World Café Wisdom: Key Insights from the 11 #DOLOMITES2040 Stakeholder Meetings
If you work in hospitality in the Dolomites—hotels, mountain huts, or guesthouses—your day-to-day decisions intersect with landscape protection, mobility, and visitor education. This is where World Café Wisdom from the 11 #DOLOMITES2040 stakeholder meetings becomes invaluable. In a series of participatory sessions, residents and sector leaders co-created ideas that help steer sustainable tourism policy—insights that directly affect accommodation providers like Villa Angelino.
In this guide, you’ll learn what #DOLOMITES2040 set in motion, how the World Café method shaped strategic priorities, and how to translate those priorities into practical steps for your property.
What was #DOLOMITES2040—and why it matters now
Between May and June 2015, the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation convened 11 local meetings across the nine Systems of the Dolomites World Heritage Site. Held in smaller communities, these sessions brought together park authorities, local administrations, tourist industry consortia, environmental associations, hoteliers, farmers, and professional associations.
- Format: participatory World Café technique, enabling rotating small-group dialogues and shared idea harvesting.
- Focus areas (four macro-themes): tourism, socio-economic development, active conservation, and relationship-building.
- Discussion topics: the role of the Foundation, strategies to ensure the liveability of uplands, the effects of UNESCO recognition, and governance for a complex, multi-jurisdictional Site.
- Outcome: proposals, ideas, doubts, and concerns that helped shape both a Strategy for Sustainable Tourism and the Overall Management Strategy (OMS) for the Dolomites World Heritage Site.
Why it matters: The Dolomites were added to the World Heritage List on 26 June 2009. Recognition brings opportunity and responsibility—especially for tourism. #DOLOMITES2040 surfaced priorities that were subsequently integrated into a shared, long-term governance approach.
At a glance: #DOLOMITES2040
- 11 local World Café meetings across the nine Systems of the Dolomites
- Broad participation from institutions, businesses, and civil society
- A bridge between community dialogue and Site-wide strategies
World Café Wisdom: 11 insights for accommodation providers
Below are the most actionable learnings distilled from the #DOLOMITES2040 process and reflected in the Dolomites’ Overall Management Strategy. Use them to guide property-level decisions and partnerships.
1) Heritage-first lens
Center decisions on preserving the Site’s Outstanding Universal Value. This aligns your operations with the OMS pillar of HERITAGE, which emphasizes safeguarding geological and landscape relationships.
2) Keep upland liveability in focus
Policies and investments should help residents thrive year-round. Accommodation choices that support local services and reduce seasonal strain contribute to a livable upland economy.
3) Treat constraints as design prompts
Under the EXPERIENCE pillar, structural limits of a World Heritage Site become opportunities to improve the visitor journey—clear information, better orientation, and conscious enjoyment.
4) Invest in community awareness
The COMMUNITY pillar emphasizes building local knowledge and skills tied to World Heritage values. Staff training and guest briefings can turn every stay into a learning moment.
5) Coordinate as a system
The SYSTEM pillar prioritizes governance through dialogue and collaboration. Join local coordination efforts with administrations, parks, and consortia to align on mobility, seasonality, and conservation.
6) Anticipate the effects of UNESCO status
World Heritage recognition can increase attention and demand. Proactive visitor management, accurate messaging, and capacity-aware offers help balance visibility with protection.
7) Co-design builds durable solutions
The World Café approach shows that participatory processes create shared ownership. Engage in forums and working groups to shape policies that you’ll also help implement.
8) Meet people where they are
Holding sessions in smaller communities widened participation. Mirror this principle by collaborating with nearby villages and valley organizations, not just major hubs.
9) Balance economy and ecology
“Socio-economic development” and “active conservation” must advance together. Design offers that support local livelihoods while reducing environmental pressures.
10) Prioritize relationship-building
Strong ties across sectors—hospitality, agriculture, protected areas, education—unlock practical, place-based solutions.
11) Use adaptive, measurable strategies
The OMS is a voluntary, flexible, and dynamic tool. Set property-level targets that can be adapted over time and measured, with mediation and interest-balancing built in.
How the World Café shaped the Overall Management Strategy (OMS)
The #DOLOMITES2040 results were incorporated into the Dolomites’ Overall Management Strategy, which:
- Places the environment at the heart of social and economic interests.
