The Future of Tourism in the Americas: From Growth to Greater Value

How can tourism remain economically successful without putting the natural and cultural foundations of destinations at risk? For Mayte Redondo Castuera, answering this question means looking beyond visitor numbers and short-term growth.

A specialist in sustainable and responsible travel, Mayte Redondo Castuera advises destinations and tourism companies across Europe and the Americas on integrating responsible practices into their business strategies and operations. As the Founder of Travel 2 Care People and Planet and a member of the Board of Experts for ITB Americas, she combines hands-on industry experience, academic expertise and a strong commitment to advancing sustainable tourism. ITB Americas, taking place from 10-12 November 2026 in Guadalajara, Mexico, is a new travel trade show and conference bringing together the international tourism industry across the Americas. Its Board of Experts supports the conference programme with perspectives spanning policy, sustainability and market intelligence.

In this interview, Redondo Castuera explores the sustainability and climate challenges shaping tourism in the Americas, the opportunities and limitations of AI, the role of Indigenous communities and the need to rethink how tourism success is defined: from simply attracting more visitors to creating lasting benefits for destinations and the people who call them home.

1. What are the most pressing sustainability challenges facing tourism in the Americas today?

The Americas have an extraordinary natural and cultural heritage to protect, from glaciers and mountain ranges to rainforests, wetlands, the Amazon as a vital lung of our planet, , and the Caribbean. They are also home to an extraordinary diversity of Indigenous peoples, making the continent the second largest in the world in terms of Indigenous population, after Asia. Their ancestral knowledge, diverse worldviews and living cultures are an integral part of the continent’s identity and must be recognised as a heritage to protect and respect, not a resource to exploit. One of the most pressing challenges is ensuring that tourism generates tangible benefits for local communities while protecting biodiversity, cultural identity and natural resources. This requires a shift from a volume-driven tourism model towards one that creates long-term value for destinations.

To get this, education and capacity-building are essential. Tourism businesses need better sustainability training to understand their impacts, improve their management and develop experiences that contribute positively to the places they operate in. Travellers also have a role to play through responsible behaviour, meaningful cultural exchanges and opportunities to support local initiatives.

Ultimately, tourism can be a force for good, but only when businesses, governments, destination management organisations and communities work together towards shared objectives.

2. How is climate change already reshaping tourism in the Americas – and which destinations or tourism products need to adapt most urgently?

Climate change is already challenging the foundations of tourism in many destinations, particularly those that depend heavily on snow, water, coastal ecosystems and stable seasonal weather.

Mountain and winter destinations face increasing pressure from changing snowfall patterns and rising temperatures. In the Caribbean and other water-stressed regions, tourism must address water consumption carefully, ensuring that visitors and businesses do not compete with local communities for essential resources.

Wildfires, extreme heat and drought also affect destination accessibility, visitor safety, infrastructure and the livelihoods of local communities. These are not simply environmental issues; they are economic and social risks that directly affect the viability of tourism businesses.

We also need to rethink how destinations respond to changing travel patterns. The growing interest in coolcations, or holidays in cooler destinations, illustrates how climate change is influencing tourism demand. However, attracting visitors to cooler destinations is not, in itself, a climate adaptation strategy. It can simply transfer pressure from one destination to another if planning and resource management are inadequate.

The priority should be climate-risk assessments, adaptation plans, responsible water management, ecosystem restoration, and stronger collaboration between tourism businesses and public authorities.

3. Are there destinations in the Americas that are already leading the way in climate adaptation or sustainable tourism? What can others learn from them?

An interesting development is the growing use of structured climate-risk assessments to help destinations understand their vulnerabilities and prepare for different future scenarios.

The Climate RiskScan project, led by the Travel Foundation in collaboration with research institutions and resilience specialists, provides an example of this approach. Its six pilot destinations include Colorado in the United States, alongside the Dolomites, Queenstown, the Canary Islands, the Cook Islands and Koh Samui. Although the project is international rather than specifically focused on the Americas, Colorado offers a relevant example of how a winter destination can be included in a systematic climate-risk assessment.

What other destinations can learn is the importance of moving beyond isolated sustainability initiatives and integrating climate risks into strategic destination planning.

This means involving tourism businesses, local authorities, scientific institutions and communities in identifying risks, prioritising investments and evaluating trade-offs. It also means recognising that adaptation is not just about protecting tourism infrastructure; it is about protecting the natural resources, livelihoods and cultural assets on which destinations depend.

For the Americas, I would particularly emphasise the need to connect climate adaptation with social and cultural resilience, including the knowledge and leadership of Indigenous communities.

4. Can AI become a meaningful tool for making tourism more sustainable? Where do you see the greatest opportunities – and where are its limitations?

AI can become a valuable tool for improving tourism management, provided that it is used to support informed decision-making rather than simply to increase tourism consumption.

