Community Positive
Defining and Measuring Positive Impact in Community Tourism
What would it take to make community impact in tourism measurable, meaningful, and accountable?
Tourism talks a lot about “Community Tourism,” “responsible tourism,” and “positive impact,” but there’s still no shared way to know when tourism is genuinely creating positive change for communities. That makes it harder for businesses to know what good looks like, build strong partnerships, and tell genuine impact from marketing language.
Planeterra is bringing communities, subject matter experts and the travel industry together to change that through the Community Positive Framework.
Why This Matters
Without a clear way to measure progress:
- Communities have limited influence over tourism decisions, how their culture is shared, and where income goes.
- Travel companies can’t easily tell whether partnerships are delivering real impact,
or where to improve. - Travellers can’t tell whether the experiences they choose are genuinely making a difference.
The Community Positive Framework aims to give everyone a clearer way forward.
What We’re Building
A shared definition
What it means for tourism to be Community Positive, built around equity, agency, mutual benefit, and meaningful participation.
A practical toolkit
Co-created impact indicators, a partnership assessment tool, and guidance for applying the framework in real tourism contexts, tested directly with travel companies and communities.
How We’re Building It
This is a planet-wide, participatory process. A multidisciplinary expert panel spanning tourism, human rights, equity, and community development is helping shape the research. Community Tourism Enterprises across regions are shaping it directly, through interviews, focus groups, and co-creation workshops, so the framework reflects what community expertise and community needs, not assumptions by others. Travel companies and tourism stakeholders are helping identify what equitable partnerships look like in practice.
What could the Community Positive
Framework Change?
Businesses
- A shared language for discussing community impact and equity
- Practical ways to assess and strengthen partnerships
- Clearer indicators for tracking progress over time
For Communities
- Greater agency in tourism partnerships
- More equitable participation in tourism revenue
- Stronger recognition of community priorities in decision-making
For Industry
Making equitable community partnerships a meaningful, measurable part of how responsible tourism is defined and practiced.
READY TO BE A PART OF IT?
How are we building it?
Co-created with communities. Informed by industry. Designed for practical use.
The Community Positive Framework will be developed through a global, participatory research process that brings together different perspectives and types of expertise.
Expert Panel
Our multidisciplinary Expert Panel brings together perspectives across tourism, international development, equity, Community Tourism, human rights, and decoloniality in tourism. Panel members will help shape the research approach, contribute expertise, review emerging findings, and strengthen the framework as it develops.
Research & Framework Consultant Partner:
Sustainable Travel & Tourism Africa (STTA), led by Judy Kepher Gona
Panel Members Include:
- Aayusha Prasain, CEO, Community Homestay Network
- Albert Salman, CEO,
Good Travel Institute - D’Arcy Dornan, Regional Director Americas & Europe,
Good Travel Institute - John Sutherland, Director Community Impact,
Tourism Cares - Jost Neuman, Program Coordinator, UN Tourism
- Meenu Vadera,
Founder, Azad Foundation & Sakha - Polly Lomas, Chief of Staff,
Travalyst - Rebecca Armstrong, Head of Impact,
Travel Forward - Rachel Dodds, Professor,
Toronto Metropolitan University - Seleni Matus, Executive Director, International Institute of Tourism Studies, GWU
- Vincie Ho, Executive Director,
Rise Travel Institute - Wendy Li, National Programs Director,
GSTC
Lead Funding Partners & Travel Industry Supporters
- Adam Kemp, CEO
G Touring - Alejandro Borrás, Director,
Iberostar Foundation - Andrea Giroux, Director Community Operations,
G Adventures - Laura Kotyga, Sustainability Manager,
Evaneos - Lyn Santos, Destination Stewardship Director,
Iberostar Hotels & Resorts - Mark Pope, CEO,
TruTravels - Scott Lawson, Senior ESG Manager,
easyJet holidays
