Sustainable Tourism Best Practices: From theory to Action.

This session focused on real case studies on best practices for the promotion of sustainable tourism. How to achieve the theoretical goals and how to carry out these practices in the real world:

Some of the speakers in this session included;

• Erika harms - Executive Director of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and Senior Advisor on Tourism at the United Nations Foundation. www.sustainabletourismcriteria.org / www.gstcouncil.org/
• Mandip Singh Soin FRGS Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, UK. http://www.ibexexpeditions.com/
• Lennart Pittja, Pathfinder Lapland http://www.pathfinderlapland.se/
• Federico Solano – Rainforest Alliance (www.rainforest-alliance.org)
• Natasha Martin – Xola Consulting (http://www.xolaconsulting.com)

You may find more information about the speakers in the following link: (http://www.adventuretravel.biz/connect/summit/summit-agenda/2010-featured-content/speakers/).

At the beginning the idea that there is a growing threat from mass tourism was put forward. The middle class population of china and India is growing dramatically and tourism is a fast growing market in these regions. These middle class people will be travellers in the near future and we have to target them and be careful with the consequences that will result. One of the key issues that we need to address is to harmonize and group the different certifications of:

• Green tourism.
• Ecotourism.
• Cultural tourism.
• Adventure travel.
• Community tourism.
• Sustainable tourism.

The GSCT is developing a global standard on sustainable practices in tourism:

The Global Sustainability Tourism Criteria.

Erika Harms is the Executive Director of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and Senior Advisor on Tourism at the United Nations Foundation. In this role, Ms. Harms manages and oversees the implementation of activities under the framework of the GTSC, a cutting edge initiative that provides a clear set of standards, protocols, processes and measurements for how businesses can better the planet and practice sustainable tourism.

She set out to explain the process of elaborating the guide which has been summarized into 37 criteria and some of the goals that have been achieved include;

• Created a platform for information exchange and the feedback process.
• Maximize and promote collaboration of all the stakeholders
• Cultural aspects of different communities
• Reduce negative impacts, (not only economic but also environmental and social)
• Develop the local economy,

The criteria is set to mark a minimum level, is used as a guideline, it’s a baseline accredited standard, it certifies the certifiers. It is based on the 4500 existing standards and more than 50 certifications. It’s been a long consultative process where all stakeholders have given their input.

There are four main actions or principles in which the indicators have been structured. The indicators will be defined locally, from the global principles or guidelines. 

A.      Demonstrate effective sustainable management. 

B.      Maximize social-economic impacts. 

C.      Minimize the cultural negative impacts. 

D.      Minimize the environmental negative impacts. 

Implement criteria trough the Global Sustainable Tourism Council

• Sets out to transmit, communicate, expand the criteria, best practices
• Educate about the sustainability principles
• Generate and increase market share
• Increase public awareness.
• Collaboration between tour operators, hotels, transport and all the key stakeholders.

After the introduction of the Criteria we have some practical examples form the speakers.

Starting with Mandip Singh Soin FRGS; who likes to be described as a Mountaineer, Explorer, Eco-tourism & Adventure Travel Specialist and Motivational Speaker.

Mandip is the only Indian to be awarded the Ness Award by the Royal Geographical Society, UK, for mountaineering and polar expeditions and encouragement of youth exploration. He is the Founder President of the Ecotourism Society of India and a Judge for the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards for the World Travel & Tourism Council.

After more than 30 years in the Himalayan doing diverse expeditions, he has been being doing diverse project for the development of remote areas. He focuses on identifying the local issues, it is vital for the sustainable development to use the local knowledge and it´s key to empower the local population and understand what their real needs are.

The second speaker was Lennart Pittja of Pathfinder Lapland; a Sami person from Sweden who started his business as a small family company in 1995. Their philosophy includes:

"We work close with nature and are proud of our origin and our history. We wish to spread knowledge about Sami culture, but also how to enjoy being close to animals and nature. For reasons of sustainability and "Natures Best" we always find new trails, a way of not leaving marks behind us".

Vägvisaren - Pathfinder Lapland's products are certified as "Natures Best" by the Swedish Eco-tourism Society, one of the first systems in the world for Eco-tourism certification.

