To hell with pineapples and stars. Palmettos are the newest status symbol in the gradually greening tourism economy of the Lowcountry.

Thanks to a statewide green hospitality certification initiative, travelers can now evaluate their food and lodging choices in a more considered way.

The rating system is simple: One palmetto is good. Two palmettos are better. Three palmettos are best.

You may ask, what’s wrong with stars?

When people are talking about what makes the Lowcountry special, “sense of place” is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot.

Sense of place is difficult to define. Most residents would agree though, that whatever “sense of place” is, the Lowcountry has it. And we want to keep it.

There’s a similar concept that is less familiar, but just as important: integrity of place. Integrity of place is so important, in fact, that it is the first of the Thirteen Principles of Geotourism.

Geotourism is a term coined by the folks at the National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations. They define it as “tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place – its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.”

They also developed a set of guidelines to help communities become better places to visit – while at the same time becoming even better places to live. I see it as being like a Ten Commandments of Tourism. Or maybe it’s more like the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Tourism Destinations.

Whatever you want to compare it to, communities that make a commitment to the Thirteen Principles of Geotourism are, in theory, on the road to becoming more sustainable, more compassionate and more just, while also -- we mustn’t forget this part – making more money.

The Thirteen Principles are found in a document called the Geotourism Charter, which was drafted by National Geographic in hopes that it would be adopted by forward-thinking governments. It is my hope that the Geotourism Charter will be adopted by all of the counties in the Lowcountry region, starting with Beaufort County.

Here’s how the proposed Beaufort County charter would read:

Geotourism Charter of Beaufort County, South Carolina

WHEREAS the geotourism approach is all-inclusive, focusing not only on the environment, but also on the diversity of the cultural, historic, and scenic assets of Beaufort County,

WHEREAS the geotourism approach encourages citizens and visitors to get involved rather than remain tourism spectators, and

WHEREAS the geotourism approach helps build a sense of regional identity and pride, stressing what is authentic and unique to Beaufort County,

THE UNDERSIGNED parties to this Agreement of Intent commit to support these geotourism principles, to sustain and enhance the geographical character of Beaufort County—its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents:

Integrity of place: Enhance geographical character by developing and improving it in ways distinctive to the locale, reflective of its natural and cultural heritage, so as to encourage market differentiation and cultural pride.

International codes: Adhere to the principles embodied in the World Tourism Organization’s Global Code of Ethics for Tourism and the Principles of the Cultural Tourism Charter established by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).

Market selectivity: Encourage growth in tourism market segments most likely to appreciate, respect, and disseminate information about the distinctive assets of the locale.

Market diversity: Encourage a full range of appropriate food and lodging facilities, so as to appeal to the entire demographic spectrum of the geotourism market and so maximize economic resiliency over both the short and long term.

Tourist satisfaction: Ensure that satisfied, excited geotourists bring new vacation stories home and send friends off to experience the same thing, thus providing continuing demand for the destination.

Community involvement: Base tourism on community resources to the extent possible, encouraging local small businesses and civic groups to build partnerships to promote and provide a distinctive, honest visitor experience and market their locales effectively. Help businesses develop approaches to tourism that build on the area’s nature, history and culture, including food and drink, artisanry, performance arts, etc.

Community benefit: Encourage micro- to medium-size enterprises and tourism business strategies that emphasize economic and social benefits to involved communities, especially poverty alleviation, with clear communication of the destination stewardship policies required to maintain those benefits.

Protection and enhancement of destination appeal: Encourage businesses to sustain natural habitats, heritage sites, aesthetic appeal, and local culture. Prevent degradation by keeping volumes of tourists within maximum acceptable limits. Seek business models that can operate profitably within those limits. Use persuasion, incentives, and legal enforcement as needed.

Land use: Anticipate development pressures and apply techniques to prevent undesired overdevelopment and degradation. Contain resort and vacation-home sprawl, especially on coasts and islands, so as to retain a diversity of natural and scenic environments and ensure continued resident access to waterfronts. Encourage major self-contained tourism attractions, such as large-scale theme parks and convention centers unrelated to character of place, to be sited in needier locations with no significant ecological, scenic, or cultural assets.

Conservation of resources: Encourage businesses to minimize water pollution, solid waste, energy consumption, water usage, landscaping chemicals, and overly bright nighttime lighting. Advertise these measures in a way that attracts the large, environmentally sympathetic tourist market.

Planning: Recognize and respect immediate economic needs without sacrificing long-term character and the geotourism potential of the destination. Where tourism attracts in-migration of workers, develop new communities that themselves constitute a destination enhancement. Strive to diversify the economy and limit population influx to sustainable levels. Adopt public strategies for mitigating practices that are incompatible with geotourism and damaging to the image of the destination.

Interactive interpretation: Engage both visitors and hosts in learning about the place. Encourage residents to show off the natural and cultural heritage of their communities, so that tourists gain a richer experience and residents develop pride in their locales.

Evaluation: Establish an evaluation process to be conducted on a regular basis by an independent panel representing all stakeholder interests, and publicize evaluation results.

I’d prefer that the Lowcountry not have to consider itself as a tourism destination. But the reality is that we are, and it’s not enough just to cope with it. We need to embrace the fact that we are a tourism destination if we are to shape our destiny as a sustainable community,

Read More My Lowcountry

Here in the Lowcountry, tourism is our hero.

