ANTOR Forum Focuses on Greening Tourism

Are travel companies engaged in a greenwash when advertising their environmental credentials?

How eco friendly is eco-tourism?

What indeed can the tourism and hospitality industry contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions?

These issues were discussed with a mixture of depth, insight and humour at a very stimulating ANTOR (Association of National Tourist Office Representatives) held on Wed April 23.

Sixty industry professionals attended the forum at the America Club chaired by ANTOR Chair Satu Ranola. 

ANTOR selected five excellent speakers who covered the topic with some real depth.

Professor Michael Hall from Cantebury University in Christchurch New Zealand was unable to attend but left Satu Ranola with an opening message for attendees.

Tourism by its very nature creates emissions. The transportation of people, goods and services by land, sea and air, the accommodation and catering sector and the power to light, heat or cool will create emissions.  The industry cannot eliminate these facts but can work to minimise them.

Dr Danuser who is the CEO of St Moritz tourism gave a fascinating address on the many environmental initiatives undertaken in the Swiss mountain resort centre.

These include and extensive commitment to solar power to help power cable cars, provide hot water and power to hotels. Lake water is utilised in providing heating.

Much of Switzerland’s power is generated by hydro electric power stations. Dr Danuser generated some of his own power when he gave a brief but impressive recital on his Alphenhorn.  

Mariane Nallalsisly (check spklling) of Scandanavian Airlines discussed the challenges of reducing emissions as they apply to airlines. The new generation of aircraft including the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the A 380 super jumbo have been designed to reduce fuel consumption by up to 20 % compared to existing aircraft.

Mariane outlined the so called “green approach” with SAS have employed on many of their landings in Sweden in which the aircraft descends on a steady angle this reducing power, speed and emissions.  She pointed out the SAS and indeed all IATA member airlines were seriously committed to reduce the carbon footprint of aircraft.

Guy Olian is a director of the company Cleaner Climate explained that his company was involved in helping many tourism companies develop policies and practices which would enable them to become Kyoto compliant and would also enable them to underatnd and incorporate the economics and practices of carbon trading and carbon credits as integral parts of their business model and practice.    

He pointed out that the tourism and hospitality industry was responsible for about 5% of global carbon emissions but was targeted by the media because much of its activity is deemed as discretionary.  The compliance costs to maintain Kyoto targets for all segments of the tourism and hospitality industry would cost in the order of $40 billion per annum.

He also pointed out that the auditing of emissions needed to be verifiable and carried out by a neutral third party.

Christopher Zinn who is the Media Spokesman of Choice, the magazine of the Australian Consumers Association spoke of the importance of verifiability of claims about green tourism or eco tourism, he pointed out that many firms (not only tourism industry firms) were now experiencing legal problems when they indulge in “greenwash” which was the exaggeration or misrepresentation of the eco- credentials. 

Zinn pointed out some examples of such practices in the tourism industry. New Zealand Tourism’s “100% pure” advertising slogan was great marketing but hardly a statement of environmental fact. 

Tim Hallet of Eurostar he final speaker gave a fascinating insight of the corporate culture developed with the Eurostar organisation promoting a commitment to environmental protection from the head office practices to emission controls of the cross channel train services.

Hallet explained that Eurostar was gaining a great deal of consumer support because of the price and convenience advantages if the Eurostar product but many environmentally conscious travellers appreciated Eurostar’s commitment to the environment.

The session concluded with a lively question and answer session.

ANTOR deserves full credit for running events which showcase some of the most topical issues in the tourism industry. 

An on location report for TravelMole by David Beirman