He focuses on 6 pillars:

• Education culture
• Local economy
• Environmental impact
• Conservation
• Create responsibility, respect from guests to their culture
• Quality, reliable.

The success factors that he has identified include;

• Right Staff
• Government Support
• National Label
• Stakeholder process
• Practical tool
• Local and social content (Create rural value for visitors)

Visit Sápmi, has developed Sustainability Criteria including Social and Cultural Aspects of the Samis.

Tourism Community Management plan.

Lennard works normally with small groups, 5 or 6 days journeys in the Lapland sami region. The trip is to guide the reindeer between Sweden and Norway. (Sapmi: area or land, Sami is the person) Their parents and ancestors where reindeer herder and wanted to keep their traditions and cultural heritage. Visitor can experience being reindeer herders for the spring Migration.

Next speaker was Federico Solano who brought the approach from the Rainforest Alliance. The programs they are developing in order to certify organizations with the rainforest alliance badge. The programs include agriculture, forest and now they are beginning with the tourism one. The main goal s of the tourism program includes;

• Improve operations, become more sustainable in the whole process
• Build business awareness and increase in numbers.
• Create global standards that can be compared in different locations.
• GSTC are a guideline for companies to follow if they want to improve their behavior, become more transparent and responsible for their operations.

Global Sustainability Tourism Criteria as backbone of Training Manuals:

• Best management goals of sustainable tourism.
• Tool for operators.
• Best Management Guides for communities.
• Heritage based tourism (UN Guidelines).

www.sustainabletrip.org

For the last 8 years they have been looking at 100 inbound and 500 outbound tour operators. Now they are in the process of creating a blog where they will share the experiences.

GSTC helps to:

• Create a common language worldwide.
• Strengthen organization through its tools.
• Increase benefits to organizations and local communities.
• Establish partnerships, connect stakeholders.
• Accomplish their mission: which is to conserve and broaden sustainability issues to more population, increase awareness.

What do you think of this tourism criteria, could you be interested in been certified in sustainability issues?

This certification is a guideline and all indicators and action differ from location to location but the principles are global. Do you think this is a correct approach?

Creating demand for Sustainable Tourism – Case Studies.

The Crash Course Creating demand for Sustainable Tourism took place in the Alvie, Morlich & Glenmoore room. It was organized by the Rainforest Alliance (www.rainforest-alliance.org/), which was represented by Federico Solano. 

Federico has worked in the tourism industry since 1994 focusing in the marketing field in different areas such as hospitality, airlines, travel agencies and car rentals. He joined the Rainforest Alliance ´s Sustainable Tourism program in 2004. During his time in the Rainforest Alliance, Solano has coordinated projects in several Latin American, North American and European countries, and supporting sustainable tourism by helping offer and demand to adopt responsible practices towards the environment and local communities. His dedication in promoting sustainable tourism to consumers and the tourism industry has led to multiple strategic alliances with local governments, international organizations and private industry.

More information on speakers: (http://www.adventuretravel.biz/connect/summit/summit-agenda/2010-featured-content/speakers/) 

The session began with a small presentation of the Rainforest Alliance. The organization sets to create best practice guides (Forest, coastal environments or anywhere). They create these tools to aid companies in different areas around the world to increase their sustainability strategies and efforts. It provides tools and a work structure which has been adopted in many different areas with a lot of feedback to improve these tools.

They provide a certification for sustainable practices in tourism, through this guideline. We are aware that as nobody is perfect, therefore no business can be 100% sustainable but this program aids companies in order to work in the direction of sustainability and implements these types of strategies. They look for win-win situations where business and local communities benefit from the developments and give back to the community some of the industry incomes in order to preserve the natural and cultural heritage. 

They also have an agricultural, forestry programs among others. The agricultural is the second biggest, a figure is for example of the British tea consumed, and 50% is certified by the Rainforest Alliance. In terms of the tourism program it is growing rapidly and has various programs, some targeting companies and best practices, the sustainabletrip.org organization which educates travellers, or the green travel program. 

