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RESPONSIBLE TOURISM
Do we really care?
Monday 26th November 2007, School of Management, University of Surrey, Guildford
PHOTOS:
 From L-R: Bob Collier, Bernard Donoghue, Sue Hurdle, Roger Heape, Graham Miller & Dominic Ponniah. |
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NOTES & PRESENTATIONS:
The Tourism Society brought together a panel of experts to discuss the timely and controversial subject of 'Responsible Tourism' last night at the modern campus of the University of Surrey School of Management in Guildford. The panel included Sue Hurdle, CEO of the Travel Foundation, Graham Miller, Professor at the University of Surrey , Bernard Donoghue, Head of Government and Public Affairs at VisitBritain, Dominic Ponniah, Executive Director of Tuc Tuc Ltd and event sponsor Bob Collier, MD of Tourism South East.
Over 50 tourism professionals and students from a variety of locations and organisations gathered to discuss the subject which has commanded increasing media attention.
Chairman of the meeting, Roger Heape FTS, former lecturer at the University of Surrey and Vice Chairman of the Travel Foundation, kicked off the meeting by asking some pertinent questions such as 'what is responsible tourism?'; 'what is the difference between responsible tourism and sustainable tourism?', 'if we know what responsible tourism is, then what is irresponsible tourism?', and 'do we really care about responsible tourism?'.
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click here to download a pdf version of Graham Miller's presentation
Graham Miller MTS graduated from the University of Salford before moving to live and work in Japan for four years. Upon his return Graham undertook his postgraduate studies at the University of Surrey , completing his PhD in 2000. Graham worked previously at the University of Westminster before joining the University of Surrey in September 2003.
Graham's presentation focused on the research that he and his team had recently conducted on behalf of Defra. Defra has sponsored this research which forms just one of 5 research projects looking at:
• I. Sustainable consumption of food
• II. Sustainable energy use in the home
• III. Sustainable finance & investment
• IV. Sustainable transport
This particular research report looked at the 'Public understanding of sustainable leisure and tourism' . Copies of the report can be downloaded by clicking here. Focusing on the UK as a holiday destination, focus groups were questioned over responsible travel and activities, travelling less or combining travel. When asked about environmental awareness in general, the research highlighted real confusion over the different elements such as the ozone layer, recycling and carbon emissions. Looking at tourism in particular, the focus groups found it difficult to identify the impacts of tourism. Given that the element of travel takes 50% of the impact of the trip, the research team were surprised to discover that the distance of destinations away from the UK did not seem to impact on the ranking of a destination's 'environmental' impact but elements such as whether it was a large city or rural destination did feature.
The research showed that people are not willing to stay at home as an alternative to holidaying overseas for a number of reasons such as unreliable weather, bad memories of childhood domestic trips, and the fact that international travel is glamorised in today's society and many felt they had a 'right' to their overseas trip. The overriding response to the research was 'don't touch my holidays'!
There were some positive responses to taking domestic trips, however, with the increase in the 'hassle' of flying and trains becoming a more real alternative, but they were not willing to travel less or sacrifice a 2 week holiday overseas for the UK. When asked whether they would be willing to take one longer trip rather than many shorter ones the response was initially good but the practical implications such as leaving an empty home for longer or getting more time off work and school meant that this was also not a realistic option. Unfortunately pro-environmental behaviour was seen as an expensive sacrifice.
The overriding response to the responsibility of tourism was that the government should be doing more; it was felt that the industry was doing all that it could and the government were making money out of the issue via taxes rather than actually helping.
Moving forward, Graham expressed the need for the industry to connect people and make them feel like they are part of a bigger movement; initiatives like the pledge bank could be a good template. Travellers also need to be educated in connecting the different issues such as tourism and climate change, e.g. one individual in a focus group could not understand the relationship between co2 emissions from planes and the effect this has on trees and the absorption of the gas.
Graham felt that VisitBritain require more funding, alternative transport options need to be cheaper, more realistic and practical; the industry and government needs to step into the debate and lead the issues otherwise consumers will use this as an excuse not to change their behaviour.
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click here to download a pdf version of Sue Hurdle's presentation
Sue Hurdle is Chief Executive of The Travel Foundation; the government & industry-backed sustainable tourism charity. Having worked for Thomas Cook for a number of years, in 1998 Sue developed an initiative to persuade the UK 's leading travel companies that Corporate Responsibility really is good for business. In 2003 this initiative was launched as The Travel Foundation - the world's first industry partnership to help companies put sustainable tourism into practice.
Sue's presentation looked at how the outbound industry is approaching responsible tourism. Sue felt that the industry does care about the issue given that they set up the Travel Foundation in 2003 with the aim to make outbound travel more beneficial to destinations.
The Travel Foundation raises awareness of how companies can take action, showing how best practice can be used in destinations and bringing the industry together with experts. The foundation provides a practical, simple approach for companies to take; Sue felt that this template should also be used for the consumer.
