Sustainable Travel

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) announces the Judges for the 2008 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards. The Awards, which focus on best practices in sustainable tourism, are known to be the most prestigious accolade in the Travel & Tourism industry and have gained international recognition for their rigorous three-step judging process.

Costas Christ, Chairman of Judges for the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards and a world-renowned expert in sustainable tourism said, "The high caliber of our international judging panel and the rigorous on site inspection process is what distinguishes these prestigious Awards, bringing global recognition to the world’s best practice examples of sustainable tourism. Our goal is to encourage the travel and tourism industry to play a larger role in protecting the cultural and natural heritage of our planet while also delivering tangible local economic benefits.”

This year’s judges on the Finalist Selection Committee are:

- Dr Peter Burns, Professor, Centre for Tourism Policy Studies, University of Brighton, UK
- Tony Charters, Principal, Tony Charters & Associates, Australia
- Nicky Fitzgerald, Senior Director, CC Africa, South Africa
- Erika Harms, Executive Director of Sustainable Development, United Nations Foundation, Costa Rica & USA
- Marilú Hernández, President, Fundacion Hacinedas del Mundo Mayas, Mexico
- Dr Janne J Liburd, Associate Professor, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark & Chair, BEST Education Network
- Brian Mullis, President, Sustainable Travel International, USA
- Mahen Sangkhrajka, President, Big Five Tourism and Expeditions, Kenya
- Mandip Singh Soin FRGS, Founder & Managing Director, Ibex Expeditions (P) Ltd
- Albert Teo, Managing Director, Borneo Eco Tours, Malaysia
- Jessica Hall Upchurch, Director of Sustainability, Virtuoso, USA
- Michelle White, Director, Environmental Affairs, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Canada & Global

This internationally acclaimed panel represents the public and private sectors as well as media and academia. Its members will review and select a shortlist of finalists in each of the four award categories to move into the second stage, when on-site inspections will take place. During the third stage of judging, a final judging panel will choose the winner for each category.

Members of the Final Judging Panel include:

- Costas Christ, Chairman of Judges, Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, USA
- María Isabel Salvador, Minister of Tourism, Ecuador
- Graham Boynton, Group Travel Editor, Telegraph Media Group, UK
- Fiona Jeffery, Managing Director, World Travel Market, UK

To find out more about previous winners and to download an application form to be considered for the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, please visit www.tourismfortomorrow.com. For further information, please contact Susann Kruegel at the World Travel & Tourism Council on telephone number +44 (0) 20 7481 8007, or by email at susann@wttc.travel.

About WTTC
WTTC is the forum for business leaders in the Travel & Tourism industry. With Chief Executives from one hundred of the world's leading Travel & Tourism companies as its Members, WTTC has a unique mandate and overview on all matters related to Travel & Tourism. WTTC works to raise awareness of Travel & Tourism as one of the world's largest industries, employing approximately 231 million people and generating over 10 per cent of world GDP.

Posted by BrianM at 8:56 AM | Permalink

Geotourism Commitment Launches with Annual Ashoka Competition

At the Third Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative today, the National Geographic Society was recognized for spearheading a new $25 million Geotourism Commitment aimed at protecting and celebrating the world’s distinctive destinations. National Geographic defines geotourism as “tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place — its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and the well-being of its residents.”

This Geotourism Commitment, which will be funded by National Geographic and other partners, will be used to demonstrate how communities around the world can use geotourism to help alleviate poverty, promote sustainable stewardship of places and tourism-related assets, and minimize negative environmental and social impacts often associated with mass tourism
development.

The Geotourism Commitment includes five key elements for implementation over the
next three years: 1) research and training on best practices; 2) creation of a global geotourism
network of experts to exchange information and ideas; 3) six demonstration projects to
implement and evaluate the geotourism approach; 4) a global media marketing campaign; and
5) sustainable funding to ensure continuation of geotourism in local communities.

