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Agencies, clusters, next?

Sustainable tourism is a new lifestyle, where customisation, fair trade and healthy habits will substitute mass consumption. This requires quality training for you, your staff and your partners leading to an all-round better performance.

 

By Jack Soifer/get real©
 

Too much has been said and written about sustainable development and tourism, too little done. There are commercial interests to avoid innovation and conservation. Small and medium enterprises, however, are more innovative and thus probably accept this concept more easily. If you desire profits in an ever increasingly competitive market, you have to join forces to press governments all over to start doing what they have openly approved in many international fora. The following may help.

 

What can my club or association do?

Most of us complain about governments, but actually, many of them depend on a strong popular claim and politically feasible proposals. The best way is to arrange for prizes/awards, where your association can show examples of successful projects and the winners can appear in the media explaining what governments could have done better in order to facilitate their achievements. Another way is to arrange conferences, inviting representatives from well known NGOs to tell what they have achieved in other countries and how, and which adjustments were made in laws, regulations and public practices in order to make a public-private creative environment for innovative and sustainable policies.

 

At the sixth European Tourism Forum (October 2007), Lars Thykier summarised one panel which proposed: Introduction of government incentives that encourage businesses to reduce waste; educate the population at large about the positive effects of sustainable tourism and of being an (environmentally) responsible tourist.

 

Ideas implemented overseas

The Turkish Skalite, Skål Quality Awards encourages quality/ethics since 1998. It is now observed by around 500 Skål Clubs in 90 countries, since the launch of Eco-Tourism Awards in 2002 to coincide with the UN Year of Ecotourism. It sets standards for quality in the trade and confers prestige on the prize-winners and the organisation.

The mechanics behind an award or prize, either national or local are that an organising committee, with a preliminary budget looks for sponsorship, establishes a time frame, culminating in the gala event for the Awards presentation. It then confirms rules and regulations for getting nominees, appoints a panel of judges. Together with the latter criteria for initial selection and final judging are defined. The awards (cup, plaque, etc.) are chosen and a group is appointed to organise the venue.

 

Each Skål Club may establish the categories among:

 

In 2007 Skål International Turkey had some 800 guests, 100 from abroad, at the venue, with the Minister of Economy present and listening to the wishes of the trade. Sponsors and guests paid for both prizes and the party, and the media brought a wealth of good will and prestige to that club, mainly among players in the trade.

The county of Calvià, in Mallorca, had by the 80s some 60.000 tourist units, 90 per cent of total capacity to receive two million visitors per year along a stretch of beach extending only 54 kilometres, with major unemployment off-season. Based on the Agenda 21, the trade, engaged citizens and the local authorities got together and started a Quality Development Plan which resulted in a Plan of Action 1995. As a result, many sea side hotels were demolished, the 21 kilometre long Paseo de Calvià (seafront promenade) was built, with plenty of tennis and sports courts, gardens, and urban planning was tightly controlled.

 

With a recycling agreement and a European Winter Plan, the area managed to reduce the seasonality, educate the population and the employees and thus regain the high level of occupancy. Local government holds regular meetings with the stake-holders to learn about the evaluations from earlier seasons and expectations for the coming one, in order to plan promotion, mainly for sustainable tourism. It is now part of the Coastal Practice Network, which monitors and certifies destinations. Most of municipalities in the Balearics are now adopting this programme.

 

At home

The Portuguese Federation for Tourism Associations commissioned a survey for Tourism 2025, entitled Reinventing Tourism in Portugal developed by Ernâni Rodrigues Lopes, director of the European Studies Institute at the Portuguese Catholic University in Lisbon, which gives scenarios and recommendations for public action.

The Portuguese Association of Hoteliers started a TTT, Tourism Think Tank, where research, trends, news, best practices, opinions, are boarded, as well as a Hotel Buyers Index.

 

All federations organise conferences where normally a minister, or deputy prime minister, is present. Many speak and go, but if they are last in a row of trade leaders, they will hear the message. Whenever possible, bring foreign experts from countries which the minister admires, to explain how public policies work there.