There are important opportunities in climate-risk monitoring, forecasting visitor flows, identifying pressure on natural resources, improving energy and water efficiency, and supporting destination planning. AI can also help businesses analyse sustainability data, identify operational inefficiencies and communicate more effectively with visitors.

At destination level, combining environmental data, tourism statistics and local knowledge could help authorities and businesses anticipate pressure on sensitive ecosystems and distribute tourism activity more responsibly.

However, technology alone cannot deliver sustainable tourism. AI systems depend on the quality of the data they receive, and their use also raises questions about energy consumption, privacy, accessibility and the representation of local communities.

In destinations with Indigenous populations, it is particularly important to ensure that traditional knowledge is not extracted or commercialised without consent, recognition or fair benefit-sharing.

AI should therefore complement human expertise, local decision-making and community participation. The objective should not be to make destinations more efficient at attracting visitors at any cost, but to help them manage tourism in ways that benefit people and the planet.

5. How can destinations balance tourism growth with protecting nature and ensuring that local communities benefit?

The starting point is to redefine what tourism success means. Visitor numbers and revenue are important, but they do not tell us whether tourism is improving people's quality of life, protecting biodiversity, or strengthening local economies.

Public-private collaboration is essential. Governments and destination management organisations can establish long-term strategies, protect natural and cultural heritage, regulate land and resource use, and create frameworks that encourage responsible investment. Tourism businesses can translate those priorities into their daily operations, purchasing decisions, employment practices and visitor experiences.

There are several practical ways to make this collaboration generate socioeconomic value:

• Strengthen local supply chains: Encourage hotels, tour operators and restaurants to purchase local products and services, creating opportunities for small businesses, farmers, artisans and community enterprises.

• Develop community-led tourism: Support Indigenous peoples and local communities in designing, managing and benefiting from tourism experiences that reflect their own priorities and cultural values.

• Invest in conservation: Establish partnerships that direct funding, expertise and responsible visitor contributions towards biodiversity protection, ecosystem restoration and heritage conservation.

• Create decent employment and skills development: Ensure that tourism generates stable employment, professional opportunities and training for residents, especially younger generations.

• Manage visitor pressure: Use carrying-capacity assessments, seasonal planning and visitor-flow management to avoid overexploitation of natural resources and excessive pressure on communities.

• Measure benefits locally: Track how much tourism expenditure remains in the destination, the quality of jobs created, community participation and the condition of natural and cultural assets.

The protection of Indigenous cultures deserves particular attention. The Americas hold an extraordinary diversity of Indigenous peoples and cultural traditions. Tourism must respect their rights to self-determination, cultural integrity and control over how their heritage is represented and shared.

Indigenous communities should not simply be included as attractions or consulted after decisions have already been made. They should have meaningful participation in tourism planning, the ability to establish the terms of engagement and a fair share of the economic benefits.

Tourism should be a tool for territorial development, not an extractive industry. When public institutions, private companies and local communities collaborate effectively, tourism can help destinations diversify their economies, strengthen cultural continuity and finance the protection of the very resources that make them distinctive.

6. Sustainability is also a key focus at ITB Americas 2026. Which of these issues will be explored at the event, and what conversations or perspectives should attendees be looking out for?

I believe ITB Americas provides an important opportunity to move the sustainability conversation from commitments to implementation.

Attendees should look beyond sustainability as a marketing message and explore how it can become an integral part of tourism business models, investment decisions and destination management.

Three conversations are particularly relevant.

First, climate resilience and destination planning. We need to discuss how tourism can prepare for extreme weather, water scarcity, biodiversity loss and changing travel patterns, while ensuring that adaptation strategies do not simply transfer risks to more vulnerable communities.

Second, the socioeconomic value of tourism and public-private collaboration. The sector needs to demonstrate how responsible investment, local supply chains, decent employment and community-led experiences can strengthen local economies and improve the distribution of tourism benefits.

Third, Indigenous rights, cultural heritage and responsible tourism marketing. The Americas have an extraordinary cultural wealth, and tourism has a responsibility to protect it. The industry should discuss how to ensure that Indigenous peoples are represented respectfully, have control over their cultural heritage, and participate meaningfully in decisions and economic opportunities.

I would also encourage attendees to question how sustainability is communicated. The “coolcation” travel trend, as well as recent academic debates on this subject, highlight the risk of turning climate change into a promotional opportunity without addressing the inequalities and vulnerabilities that it creates. Sustainable tourism communication must be supported by measurable actions and credible evidence, not simply attractive terminology.

Ultimately, the conversation at ITB Americas will cover how to create a tourism industry that is economically viable, climate-resilient, socially inclusive, and respectful of the natural and cultural diversity of the Americas and of any place on the planet.

Tourism should not be measured only by how many people visit a destination, but by how much value it creates for the people who live there, how much it contributes to protecting nature and culture, and how resilient it makes the destination for future generations.