There are many future challenges for tourism and tourists – from climate change to changing customer expectations and new markets. These are challenges for the outbound industry and for the destinations that customers visit.

Tourism 2023 is a project that aims to help the UK outbound industry and some of its key destinations understand more about their future and be able to plan for it. It will explore questions like how to deal with climate change, pressure on resources like water and what the UK customer might be looking for in 15 years' time.   Forum for the Future will deliver this crucial piece of work for the industry. It is supported by a number of key players – TUI Travel, Thomas Cook, ABTA, The Travel Foundation, P&O/Carnival, The Co-operative Travel and British Airways.

The project will create future scenarios for the industry that will explore different possible futures. These will enable the industry to develop strategies that work in each scenario and respond to future trends. In each scenario, as well as exploring a wide range of different future possibilities at a general level, we will focus on three separate destinations and explore what might be happening. These specially selected destinations will be able to see how they fare in each scenario and the different challenges they might face.  They can then start to future proof their development strategies through this project.

The project will go on to create a vision for the future of UK outbound tourism that will enable the travel industry to know what it’s aiming for in terms of sustainability and develop a clear route map for the industry, and government, to take it towards a successful and sustainable future.

The whole process will be collaborative across the industry and will include representatives from tour operators and travel agents, retailers, modes of transport and destinations.  We began in June 2008 and expect to run to June 2009.

To get involved please contact Vicky Murray.

To download more information on Tourism 2023, click here.