We all want to make the world a better place. Well most of us anyways. While we seem to have mastered incorporating sustainable solutions in our day-to-day lives, we sometimes drop the ball when we travel. Sustainable tourism is becoming popular. Travel sites are now incorporating sustainable travel in their packages. Meeting and event planners, likewise, are equally concerned about the impact that their meeting or event will have on our environment. As such, sustainable tourism management has become a regular part of a planner’s day-to-day workload.
Being Eco friendly, or green, doesn’t have to stop while you’re traveling. I have to admit that sometimes while away at a function I have overlooked some of the green practices that I have incorporated into my day-to-day life. I’m also happy to say that is becoming less and less as time moves forward. There, I got that off my chest.
We used to think that tourism sustainability, whether in the form of meetings and events or individual travel, would cost additional money. That’s no longer the case. In addition to this website, there are plenty of resources available that provide sustainable tourism tips. And these are tips that you can easily incorporate into any program.
Here are three easy tips that, in addition to being sustainable, can actually save you money:
1) Transportation and Sustainable Tourism
There’s no doubt that transportation requires the burning of fossil fuels. And unless you’ve had your head stuck in the sand you know that the burning of fossil fuels is not good for sustainability. So the object here is to reduce the carbon footprint that a meeting or event produces.
Here’s a tip that meeting planners love. Actually we incorporated this tip as a money-saving feature before we even realized that it was a green tip as well. If you have a group of people arriving and you’re providing airport transportation, consider grouping the arrivals together by time and transferring those delegates in a larger vehicle. For example, let’s say you have four rivals within 30 min. of each other. Rather than assigning four separate limousines to transfer these guest, why not lump them together and send them via a minivan. The guests don’t mind as they are not waiting that long for their transportation. And the meeting planner loves it because it can cut their transportation budget in half.
2) Sustainable Tourism Management for Meeting Rooms Set up
How many times have you gone into your conference or meeting room to find a selection of coffee, tea and water available. And, more often than not, the water was in plastic bottles. So obviously you know where I’m going here. Get rid of those plastic water bottles. Put pitchers of water on the table. It’s really that simple and it’ll save you a bundle as plastic water bottles cost money and water pitchers do not.
3) What Does Sustainable Tourism or Sustainable Travel Have To Do with Food and Beverage?
I know what you’re thinking: “what heck does my menu have to do with sustainability?”. Well, as a matter of fact, it has a lot to do with your dinner menu. By now most of us have heard the term “eat locally”. Well what that means is that, in addition to getting fresh local food, you are also having an environmental impact as it doesn’t involve a lot of transportation costs to get that food item to your plate. And, remember, transportation usually involves the burning of fossil fuels. Enough said. Another plus of eating locally is that you want your delegates to experience the local flavor. And what better way to do that then by providing locally sourced food items.
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