To launch the Geotourism Commitment, National Geographic is partnering with
Changemakers (an Ashoka initative) to create three annual online competitions. The first “Geotourism Challenge” will debut January 2008 with a dedicated Web site to encourage online
nominations for innovative solutions in sustainable tourism and destination stewardship.
National Geographic's Center for Sustainable Destinations (CSD) will coordinate the
Geotourism Commitment. CSD Director Jonathan B. Tourtellot is attending the Clinton Global
Initiative to announce its partnership with Ashoka and to seek additional partners for National
Geographic’s Geotourism Commitment.

“With its emphasis on place-based assets and benefits, geotourism can help residents
increase employment opportunities with the production of indigenous crafts, preparing local
guide services, developing and providing hospitality services, and providing unique and valued
cultural educational experiences for visitors,” Tourtellot said.

The Geotourism Commitment builds on CSD’s ongoing geotourism education and place-
based initiatives using a holistic approach. To date, the Center has developed 13 guiding
principles that serve as the foundation for the geotourism approach; signed Geotourism
Charters with countries of Guatemala, Honduras, Norway, and Romania; and created branded
Geotourism MapGuides to showcase the unique assets of Appalachia, Arizona-Sonora and the
Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The new Commitment allows CSD to enhance its existing
geotourism efforts and design innovative approaches to sustainable tourism worldwide.

President Clinton started the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in 2005. A non-partisan
catalyst for action, CGI brings together a community of global leaders to devise and implement
innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges. CGI consists of
approximately 1,000 members from all over the world who commit to creating or supporting
projects within one or more of CGI’s annual areas of focus. In 2007 the areas of focus are
education, energy and climate change, global health and poverty alleviation.

The National Geographic Society is one of the world’s largest nonprofit scientific and
educational organizations. Founded in 1888 to “increase and diffuse geographic knowledge,”
the Society works to inspire people to care about the planet. It reaches more than 300 million
people worldwide each month through its official journal, National Geographic, and other
magazines; National Geographic Channel; television documentaries; music; radio; films; books;
DVDs; maps; school publishing programs; interactive media; and merchandise. National
Geographic has funded more than 8,000 scientific research projects and supports an education
program combating geographic illiteracy. For more information on geotourism and National
Geographic's Center for Sustainable Destinations, visit
www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/sustainable.

Posted by BrianM at 8:40 AM | Permalink

Green groups want to help you improve your business and ensure the oceans health
In a concerted effort to support sustainable oceans and the dive industry, major government and environmental organizations have come together to announce a full schedule of seminars designed to demonstrate the economic importance of a healthy ocean on a dive operator’s bottom line. Starting Wednesday afternoon, dive operators, travel, and dive professionals will have the opportunity to hear ideas from a variety of environmental leaders on how to put environmental awareness and education to work for them with different business models designed to get people in the water while ensuring the ocean resources will be sustained for generations to come.

Wednesday, October 31
Project AWARE Foundation – “5 Ways to Capture the "New" AWARE Diver” 2:00- 3:00 PM, RM S220C
Oceana – “What’s Good for the Oceans is Good for Diving” 4-5pm, RM S310C

Thursday, November 1
Dive Training Magazine – “Marketing the Environment: Turning Tree-Hugging Into Business Opportunity” 3:00-4:00pm, RM S210C
Project AWARE - “5 Ways to Capture the "New" AWARE Diver” 11:00–12:00 AM, RM S220C and 3:00 – 4:00 PM, RM S220A/B
REEF – “One Fish, Two Fish: A New Reef Fish Identification Course” 2:00-3:00PM, RM S310E

Friday, November 2
The Keys Association of Dive Operators &NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program present "Go Green, Dive Blue; Making the Environment Work for You" 2-4pm, RM S310F,
The Nature Conservancy "Coral Bleaching Monitoring Throughout South Florida" 10:00–11:00 AM, RM S310F
Project AWARE Foundation - “Your Shark Encounters Matter: The Global Shark Assessment w/ Christine Ward-Page from Dalhousie”10:00–11:00 AM, RM S210C
REEF – “One Fish, Two Fish: A New Reef Fish Identification Course” 1:00-2:00 PM, RM S310B
Project Aware Foundation – “Monitor Coral Reefs: Project AWARE’s Coral Watch Workshop”
2:00-5:00 PM, RM S220 A/B ($25 charge)
Beautiful Oceans—“Catch the Growing Eco-Diving Wave with the Beautiful Oceans Coral Reef Biology Program & Resort Package 2008” 4:00-5:00 PM,Rm S310F