- Moves beyond passive conservation toward a Protected Landscape Approach.
- Operates as a voluntary, flexible, and dynamic framework adaptable by location and measurable over time.
- Relies on mediation and balancing different interests through cooperation.
- Organizes priorities around four pillars:
- HERITAGE: preserve Outstanding Universal Value.
- EXPERIENCE: enhance the visitor experience for sustainable tourism.
- COMMUNITY: raise local awareness and capabilities.
- SYSTEM: coordinate governance and management activities.
For accommodation providers, this translates into practical directions: interpret the Site’s values for guests, collaborate on visitor flows and mobility, strengthen staff competencies, and report progress through clear, shared metrics.
Practical takeaways for hotels and mountain huts
Turn World Café Wisdom into daily practice with these steps:
1) Map your operation to the four OMS pillars
- Heritage: Integrate Site values into room collateral, check-in scripts, and guided experiences.
- Experience: Offer pre-arrival briefings on trails, protected areas, and conscious behavior.
- Community: Source locally, partner with nearby schools or associations for cultural programming.
- System: Participate in municipal or inter-municipal coordination tables on tourism and mobility.
2) Engage proactively in participatory forums
Make space in your calendar for local workshops and thematic roundtables. Bring guest insights, seasonality data (qualitative trend observations), and operational constraints to inform shared solutions.
3) Design for liveability and seasonality
- Encourage midweek and shoulder-season stays with experience-led programming.
- Promote car-light itineraries by highlighting public or shared mobility options where available.
- Coordinate with neighbors to stagger peak-demand activities.
4) Strengthen visitor education at touchpoints
Use concise, multilingual materials to explain World Heritage values, trail etiquette, and protected area guidelines. Reinforce at reception, in-room content, and pre-stay emails.
5) Collaborate with protected areas and parks
Invite rangers or experts for occasional talks; co-create interpretive walks aligned with conservation priorities.
6) Support youth education and local projects
Initiatives fostered within the Foundation’s Education and Scientific Research network—such as “I Live Here” involving hundreds of classes over the years—signal the value of place-based learning. Explore ways your property can support community-facing programs (logistics, venues, or visibility).
7) Learn from sector initiatives
Foundation projects like “MOUNTAINHUTLIFE” underscore the importance of informed visits to the mountains. Adapt similar principles in your guest journey: clear expectations, safety cues, and conservation-minded choices.
8) Adopt adaptive KPIs
Track a small set of indicators aligned with the OMS pillars (e.g., guest briefing completion rate, partnerships active, seasonality balance in bookings). Review quarterly and adjust.
9) Communicate honestly about constraints
Explain why certain routes are limited, why booking windows vary, or why group sizes are capped. Framing constraints as protection measures enhances trust and guest satisfaction.
10) Build a cross-functional “heritage squad”
Create a small internal team—front desk, housekeeping, F&B, activities—to own actions across the four pillars and report progress.
Quick answers: #DOLOMITES2040 and World Café
What is the World Café method?
A participatory dialogue format where small groups rotate through themed tables, share insights, and collectively surface priorities. It fosters inclusive, cross-sector learning and practical consensus.
Who took part in #DOLOMITES2040?
Supporters, authorities, trade associations, voluntary organizations, environmental associations, hoteliers, farmers, park authorities, local administrations, tourist industry consortia, and professional associations.
What themes were discussed?
Tourism, socio-economic development, active conservation, and relationship-building, along with the role of the Foundation, liveability of uplands, effects of UNESCO recognition, and governance for a complex Site.
How do the ideas influence policy?
They informed a Strategy for Sustainable Tourism and were integrated into the Dolomites’ Overall Management Strategy, which guides governance under four pillars: Heritage, Experience, Community, and System.
Conclusion: From dialogue to daily decisions
World Café Wisdom from the 11 #DOLOMITES2040 meetings shows that sustainable tourism in the Dolomites advances when heritage, visitor experience, community, and system governance move together. For accommodation providers like Villa Angelino, the path forward is practical: align operations with the OMS pillars, participate in local coordination, and make every guest interaction an opportunity to protect and celebrate the Dolomites.
Ready to act? Start by mapping your current practices to the four OMS pillars, identify two improvements per pillar, and connect with your local networks to co-design the next season.