Tourism Environmental Issues – Good Environmental Practice in Tourism Sector
The tourism sector is taking an active role in environmental protection. They are becoming aware of the impact generated by the activity and recognizing that their actions affect the social, economic and environmental fate. Moreover, the culture of social responsibility, conducted increasingly by decision makers of different tourist areas, is becoming a new element of competitive differentiation between the different actors in the sector. Along the same lines, visitors are increasingly aware of the damage and damage caused by tourism, unsustainable practices and punishing or rewarding responsible tourism initiatives in choosing the destination, airline, lodging, food and kind of tour.
In this context, the practices and social initiatives in environmentally friendly environment will return on the ecosystem as well as on the economy of the company. This will easier for everyone to conserver and to control the consumption of resources and more efficient production processes, improve company image to respect the environment and society, access to new markets, more demanding and specialized, improve competitiveness, on the differentiation of a clean and sustainable business and, of course, protect the environment, to maintain the welfare of present and future life on our planet.
If we look from the hotel perspective, water usage can range from 550 liters per guest per day in a deluxe city hotel, up to 100 liters of a user of camping. Energy, meanwhile, is one of the largest budget items, accounting for 20% of total expenditure and in many establishments, the second of the operating costs after salaries.
Therefore, responsible environmental management is required from owners, staff and customers, changing habits in the water and energy consumption, waste minimization and responsible procurement, among others.
The City of Zaragoza and the Foundation Ecology and Development, recognizing the need to promote innovative initiatives within the tourism sector by presenting the first Jornada Sustainable Tourism Zaragoza.
In this event, the board tries to present a series of actions are already underway within tourism sector, while promoting other actions and behaviors towards sustainable tourism.
It is organized into two parts. The first presents a general module of sustainable tourism and, second, is divided into three workshops, for professionals to travel agents and tour operators, the hotel sector and trade in general.
On the 19th of this month held the 1st Week “Sustainable Tourism Zaragoza”, organized by the Hon. City of Zaragoza and the Foundation Ecology and Development (ECODES). During the event, the experts discussed the impact of good environmental practices in improving the quality of tourism services and discussed the feasibility and benefits of implementing various environmental actions and to obtain various certifications.
The day was deemed a success from the standpoint of the number of attendees who were present in both the morning session and in workshops that took place in the evening, in order to obtain useful and practical information the advantages to implement sustainable tourism, as well as reflect and debate on the subject. On the other hand, the interventions of the speakers invited to the day, were of great interest for different stakeholders gathered there.
It was attended by representatives of some of the most prominent organizations in sustainable tourism, such as the Institute for Spanish Tourism Quality, the Department of Environmental Quality Catalonia, the Tour Operators Initiative-TOI, the Institute of Responsible Tourism and other tourism professionals in general, which provided examples of specific cases undertaken in their establishments (NH Hotels, Viajes Eroski, ISMAL Travel, Hotel Boston, Hotel Palafox, Stamp Fair Trade, the Ecological and Sabeco Trastienda ).
In addition, the workshops were presented experiences of good practices in the sector, in order for stakeholders to learn, with concrete examples, the feasibility of incorporating the environmental dimension in the management of your particular business, as a factor strategic for the company for its potential to generate sustainable competitive advantages.
Finally, it is noteworthy that the day itself was an example of sustainable event, and that compensation was made CO2 emissions in the day, it had the assistance of a hostess, ecotourism, whose mission is to promote comprehensive of the Roma community to new job profiles, reduced paper consumption by replacing much of the material that was delivered to attendees for a gift pen drive, which was attached all documentation of the day, and catering service offered organic and fair trade.