NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
Sustainability: The Travel Foundation has devised a risk- assessment tool that will allow tourism businesses to mitigate their long-term impact. Ian Taylor reports
Salli Felton: ‘It is essential to have shared understanding of risks and opportunities’
Tool will help tourism firms identify sustainability risks
The Travel Foundation has developed a risk-assessment tool to flag potential environmental or socio-economic concerns in a destination.
It should allow destination authorities or travel businesses to identify long-term sustainability risks to tourism operations and help find ways to mitigate these. The Travel Foundation points
out that tour operators, resort developers and investors routinely take geopolitical, security, health and safety and other factors into account when making long-term decisions about destinations. But often “little or no weight” is given to whether the local water supply will meet the future needs of tourists and residents or how increased waste or energy demands will be managed. Tui Group joined the Travel
Foundation in running trials of the process in Sardinia and Saint Lucia, with assistance from the respective governments. An identical risk-assessment framework was applied in each case, but with a set of indicators to
reflect the local circumstances. Travel Foundation chief
executive Salli Felton said: “More often than not, tourist destinations have fragile ecosystems with limited natural resources and inadequate infrastructure. “It’s essential that stakeholders
involved in developing a destination have a shared understanding of the sustainability risks and opportunities.” Tui business improvement
general manager Tom Johnston said: “It’s a smart and effective way to identify unique risks for each region and destination, allowing travel businesses to work with local
authorities to mitigate these risks and increase the positive impacts of tourism earlier in the process. “Tui is looking to build lessons
learnt into our existing destination selection and management processes.” The Travel Foundation is
now using an adapted version of the methodology to measure the impacts of different types of tourism in Tenerife, in a collaboration with the Tenerife Tourism Council. Destinations or businesses seeking more information should contact graeme.jackson@
thetravelfoundation.org.uk
PRIZE DRAW: Your chance to win a £100 hamper of all-natural creams and cosmetics
Simply complete the Travel Foundation coffee-break quiz Paradise (Almost) Lost, which can be found at
travelfoundationtraining.com. The quiz takes about 15 minutes and will help you understand some of the key sustainability challenges. Anyone who completes the quiz before the end of August will enter a prize draw to win more than £100 worth of environmentally friendly mosquito repellents, sun creams and other cosmetics from Incognito, made using natural ingredients.
Who will drive sustainable tourism?
The Travel Foundation and Travel Weekly want your opinion on the future for tourism and its sustainability. Complete a Travel Foundation
quiz, Paradise (Almost) Lost, that allocates responsibility for managing tourism on a virtual island and you will have to assess where the drive to address carbon reduction, the removal of plastics from oceans, over-tourism and waste management will come from. Will tour operators, hotel
groups and public companies lead progress towards sustainable tourism? Will destination authorities do more with the income from tourism taxes? Or will pressure for change come primarily from consumers, assisted by certification and the labelling of sustainable products?
Where do you think the greatest drive for sustainable tourism will come from? ◗ Destination governments ◗ Major corporations ◗ Small businesses and local enterprises
◗ Consumers ◗ NGOs and pressure groups
12
travelweekly.co.uk 9 August 2018
r
r
e
e
r
r
s
s
i
p
t
o
n
e
s
b
l
e
t
t
n
a
a
v
e
l
d
i
i
o
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72