Saturday, November 3
REEF – “One Fish, Two Fish: A New Reef Fish Identification Course” 1:00-2:00 PM, Rm S310B

Other DEMA environmental happenings:

Representatives from the Reef Check Foundation will be on hand distributing copies of the International Reef Check Declaration of Reef Rights for signing. The purpose of this pledge is to highlight the tremendous value of coral reefs and to encourage all people and governments to support coral reef conservation. Reef Check will be presenting the signed Declaration to all coral reef country governments in January 2009. Look for the Declaration at booths throughout DEMA.

International Year of the Reef coordinator, Francis Staub will be available at the /Project Aware Foundation counter in the PADI Booth(#1319) on the mornings of November 1st and 2nd. For more information about IYOR 2008, please visit www.iyor.org.

Sustainable Travel International President and co-founder, Brian Mullis, will be available at the National Marine Sanctuary Booth (#2405) on Friday morning (10-12 a.m.) to answer questions about sustainable travel options and business tools for ‘greening’ your dive business. Find out more at: www.sustainabletravelinternational.org.

For more information on the seminars visit the following groups online or at their DEMA booths:

Beautiful Oceans – Booth 1591 or www.beautifuloceans.com
Coral Reef Alliance – www.coralreefalliance.org
Divers Alert Network – Booths 2239 and 2249 or www.diversalertnetwork.org
Keys Association of Dive Operators - www.divekeys.com
Dive Training Magazine – Booth 313 or www.dtmag.com
NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program – Booth 2405 or http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov
Oceana – Booth 540 or www.oceana.org
Project AWARE Foundation – Counter in the PADI booth 1319 or www.projectaware.org
Reef Environmental Educational Foundation (REEF) – Booth 1133 or www.reef.org
Reef Check Foundation – Contact Chris Knight at 310-962-7404 or www.reefcheck.org
Sustainable Travel International—www.sustainabletravelinternational.org
The Nature Conservancy – Booth 2409 or at www.nature.org/florida

We’re all concerned about the oceans futures, and together, we can do something about it.

Posted by BrianM at 7:17 AM | Permalink

The 30th Starz Denver Film Festival (SDFF) announces its Green Initiative – a combination of efforts aimed at significantly reducing the carbon footprint of the 11-day event (November 8-18). With the support of premier sponsor Starz Entertainment, LLC and in partnership with Sustainable Travel International (STI - sustainabletravel.com), the SDFF will honor environmentally friendly business practices dedicated to reducing energy use and waste through various programs.

“As a leader in the Colorado arts community and the international film arena, we feel it is our responsibility to be on the forefront of sustainable business practices,” said Scott Rowitz, executive director of the Denver Film Society. “The Green Initiative allows us to set a precedent in the community and in the festival industry.”

Over the past 30 years, the Denver Film Society (DFS) has been dedicated to educating the public on important social and cultural issues through the art of film. The Green Initiative allows the DFS to inspire its audience to adopt eco-friendly lifestyle practices.

With the financial support of Starz SDFF will purchase MyClimate™ and Conservation International carbon offsets through Sustainable Travel International in an effort to offset the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the environment as a result of the festival. Carbon offsets make it possible for individuals and businesses to neutralize the greenhouse gas emissions they are responsible for, from activities such as transportation, by contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gases in another place.

Festival patrons will have the opportunity to donate money to the Green Initiative as an added expense to the price of festival tickets or as a separate donation. Money raised will be used to fund Green Initiative efforts and donated to various national and international projects dedicated to increasing energy efficiency, reducing waste, reducing deforestation, and replacing traditional sources of fuel used for energy with clean and renewable sources like wind and solar power.