That’s because the Three Rs – real estate, retirement and related industries – are no longer the Most Valuable Players in our local economy. At least for the time being.

They are still in the game, of course, but they are expected to spend the next few innings either sitting on the bench or moping around in the outfield.

So in this time of tenuous economic recovery, what are we going to do while we’re waiting for the Three Rs to get a second wind? I say, play T-Ball! And in this case, the T stands for tourism.

T-Ball is rinky-dink compared to baseball, I know. Likewise, as a profession, tourism isn’t particularly glamorous or grownup-sounding. Truthfully, have you ever heard a child say that when they grow up they want to be a ... tour guide?

The problem is that in our current power structure, occupations related to tourism suffer from a lack of status. What evidence do I have? Ask yourself, have you ever read or heard phrases like “powerful real estate developer” or “influential investment banker”? I’d guess you probably have.

But I bet you’ve never heard these words strung together: “powerful charter bus company operator.” Or try this one: “influential hotel linen supplier.”

As a matter of fact I actually DO know an influential hotel linen supplier. But the point is that most tourism jobs don’t have much cachet. To compound the problem, there’s precious little money in tourism work. For many service workers there is no such thing as a “regular job” – a single employment situation for which one person gets one big, solid-citizen paycheck.

You know, eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep, eight hours of other stuff, and, at the end of the day, enough money left over to pay your Rotary Club fines.

Instead, people make do as best they can. But sometimes the only way they have of making do is by doing. Doing many, many jobs.

I call them Sleepy Citizens. They do poorly at work because they have this unfortunate tendency to sleepwalk on the job. And sometimes they just out-and-out SLEEP on the job. Not because they are lazy, but because they’re exhausted from working 16-hour days for weeks on end.

So then this question comes up: How is it possible for sleepy-citizen tourism workers to provide good, cheerful service when they are not really quite awake? It can’t be because of all the training and professional development they’ve gotten, because there’s not really a lot of that going around in the Lowcountry. (Yes, I know, it makes continuing education sound like a disease.)

It’s not for lack of trying. Technical College of the Lowcountry has been evangelizing about training for many years. To their credit, some employers have arranged for their people to take advantage of the opportunities offered by TCL and other education-oriented entities.

These forward-thinking employers are attentive to the training needs of their staff, and they approach the need for professional development opportunities in a thoughtful and strategic way. They take the time to figure out what skills their people need, and then they budget and schedule for it. Easy, right?

But you gotta face it – there are a lotta bosses out there who are just trying to get through whatever gets thrown at them in the next five minutes. And because a lot of them are sleepy citizens too, they’re spending their few lucid waking moments worrying about arriving on time for THEIR night job.

While I’m on this topic – the topic being “sleep deprived people trying to get to work” – I have to point this out: It’s not all this joblessness stuff that scares me  – it’s all this JOBFULNESS.

Think of it this way: jobless people have plenty of time to sleep. And they’re not spending much time driving to work. Jobful people, on the other hand, generally do more driving than they do sleeping. Because they’ve got to do all that driving to get to all those jobs.

The public safety implications are ominous. My theory is that 95% of the Lowcountry’s fatal accidents occur when service workers fall asleep at the wheel. I call it DWDO – Driving while Dozing Off. It’s like DUI, except instead too much alcohol, there’s not enough sleep. And for the record, being “just a little drowsy” is like having “just a little buzz” – you’re fooling yourself if you think you’re fit to drive.

Anyway, given the difficult and trying life circumstances in which many Lowcountry tourism workers find themselves, I’d have to say they show remarkable grace in serving our visitors while half asleep. Despite the zombie-like pace at which work gets done, most employees in our region keep up a good, positive attitude. For some, it may be the natural sunniness of their dispositions. For others, it may be that they are just too tired to snarl very loudly.

The thing to remember is that these sleepy people – jobful people who don’t get enough time sleeping in their own beds – are in fact the bedrock of our tourism economy.

It’s a serious issue because, of all the existing industries in the Lowcountry, tourism is in the best position to nudge us toward economic recovery. That’s not pure, unadulterated speculation, either. It’s messy data-driven speculation from Donald Schunk, a research economist from Coastal Carolina University.

Schunk made a sobering presentation recently before Beaufort County Council. By the time Schunk peeled his laser pointer away from the screen’s last dismal image, the meeting room reeked of suffering and worry.

Speaking of suffering and worry, before you start screaming about how, A) we don’t need more tourists, and B) we need to diversify our industry base, please pay attention. Here’s a summary of what Schunk did and did not say. DID NOT SAY: Tourism is the only kind of economic development the Lowcountry will ever have. DID SAY: Tourism can help us ride out the next five years. DID NOT SAY: The Lowcountry has to attract more tourists. DID SAY: The Lowcountry has to attract more MONEY from tourism.”

And you know what? In order to attract more money, we’ve got to offer more value.

It is my sincere hope that this is not the end of the conversation on the topic. If tourism is going to help the Lowcountry emerge from this downward spiral, we have to throw everything we’ve got into becoming a better destination.

I just hope we can stay awake.

Read More My Lowcountry