After this initial presentation there is a panel of companies that will debate some of their actions and activities that they have carried out in order to try and increase demand for their sustainable products and practices.

• Enrique Umbert of Mountain Lodges of Peru http://www.mountainlodgesofperu.com

Enrique experience has been a learning process towards sustainability. He focused on this idea of comfort versus sustainability in terms of managing expectations. We must understand that we are selling emotional comfort and quality. He educates the visitor and explains why things are done in a certain way. He transmits what are the benefits to the environment and local population of carrying the operations in the way they do.

• Veronica Napuri Peirano of Tucano Reps. Peru http://www.tucanoperu.com

She works in a rural community in Peru which is self-sustained, (agriculture, fishing, school). She focuses on local development but through community integration. The local people are the ones who identify their needs, for example a small playing area for the children, a greenhouse with vegetables so that they don’t have to travel so much to trade. For example: The visitors are the ones who learn the language of the local inhabitants. Shows a great job of conservation of ancient cultures and how this community continues to live in the traditional way and it is they who have the control to continue in this manner or introduce products and services of the "new world."

The program plants trees in the rainforest and there is a strong commitment to keep this community intact and living in their traditional ways.

• Randy Durband of Travcoa http://www.travcoa.com/ Robin Tauk & Partnerts www.robintauck.com

Randy has been part of the World Travel & Tourism Council, and now manages his has his own organization with other partners. HE put forward the idea that there is a clear change towards more sustainable practices and especially in tourism sector. There are EU guidelines, carbon emissions reduction Schemes and programs, surveys show there is a societal change occurring. People are becoming more aware of our impacts on the environment and there is an increase in people and tourist who look to reduce their ecological footprint. There is the greening of suppliers as airlines improve efficiency, companies want to do community development and tour operators travel and audit the greenness of their suppliers.

For example: Country walkers, (Part of TUI) has created a step program certification and awareness campaign to educate, clients, providers, suppliers and all their supply chain to reduce their impacts and becoming more sustainable. Another example he put forward was travel agency that has zero emissions as it neutralizes through forestry programs and using the lower emissions jets.

• Rob Holmes of Green Living Project http://www.greenlivingproject.com

The represent a unique production and distribution team for US & North America. They carry over 175 events around the world. They create movies on experiential travel, we had a meeting with them and we are trying to produce a documentary on the shire of la Vera. According to their expertise the Nicaragua market needs more work in ecotourism and Costa Rica has been the leader year’s back. Their final goal is to educate the consumer. Today they are working on Granada in San Jose for their next event.

www.greenlivingproject.com

Conclusions: 

European Escapes are increasing and there are everyday more people looking for different type of travel:

• Sustainable Travel – standards are evolving and more and more companies are increasing their sustainable practices.
• We need to unify these standards. There are many standards and in order to compare different destinations these need to be unified.
• Increase in the number of certifications (TI) carbon offset arena.

o   Formation education, it’s a process. No one is 100% sustainable!

o   Standards A to B and finally to C. (Long term Process)

• Sustainableairlines.org set criteria and international language for transport companies.

From this session we can identify the changing trends in travel and how the sustainable market is increasing and been every day more demanded. Its changing from an additional value to something that is been demanded by the adventure traveller.

Adventure Travellers want more sustainable practices to be implemented.

Would you be willing to pay a little more for your holiday if you knew that this money is used for recovery and protection of natural environments to recover cultures, communities and ancestral customs?

Discover, Engage & Deliver Awakening Destinations

This session began with Christina Heyniger who is the President of Xola Consulting, Inc., which she founded in 2004. She works with governments, entrepreneurs and community tourism interests to develop and market eco/nature/adventure tourism products and services. They have supported clients in Latin America, Asia, Europe and the United States. She introduced the different participants and was the manager of the session. This session wanted to put forward the difficulties and success of some new destinations and how they are trying to establish themselves as adventure travel, responsible or eco-tourism destinations.

More information about the speakers: (http://www.adventuretravel.biz/connect/summit/summit-agenda/2010-featured-content/speakers/) 

First speaker was Liza Masias – Director for Business Development Sales & Marketing, InKaterra. Liza acts as liaison between InKaterra and its clients and partners. She has broad experience in hotel management, conservation and fund raising, and a good understanding of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development issues.

