Tourism

a selection of larger firms. Smaller firms are largely outside this sphere, and diverse supplier groups may not be connected at all. Experience in many countries has shown that well designed mechanisms and tools to educate SMEs are critical, but are most effective when they are accompanied by concrete, actionable items.

3. International development institutions, such as multilateral and bilateral cooperation agencies, and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) should engage directly to inform, educate and work collaboratively with the tourism industry to integrate sus tainability

into policies and

order to assess industry’s performance and support policy recommendations. At a national and even sub-national level, GSTC, supported by information sharing and access to experts and experienced greening pioneers, is a critical step.

management

practices, and secure their active participation in developing sus tainable tourism. At the national level, government and civil-society engagement should be a critical part of these efforts to coordinate action.

4. The increased use of industry-oriented decision- support tools would help speed the adoption of green practices. Hotel Energy Solutions, TourBench and SUTOUR are examples of projects designed to provide assistance to Europe’s tou rism enterprises to identify potential investments and cost-saving opportunities for sustainable decision making to ensure profitability and competitiveness (saving money and investment in ecological building measures and equipment with low energy consumption); provide visitor satisfaction (fulfilling their demands and expectations for high environmental quali ty); achieve efficient use of resources (minimising the consumption of water and non-renewable energy sources); secure a clean environment (minimising the production of CO2

and

reducing waste); and conserve biological diversity (minimising the usage of chemical substances and dangerous waste products).

5. The promotion and widespread use of internationally recognised standards for sustainable tourism is necessary

to monitor tourism operations and

management. The private sector tends to perform best when clear criteria, objectives and targets can be identified and incorporated into their investment plans and business operations. The Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC), issued in October 2008, provides the most promising current platform to begin the process of grounding and unifying an understanding of the practical aspects of sustainable tourism, and prioritising private sector investment.20

The GSTC should be adopted in

20. The Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria Partnership began in 2007 and member organisations include the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), United Nations Foundation, Expedia.com, Travelocity-Sabre, and over 50 other organisations (Bien et al. 2008).

6. Economies of scale in the tourism sector could be achieved by means of clustering. A high environmental quality is a key input by those companies that pursue competitive advantages based on sound environmental management. In the case of tourism, the conservation of the natural capital of a country has a chainable effect and complementary influence on many firms. Clustering can strengthen backward and forward linkages in the tourism value chain and drive sustainability in the whole industry. Natural and cultural attractions are the most valuable assets for tourism development. The tourism cluster must become actively engaged in environmental management and conservation. Active collaboration with the public sector and community organisations will strengthen competitive position for the entire cluster. In the case of Croatia, for instance, Ivanovic et al. (2010) show that small businesses dominate the tourism market share in the total number of enterprises and generate the highest employment rates and income. However, they also show the lowest rate of productivity. This situation partly results from limited understanding of the potential benefits of clustering in tourism, including economies of scale; growth of technological and organisational know- how, and higher market share.

4.2 Destination planning and development

Destination planning and development strategies will be a critical determinant for the greening of tourism. Every destination is unique, and therefore each development strategy must be sensitive to the destination’s unique assets and challenges, while creating a vision to deliver the destination’s goals for environmental sustainability. Destination planners and policy officials are frequently unaware of the opportunities that greener tourism can bring to their destination. And even those who are aware usually lack the skills or experience necessary to build sustainability into new or ongoing destination development efforts.

Advancing greening goals through tourism planning and destination development requires the ability and institutional capacity to integrate multiple policy areas; consider a variety of natural, human and cultural assets over an extended time frame; and put in place the necessary rules and institutional capacity. A destination cannot successfully implement a green tourism strategy

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