Just another carbon COP out

2013 Review of the (sustainable?) year

Cop out at COP 19, tourism goes massive, catch-all global sustainable tourism organisations catch more, greenwash goes global, tourists like food but suspect sustainability, TUI makes more green currency, a paler shade of green, human rights in tourism?

One may say that the biggest events of the year were the storms, now becoming a major global event. Have they got anything to do with climate change? You wouldn’t believe it judging by the actions of politicians at COP19, who warmed the air with their words but didn’t manage to agree to any firm action which could stop the earth getting even hotter. The impassioned words, tears and hunger strike by the Philippino delegate caused a standing ovation but had NO effect on the outcome in green Warsaw, Poland

The outcome? Let’s look forward to a possible agreement at COP21 in 2015 in Paris. In the meantime there is another ‘Summit’ in New York this September and Cop20 in Lima in December.

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/cop19-un-climate-talks-another-cop-out

All the while tourism thrives, our guess is that international tourism will hit 1.1 billion for 2013 when the World Tourism Organisation announces the figures in a couple of weeks. Add this to current domestic tourism of probably 5 billion  and we’ll be hitting total tourism of 10 billion shortly. THAT will warm the world up a bit! But think of the opportunities and the money – a tourism economy of well over a trillion dollars.

http://media.unwto.org/press-release/2013-12-12/international-tourism-engine-economic-recovery

And it’s nice to think that the sustainable tourism industry is becoming a real industry  – at least the world of big business and their friends are jumping on the bandwagon. The World Tourism Organisation, UNESCO and the UN Environment Programme have banded together and dozens more NGO’s and businesses have now joined their platform – the Global Sustainable Tourism Partnership. http://www.globalsustainabletourism.com/

There is still, of course the rather confusingly named Global Sustainable Tourism Council which is an offshoot of the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria  – both sharing the same initials. The GSTC has been partnered recently with STI (Sustainable Tourism International – http://sustainabletravel.org/) a non-profit US company and appears to work a lot with Solimar International (a small consultancy with massive projectshttp://www.solimarinternational.com/ ) http://www.gstcouncil.org/

Interestingly, it was a growth year for the well-regarded less global green certification agencies such as the UK’s Green Tourism acting practically on the ground.

Although it may change, global tourism marketing channels are still dominated by the OTAs and GDNs  as anonymous as their acronyms suggest. Tripadvisor , newly sold off by the giant Expedia continues to march on, over the 50m page views per month but down to ranking 215 on Alexa and with web ratings lower than Booking.com (ranking 146). The competition will come from start-ups like couchsurfing.org and Airbnb who give the impression of being a little more authentic, while the established mediums rack up the percentages they load on to sell accommodation. Of course they have now all found the green dollar/yen/renminbi and euro!

http://www.globalsustainabletourism.com/News/88-TripAdvisor-announces-the-TripAdvisor-GreenLeaders-Program-to-help-travelers-find-and-book-green-hotels-and-BBs-.html

and…

http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature.php?news_id=2008424

And as the new distribution channels pile up their green stash – the old order of tour operators find the value in greening up their value chains – of the big two TUI is well in the lead in 2013, largely because of the years of work they’ve put into it. But watch T Cook in 2014 – Harriet is not called Green for nothing!

Meanwhile, the travelers are eating their way into sustainability – why? Because it’s not only public-spirited and socially acceptable but also enjoyable! – Slow Food goes from strength to strength, year by year. More and more destinations see local food as a major pinion of sustainable tourism. Promoting culinary travel pays off: http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature.php?news_id=2008041

And this year the dreaded GREENWASH has not only been seen as lying about your carbon footprint but also manipulating human rights scores. Human rights and tourism have come under focus- voluntourism, slavery, sex tourism, childrens rights, womens rights yes they’re all part of the global travel industry. http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/richard-stupart-voluntourism-does-more-harm-good-260269

There is more about 2013 in the 2013/4 Sustainable Tourism Report

Valere Tjolle