"Filmmakers are leading the way in educating the public about the impact of global warming. The Starz Denver Film Festival Green Initiative demonstrates that the creative community is prepared to act as well as talk in the campaign to improve the environment,” said Bill Myers, president and COO of Starz Entertainment. “We at Starz are proud of this effort by the Festival to ‘go green’ and delighted to support it."

Other aspects of the Green Initiative will include: 100% organic cotton commemorative t-shirts for sale online at denverfilm.org/shop and at merchandise booths throughout the festival; a film guide recycling and exchange program to offer festival patrons the opportunity to reduce waste by sharing their guides before disposing of them; 100% recyclable and compostable Eco-Products to be used at official festival receptions and lounges.

Also included in the SDFF Green Initiative is a partnership with Denver-based organization, BaggyShirts, who will offer festival patrons an eco-friendly merchandise option. Baggy Shirts are an environmentally friendly and reusable multi-purpose bag created by local artisans reducing carbon emissions by 80-90%. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Baggy Shirts goes to organizations dedicated to reducing carbon emissions into the environment. Baggy Shirts will be sold at merchandise booths throughout the festival and will be available for online purchase at denverfilm.org/shop.

Posted by BrianM at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Conservation Fund today announced Plan-It Green, a new campaign through which American Express Cardmembers can help protect the places we love to visit. Through the end of November, American Express will make a donation to the Conservation Fund for every online booking made with an American Express Card at any of ten participating travel merchant partners: Delta Air Lines, Doubletree®, Hampton Inn®, Hilton®, Hilton Garden Inn®, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd., Hotel Indigo®, Avis Rent a Car and Budget Rent a Car. With Plan-It Green up to $300,000 will be generated for the Fund’s land and water conservation efforts.

America’s natural landscapes, scenic waterways and diverse wildlife attract visitors from all over the world. But these special places are threatened. Every year, America loses more than 2 million acres of open space. Since 1985, the Conservation Fund has worked to permanently protect lands that offer wildlife habitat, community greenspace and recreational or historic value. What’s more, 97 cents of every dollar donated to the Fund goes directly into the ground, for land protection projects. That means every transaction that takes place as a part of the Plan-It Green program can make a difference.

For more than a decade American Express has supported historic preservation initiatives. With Plan-It Green, the company continues this effort and supports the living legacy of the American landscape—from the wild lands to the battlefield sites that the Fund seeks to protect.

“We applaud American Express and the participating travel merchant partners for their commitment to protecting America’s land and water legacy, and for providing this special opportunity,” said The Conservation Fund’s president and CEO Larry Selzer.

“American Express is proud to join with the Conservation Fund, our Cardmembers, and our Merchant partners in the effort to support land and water conservation through Plan-It Green,” said Andrea Gellert, vice president, travel industry development, American Express Merchant Services.

For additional information, visit: www.amexnetwork.com/travelgreen.

ABOUT THE CONSERVATION FUND
The Conservation Fund is the nation's foremost environmental nonprofit dedicated to protecting America's land and water legacy for current and future generations. Seeking innovative conservation solutions for the 21st century, the Fund works to integrate economic and environmental goals. Since its founding in 1985, the Fund has helped its partners safeguard wildlife habitat, working landscapes, community "greenspace," and historic sites totaling nearly 6 million acres. With 1% fund raising costs and 97% program allocation, The Conservation Fund is recognized as one of the nation's top-rated environmental nonprofits by both the American Institute of Philanthropy and Charity Navigator.

ABOUT AMERICAN EXPRESS
Merchant Services is the merchant network of American Express, which acquires and maintains relationships with millions of merchants around the globe, which welcome American Express-branded Cards. American Express Company is a leading global payments, network, travel and banking company founded in 1850.

Terms and Conditions: Donation will be made for all online bookings and reservations made between October 22 and November 30, 2007 on participating merchant websites. $.25 per booking or reservation will be made up to a total program maximum of $300,000. Donation will be made to The Conservation Fund in support of environmental preservation initiatives. Purchases are not tax-deductible for American Express Cardmembers.

