Tourism sustainability decalogue for businesses and visitors in Alella

The Alella Strategic Tourism Plan 2021-2025, promoted by Alella City Council (Ajuntament d’Alella), has the main objective to improve the municipality competitiveness as a tourist destination, placing sustainability at the forefront of its tourism development. With this premise, the Tourism Department of this entity proposed the initiative of drawing up and designing a decalogue of good practices in sustainable tourism to call for sustainable commitment from Alella’s tourism agents, as well as its visitors. Likewise, accompanying this material with tools or graphic pieces for the communication and dissemination of the visitors’ decalogue and its principles in social networks.

For the decalogue focused on tourism companies, it was important that the recipients themselves give their opinion on the most relevant aspects of the content.

Pax#’s consulting services consisted of elaborating two decalogues and two supporting communication pieces. That means: 

1. A decalogue of good practices in sustainable tourism addressed to wineries, restaurants, shops and tourism companies, proposing a set of initiatives and guidelines to be promoted by the municipality’s own tourism offer, in order to promote the collective commitment of the sector to improve the competitiveness of Alella as a sustainable destination. This decalogue consisted of ten sustainable tourism initiatives that were previously voted on and selected by the municipality’s own tourist offer through a survey.
2. A decalogue of good practices in sustainable tourism addressed at tourists and visitors to transmit and suggest to Alella’s visitors a set of practices, principles and values that the tourism destination considers as desirable or positive during their stay. This decalogue was translated into four languages: Catalan, Spanish, English and French. In this way, it was possible to focus communication on those groups closest to tourism in the municipality.
3. Two communication pieces to support the visitors’ decalogue and expand its dissemination on social networks and, more specifically, through the Instagram channel of the City Council’s Tourism Department. These pieces consisted, on the one hand, of a reel in video format, and on the other, of different individual publications to gradually communicate the good practices in sustainable tourism on the social networks.

Sustainable tourism communication is vital as a tool for knowledge, awareness, transformation and viability, as it can be a key factor in promoting a change of paradigm or mentality and consolidating a commitment towards sustainability.

In achieving tourism sustainability in destinations, different actors in the value chain of tourism have an influence. For this reason, it is important that tourism destinations communicate openly and transparently what their commitment is, so that all stakeholders involved join in promoting a sustainable tourism sector, working collaboratively and collectively to achieve common goals.