Is mass tourism better for the environment than independent travel?

TravelMole Fast Conference special: Independent holidaymakers are not necessarily “more responsible” than those travelling with operators said industry experts at Tuesday’s TravelMole Fast Conference.

Responsibletravel.com director, Justin Francis claimed that this year was the first time that mass market holidays with vertically integrated operators had not dominated the holiday market.

He later said he thought that the growth of the internet and explosion of no-frills carriers in Europe was giving holidaymakers more choice. “It is the first time that companies are not controlling the product, and the power has come into the consumers hands. People are looking for something more personal and something a bit more local.”

A straw poll of the audience, undertaken by event moderator Keith Richards at showed that the overwhelming majority of people in the audience were booking their own travel arrangements and not taking a package.

Sunvil Holidays managing director, Noel Josephides said that the move by independent travellers away from operators did not necessarily mean they would travel more responsibly.

He said: “Our clients are going to the same destinations as they went to when they travelled with us, and they are getting the same hotel rates they would pay with us by booking direct. But they don’t research the environmental policy of the place they are staying.

“At least via us they are making a contribution towards sustainability.”

Caroline Ashley, research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute was in the audience. She said: “In some ways the independent tourist could do more damage than the mass market tourist catered for by operators.” Ms Ashley said it was important to differentiate between the environmental and social impacts of different types of tourism.

Tourists travelling in groups with a tour operator, rather than independently would cause less damage to a destination said ETOA executive director, Tom Jenkins. He said the impact of tourists visiting Europe with his companies like his members was “benign” because they visit a place within a controlled environment of coaches and mainstream tourist trails.

But big operators are not always good for a destination. Mr Francis argued that vertically integrated travel companies are often not working well with the destination because they retain too much profit within their own chain rather than investing it locally. He cited an example of the average package holiday to the Domincan Republic which saw operators take 86% of the tourist revenue.

Mr Jenkins said that although this could be the case, the tourist industry was an important source of revenue for a destination, however small the contribution. He said: “The most irresponsible thing an operator can do is to go bust and leave suppliers high and dry.”

David Tarsh of Tarsh Consulting was in the audience. He said that it is important to remember the economic benefits that tourism brings to destinations in terms of employment and revenue. “The figure of 14% may be low, but it is better than getting no revenue at all.”

Ms Ashley said that it was difficult for hotels to work with local markets in many places but despite many failures, there were examples of tourist hotels that had succeeded with projects such as sourcing local ingredients.