The industry must raise issues with destinations to understand the environmental impact of visitors, says Abta chairman Noel Josephides
World Travel Market (WTM) last month saw many sessions on the environmental and social impact of tourism. Ten years ago, such sessions were almost frowned upon as the industry showed no interest in these topics.
I first became aware of the impact tourism was having on destinations in the late 1980s and, at that time, those of us who dared to raise such issues were branded as ‘weird’.
There are many who still believe our industry is a long way from accepting the consequences of its actions on destinations and, all too often, I find it frustrating that there is not more awareness.
Platform for change
Yet all you have to do to see how far we have come in the last decade is to count the number of responsible tourism sessions at WTM, which serves to confirm the greater awareness of the industry as a whole.
Smaller specialist companies, especially those involved in tourism to developing countries, have always been aware of their impact. Yet, when Tui tells us that the effects of its environmental and social impacts are at the heart of everything it does, you can see how much attitudes have changed.
However, can we sustain the momentum in this fast-changing sector? The traditional tour operator no longer controls capacity and quality. No-frills carriers announce new routes every day and destinations fall over themselves to make it as attractive as possible for the airlines to do so.
I am sure that the social and environmental impact is not something that springs to the minds of airline executives when they announce a new route or the doubling or trebling of weekly rotations on established routes.
Forging a link
In the same way, a bed bank that features hundreds of thousands of hotels across the world cannot be expected to know what is happening in each destination it features, especially when the accommodation may well not be contracted directly.
Hoteliers and accommodation providers throughout the world simply load details of their properties on remote websites and magically receive bookings. There is no physical contact, no human communication between the parties. The link is simply between technology platforms.
Additionally, who is responsible for the supply chain now? With changing business models, it’s not unusual for companies to sell a destination they haven’t visited in person. Clients likewise self-package without any knowledge of the impact they have.
It is, therefore, more and more important that, as companies improve their own sustainability, we also, as an industry, raise the issues with the destinations themselves to recognise what is happening and work with them to control and understand both the environmental and social impacts of their visitors.
This is not going to be easy but it must be done if we are to maintain sustainable growth.