Liza previously worked for the Four Seasons Hotel Company, Conservation International, the Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development, Special Events Coordinator for The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, DC, and Director for Special Events for the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution, DC, and most recently Assistant Analyst for InSpire Invest in the area of Social and Environmental Corporate Responsibility, Oslo, Norway. Liza holds a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.

She focused on the business development of InKaterra in Peru. This is a case study of good practices. She has achieved this great success in such an isolated area thanks to the long term conservation projects that they run parallel to their accommodation and touristic operations. They have investigations running for 20 years which aids in Latin American countries were instability can lead to great changes when political power changes. The other key issue is that company has sustainability within the company and transmitted to all the workers. She says how thanks to the investigation programs that they run they have been able to survive some of the difficulties that the country has had to live by. This is a great example of ecological research for conservation funded by tourism activity. 

The second speaker is Mads Pihl, a tourism consultant in Greenland’s Destination Arctic Circle Region, an emerging adventure destination on Greenland’s West Coast.

He was once a social anthropologist but nowadays those skills are employed in a bottom-up approach to destination management in a vast Arctic region where tourism actors are few and far apart.

He spends most of his time either on the road connecting with local companies, encouraging networking and collaboration or he develops an online presence for the regional brand through various social media and websites.

Greenland is approximately the size of Mexico and the region where he works is the size of Greece.

He begins his presentation with the idea that Costa Rica was the first Marketing Emerging communities (1998) focusing on adventure travel but since there has been other 15 countries in the world with the same focus.

Some key issues that were brought up in the session include:

• We are not alone, bring NGO,s, Boards, Private business to work together as a destination.
• Connect routes, use nearby destinations that are more known and promote collaboration.
• Cooperatives: Ho to make decisions, how to empower, how to train guides in order to offer a unique and wonderful experience.
• Partnership with local, what to do if the visitor are not coming. Service is vital and the local people must be trained and be aware of what we want to achieve and promote local goods, produce and services.
•  Attract private capital (Eco-lodge) Facilitate (Equity, state, ownership)
•  Responsible investment. (make money but also develop the region and conserve the resources)
•  What do you sell, how you market, what’s different, strategic positioning. How do we differentiate from other emerging markets!
• Market; analyze what market, what is interesting, link to other existing markets, potential, future trends, new tourist needs, among others.
• Accessibility: easy to get to, ways to improve, very important for tour operators.
• Identify the Problem – Opportunity. I.e. what is causing the threat to conservation; is there a need to change (Social Employment); design tourism offer to develop and support local communities.
• Turn the challenge into an Asset.
• Developing destinations need to offer the link between education and training of local population is vital.
• Use luxury like stay in your rucksack in a unique environment experiencing a place where very few people have visited. I.e. Greenland; sleeping on a dog pulled sledge.
• What is first, accommodation or services? Infrastructure or experience?

Private company & Administration

Management in private involves good relations with both local and international partners. You have to be present in order to adapt to changes (be out there business and associations). BE part of the local community but also market internationally, awards always help to create an image for your company or destination.

Tour operators and DMO´s (Destination Management Operators) have to work together to create products and services that follow the destination strategy. Private normally moves quicker that the public institutions so we have to take this into account. Is very important to never be isolated, connect with everyone in your area, with turoperators, reservations, local business, competition, administrational the key stakeholders. 

In order to create a new destination it is key to create a close cooperation between local administration and business and to work on a joint strategy where the efforts of both are mutually reinforcing.

What are the most important aspects to create a new destination?

Transformative thinking - IMAGINE / INNOVATE / SHARE

Imagine

We had the pleasure to meet Mr. Neil Fiske who has served as President and CEO of Eddie Bauer LLC since June of 2007. During his tenure he has led the effort to bring the company back to its roots and reclaim its place as an American icon. He explained how he has redesigned the image of Eddie Bauer according to its historical background. 

