The Supply Chain

Tourism is the largest employer in the world and one of the key economic sectors for many countries. World-wide tourism is forecast to grow, particularly for developing countries. It has the potential to bring much needed income, but careful planning of its economic, social and environmental impacts is necessary to ensure the long-term viability of tourism as a business.

Responsible tourism is nothing else then taking into account the local community (people), the environment, nature & culture (planet) and earnings (profit) to ensure that we can still enjoy our holidays in the future.

Travelling puts pressure on tourist destinations. There are environmental impacts from building infrastructure and developing hotels and tourist attractions. Once tourists are there, they consume more water and energy and produce more waste than local people.

Transport to the destination causes harmful carbon emissions. The food and other produce consumed by tourists is often imported, needing further transport and reducing the value of tourism to the destination. Tourists do not pay the true cost of these impacts because many destinations are exploiting their “free” natural resources to gain short term income and employment. This is why destinations become spoilt.

Tourism is one of the most important sectors worldwide (11% world GDP) employing many people and creating income for local entrepreneurs. Tourism is the biggest export product for 83% of the developing countries and a valuable source of income. Tourism can stimulate local authorities to improve infrastructure, water and energy supply, public utilities and quality of life not only for tourists but also for the local population.

For travelers tourism means relaxation, improving their health and condition, time for personal contact, meeting and understanding other cultures. There are a lot of good practices of tourism encouraging nature preservation. Stimulating all these positive impacts of tourism is an opportunity.

Destinations can reduce their negative impacts by planning the use of their resources better. This means involving local people in planning, creating work opportunities and respecting cultures. More jobs can be created without increasing the number of tourists, for instance by encouraging the use of quality, locally-made produce. The creation of better jobs through training and improving working conditions will add value to the tourist experience.

Tour operators have a unique role to play in this. Above all, they can contribute by:•  Encouraging the use of local firms, staff and products•  Helping their suppliers to be more efficient in their use of environmental resources•  Helping their suppliers to create good working conditions for their staff•  Informing consumers about the importance of being responsible while on holiday•  Leading by example by sound management of their internal resources such as offices and paper.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) says that although sustainability practices may generate some immediate business advantages. There are advantages in the form of cost savings and improved relations with staff and local communities. Many of their benefits, both to individual companies and to society, are more long-term.

In addition, not all the benefits are tangible, and some cannot be easily measured. This may make up-front investments in sustainability more difficult to justify. Thus, it is important to make a clear and convincing case for sustainability to senior management and decision-makers. They need to truly understand the overall advantage of improving a company’s sustainability performance. Both in the short-term and for the long-term health of the business.

The key business benefits listed by UNEP for a tour operator acting sustainable include:• Revenue growth: Being seen to be sustainable can help increase income by securing the loyalty of current customers and attracting new ones, resulting in increased market share.

• Cost savings: Sustainability actions can help lower operating costs and improve overall productivity and efficiency by reducing resource use, decreasing waste output and avoiding non-compliance fines.

• Access to capital: As environmental and social criteria are becoming a standard part of lending risk assessments, sustainable tour operators are more likely to be able to attract capital from banks and investors.

• Human capital: Staff are more likely to feel proud of working for employers that take their responsibilities to society seriously. Tour operators known for their sustainability policies have an increased capacity to attract and retain skilled and talented employees and contract labor, thus increasing their ability to innovate and

• Brand value and reputation: A reputation for being sustainable adds value to a tour operator’s brands and strengthens its market position, making it less vulnerable to short-term market and economic changes.

• Preservation of destinations: Acting sustainable helps make tourist destinations more pleasant places to visit and live in. Ensuring the long-term quality of the destination also helps guarantee business viability.

• Improved service: Sustainable management makes holiday facilities safer and healthier for employees and visitors, whilst supporting the local community and enhancing their economic well-being increases staff morale, resulting in improved service and thus higher customer satisfaction.

• Risk management and license to operate: Tour operators can reduce their legal liability by managing compliance and pre-empting relevant legislation. For instance, the likelihood of losses from damage to their reputation can be reduced by demonstrating a proactive stance towards destination sustainability and product quality, which can be used as defense in any litigation.

