Holidays of tomorrow?

 

We don't have to let tourism take us to hell in a hand cart. Richard Hammond charts a better course.

The vast rooftop terrace of the Kasbah du Toukal provides a spectacular setting. Feast your eyes on the panoramic views of the High Atlas Mountains. Treat your tastebuds to the hotel’s Moroccan haute cuisine. Treat your wallet gently by booking into a shared dorm - or splash out on a private luxury apartment. And give your conscience a break, as you reflect on what the locally managed Kasbah is bringing the local community by way of employment, farm incomes and funds. For this renovated fortress is the fairer face of tourism today.

Kasbah du Toubkal might not be everyone’s idyll, but tour operators offering values like this - in places like this - are certainly raising both the profile and the status of the ‘greener’ holiday experience. ‘Responsible tourism’ is the label of choice in this part of the market. The blurb for the First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards (www.responsible tourism awards.info) speaks of “showing a significant commitment to the culture and economies of local communities, and providing a positive contribution to the environment and biodiversity conservation”. And plenty of people want to be part of this action. There were 1,200 nominations from all over the world for this year’s awards, covering pretty much everything from community-run safari camps to city-centre eco-chic hotels.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” - Henry Miller

Holidays for the environmentally minded are nothing new, of course. Specialist magazines and national newspapers alike have for years carried advertisements for holidays that support spirited conservation work, ranging from dry-stone walling weekends in Northumbria to three-month conservation holidays in Africa. But times have changed. Going green is no longer just about conservation, it has a wider remit that focuses on environmental practices across the board, and a social dimension that seeks to spread the tourism pound around, rather than just line the pockets of multinational travel companies. And it goes much further than the token gesture paraded by a foreign-owned hotel that employs a local to run the bar, or puts on an after dinner ‘tribal dance’. The new approach is about a more equitable tourism that provides tangible benefits for local people, empowering them directly through collaborative partnerships, or strengthening the market for local goods and services.

Just don’t call it ‘eco-tourism’. That label became associated in the 1990s with so much greenwash that travellers have become immune to its claims, according to Harold Goodwin, professor of responsible tourism management at Leeds Metropolitan University. In the UK at least, the term ‘eco-tourism’ is rarely used these days in marketing green holidays. Part of the problem was that it become confused with ‘nature tourism’ and any trip that came remotely close to wildlife would be trumpeted as an ‘eco-experience’. From Cancun to Goa, there are companies that have tried to ride cheaply on the green wave; ‘eco-hotels’ that pollute their environment and ‘eco-trips’ that are little more than a walk in a national park.

Who cares?Nearly 75% of UK consumers are concerned about climate change and their own carbon footprint, according to a November 2006 survey by the Carbon Trust. Two in every three want to know the carbon footprint of the products and services they buy, and say they are more likely to buy from a business they think is taking action to tackle climate change.

An ever widening niche?

Worldwide there are more than 700 million tourist trips each year, and the total is due to rise to 1 billion by 2010. And the overwhelming majority of those trips could hardly be less affected by considerations of sustainability. But research firm Mintel reckons that the UK’s outgoing ‘ethical’ holiday market racked up 450,000 trips in 2005 - and predicts that it will swell to 2.5 million trips a year by 2010. That’s a huge increase, even if it’s still quite small beer in the context of the overall size of the industry.

“The journey is the reward.”  - Tao proverb

If today’s flourishing niche does turn into tomorrow’s industry trend, the smaller independent travel companies who cottoned on to the green agenda years ago should be well positioned to capitalise on it. And the Centre for Future Studies certainly reckons that it’s a new dynamic growth area. Its report on the future of travel to 2050 identifies ‘experiential’ tourism - which encompasses eco-tourism, nature, heritage, cultural, and soft adventure tourism, as well as things like rural and community tourism - as “among the sectors expected to grow most quickly over the next two decades”. Old-style ‘sun-and-sand’ resort tourism, on the other hand, has now “matured as a market”, the Centre says, and can look forward only to a flat line on the growth chart.

The Mata de Sesimbra sustainable tourism project in Portugal is an ambitious model of how tourism could be in the future. At a cost of some €1 billion (around £670 million), it’s clearly no drop in the ocean. This is serious investment. So what’s driving investors to back green schemes of this kind?

Three main things. The first of these is the way they read the market. Companies are keen to capitalise on the renaissance of ‘ethical consumerism’, spurred on by the example of the boom in the organic and fair trade movements. Secondly, the City is beginning to demand transparent policies on corporate social responsibility. Thirdly, they see it as far-sighted business planning for the vertically integrated travel companies to lay down green foundations with suppliers, in preparation for future legislation. Those companies that demand better environmental performance from their hotels now, will be in a stronger position to cope with regulation in the future - by analogy with the whole area of health and safety, where ‘early adopters’ benefited by getting in ahead of the tightening of regulatory standards.