The foundation has created practical guides, posters and DVDs for companies to show their customers how they are playing a part. The foundation has also been involved in training such as information for holiday reps on how to handle a situation where turtles are approaching tourist beaches to lay eggs.
Sue explained that the foundation works with suppliers at destinations, e.g. farmers and craft workers to increase their knowledge of how to sell to the industry. The foundation has created a guide on climate change and what managers in travel can do. One successful initiative was to get more airlines to recycle aluminium cans from flights.
Reduce my Footprint is a carbon offsetting scheme led by ABTA and AITO which Sue described as the 'next generation' in offsetting as it helps to reduce carbon and creates positive benefits for the destination. The scheme is based on the principle that offsetting is the last resort in the process to reduce carbon emissions.
Sue was keen to clarify that offsetting should not be seen as a license to pollute. As it is a joint initiative it shows the consumer that the industry is sharing the responsibility and taking action; Sue felt that leading companies will be followed by others and the consumer will then start to show they care.
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Bernard Donoghue FTS is Head of Government and Public Affairs at VisitBritain. He has overall responsibility for the UK government agency's public affairs and has particular responsibility for liaison with, and advice to the Royal Households, No 10, HM Treasury, DCMS, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and COBRA, the Government's crisis communications network. Bernard is also Deputy Chair of TIER, the Tourism Industry Emergency Response Group. In July 2007 he was appointed by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown to be a member of the Prime Minister's Communications Advisory Group. Bernard is a Trustee of WWF-UK (the World-Wide Fund for Nature); Centrepoint, the youth homelessness charity; and Chairman of Young@Now UK and its sister charity in the USA and Deputy Chairman of London Youth Trust. He is a Board Member of Marketing Manchester and the Tourism Society, and is an observer on the Board of the Tourism Alliance.
Bernard began his presentation by describing his complex and often schizophrenic responsibilities in working to bring more tourists to the UK from all over the world but having responsibility for VisitBritain's sustainable tourism policy and being a trustee of WWF.
Bernard put the tourism industry in context; it employs 2m people in the UK and contributes 4.5% GDP; this rises to 12% in Scotland and 10% in the South West. Inbound tourism is the 3 rd highest earner of foreign earnings in the UK .
Responsible tourism is a tough challenge in that messing about with holidays is the last customer taboo; they might be prepared to recycle and change their light bulbs but not change the way they travel. Travel is seen as the last bastion of customer choice; if the industry or government start guilt-tripping or influencing travel behaviour the customer will not react well.
Bernard travelled to Davos for the UNWTO Climate Change summit where he sat aside Ministers of Tourism from around the world who all had difference experiences and perceptions of the subject; the Minister of Tourism for the Maldives looks after an industry worth 25% of the GDP of his country but the islands are physically decreasing by two foot a year; he can literally see his asset disappearing before his eyes. The Minister of Tourism for Bangladesh also witnesses first-hand the devastating effect of climate change when he sees the crippling effects of the floods in his country. The Minister for Tourism for Ethiopia has a different take on the subject; he claimed that if they doubled the amount of tourists (they currently receive about 65,000 genuine tourists a year) then they would achieve all of their millennium poverty goals in one go.
Bernard expressed that there is more about this subject than just reducing travelling; for some countries tourism is the only way they can survive. Tourism represents the biggest voluntary transfer of money from the developed to the developing world.
We need to be critically honest about carbon emissions and not demonise travel; in the UK travel represents just 4.5% of the carbon emissions produced whereas the built environment is responsible for 60% of the total emissions. We therefore need to respond proportionately.
If the rest of the world consumed as much as British people do, we would need 3 planets to cope. Our own personal behaviour therefore needs to change. There are three main ways to do this, as highlighted in the recent Stern report:
• Encourage change
• Incentivise change, e.g. with a tax system
• Legislate change
The UK is the only country in the world that has put legislation in place for specific carbon emissions targets. The UK tourism product is the result of over 1,000 years of sustainable behaviour; of good tenants looking after the landscape for future generations to enjoy. We have fantastic organisations helping with these goals today such as English Heritage, the National Trust, Food for Britain etc. In St Davids, a small town in Wales , they pioneered a '10-mile menu' scheme; a creative solution that can be replicated anywhere.
There is also the issue of corporate responsibility; not just individual. People need to make both their home and office more sustainable. It is possible to be creative and green at the same time; Amsterdam has a great example of this. The government of Amsterdam wanted to encourage all residents to change their light-bulbs to energy efficient ones and took the bold decision to go into every single red-light brothel and change the red light bulb for a red energy efficient bulb! This obviously caused a great deal of media interest and raised awareness of the issue.
The benefits for organisations to change to be more sustainable are many; they can save money and improve their staff retention and recruitment and appear more responsible so their customers will be more responsive. The future generation will have no time for organisations that have no environmental credibility; these are both future customers and staff so it really is in every organisation's best interest to change their behaviour. One example of such a company is the Gleneagles Hotel group who have invested in biothermal heating.
