In this seminar of the Adventure Travel World Summit held in Scotland we had the opportunity to listen to John Sterling of The Conservation Alliance. (http://www.conservationalliance.com/)
John has spent the past 17 years in the conservation field, and has been involved with The Conservation Alliance since 1996. The Conservation Alliance is a group of 170 outdoor industry companies that work together to protect threatened wild places throughout North America.
Outdoor Business is giving back to the outdoors: Business shares, produce of a year.
We will look at two events with 30 year difference.
In 1989, The Conservation Alliance was co-founded, by Patagonia,REI, The North Face and Kelty, to encourage other companies in the outdoor industry to give money to environmental organizations and to become more involved in environmental work
The 4 major companies came together to protect their habitats, the wild places.
In the US NGO are very important in looking for funds and making companies contribution to environmental or conservation issues.
In 2009, Obama signed 2 million acres of US as a conservative measure.
This came about after the project designed by the conservation alliance in collaboration with many private companies and local people. Individuals and companies have collaborated in this initiative, looking for areas worth protecting and the conservation alliance has been looking for the funding and putting pressure on the administration resulting in the signed by president Obama, showing the strength in numbers.
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:
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:
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?
Monday 4th October.
After we have registered and been given our identification we set out to the auditorium for the opening ceremony. First day is activity day and we have chosen the tour Aviemore Adventure.
The activities are to create a sense of community and partnership in the summit. All members have been given the possibility to participate in order for new member like us to get to know some of the colleagues in the industry.
Some of the activities included where;
Wild Class White Water Rafting
Canoeing and Whisky Tour
Sea Kayaking (Dolphins)
Gorge Walking
Sailing on Loch
Wildlife Tours
Cairngorms Golf
Hill walking, Orienteering
Red Dear stalking
Loch Ness Walk and Boat Trip
Skyline Mountain Walk
Aviemore adventure
Land and Sustainability management of Estate.
Among others.
Before we leave to our adventures we have the opening ceremony. This is a great opportunity for Scotland to promote their adventure tourism based on experiences. There are more than 25 activities planned and it’s a great opportunity to meet tour-operators, reservation and booking agents, media and experts from the sector.
Our activity was Aviemore adventure and consisted on a walking / trekking trip through the Glenmore forest of until we reach the Loch Morlich. This was a great experience where we walked through the forest which is a remnant of the Caledonian Forest near Aviemore in the Cairngorms National Park. This native Scottish forest transports you to your childhood and thanks to the good weather that accompanied us we could see the beginning of the autumn with the changing colors of the trees.
Finally we arrive at the Loch Morlich, one of the many lakes that can be found in the area in between the hill landscape that can be found in the park. After a quick chat and explaining some of the basics of canoeing we set to cross the lake. At mid day we have lunch on one of the banks of the lake.
We are able to paddle our way to the other side of the Loch, from where we cycled back to Aviemore. On the way back we crossed some very nice tracks through the Scottish forest, stopping at another Loch where we could see an old construction in the middle of the lake. It seemed an old castle which used to have a passage before the level of the Loch was risen.
Very nice adventure, we had a great time and meet some really good people who have very similar of looking at life and what is really important. Hope that the connections that we made this day continue and that the things we set out to accomplish in sustainable tourism become a reality. Thank you to the Active Outdoor Pursuits team that made this tour possible!
At the end of the day we are brought back to the auditorium of the MacDonald Aviemore Resort.
Back at the Conference centre:
Shannos Stowell, ATTA President, welcomes us to the 7th adventure travel world summit in Aviemore, Scotland.
“… in this digital age, where social media, mobile connectivity and online meetings define much of our interaction, the ATTA still firmly believe that to come together, shake hands, laugh, debate and deepen friendships through personal human interaction creates more progress and lasting relationship that matter that any electronic alternative can offer”.
He puts forward the idea that we are selling experiences and that it is the time to use this opportunity and get the best of this summit.
“This event is about education, knowledge, sharing, inspiration and relationship building through work and fun”.
“This event promotes adventure travel business grow and thrive responsibly. The group of collaborators is a group for good, bringing much needed revenue to local economies around the world and turning customer’s into lifelong advocates of responsible tourism practices”.
Shanon Sotwell.
After the opening speech, there are several special presentations:
Adventure travel is defined as activities in the outdoors with specific interest to maintaining the cultural heritage and economically developing remote regions. (People, Planet & Profit)
From Armageddon to Utopia … Business as Unusual
“Costas Christ is an award-winning travel writer and Editor at Large for National Geographic Traveler. He is one of the world’s pioneers of ecotourism (he helped to officially define the term) and is an internationally renowned expert in sustainable tourism, traveling to over 100 countries, including some of the most remote wilderness areas and archeological sites on Earth, home to vanishing cultures and endangered species”.
Shows us through a very compelling video how adventure tourism and discovering new areas has also the risk of destroying them. Tries to give a wakeup call to all of us on the dangers and the need of the industry to work together to try to develop regions in a sustainable manner in order to not repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
From his 30 years of experience he sees the future of tourism focusing on authenticity, sustainability, (travel good), experience, interactive experience which he defines as:
“Travel as unusual / green travel”.
Some interesting examples he gives includes;
Airport that uses the movement of the people within the building to get their planes as the source of renewable energy.
The underwater hotel build as skyscraper upside down where the bottom will bne used for marine research and it will be powered with wind, tidal and solar energy.
Dr Wallace “J” Nichols. has undertaken the task of reaching new constituencies with a positive and inclusive conservation message and building a network of like-minded people, from diverse regions, backgrounds and careers who share a commitment to maintaining abundant life in the oceans and on the coasts.
He is a Scientist, activist and above all a father with a deep connection with nature.
In his speech he works on the idea that the sector and the different agents, touroperators, town councils, private companies have to work together and collaborate to create lifelong lasting relations to help develop the world.
“J” and Costas end up with the song “All you need is Love” from the Beatles.
Reinventing Conservation
“John Kasaona (conservationist) is a pioneer of community-based conservation -- working with the people who use and live on fragile land to enlist them in protecting it.”
He brought the inspiration that there all also good case studies of conservation in Africa and in his case in Namibia. The achievement he describes comes from the transformation of poachers into conservation agents for the conservation of the Rhino. All of this thanks to empowering the local community and learning how to listen to the local needs.
Very good example of sustainable tourism outside protected areas can bring development to regions and countries.
Better to hear him explain it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoF4FHCbHwU
ACCESSING Creativity
“Judith Fein, award-winning travel journalist, photographer, filmmaker and teacher, has contributed to over 80 publications and is a regular travel columnist for three”.
New Yorker Judy, tried to teach us that everyone is creative, from 15-85 years. Creativity is important to achieve new ways of living! She put forward the idea that “because everybody thinks it does not work it doesn’t make it real”.
We ended up all dancing on the auditorium!
The night finished with the Scotland opening dinner!
Music, Shinding, Kilt, every one enjoying the traditional food!
Sponsors: MACDONALD Aviemore Resort / Visit Scotland /Cairngorms National Park, The Highland Council!
This is just the first day at the Adventure travel World Summit!! I will continue with the description of the strategic alliances, seminar and lectures and future trends of the sector in future posts!
