A corner has been turned. Emphatically in Europe. Notably in North America. Travel and tourism are accelerating climate action.
This means a steady drop in the negative impacts of mass tourism wherever we live and more conversations among us about vacations that that put us closer in touch with where we visit and how we experience the journey.
Here is a round-up of sources that should drive your optimism as they do mine, even though the first four entries under Notes continue to raise cautions. That said, I’ll cover overseas first because European standards in particular are influencing American travelers to keep pressing for action by business and governments at all levels back home. In a follow-up blog I’ll report on America.
Optimism across borders
Skift Travel Research reports that 90% of travelers in a recent survey of 11,000 consumers in 11 international markets by Expedia Group Media Solutions found that two-thirds of consumers want more information on sustainability from lodging and transportation providers. Half want to see this information from destinations. Per Skift, “Travel companies should offer truly sustainable products and services, clearly communicate about their efforts, and illustrate the value of making more conscientious choices.”
The Global Business Travel Association Foundation in its-State-of-Climate-Action-in-Business-Travel published this month details actions of the 92% of its survey respondents who say that sustainability is a priority for their organization (an increase from 89% last year). “The urgent challenge of climate change necessitates that we ‘own’ the issue and develop solutions that will allow us to continue to travel for the long term. . . For companies, the biggest drivers when it comes to sustainability uptake are
reputation management (84%) coupled with a genuine willingness to drive a positive impact on the planet (82%).”
Also in June but halfway around the world in Macao, the president of the Professional Convention Management Association and Corporate Event Marketing Association reported to a conference that a survey by PCMA revealed that almost 92% of European event organizers had sustainability elements in their contracts with hotels and destinations. In North America, awareness shrank to 52% and only 7 percent of such elements were included in their contracts.
Said Sherrif Karamat, “What we are finding though, is that the younger consumers of events are very purposeful and purpose-driven, and they are demanding much more sustainable practices. Our industry is focused on things that are not sustainable. We are talking about 10% that has very limited impact on the environment. What we are doing, while it may make you feel good, the impact on purpose is really not good at all, so we have a lot of work to do. I do think there’s opportunity here. The fact is, maybe it is not registering, but morally and ethically, it’s something we all have to come to terms with.”
Reports of Business Travel News, owned by Northstar, the parent company of Travel Weekly, double down on Karamat’s report.
At Northstar’s annual Phocuswright Europe 2023 conference in Barcelona, also this June, keynote speaker Bernadett [sic] Papp, a senior researcher with the European Tourism Futures Institute declared that the only way for travel to continue to grow while meeting the UN climate goal of halving global emissions by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050 was by “capping airport capacities at 2019 levels until aviation can fully decarbonize.”
Goal setting
No surprise, then, that the EU has set the world’s largest sustainable aviation fuel blending mandate to reach 70 percent by 2050. Adina Valean, EU Commissioner for Transport, estimates that “the SAF market will create more than 200,000 additional jobs in the EU, mainly in the renewables sector.” But think about this. If airlines can reach 70% by 2050, they can surely reach close to 100% in the next 27.5 years. Passengers, airports and governments will push them.
The centerpiece of NextGenerationEU is the Recovery and Resilience Facility — an instrument that offers grants and loans to support reforms and investments in EU Member States for a total of US$788.4 billion in current prices. The Sustainable Tourism Plan in Destinations has a budget of US$605 million for 2023.
The EU says this will make it “a leader in climate action but everyone can do their part by taking public transport or biking, by eating more vegetables and less meat, by buying second hand, recycling and reusing.”
Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism for Spain Héctor Gómez says that in plans selected for his country, 160 will be managed by different types of local destinations of which “75 correspond to rural destinations with a tourist identity; 34 to mixed/residential sun and beach destinations; 21 to cities with a tourist identity; 8 to urban tourist destinations; and the rest to rural coastal destinations (5), natural areas (5), [downplaying] highly internationalized sun and beach destinations (11) and large urban destinations (1).”
In the UK, tour operator Byway Travel shuns air travel in favor of slow travel. It was founded only 3 years ago and now operates in 18 mostly European countries. Byway likes trains and human power.
Discussions at this year’s Travel/Tourism Cares Meaningful Travel Summit in Norway ranged from creating a sustainable supply chain to the do’s and don’ts of marketing sustainable travel, aviation emissions, the shortcomings of carbon offsets, and opportunities to benefit local communities. Presenters from the Indigenous Sami community shared their thoughts on how tourism can both positively and negatively affect Native peoples.
Also in Norway, Six Senses next year expects to open the 94-room Svart Hotel inside the Arctic Circle built to be the first off-grid hotel with net positive drawdown of carbon emissions. London’s 86-room Chiswick Hometel has emissions calculations to back up its claim as the first hotel to achieve whole-life carbon net zero that factors in both operational and embodied carbon, including the hotel’s construction period and estimates for its eventual demolition.
Hometown guides
Travel writer Rick Steves has also weighed in for destination Europe: “Of all the splurges that might tempt you on an overseas trip — a few nights in a stylish hotel, an extravagant meal, a souvenir-shopping spree — none are as rewarding as hiring a professional guide to show you around their hometown.” It’s expensive but satisfies a climate traveler’s needs.
As I prepare this posting, The New York Times has published 7 Great Cities 7 Great Walks. The detail among cities from Seoul to St. Louis is so deeply
grained — and freely available! — that they can satisfy what Steve’s proposes. And if you don’t have an assured English speaking guide, odds are that as you walk around these or any cities you will find resident English speakers. Such impromptu moments are exhilarating. These descriptions indicate how any researched walking tour anywhere responds to Travel to the Deep Nearby as climate action.
The UN World Tourism Organization has renewed its Best Tourism Villages for the third year that drives tourism for rural development and wellbeing. UNWTO reports that over 70 villages from almost 40 countries have been recognized as Best Tourism Villages, and that 40 more participate in a program that benefits from expert mentorship and networking opportunities.
NOTES
https://sustainabilitymag.com/net-zero/will-carbon-offsets-support-hotel-climate-change-action
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1966 February 2021: “Tourism remains dangerously blind to the strategies that influential energy and climate plans propose to achieve the low-carbon transition required by the Paris Climate Agreement. As a research community and sector, we remain disengaged from the process of identifying climate solutions at our peril.”
https://skift.com/2022/06/22/new-research-understanding-consumer-demand-for-sustainable-travel/
https://www.phocuswire.com/key-insights-from-Phocuswright-Europe-2023
https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/lang/en/gobierno/news/Paginas/2023/20230509_tourism-sustainability.aspx
https://www.phocuswrighteurope.com/
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/sightseeing/hiring-local-guide
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8305895/
https://www.nytimes.com/explain/2023/06/19/travel/walking-marrakesh-paris-seoul’ also see The Art of Being a Flaneur, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/19/travel/walking-travel-cities.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-travel-walking&variant=show®ion=BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT&block=storyline_flex_guide_recirc
