People & Community

Saudi Arabia is building tourism at a scale few countries have tried. A Jeddah-based auditor argues that its new luxury will be judged by what it leaves behind, and sets out the three things he looks for.

A wellness hospitality veteran argues that sustainability and regeneration start with a simple test anyone can apply where they stand, and that hotels have already shown guests will pay for it.

In a city that pays for its monuments with visitor fees, a family-owned 18-room hotel shares a courtyard with its neighbours and sends guests into artisans’ workshops. The intent is clear; what reaches the community is not yet published.

In Roundstone, Connemara, restored heritage buildings have become a year-round, scattered-hotel model that sends guests into the village rather than keeping them inside. Its co-founder explains the thinking.

Saudi Arabia has placed an entire county under a royal commission and a masterplan built around its first World Heritage site. The plans are public and ambitious; the independently verified results are fewer.

Since 2017 Visit Flanders has tried to replace visitor growth with the flourishing of places and residents as its goal. The vision is now embedded in policy; the evidence that it has changed outcomes is thinner.

Granada's Moorish quarter is inscribed alongside the Alhambra, but its residents, its housing and the rules on tourist flats are still contested. The monument across the valley caps its visitors; the neighbourhood does not.