Posted by BrianM at 4:04 PM | Permalink

Change Too Much
by Hazel Heyer

Experts in the UK believe that consumers exaggerate aircraft carbon dioxide emission to a degree.

According to research undertaken by Nunwood with a representative sample of 1,000 UK consumers who have travelled abroad for a holiday in the last two years, despite the much-publicised debate about carbon and the impact of flying, consumers actually think that aircraft cause far more carbon dioxide emissions than they do.

Carbon dioxide emissions due to aircraft (both freight and leisure) make up around five per cent of the UK’s emissions and just one–two per cent of global emissions, according to the study. However, 71 per cent of consumers think that aircrafts emit between three and twelve times this figure. Incredibly, nearly ten per cent of consumers think aircrafts make up about 60 per cent of CO2 emissions.

Director of the Travel Foundation Sue Hurdle said, “This just goes to show that policymakers who cite ‘public opinion’ as a reason for introducing initiatives relating to aircraft carbon emissions, are in fact using starkly exaggerated public opinion as a basis for their policies.” The Travel Foundation works with the UK outbound travel industry towards making travel sustainable, giving practical help to make their businesses more sustainable and working on specific projects to improve sustainability in overseas destinations.

The organization also provides information and advice for consumers through a series of ‘Insider Guide’ leaflets giving tips to travellers about how to make their holidays more ethical. Funds raised are also used to set up sustainable tourism initiatives in overseas destinations popular with UK holidaymakers, including Tobago, Mexico, the Gambia, Sri Lanka and Cyprus.

Hurdle added: “These segments should be of real interest to travel companies who can use them to help shape their sustainability policies for specific holiday types and customer profiles. For holidays that appeal to the ‘enthusiastic environmentalist’ clearly there is more room to introduce overtly ‘sustainable’ features – while this might have to be more subtle for the non-environmentalist on holiday.”

Another expert thinks the hype has been stepped up by the earth-friendly groups. Justin Francis, co-founder of the online travel agent Responsibletravel.com, the organizers of the WTM’s Responsible Tourism awards said in the 80s there was quite a strong environmental movement. He said, “Environmentalists accelerated the awareness to the threat on the planet. But remember oil never ran out in the 80s. It never did. If they again advance their claim, they run the risk of creating your so-called ‘crying wolf’ that will undermine people’s confidence about what we’re being told about the real threat to our planet.” It is essential, therefore, that everything environmentalists announce must be based on facts.

Francis warns against rushing to conclusions. “This planet is fantastically complicated. And though we might think we might know what is causing what at any one time, there’s a huge amount more to learn. I believe there’s a real threat. But I think that if we over-hype it [climate change/global warming] in order to convince people, we’ll only undermine the changes going on. Sooner than later, we’d run the risk of not seeing what happened again in the 80s, and no longer believe in what environmentalists say,” Francis explained.

When asked about making accountable for emissions and effects on climate the world’s biggest tourism importer and the biggest tourism exporter - namely Dubai and China respectively, Francis said: “In both markets, tourists need to be educated and taught about responsible tourism, especially tourists who are less used to travelling as the Chinese.”

If we see the world’s hot spots filling up with today’s traffic, one can just imagine how it will be once the Chinese explode out to the world. Francis forecasts destination managers will have to redesign how many guests they can cope with without the destroying the very thing tourists come to see in the first place.

Tourism’s impact on climate change can be attributed to three major revolutions of our times: technology and the internet, low-cost flying, and sustainability.

Sustainable tourism ramifications over the industry will be as wide as the other key drivers in tourism. “People who missed the internet revolution 10 years ago, realized they don’t have any business five years later. Others missed the low-cost airline revolution and realized the shortcoming much later. A lot of people today are missing the changes happening with regard to sustainability,” Francis said warning, “Hit it now rather than be at the tail end of the sustainability stream.”

