Planet Happiness: a Proposition to Address Overtourism and Guide Responsible Tourism, Happiness, Well-being and Sustainability in World Heritage Sites and Beyond

Abstract

Planet Happiness is pioneering a new approach to inclusive tourism planning, putting host communities at the heart of destination planning processes. Tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industries. With 1.403 billion visitor movements across international borders in 2018 and employing more than one in ten people worldwide, tourism has a major impact on the well-being of destination communities. While tourism can be viewed as a vehicle for development, the term “overtourism” is increasingly applied to disaffected destinations around the world. Using concepts from community and social well-being, Planet Happiness proposes tourism should be planned and managed to strengthen the collective well-being of destination communities. Building on well-being knowledge accumulated with communities and governments since 2010, Planet Happiness provides a methodology and resources to enable host communities and wider stakeholders to guide tourism development away from overtourism and towards destination happiness, well-being and sustainability.