, which was opened only a year ago as the highest hotel building in the country, is a stark reminder of the close connection between tourism and politics. The Hilton group has good news for the world: Mass tourism is dead; more and more travellers are seeking connection, calm, and authenticity instead of crowds and checklists.
With the era of mass tourism fading fast, “Whycation” is the new buzzword. Travellers are discussing in the light of Climate Change, technological progress and shifting demographics, less of where to go and more why to go.
“Hushpitality” is yet another term coined in the report, as in an overstimulated world, travellers are considered to crave peace and calm, choosing destinations where they can simply breathe.
See the full interactive report here: https://stories.hilton.com/releases/2026-trends-release
The Hilton report still speaks of “Wellness”, when actually Wellbeing is the new luxury and of “emotional motivation” when actually transformational experiences are meant, showing how difficult it is for the industry to change their perspective even a more open approach is used.
Reading the Meaningful Tourism Weekly, you are obviously ahead of the curve. To put thoughts and insights into action, do not hesitate to contact the local trainer in your country, the Meaningful Tourism Centre, or your humble editor.
Best wishes as always from Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt (PROF M) and the entire Meaningful Tourism Weekly team in Kathmandu and Manila!
UPDATE Meaningful Tourism Award 2025
The Meaningful Tourism Award 2025 has been opened.
Read the full details here 👇🏼
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt
Everybody can nominate a project, program, company, or organisation that provides especially beneficial and satisfying services for travellers, host communities, employees of service providers, service providing companies, governments at different levels, or the environment. For each stakeholder category, Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards will be selected.
Several organisations and partners have requested an extension of the nomination period to be able to prepare a convincing bid document. We are therefore extending the deadline for nominations to December 19, 2025. The award winners will be announced in January 2026.
Meaningful Tourism Online Lecture series will start in December 2025
The Meaningful Tourism Centre (MTC) is providing a full range of offers for destinations, companies, and organisations in tourism and hospitality, from self-assessment recognition to full-day offline trainings, source market-specific trainings, and different levels of implementation support.
To provide a wider audience with an opportunity to understand more deeply how the Meaningful Tourism tools are working and what they can do for stakeholders in specific countries, MTC, in cooperation with the Certified trainers and industry partners, is starting next month a series of 30 country-specific Online Lectures, with each series consisting of four lectures of 60 minutes each.
Watch this space for more details published in the coming editions of Meaningful Tourism Weekly.
Creative Destruction: French ski resort reinvents itself
In 2020, the small French ski resort of Céüze 2000 permanently closed its lifts after 85 years of operation. The local residents had five years to come to terms with the end of skiing at their village before the first lift towers were taken down. On Tuesday, November 4, 2025, the day finally arrived: the Hautes-Alpes Department began dismantling the aging lift infrastructure. It was the symbolic end of an era at the small resort near Gap in the Hautes-Alpes region; however, residents are embracing life “after the snow.”
While the lifts vanish, Céüze’s story isn’t ending—it is evolving. The terrain is shifting toward hiking, ski touring, rock climbing, and other nature-based recreation. Locals highlight that the area remains alive and that they aren’t creating a “ghost station.”
“We’re simply returning the mountain to what it was before heavy infrastructure took over,” Ricou-Charles noted. Locals have rallied behind the decision.
Céüze is one of many smaller alpine ski stations confronting the combined pressures of climate change, cost increases, and shorter snow seasons. According to research published in the Journal of Alpine Research, over 180 ‘micro-domains’ in France have closed permanently since their peak years. Céüze is demonstrating that returning to sustainable mountain recreation is a viable option.
Read the full story here 👇🏼
Julia Schneemann
Meaningful Tourism Community: The Meaningful Tourism Transformational Game Workshop Trainer
MTC Certified Trainers
Please find below the updated overview of all our Certified Trainers for the Meaningful Tourism Transformational Game Workshop, along with the updated World Map showing the countries directly and indirectly covered at present.
With almost 50 Certified Trainers, many countries and regions of the world are already covered. However, MTC continues to look for professionals with experience in training or lecturing and a passion for sustainable tourism.
If you are interested in becoming a Certified Trainer for the Meaningful Tourism Transformational Game Workshop for a country not marked in dark green on the map above, please contact us at office@meaningfultourismcentre.org.
TJD Conference for Africa
Authentic Sustainability
African Actions Shaping Sustainable Futures
WTCF Europe Regional Conference 2025
Meet PROF M and Mayte Redondo (Certified Trainer for Spain) of the Meaningful Tourism Community in Andalusia at the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) Europe Regional Conference 2025 in Marbella/Andalusia, Spain.
2025 Tropical Coastal City Tourism Event
Meet PROF M at the 2025 Tropical Coastal City Tourism Event in Sanya/Hainan, China, on November 18 to 21, 2025.
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. This partnership enhances the newsletter’s professional production and distribution, bringing added value to our readers.
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.
