The Dialogue Behind the Data

Sustainability schemes are not the finish line—they're the opening handshake. They create the space where meaningful conversations can begin.

As Xavier Font observes:

"These awards or indices give stakeholders an excuse, a reason, to knock on the door of another official."

In practice, that door often opens into cross-sector dialogue, bringing together people who have never met before—urban planners, transport officials, hoteliers, cultural leaders. These exchanges are where real transformation begins, because shared understanding is the foundation for shared action.

Yet in many cities, collaboration is still the exception. Tourism boards are not always accustomed to working with people in other parts of city government. Much of the work still happens in silos. Even when departments are aiming for the same policy goals, they may be unaware of one another's efforts.

Sustainable tourism depends on breaking down those divisions. It thrives in a whole-of-government approach. A tourism office acting alone is not enough; success comes from weaving tourism priorities into the broader fabric of city governance.

Survey findings from the whitepaper underscore this gap. Although 91% of cities report embedding sustainability into their overall city strategy, only 70% have done so within their Destination Management Organisation (DMO). Nearly half describe themselves as "on the way, with room for improvement," and one in four admit they haven't yet started their sustainability journey. Certification processes or sustainability shemes can help close this gap—not just by setting standards, but by sparking conversations that connect city-wide ambitions with tourism's role in achieving them.

As the whitepaper notes:

"The process of completing the application brought new people into the room—and existing people into new conversations."

Jukka Punamäki, senior advisor from Business Helsinki explains:

"We engage the environmental office, social services, transport. That's where the learning happens."

For Helsinki, this has meant years of joint work meeting demanding certification requirements, while also bringing nearly every hotel room, conference venue, and major attraction under sustainability standards.

Here, sustainability becomes a unifying reason for everyone—from transport planners to social services, from cultural institutions to the private sector—to pay closer attention to the visitor economy. It invites new partners to the table and reframes tourism as a city-wide responsibility.

For the tourism office, it's a chance to show its real influence as an active partner in shaping how visitors engage with the city, nudging choices toward those that enhance community well-being and environmental resilience.

Behind the paperwork lies something more powerful: a growing network of people, possibilities, and shared direction. That network turns sustainability from a compliance exercise into a living culture.

- ELKE DENS

Place Generation captured their reflections in a whitepaper: The Score is Not the Story, produced by CityDNA in partnership with Simpleview/Granicus to share with other cities.