Imagine, Believe, and Do 

He has worked the great potential of the history of the brand, first real specialization on gear for the adventurers. He has been able to get out of the difficulties that the company was a couple of years ago and making great profits by going back to its origin and creating a sensible story. Some of the things he used were video and the social media, but always combining with traditional promotion and marketing.

He is the key to their success and was thanks to been able to imagine what he could do for this company. He launched the First Ascent in 2009 “the most significant line of outerwear in a generation”, built by some of the world’s best known mountain guides. First Ascent’s final testing ground was Mt. Everest in May 2009. And, as part of this, Eddie Bauer produced near real-time daily video coverage of its Return to Everest Expedition – a first in Everest’s history. Mr. Fiske has also pulled the company’s rich heritage forward bringing the quality, value, and style of its product back to the standards set by the company’s founder, Eddie Bauer, in 1920.

 All of these goals have been achieved because in the beginning he imagined the idea, he then believed and made his team believe it was possible and eventually became a reality.

Innovate

Keith Sproule is the Tourism Advisor to the WWF-Namibia program office, focused on development of the Communal Conservancy Tourism Sector and support for joint-venture (JV) lodge and campgrounds in the communal conservancies.

A hands-on travel and tourism industry professional, Keith has been an advisor on ecotourism policy and planning to governments on three continents. He has worked and traveled in over 105 countries, including many of the premier ecotourism destinations around the world. He has been a long-term contract consultant with private tourism investment projects, international development banks and government agencies in Egypt, Belize, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Cyprus among other destinations.

He focused on the idea that tourism can be a tool to education. He put the focus on innovating to prepare packages with children and to make them learn and be aware of other cultures. Travelling can be a education experience and can aid the young to broaden their views and want to learn more about other cultures and ways of living. He finished his speech by calling for more packages including children and focus on giving that little extra which will make an effect on children and will open their eyes to other philosophies in life nad want to preserve them.

Share

Finally for the last part of the presentation we had Nicky Fitzgerald who opened her first hotel in 1982 at the southernmost tip of Africa and since then has opened, operated and marketed over 60 luxury safari lodges and boutique hotels across South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya and India.

In 1994 she was employed by Conservation Corporation Africa (CC Africa) as Operations Director and moved across to Sales and Marketing in 2001. Nicky was part of the team that grew CC Africa from 3 to 50 lodges across sub Saharan Africa, and later in India, in all the great wilderness high spots – Masai Mara, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti, Okavango Delta, Victoria Falls, Namib Desert, Kruger National Park, Kahna and Bandhavgarh National Parks, to name but a few. The company employed 2800 people and also ran successful tour operations business in 15 African countries. Many CC Africa lodges are award winning (Ngorongoro Crater Lodge was voted 2nd best hotel in the world by UK Conde Nast Traveller magazine in 2005) and the company has been honored with multiple prestigious ecotourism awards – including global winner of British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Award. In 2008 she was responsible for the rebranding of CC Africa to &Beyond and repositioned &Beyond’s travel business from being a tour operator to becoming a luxury travel provider specializing in fulfilling high ticket trips off the website.

Nicky explain the African term “UBUNTU” and how we should all embrace it in our life.

Ubuntu: "I am what I am because of who we all are." A translation offered by Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee. Similar to a saying: A single straw of a broom can be broken easily, but the straws together are not easily broken.

Nelson Mandela explained Ubuntu as follows:

“A traveler through a country would stop at a village and he didn't have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?”

I leave a video which probably aids in the understanding of the term Ubuntu:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx0qGJCm-qU

Nicky went further and described it as “I am what I am through you”. After her experience described previously she put forward the idea that we need to share the information to become more efficient. She explained the great success of the lodges that she has set in south Africa managed by locals thanks to the process of information sharing where even the financials are known by all the stakeholders.

Some of the main mistakes we all make were put forward and she recommended that we all shared our own mistakes as this is the way to learn. Some of the key mistakes included; Arrogance, “my customer” term, not asking the communities where we operate, “I am Irreplaceable”, “I am the best”.

In the new era of the communication and information the ones who collaborate and share information will always be better prepared for the changes. We all need to do cooperation with our competition and this will report more benefits than working separately.