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Travelmole guest comment: Jean Claude Baumgarten, World Travel and Tourism Council
Friday, 27 Sep, 2010
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I don’t know about you, but I’m a huge supporter of everything green, and there’s a lot of evidence that the travel and tourism industry is taking ever greater strides in that direction too.
It is highlighted in World Tourism Day which celebrates the significance of sustainable tourism and biodiversity.
This day offers us a platform to draw attention to the work that many of us are doing for the environment. It is an opportunity for us to raise awareness of the increasingly important role that travel and tourism plays in helping to support and protect our cultural and natural heritage, while delivering tangible social and economic benefits to local communities.
It is not surprising that the environmental challenges facing us today could present a threat to the industry. Climate change could modify travel patterns and affect certain destinations; one obvious example is that rising temperatures can lead to less snow cover, which affects the popularity of ski slopes.
We only have to look around us to see that so much of our industry relies on the world’s natural resources and that many tourism attractions are strongly linked to biological diversity. This is why the industry needs to adapt quickly in order to retain its level of competitiveness and to leverage the market potential.
Ensuring the diversity of our environment – the destinations in which we operate – and protecting our natural resources is fundamental to sustain tourism growth and development.
Balancing this with business imperatives is essential to make sure destinations remain unspoilt for future generations of travellers and our future success and sustained prosperity.
Fortunately, travel and tourism is increasingly getting this balance right. On WTTC’s part, we are using travel and tourism as a vehicle to raise awareness and fostering positive behaviour change for biodiversity conservation through our recently launched Best Practice Gateway, (www.wttc.org/eng/Best_Practice_Gateway).
The Gateway features advice and data on good practice across the industry, helping other businesses and destinations in their sustainable approach.
Also, over the past seven years WTTC has been organising the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards which will take place again next year at the 2011 Global Travel and Tourism Summit in Las Vegas (www.globaltraveltourism.com).
It gives me great pleasure to use the occasion of World Tourism Day to officially launch the Call for Entries of WTTC’s 2011 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards (www.tourismfortomorrow.com/Apply/).
The world’s foremost awards include an international panel of expert judges and a rigorous on-site evaluation process, which recognises and celebrates advances in sustainable best practices worldwide.
Each year the awards provide a global showcase for the unrivalled work that companies and destinations, both large and small, are already doing.
Applying for the awards is a chance for us all to demonstrate the role of travel and tourism in protecting our planet and its diverse cultural and natural heritage.
Submit an entry before December 10 in one of the four categories: community benefit, for conservation, in destination stewardship, or as a global tourism business.
Enter now and help us demonstrate to the world that this industry continues to lead the way in protecting the diversity of the environment.
Dinah
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