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WTM LONDON 2017 ®
RESPONSIBLE TOURISM
Once again, a major focus of WTM London was Responsible Tourism, with three days of sessions dedicated to this important sector. The first panel session of the day explored tourism’s efforts to address its carbon and water footprints. Speaking by video from Australia, Professor Susanne Becken from Griffith University said that tourism continues to base its approach to meeting these challenges on what she called the ‘fallacy of incremental change’.
She explained that this means the
Becken’s sense of urgency was amplified by John Proctor, Chief Executive of the UK’s Green Tourism, who said that while the accommodation sector has to do its part, the real issue is the costs from transport, in particular aviation.
In a session titled ‘Kerala’s Responsible Tourism Mission’, Dr Venu, the state’s Principal Tourism Secretary, opened by explaining that the state’s responsible tourism journey has been defined by developing a community tourism network so as to “include the local community not just a participant, or even a beneficiary, but as a leader.” Jose Dominic, MD of CGH Earth,
industry focuses on gradually improving the efficiency of how it works while it keeps growing its overall impact, rather than making absolute reductions in its impact. “We are like dieters who give up fizzy drinks but keep eating more and more food,” she added.
shared the story of Coconut Lagoon, an incredibly sustainable property his company runs in the village of Kumarakom, which is itself a pioneer in Kerala’s responsible tourism mission. He explained how the commitments CGH Earth has made when it comes to operating its lodges are not just the more responsible way to act, they have also
improved profitability, since their businesses stand out from the
crowd and offer remarkable
experiences. For example, he explained that Coconut Lagoon is zero waste, has its water needs served entirely from rainwater harvesting, and is now even
preserving and reintroducing the endemic Vechur cow species, while engaging its guests in all these stories. In an echo of Susanne Becken’s arguments from the earlier session, he added that it was essential for tourism to move away from a business model where companies commit two per cent to Corporate Social Responsibility and ‘good works’, which he said just means they can just do whatever they want with the rest of their business. Instead, he argued, we need to design companies to be sustainable and “purposeful” in the way they operate their core business. In a session on ‘What’s Next for Certification?’, Professor Xavier Font from the University of Surrey, said that the process needs to be more rigorous. “If I look at a certification scheme where 40-50% of businesses are getting gold then it is not worth getting,” he said, “and the standards of the certification needs tightening.” Soren Stober, Commercial Director for
the Travelife certification scheme at ABTA, said that one positive sign was that companies are now paying attention to issues such as modern slavery, and that the Travelife scheme now assesses these social impacts as well as focusing on standard environmental data. However, he expressed concern that: “sadly we are
36 WTM London Review 2017
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