  Governments are increasingly under pressure from NGOs, unions and the general public to regulate the business sector. This pressure increases if bad practices are uncovered. Tour operators that develop their own codes of conduct and produce independently verified performance reports are in a strong position to influence any proposed legislation.

FROM THE TOURIST PERSPECTIVE

From the Tourist Perspective

• Accommodation: helping accommodation suppliers is the easiest, because they can make financial savings from better environmental management;• Transport: helping transport suppliers is likely to be the hardest, despite the fact that they have the greatest environmental impact;• Excursions and activities: helping your excursions and activities providers will be the most visible to your clients;• Promoting local food and Souvenirs: both will have the greatest positive economic impact at the destination.

As with other aspects of tourism, tourist accommodation has both negative and positive impacts. As you read this section, make a note of the impacts likely to affect the hotels owned or contracted by your company.You may know well of additional examples of good (or bad) practice from your own experience. We also suggest various action-based solutions that your company can take to minimize the negative consequences of tourist accommodation and maximize the positive ones.

The social an economic impacts concern the following issues:• A large number of jobs are part-time, seasonal or casual, making it less likely that personnel will have contracts with good terms and conditions, while staff turnover is high.

• There is a low level of unionization within the accommodation sector and, in some countries, weak legal protection for workers. For instance, short-term contracts are commonly used, with workers dismissed once these expire and then rehired.

• In some ways it is desirable to use locally-owned accommodation, as more of the income may stay within the local economy, but in comparison with large chains, SMEs tend to have low productivity, poor product quality and a lack of access to credit and training, while large chains tend to pay their core staff better than SMEs.

• The opportunities of hotel work may disrupt traditional patterns of income-generation. For instance, women may become the principal wage-earners in the family instead of men.

• Employers and workers alike often fail to recognize the need for training, although this is changing within hotel chains. On-the-job training is limited.

• Wages may be driven down by competition, or workers may be expected to survive principally on tips.

• Economic leakages may occur if local people do not have the capacity or desire to take up jobs, so that foreign staff are needed to work in the hotels, either at managerial level or at a more manual level.

• The opportunities for work may attract migrants from elsewhere, which can cause social tension and an increase in crime.

• Traditional access to the sea and beach may be removed from local people by private development of beach-front resorts.

Water • In beach hotels average water consumption per holiday maker per day is 440 liters, compared with 126 liters in most Western European homes. In a hotel with a swimming pool and large garden, consumption can reach 800 liters.• In many sunny destinations there is a lack of water. If hotels consume a lot of water there is a tension/inequality with local people that experience problems with the availability with water. It is unjust to overuse water when there is a lack of water at destinations.• Untreated or poorly treated waste water can pollute the ground-water, rivers and seas.

Energy • Energy is needed to heat water for washing, swimming pools and saunas, for heating rooms and public spaces in colder regions, and for cooling through air conditioning in warmer regions.• Energy is also needed for lighting, cooking, refrigeration and laundry.• Globally, heating and cooling consume 80 percent of energy in hotels, and lighting and laundry 20 percent.• The presence of tourists in mountain areas in developing countries can increase the use of fuel wood for heating and cooking.

Waste • In many countries sewage is carried in the same pipes as ‘grey water’ from baths and showers, laundry and kitchens.• Hotels or lodges spread over a large area can cause more environmental damage than high volume destinations where accommodation is concentrated and has good water-treatment facilities.• A 200-room hotel can produce five cubic meters of waste packaging materials per day. In both industrialized and developing countries (especially small islands) waste disposal can be a major problem.• Chemical effluent from hotels (cleaning fluids, swimming-pool water) can pollute water-courses.

Siting and design• Hotels are generally sited in the most attractive natural locations, especially beaches and mountains, many of which are also the most environmentally sensitive.• In the absence of effective legislation, developers will often clear woodland or mangrove forests, drain lagoons or marshes, and use coral for construction, thus interrupting natural ecosystems and removing natural protection from the sea or wind.• The replacement of vegetation by buildings and tarmac can increase surface water run-off, which can pollute nearby water-courses and coral reefs and increase erosion in mountain areas.• Wildlife which formerly used the areas now occupied by hotels may be displaced.• An international model of hotel development may be used, with imported or inappropriate materials used in construction.