Flying higherUK residents made over 100 million leisure trips by air in 2004. The total number of (business and leisure) flights to or from UK airports reached 230 million the following year. Estimates of future growth vary as to whether that figure will more than double, or more than treble, by 2030. Either way, it would soon swallow up the UK aviation industry’s commitment - made in its ‘Sustainable Aviation’ document in June 2005 - to improve the fuel efficiency of new aircraft by 50% by 2020.

Greening the mainstream

Some aspects of the green agenda are already moving into the mainstream, albeit at the sluggish pace of a turning cruise ship. The big four travel companies - Thomas Cook, TUI UK, First Choice and Mytravel - all support the Travel Foundation, the charity set up with the backing of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office “to manage tourism more sustainably”. It has produced a series of destination-specific ‘insider guides’ for holidaymakers that point out how they can make a difference to the environmental footprint of their holiday (it’s not shy of giving such basic tips as turning off/down air conditioning when not required and switching off lights when leaving a room), and also how their holiday can benefit local people, for example by eating and drinking in locally owned outlets.

The first travel companies to set out formal ‘responsible travel’ policies may have been niche specialists like Suffolk-based Tribes Travel , but many tour companies now carry a page in their brochures and on their websites describing their ethical credentials. The Association of Tour Operators (www.aito.co.uk), which represents about 150 independently owned UK tour operators, provides its own ‘Responsible Tourism Guidelines’ as part of its membership criteria and runs its own ‘Responsible Tourism’ classification; awarding its highest 3-star grade to 23 of its members.

It’s a trend that touches the high street too. Members of the Federation of Tour Operators (www.fto.co.uk), who together sell over 60% of all package holidays, now publish policies on how they intend to reduce the environmental impact of their holidays and support the communities in which they operate.

“They change their climate, not their souls, who rush across the sea.”  - Horace

Among the big four, it’s First Choice who have most clearly seen that a strong sustainable tourism offer is a way of winning competitive advantage. As they’ll tell you, the goodwill of local communities, biodiversity and the environment are big factors in the holidays they’re selling - so it makes good business sense to manage such resources sustainably. Still, as chief executive Peter Long will freely acknowledge, “we are fairly near the beginning of the journey towards sustainable leisure travel, particularly in some areas of the Group”.

Does he mean aviation? Already this is the fastest-growing sector in terms of its additions to greenhouse gas emissions, fuelled by the rise and rise of cheap flights. So far this has been particularly true of short-haul flying, but the trend for the tourism of tomorrow is also for more medium- and long-haul holidays. According to Dermot Blastland, executive director of First Choice Holidays, “aspirations are further afield”, and he predicts countries such as Egypt, South Africa, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates will see an increasing share of the mainstream travel market.

First Choice, to give credit where it’s due, is promising to publish ‘a full carbon strategy for the company’ in April - and it’s currently the only one of the big four that publishes the emissions created by its airline, First Choice Airways [read more on this]. So it is owning up. Cutting down, of course, is harder. Meanwhile, it is doing its bit to promote offsetting. From March its customers will be provided with a scheme whereby they can donate £1 per adult and 50p per child, which the company will match, to go towards carbon-saving projects - and this will happen automatically unless they opt out.

Voluntary offsetting of the carbon cost of flying isn’t new, but it has only recently really hit the mainstream. November was something of a bumper month; hot on the heels of the news that Lastminute.com was committing itself to an offset scheme for customers of its online service, came the announcement that Association of British Travel Agents, the FTO and AITO were to launch their own scheme, raising money specifically for carbon-cutting projects in holiday destinations.

On another planet?Travel and tourism is big business. The World Travel and Tourism Council calculates that was worth $6 trillion in 2006, and projects a hair-raising increase over the next decade to twice that amount. For an industry with such ambition, however, the WTTC is strangely coy on the subject of climate change. It fails to make a single reference to it in Travel and Tourism: climbing to new heights, its breathless account of economic trends in the sector.

Pointing the way

If Mintel’s market predictions are to be believed, the growing ethical consumer market will lead to a new generation of green travellers looking for guidance on how and where to go green.

There are already a number of pointers. Travel giant Thomson recently announced that it has audited 4,500 of its hotels, and will be flagging up the most environmentally friendly of them with a ‘Green Medal’ logo in its brochures and on its website. In the UK, over 500 environmental hotels and travel companies have been audited through the Green Tourism Business Scheme (www.green-business.co.uk). On an international scale, the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation has recently commissioned a feasibility study with Tourism Concern to look at whether its fair trade principles can be applied to tourism.

“Travel, which was once either a necessity or an adventure, has become very largely a commodity, and from all sides we are persuaded into thinking that it is a social requirement, too.”
- Jan Morris, travel writer

Tribes Travel is already explicitly committed to doing this in its own way, although its ‘fair trade travel’ trademark has no independent status. But Tribes can expect its customers to believe in its principles. A mainstream tour operator probably can’t. Not, that is, without some equivalent of what the Fairtrade Foundation has done for a range of products (chocolate, coffee, cotton and so on), where ‘fair trade’ has had a real impact on the mainstream market. In those cases, credibility rests on third party certification.

