Year of sustainable tourism for development simple travel agent benefit guide

Travel agents, tour operators, transportation companies and their clients stand to gain big

Year of sustainable tourism for development – what is it? Practically? An easy guide to how the travel industry and clients can benefit.

1. Why bother about sustainable tourism?

The travel industry is booming. From a standing start 60 years ago this year will see 1.4 billion international tourists plus an estimated 7.5 billion domestic ones. This all adds up to international sales of $1.4 trillion. Maybe this represents a total tourism economy (domestic and international) of around $5 trillion.

Great but these figures predicate four big questions: Who gets and is in control of this money? Where do these tourists go? And who pays for the tourism infrastructure? What are the opportunities?

The first answer is simple: the majority of and the control of the money goes to businesses in the tourism source markets, in other words the first points of contact for outbound tourists – airlines, tour operators, hotel booking companies, marketing agencies etc. Nowadays that means  agencies like Booking.com, Airbnb, and Tripadvisor, the airlines and cruise and tour operators. It then trickles down to businesses in destinations.

Secondly where does this trickle-down money and tourists go? There are surprisingly few mega-tourism destinations that the majority of tourists visit – including small fragile must-see destinations like Florence, Venice, Bali, Rome, Barcelona, Siem Reap and Prague. It is in the interest of outbound companies to focus on these mass destinations because they have big, powerful images. Less well-known destinations have to be explained and marketed so it’s a no-brainer for outbound companies to focus on the easy-to-market places everyone knows. This results in thousands of less-known great places being relatively empty and a few known ones totally overbrimming – Venice is a key example. Top destinations have to cope with crowds of foreigners less well-known places just wait in line

Thirdly the destination actually pays for the tourism infrastructure, whereas the majority of the money that tourists pay goes somewhere else (see above). Yes, of course tourists spend in destinations but as the tourism flow is owned and managed by the outbound operators good destination tourism jobs are rare and short term. Imagine the social dimensions of this situation.

From this massive tourism flow there are also many urgent issues – tourism-related emissions and environmental degradation.

What is sustainable tourism for development?

Sustainable tourism is an effort to manage tourism to provide benefits for all three partners in tourism – destinations, tourists and intermediaries.

Naturally, destinations are key in the process, after all there would be no point in travelling without a destination! And there is a good definition of a destination which is sustainable – it is a "Good place to live in and a good place to visit".

Essentially sustainable tourism should respect and enhance the destination’s visitor economy, its culture, its social issues and its environment. This would make it sustainable in terms of tourism for visitors and for local people.

And make a contribution to reducing environmental impacts and reduction of climate change.

It should also make the world’s tourism geography more diverse and less crowded by enabling more destinations to get tourists.

2. Who and How does sustainable tourism for development help?

Tourist visitors get a better deal because their experience should be less energy intensive, their destination less polluted, their food and drink more seasonal and local (less food miles). They will also get a better experience of their destination because of the cultural and environmental initiatives. And because of the focus on social issues tourist visitors will enjoy a more welcoming, less hassle destination experience.

Destinations get a better deal because they will get more respect and more revenue from tourists. They can therefore develop their visitor economy to enhance availability and range of employment to deal with social issues; protect and enhance their environmental legacy; use tourism revenue to create more cultural opportunities and to enhance their cultural legacy.

Intermediaries (Travel Agents, tour operators, transportation companies, booking agencies) get a better deal because they have a wider range of opportunities and the chance to make their companies more profitably sustainable.. A major opportunity is enhancing the value of travel.

Practically – how can the travel industry take advantage of sustainable tourism for development?

We can’t take advantage of it by branding our holidays ‘Green’ charging more money and expecting clients to pay it!

We can take advantage of it (and make our own businesses more sustainable) by:

• Switching to low-emission methods of travel. Cruises are highest on the emissions scale followed by short-haul flights followed by cars followed by trains and busses.
• Finding new, less crowded destinations where tourists can make a difference.
• Providing clients with readily-available destination information to make their destination experience more fulfilling, greener, more sustainable.
• Choosing green-accredited hotel accommodation and in particular hotels and B&Bs that are locally-owned.
• Choosing partners that are really engaged in their destination – not only will this enhance the destination but also your client’s experience
• Choosing a destination making serious efforts for sustainability; avoid destinations with self- claims on sustainability that cannot be proven. Remember a destination that takes sustainability seriously is one that takes the visitor experience seriously too.
• Choosing destinations that are accessible by train, bus, ferry or a short flight.
• Extend the stay of your clients – transport to the destination equals up to 85% of holiday emissions
• Learning about sustainable tourism for development HERE http://www.tourism4development2017.org/

Valere Tjolle @Valeretjolle