• Tourist accommodation can quickly create many jobs which need few skills, helping to absorb excess labor in economies with a fast-expanding and youthful workforce or in countries where the industrial profile is changing, for instance from manufacturing to a service-based economy.

• In many countries, working in hotels is more prestigious than manual labor such as agriculture or fishing.

• Tourism can provide useful part-time or seasonal income to add to the family economy.

• The need to cater to different market segments provides a range of entrepreneurial opportunities for individuals and small enterprises.

• Skills can be gained through tourism training which are applicable in other areas (e.g. service skills, foreign languages).

• Tourism can provide a way of preventing rural out-migration from marginalized areas (for instance mountain regions).

• Hotels can provide a show-case for local cultural manifestations (arts, crafts, music and dance, gastronomy).

• Investment in the tourism infrastructure can benefit local populations (e.g. with roads, clean water supplies, or electricity).

• The need to service the hospitality sector can stimulate the economy further along the supply chain, for example by providing food for hotels.

Tourism development can improve local infrastructure by providing better waste disposal facilities or better water-treatment.

• Working in tourism can provide income which reduces local people’s reliance on natural resources such as fuel wood.

• Carefully planned accommodation can enhance the habitats of native fauna and flora.

• Design of hotels which uses local materials and refers to traditional architectural styles can enhance both the built environment itself, and pride in the built environment.

• Tourist accommodation can be created from otherwise redundant buildings.

TUI Nordic

TUI Nordic is one of the leading tour operators in Europe and part of TUI AG, has established a classification program called Blue Village Hotels, to recognize the environmental sustainability practices of some of its partner hotels. The company requires Blue Village Hotels to have implemented the hotel section of the WWF Code of Conduct for the Travel and Tourism Industry and the Code of Conduct against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism. The hotels must also have an Environmental Management System in place and inform their customers about UNESCO’s World Heritage Ten Rules for Responsible Travelling. TUI Nordic experiences a high demand for the Blue Village Hotels. Clients report a high level of satisfaction with the inclusion of responsible tourism developments, and have a positive image of the hotels and loyalty to the Blue Village brand, leading to early reservations. 

These guidelines for responsible travel were developed by the Nordic UNESCO World Heritage Foundation, in co-operation with the tourism industry.

1. Show respect for natural and cultural heritages.

2. Respect local traditions. 3. Take your time. 4. Ask before you take someone’s photo. 5. In good trade, both parties are satisfied. 6. Do not give money to begging children. 7. Buy locally produced products. 8. Support local environmental activities. 9. Reduce the use of natural resources. 10. Travel in low season.

Environmentally speaking, transport is the weak point of tourism. Airplanes, cars, buses and (indirectly) trains use fossil fuels and as a result contribute to global warming. Per passenger-kilometer travelled, planes and private cars have a greater impact on the environment than trains and buses. Often, however, there is no alternative to using air transport for a holiday, while the leisure use of private cars is also on the increase. This means that measures need to be taken to reduce the environmental impact of travel.

The introduction of lead-free petrol and catalytic converters has greatly reduced the emission of most toxic substances, but carbon dioxide is still produced. In the longer term technology will help matters: for instance ‘dual fuel’ cars, which use petrol and LPG, are cleaner than cars which just use petrol or diesel.

Suppliers of biodiesel make fuel from waste vegetable oil used in cooking. Because the oil comes from vegetable matter, there is no release of the carbons stored in fossil fuels into the atmosphere: this makes the fuel carbon neutral. However, the biodiesel sold by many ‘big name’ suppliers in fact contains only a small amount of vegetable oil, which is added to a much greater percentage of mineral oil. Also, biodiesel is not suitable for all makes of diesel engine, and it can be inefficient in cold weather.

The newest generation of airplane engines are more economical and cleaner than older ones. But the vast increase in flying due to changes in holiday aspirations and the deregulation of the airline industry has cancelled out the environmental advantage of this new technology.

For instance, no tax is charged on aviation fuel, and plane tickets are exempt from VAT. This gives airlines competitive advantage over alternative forms of transport. Per passenger-kilometer, charters are more environmentally favorable than scheduled flights because the occupancy rate is generally higher.