The alternative for not becoming more environmental is so catastrophic that it is the best incentive for changing behaviour.
VisitBritain are taking a facilitative, rather than a leadership, role. They are doing this via British Tourism Week; a new green accreditation scheme and by bringing together industry leaders to discuss the big challenges and 'easy wins' and working out exactly what they require of government.
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click here to download a pdf version of Robert Collier's presentation
Robert Collier FTS has been the MD of TSE since 2003, he is a fellow of the Tourism Society and board member of the Tourism Alliance, RTB Partnerships and Culture South East. He is also a member of British Tourism Week, the SE Partnership for 2012 and the Welcome to Britain Group. Previously, Bob was CEO of East Midlands Tourist Board, Marketing Director of Yorkshire TB and Marketing Director of Parkdean Holidays.
When discussing the issue a number of terms are used such as 'sustainability', 'responsible' and 'green'. Bob was keen to ensure that we don't worry about the confusion as it is the actions that matter, not the terms.
Gaining more environmental credentials from an organisation's point of view will reduce costs, align the business with customers who want green credentials and fits in with a CSR agenda.
Tourism South East have created two main leaflets on the subject one of which is directed at saving water as the SE is the driest region of the UK. TSE created stickers for hotels to put in their bathrooms for customers to view and read the accompanying leaflet encouraging them not to waste water. TSE also created some guidance on local produce; developing ways to use local produce. Bob pointed out that small B&Bs may only produce one meal a day (breakfast) and therefore this sort of initiative is easier by buying locally sourced eggs, bacon and sausages.
TSE are also involved in training; giving people the skills to understand the issues. Bob conducted a straw poll of the audience and discovered that about 80% of the audience thought that very few travellers are responsible.
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Dominic Ponniah founded TucTuc, Europe 's first motorised rickshaw service, in 2006 which was launched in Brighton & Hove. He plans to expand across the UK and abroad over the coming years, with a new service opening in London next spring. Last month the company was given a Highly Commended Award in the Best Tourism Experience category of the Tourism ExSEllence Awards 2007.
Dominic explained that the TucTuc is a 3-wheeled motorised rickshaw. It is cheaper to run and 'cooler' than a taxi or car and is run on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas); one of the greenest fuels on the market.
The Indian Government made a bold decision to change the transport system in 2002 and decided that all vehicles had to convert to CNG. India, in particular Delhi, used to suffer so badly from intense pollution and smog caused by traffic that traffic police used to pass out in the street. Since the changeover, India 's pollution has decreased by 20%. For more information on this please click here - http://gailonline.com/gassummit/feb3-a-k.pdf .
In comparison, London has the congestion charge and two token hydrogen fuelled buses. Even the Americans are ahead of us; Dominic recently visited Boston and nearly fainted when he saw a bus drive past with a 'CNG' sticker on the side.
In the UK it is still politically popular to penalise tourists rather than lead by example.
TucTucs run on CNG and is the only public transport operator in the UK to do so. Being an environmentally sensitive business, Dominic has received letters of support regarding his organisation and when Brighton & Hove council fined TucTuc Ltd for failing to meet the timetable standards that the buses have to keep to, Dominic received thousands of signatures on his petition against the decision and managed to get the fine reduced.
TucTuc Ltd has also received huge amounts of media interest in over 30 countries which Dominic feels would not have happened had his vehicles run on diesel. The application to bring the TucTuc service to London is currently with TfL.
Dominic has received interest from people wanting a green transport option for their wedding and has been hiring his special pink valentines TucTuc which is decorated with hearts.
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The discussion after the presentations centred on the industry and government response to the issue. It was felt that industry needs to pull together to educate the consumer. Government needs to lead from the front and Britain is in a fantastic political position to lead the way in global politics to keep this issue at the top of the agenda and create solutions for everyone to follow.
DEFRA will use the research report as part of a white paper on behavioural change strategy which is something to look out for next year.
The point about offsetting was reiterated by Bernard Donoghue - it should not be the tourism equivalent of catholic confession!
Another way the government could lead from the front is by ensuring that all new houses, especially those being built on brown field sites, conform to the highest green specifications.
The awareness and 'want' to do something about the environment by the public is snowballing and requires big industry and government actions. Dominic Ponniah coined a new term 'Ecopreneurs' which could be a new type of businessman who uses environmental credibility to get ahead in industry.
One possible route for legislation would be to tax airplane seats to reduce the amount of empty or part-empty planes flying which is not cost efficient.
There is a fine balance between caring for the environment and caring for the industry; we need to create solutions to help mitigate climate change whilst not harming the industry we work in that has such a powerful global economic force.
The final point of the evening came from Graham Miller who claimed that if we wait for the consumer to make the right decisions - consumer push - it won't be quick enough; the leading action has to come from industry and the government.
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An audience of over 50 participated in the discussion.