There is a hopeful precedent in the tourism sector in South Africa. A ‘Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa’ trademark (www.fairtourismsa.org.za) is run by a small non-profit organisation that assesses South African travel businesses on whether they provide fair wages and working conditions, respect for human rights, local culture and the environment. Whether this kind of strict certification can be rolled out on a larger scale remains to be seen. It’s much more complex for a many-layered service industry than for products like bananas or coffee, but it does indicate that in the future the ethics of the tourism industry will be the focus of increasing scrutiny.

Heart of the Mata Just south of Lisbon, the huge sustainable tourism project at Mata de Sesimbra provides a glimpse into how mainstream resorts of the future could look. Due to open next year, this joint initiative between WWF and BioRegional (www.bioregional.com) will combine a 500-hectare tourism development with a nature reserve and cork forest restoration project over an area of 5,200 hectares. Approximately 25,000 beds will be available in holiday homes, apartments, and low-rise hotel rooms, and there will be nature trails, cycle routes, and a ‘green’ golf course in the village, which will use only renewable energy sources and aims to be 100% carbon neutral.
Tribal marking Leading the way in long-haul ‘experiential tourism’ is Tribes Travel (www.tribestravel.com), a small travel company based near Woodbridge in Suffolk, which organises tailor made and small group safaris and holidays in Africa and South America. First set up in 1998, Tribes has garnered a string of best practice awards and has trademarked its own Fair Trade Travel label, setting out the principles that underlie its offer “for travellers who want to see the world in a different light, experiencing it through the eyes of its native people”. Co-founder Amanda Marks says it’s not just about the obvious - paying people a fair wage for the services that they provide. “What matters to us is that nothing which our company does abroad or at home compromises the environment or exploits the local people. It is responsible travel.”
Mayer Hillman, author of How We Can Save The PlanetI made a decision 11 years ago that it is highly irresponsible to go on flying once aware of the excessively damaging contribution air travel makes to climate change. This has prevented me from attending many overseas conferences as well as close family events. And next year, I will not be going on a promotional tour in the US for a new book on limiting climate change. However, I have opened and taken part in several conferences by satellite link and video. The fact that the alternative courses of action are less satisfactory or severely restrictive is, in my view, no justification for revoking the original decision.
THE GUIDES  Mark Ellingham, founder of the Rough Guides
We’ve all gone a bit mad about casual flying. Ten years ago, when it cost £450 for a return flight to Rome, we didn’t take weekend trips there. We’ve got no special right, or need, to do it.

If it weren’t for the environmental impact, I’d say travel is hugely beneficial to the world, particularly the independent kind which directs money straight into the hands of small, local businesses in the developing world.

Likewise, the preservation of environments for tourist potential can be valuable in itself.

Travel also fosters a sense of solidarity, as exemplified by the response in the West to the tsunami in Thailand and Sri Lanka. You might have seen very different reactions to US and UK policies in Iraq and Lebanon, had they been major tourist destinations.

Alistair Sawday, publisher of Special Places to Stay
We’re all slightly bonkers now, seeing places on the move, rather than sitting still. People aren’t happy where they are and think that going to Benidorm or Venice will bring them some sort of fulfilment. It’s also a status thing; we all have roughly the same cars and clothes, so how else do you make your mark? Though I wonder if trains and ferries might come back into fashion in 20 years’ time. I took the boat to Normandy, and all in all it was much faster than flying

Tony Wheeler, co-founder of the Lonely Planet guides
Of course I lose sleep over the fact that my business is based on encouraging people to fly around the world, but what is the answer? Everything we do burns energy; travel just happens to be a particularly visible and large slice of that consumption.

I have no idea what travel will be like in 20 years’ time. We’re very fond of thinking that we can solve any problem if we have to. Equally there’s a lot of evidence of somebody actually cutting down that last tree. One of the values of travel is that you end up going to places where that is exactly what happened, which can be a real wake-up call.


High flyers press the fleshNhan Chiem, corporate communications manager, HSBC
The very nature of what we do is developing a rapport with someone face to face, so flying is a difficult area to address. While we offer videoconferencing facilities for our clients, it’s not always acceptable for them to work like that - especially for a high-value deal...

Chris Tuppen, BT head of sustainable development and corporate accountability
“At the moment teleconferencing is driving productivity within organisations rather than substituting travel. That’s down to cultural reasons, as well as financial ones. People will always hold big conferences and gatherings, and feel the need to press the flesh.”

High impact
Aviation accounts for about 5.5% of UK carbon dioxide emissions, but they’re more damaging than ground-based emissions, so they’re responsible for about 11% of our total climate change impact. By 2030 that figure could be 25%. Who says? The Department for Transport.

Richard Hammond writes on eco-tourism for The Guardian.

15 January 2007

Richard Hammond