Planes could become still less damaging through more efficient design, more economical engines and cleaner fuel. However, globally there is still little support for these innovations, and tour operators therefore have few options to limit the impact of flying.

One of the most popular and practical measures that can be taken is carbon compensation. In nature, there is constant absorption of carbon dioxide and production of oxygen by growing trees. Several organizations (for instance Climate Care, Green Seat, and Future Forests ) have taken this up. They provide a service whereby individuals and companies can pay to have trees planted as a way of neutralizing the emissions caused by their travel

Excursions and visits to local attractions give visitors and the host community the opportunity to come into contact with each other. Tourists often enjoy meeting local people (as long as they do not feel that they are being exploited). Local people will at the same time begin to see tourists as individuals if they get to know them better, and will feel less intruded upon.

The feelings and goodwill generated will, however, depend on the type and number of tourists who visit a place at any one time, and on the nature of their interaction with local people. The principal impacts of excursions, activities and visits to local attractions are socio-cultural and environmental.

• Changes to the host culture through contact with the visiting one. This includes the demonstration effect, whereby people from the host community see and copy the material goods or behavior of visitors. • Begging, especially by children.• ‘Staged authenticity’, where representations of lifestyle or culture are altered to be more acceptable to tourists.• The co modification of ethnicity, i.e. where certain of the more colorful or ‘folkloric’ aspects of culture are picked out and emphasized for sale to the tourists through cultural performances.• Day-trips are notorious for bringing little economic benefit to the area visited, in that vehicles and guides are hired in the base town, while passengers are frequently issued with a packed lunch before departure, and so spend little in the destination.

• ‘Staged’ events can act as a barrier for the host community against the over-close scrutiny of the tourist gaze.• Residents may adjust to the needs of the visitors during their presence but return to their ordinary lives after their departure. • Tourism fosters some visual elements of culture and can boost the position of the visited ethnic group in relation to the majority. For instance, the international recognition of Balinese culture through tourism has strengthened the position of the Balinese in relation to Indonesian society as a whole. • It is often impossible to separate out the effects of tourism from change due to other influences such as television, government development programs, education of local people outside their home area, and the return of migrant workers. • Interactions between tourists and residents tend to be limited in time or area.• In a multi-cultural country the dominant indigenous culture may induce far greater changes than the foreign one introduced by overseas tourists.

• Certain forms of excursion, e.g. off-road driving, snow-mobile trips, or sight-seeing by light plane or helicopter can cause environmental damage in the form of crushing vegetation, disturbing wildlife, creating pollution and excessive use of fossil fuels.

• Even excursions which may seem less damaging, such as mountain-biking or hiking, can have negative impacts in causing erosion, trampling vegetation and disturbing wildlife. Issues concerning trekking and mountain-climbing are covered in a separate section.

• Water-based excursions, particularly involving motor-boats, can be environmentally damaging through disturbing feeding and breeding animals along rivers, or through eroding banks because of motor-boat wash.

• Marine activities can damage the marine environment, for instance through inexperienced or careless divers trampling corals, mooring dive-boats on reefs, or through chemical anti-fouling paints.

• Land-based excursions by coach can have excessive environmental impacts if, for example, a larger vehicle than necessary is used, or when engines are left running for cooling or heating the vehicle even when passengers are absent for some time.

Environmental Impacts

Thomas Cook (UK & Ireland) - Themed excursions

Thomas Cook UK raises awareness of the local environment and culture issues through its excursion and entertainment program. For example, in Malta excursions provided by the Malta Tourism Authority are offered, such as firework displays and beer festivals. In Cyprus, tours are offered to mountain villages and beauty spots with a donation towards local sustainable tourism activity, and in Haldidki the company works with the Turtle Protection Society to promote responsible turtle-spotting. 

The production and distribution of food is an important economic sub-sector for tourist destinations. This applies to any form whether the food is sold through hotels, in restaurants, directly to tourists to consume in their self-catering apartments, or as souvenirs to take home.

