The Green Tourism Phenomenon
Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) encourages tourism in an environmentally friendly way. It has over 700 members and they include hotels, guest houses, bed and breakfasts, self-catering and visitor attractions. Depending on the level of energy efficiency these members have achieved each is awarded a Bronze, Silver or Gold Award.
This makes sure that the kind of business they are operating, does not impact the environment in a harmful way. They do this in a variety of ways. These can range from encouraging the tourists to take walks in the wildlife or hiring cycling services for tourists to move around the town.
So you will find the whole range of services that any HoReCa industry offers. Everything from heating and lighting to food, information and transportation – all is there. And not in any less compromised way.
The need for green tourism was felt when the tourist became conscious of their decisions to travel to countries which were not taking care of the environment. This increased awareness in the global issues like climatic changes, destruction to wildlife, carbon emissions, and waste management was good for green tourism. So to rise up to this opportunity the concept of greener tourism was developed.
To be environmentally sustainable you need to have a strategy that is based on long term commitment. This is done to have a better coordination with all the stakeholders that form this industry. Often individual efforts fall short to provide a sustainable development.
This strategy is multi-fold. We start by assessing the existing environmental health. This gives us a holistic view of the kind of green management that is required. We outline the support structures that would be needed in the future for this policy’s implementation.
Second, we build a green vision. This serves as a guiding principle. Different scenarios in which different decisions would have trade-offs with different environmental impacts are viewed.
Last but not the least there should be full commitment to the realisation of this vision. For this involvement from all the major stakeholders i.e. the government, the civil society and the private sector should be there. Only by setting up a framework that us shared by all these stakeholders can a call for such a transformation can truly take place.
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Tags: Green, Tourism