At the forthcoming World Travel Market (WTM) in ExCel London, global warming and related issues will be covered 13th November at the United Nations World Tourism Organization Ministers' Summit on Tourism and Climate Change. The WTM special event, now on its third year, will certainly play a key part in the international program in a bid to widen and deepen the debate on one of the biggest challenges facing the tourism industry. Government representatives will be asked to consider and ratify a declaration recommended by environmental experts at the UNWTO Summit on Climate Change in Davos, Switzerland to be held this October. The Declaration will be addressed at the UNWTO's General Assembly at the end of November - as a major aspect of the organizations submission to the UN's Bali Climate Summit in December 2007.

UNWTO Secretary General General Francesco Frangialli said, “It is the most important and intensive tourism industry analysis on climate ever undertaken and a key component of the overall global response to an issue, which is, together with poverty alleviation, the biggest challenge of our times."

Source: eTurboNews.com

Posted by BrianM at 12:12 PM | Permalink

UNWTO E-Tourism Climate Change Award

Earth Lung – Carbon Free Destinations

Carbon free destinations and interactive "eTourism" tools to advance a coherent response to climate challenge, are among the proposals discussed at the 2nd International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism held in Davos, Switzerland. UNWTO calls on all private and public stakeholders in tourism to factor climate change into their decision-taking process. UNWTO advocates adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, while maintaining its commitment to reducing extreme poverty and fostering sustainable development, as laid out in the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Increased awareness for climate change and its solutions can be advanced through web-based tools which highlight destinations offering more climate friendly tourism choices, as travel information is increasingly becoming web-oriented. Changing consumption behaviour, for example, by encouraging carbon neutral travel, will be promoted through the UNWTO eTourism Climate Change Award.

This initiative is a global first as it links tourism response to climate change with the latest state of the art information and communications technology. It is also among the practical outcomes of UNWTO’s public-private-partnership signed with Microsoft and acknowledges best practice responses to climate change in order to stimulate innovation and change of behaviour to global warming.

The pilot trial for this award will be held at the Canadian Tourism Commission’s "Canada-e-Connect", the 1st Canadian eTourism Strategy Conference & eTourism Awards in Vancouver, Canada, 7-9 November, 2007. Each entry will be reviewed by a panel of experts selected by UNWTO, which will certify and promote the winners (www.canadianetourismawards.com).

Carbon Free Destinations

The Tourism Industry needs to prepare for a possible change in tourism demand as a response to climate change. With transport as one of the most visible contributors to global warming, increased awareness regarding climate change might induce tourists to switch from long haul to short haul destinations. But these shifts could potentially harm least developed countries, most of which depend heavily on tourism income - 46 of the 49 poorest countries of the world rely on international tourism as their primary source of foreign exchange earnings.

During the Davos Conference Sri Lanka announced the initiative Earth Lung – Carbon Free Sri Lanka. This practical policy response represents a bridge across the trade-off between environmental awareness and tourism’s pro-development potential.

As a small country which depends heavily on long-haul travel to generate tourism income, Sri Lanka is facing up to the climate challenge and aims at becoming the first carbon neutral destination. As its tropical forest systems can store large amounts of carbon which otherwise would add to the CO2 in the atmosphere, Sri Lanka aspires to be a travel and tourism Earth Lung.

With its commitment to a range of LULUCF-activities (Land Use, Land Use Change & Forestry) associated with appropriate Carbon Offset Programs (COP), "this initiative has both real and symbolic value and we hope other countries and stakeholders to join the Earth Lung Community to create a global framework that will contribute to the overall UN response to climate change", said UNWTO Assistant Secretary-General, Geoffrey Lipman.

The 2nd International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism is organized by UNWTO together with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and supported by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Swiss Government. The three-day Conference concludes on 3 October and will have addressed the global challenge of climate change and action by the tourism sector in both adaptation of destinations and mitigation of its own impacts.

For further information please contact: Geoffrey Lipman, UNWTO Assistant Secretary-General, Spokesperson Marcelo Risi, Media Officer T: (34) 91-567-8194 / (34) 91-567-8100 / F: (34) 91-567-8218 comm@unwto.org - www.unwto.org Go also to: www.canadaeconnect.com - www.canadianetourismawards.com.

Posted by BrianM at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)