• It can improve the local economy by stimulating the production, distribution and retail sub-sectors.• It can support traditional jobs and create new ones.• It can create new markets for local produce.• It can help to address the issue of ‘food miles’, i.e. the distance food travels between the point of production and the point of consumption.• It can help to preserve traditional agricultural landscapes.• It can improve the profile of the tourism industry locally.• It can reduce economic leakages, whereby money spent by tourists leaks out of the local economy in order to buy food imported from other regions or countries.

HOWEVER

• The types of food produced locally may not be to the tourists’ taste, in which case ingredients will have to be imported• The quality of food can be lower than the visitors are used to.• If tourism grows rapidly, there may be an insufficient supply.• Small island economies cannot support large-scale food production.• The food may be produced using chemical-intensive methods which are subject to lower safety standards than in the tourists’ country of origin.• Tourist resorts are often created on low-lying coastal strips of land, which may formerly have been used for food production. The inland areas may be hilly and less suitable for agriculture.• Food distribution networks may be insufficiently sophisticated to cope with the demand from tourist hotels. • The demand for fresh food may put a strain on local resources, create shortages, and drive up prices for local people.

• The demand may stimulate highly intensive forms of food production, which reduce soil quality, affect natural ecosystems and create aesthetic pollution (as in the case of poly-tunnels).• There may be localized cases of over-fishing for tourism, although this is much more likely to be caused by the need to satisfy more distant markets.• Tourists are often very conservative, and will prefer to eat familiar food rather than local dishes.• Many hotels charge a low price for accommodation on the basis that their profit margins will come from expenditure on food and beverage within the hotel. They are thus reluctant to encourage their guests to eat at venues outside the hotel.

Sheraton Lombok (Indonesia) - Local fish products

This hotel sources its fish through a contract with a local supplier who receives a daily order from the hotel.  As part of the contract, the hotel has provided the supplier with three coolers for use when transporting fish from local markets to the hotel.  This has reduced the hotel’s costs since it no longer imports and stores large amounts of frozen fish, while increasing the financial benefits to local fishermen in more remote areas of Lombok, as the coolers allow the fish supplier to travel further to get the required fish.

• The production, distribution and retail of souvenirs provides a number of jobs and helps to increase the value of tourism to the local economy.• Souvenirs can be made in the low season but sold in the high season, helping to combat seasonality. • Souvenirs which reflect local crafts can help to preserve traditional skills and stimulate innovation based on local methods.• The fact that certain artifacts are valued by tourists may help to raise their status in the eyes of local people. • If the artifacts of minority groups are valued by tourists, this can raise the profile of these groups in relation to the majority population.• The purchase of souvenirs (especially fashion items such as jewelry and bags, and high-quality art-work) may create a demand for these objects overseas and stimulate further local production.

• Many local cultures do not have a tradition of producing artifacts which are attractive to tourists, and in addition, small island economies may lack the raw materials for producing any. • Some local artifacts are too large for tourists to take home easily, or of a design which is not attractive enough to stimulate a purchase.• In many places, souvenirs which appear to be local are made elsewhere and often mass-produced. This means that only a small proportion of the sale price remains in the local economy. • Some souvenirs are made from illegal animal products, such as turtle shells, coral, marine mollusks such as cowries, ivory, or from endangered plants. • Tourist demand may encourage local people to sell ancient objects which should be kept locally as part of the heritage.• Unscrupulous people (normally from outside the area) may steal important heritage objects for sale to tourists (or, if important enough, on the international art market).• Some objects offered for sale may be stolen grave-goods.

Pottery production (Indonesia)

A New Zealand-based NGO worked with local pottery producers on the island of Lombok to use their traditional skills to make pottery artifacts which were more attractive to tourists, for instance small items such as soap-dishes and ornaments. The products were marketed in tourist hotels and also exported. 

Leather artifacts (Nepal)

A craft designer working with the British cooperation agency VSO worked with a group of leather-workers in Kathmandu, Nepal to diversify their products and improve the quality, producing items such as purses and key-rings. 

Komodo dragons (Indonesia)

Fishermen on the island of Komodo, Indonesia were encouraged by the National Park authority to carve replica Komodo dragons out of wood for sale to the tourists. There had not previously been a tradition of wood-carving, but the souvenirs were successfully marketed to visitors arriving on cruise-ships and through souvenir shops, and formed a useful side-line for local people.