There are other ways to get noticed and have your say; on websites, like NGOs such as Skål International, post tips or best practices and on blogs and at national or international conferences which often include such panels.

Your association may also prepare proposals for revisions to laws or regulations in order adapt old policies to modern times in a fast-changing world. Invite the chairman of the parliament or the minister to a venue where the media will come, and offer proposals, while the cameras are on.

That is a true democratic and fair act.

 

What can my cluster do?

Don’t expect academia or the government to improve technical or university education. Find out if any college or university is keen to have students immediately employed, arrange for colleagues to offer practical opportunities in exchange for your say in the programme and methods and go forward with integrated training. Your partner will try to sell on-the-job training, which, if acceptable in terms of costs, may be a good idea off-season. Don’t wait for governmental support – when it comes, it’s too late!

Don’t wait for state support when arranging familiarisation trips. If it comes, good. If not, talk to colleagues in airlines, hotels, restaurants, tours, entertainment, and go ahead!

Informal clusters of complementary enterprises in the same destination may work much better and faster and grab unique opportunities.

 

Arrange a prolonged stay for opinion leaders from important countries for your destination. Directors of associations, rotary, golf and other sport clubs, environmental NGOs, etc., travel widely, mainly to meetings and conferences. Collaborating with other colleagues in your area/sector, make up a list of venues in your country or nearby where these opinion leaders can come for a familiarisation trip. Try to get a list of participants and, in advance, invite some to stay one or two days longer. Arrange to meet them on their arrival or at their hotel. Take care of them during the trip and call your colleagues to let them know the guest’s preferences. If each of the enterprises in your destination group offers something (transport, lodging, meals, entertainment, handicraft, tours, etc.) each of you invest a little and may reap a wealth of rewards. Remember: word of mouth!

Establish quality norms for enterprises in your cluster, publicise these, give out summary information to influential visitors and let the world know you act sustainably. Commission a serious, independent NGO or enterprise to monitor and certify your efforts. If possible, invite public agencies to visit your venue when the certificate is publicly shown to the local media and tell both how beneficial that is for the region. Above all, don’t shut up; work hard and show good examples.

 

If local authorities don’t do what they should regarding eco-separation of waste, signposting trails, cleaning beaches or trails get together with environmental clubs, offer your equipment and their voluntary work to get things done. Make sure the media is there to show what your civil society is capable of doing. If a lot of sludge and organic waste is spoiled and local agencies do nothing, debate at the local chamber of commerce or commercial association if you shouldn’t produce a pre-feasibility study to get hold of an investor to produce biogas. According to a report published in 2008, Sweden had 280 biogas units in 2007, mostly around large towns, half using sludge. Sales since 2000 are increasing and around 40 per cent of new cars sold using biogas.

 

What can I do?

As earlier stated, standard tourism as it is now may drop because of economic constraints, saturation at known destinations and a change of preference. Sustainable and ecotourism may continue to grow at 20 per cent per year, instead of only two. As bright, large hotel chains discover this fact they move in this direction, but maybe neither with the necessary speed nor the quality requirements for a famous certification. As Lars Thykier advocates: “All of us must create consumer awareness, commitment and knowledge to bring the demand for sustainable tourism products. So much more needs to be done!”

We can all start to adopt a sustainable lifestyle, consuming healthy food, in large packages, to separate all garbage, Reduce, Recycle, Replace, Recover & Re-use. We can show our lifestyle to friends, visiting only sustainable restaurants, giving out information to others, etc. We can adopt sustainable tourism in our firms and get certified. We can tell the world about our certification and our clients’ satisfaction. Also exhibits in reception areas which show how we abide by the Rs can help get visitors’ support. You only have to ask. We can, together with a few colleagues, work for our club or association to publicise, then recommend certification, in order to form a certified sustainable destination.

 

We can email photos and texts to newspapers and magazines, starting with the trade media. We can write to MPs and governments both locally and nationally.

 

The opportunities are out there, now it is up to you.