Climate change will impact all aspects of tourism, particularly lodging. From construction to operations, from changes in market mix and demand to risk mitigation, we must adapt to the new reality.
Prohibiting development will not necessarily achieve the desired results. Tourism is a force for good and can change lives through job creation and other benefits to the destination. The mitigation strategy that is missing is education.
The good news is that hotels can achieve decarbonisation more easily if compared with airline or shipping industry. At least looking at Scopes 1 and 2 of the GHG protocol, changes in energy sources can be achieved in relatively short time by making investments, as the technology, i.e.
Like many other sectors of the economy, the hospitality sector assumes that forecasts and strategies for the future can be derived from a look at past developments. In view of the transgression of planetary boundaries (including climate change and the loss of biodiversity), our world will undergo massive change.
I believe the true definition of a meaningful guest experience is one that drives someone to say, "You just have to go there!" to their family, friends, or followers. In addition, aside from delighting guests, exceeding expectations, and creating "wow" moments, great meaningful experiences can also generate curiosity, open minds to possibility, and become a catalyst for positive behavioural change.
A meaningful guest experience entails genuine human connection(s) with local host(s) while being able to embrace and respect the sensitivities of natural ecosystems within a destination. Some of the most inspiring and memorable guest experiences I've had were those where I made friends, learned new skills, tested my own abilities, and challenged my thinking. Meaningful experiences also broaden my horizon on new ways of living and doing better business, for example, learning how to upcycle waste materials creatively in design and construction, or to innovate with local ingredients and materials.
As the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, we wholeheartedly agree that sustainability is critical in crafting meaningful guest experiences. To us, a meaningful guest experience goes beyond comfort and convenience. It is about engaging guests in a journey of learning and contributing to sustainability, making them feel part of a larger purpose. It could be as simple as educating guests about local culture and conservation efforts or as immersive as involving them in community projects.
Sustainability is critical in crafting meaningful guest experiences that go beyond comfort and convenience. It is about engaging guests in a journey of learning and contributing to sustainability, making them feel part of a larger purpose.
The way we look at sustainability is mostly driven by doing less harm than contributing positively to a better world. But we need to move on from a footprint approach to a handprint logic, which focuses more on how tourism can change attitudes and values if we really want to create change.
For me an experience is meaningful when it touches my essence as a human being and helps me to understand myself, others, and nature more profoundly. This summer I was a guest at the TCI Marina di Camerota Village (Italy). I went reluctantly to accompain my ageing parents.
The most effective strategies for securing green finance would seem to focus on evidence of financial stability and ability to repay financing in a timely manner and the opportunity for lending institutions to apply an organization's documented environmental, social and governance value (ESG) efforts to their corporate reporting. Investment Business Daily recently noted that "Investors want stocks to align with ESG values". An article in Hotel Tech Report in February of 2023 details the ESG process for the hotel industry. https://hoteltechreport.com/news/hotel-sustainability-statistics
Green finance is still emerging and defining itself. As such, it currently raises more questions than it provides answers for hospitality professionals, especially among family or small businesses and independent operators who cannot dedicate their limited resources to stay up to date with such specific and technical trends. As a result green investment is very often considered as an extra cost with no short-term benefits and uncertain long-term benefits.
UNWTO has recognized the most influential innovators reshaping tourism in the Kingdom of Morocco. The finalists of the first Moroccan Tourism Startup Competition showcase the power of the sector for driving post-pandemic recovery, protecting cultural and natural heritage and providing opportunities for both rural and urban communities.
As an alliance our role is to unify the hospitality industry towards a more sustainable future. We aim to propel the sector towards a state of Net Positive, where the industry not only thrives but enriches our destinations, by giving back more than it takes, across people, planet, and place (the destination). We exist to convene the industry, collate knowledge and best practice and create an industry movement.
The most effective strategy - start with talking to your financier.....they are the experts and will know the options that are available and how your business aligns with requirements. They will also be able to unpack and present the best solutions for how green financing options suit your needs, strategies and sustainability journey.
"There is sufficient global capital to close the global investment gaps but there are barriers to redirect capital to climate action." (IPCC Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023, p. 80). The hospitality industry is increasingly turning to green finance to fund projects that seek to reduce carbon emissions and improve sustainability.
Our role as an alliance is to unify the hospitality industry and propel it towards a state of Net Positive, where the industry thrives and enriches destinations. Today I am confident the sustainability movement is underway and we are seeing a subtle shift to a "pre-competitive" mindset where hotels share best practice, including information about financing sustainable initiatives.
The path towards system change is unpredictable, and that reminded me on the book Risk Society by Ulrich Beck. Beck's concept of the risk society highlights the need for a new approach to managing risks based on cooperation, reflexivity, and sustainability in a context of complexity and uncertainty. The book contains valuable lessons for to be applied on topics as Climate change and Biodiversity. Learning is a key ingredient in Beck's risk society and learning involves a continuous process of reflexivity and adaptation in response to new information and changing circumstances. Important to realize is that this learning is not only at an individual level, but also on group and even societal level. Companies, citizens and communities, NGOs, governments and scientists and experts all play an important role in this collective learning process.
Most of us will know from any private or professional crisis we will have doubtless been through, that the task of solving a problem is always a lot easier when this is done in company rather than alone. (The analogy of Don Quixote fighting against the windmills comes to mind)
I think that most of the hospitality industry is evolving in silos, and that certainly has negative consequences on issues realted to biodiversity and use of natural resources.
I believe that we'd be further on the road of climate and biodiversity actions if we were effectively using cooperation in our sectors. Initiatives of small and wider scales are growing though, which is necessary as trailblazing new ways of doing business and new ways of designing desirable travel experiences requires exploring as many new paths as possible.
If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together" - this saying has accompanied our work in Futouris e.V. from the beginning. We are a partnership of tourism industry companies, working together to find and implement solutions to move that sustainability needle".
Collaboration is essential in social and environmental sustainability, and misaligned interests can cause serious setbacks in efforts to become more sustainable. The need for such cooperation is particularly emphasized in tourism destinations that fight with various sustainability challenges, including those created by overtourism.
Since Food Waste represents on average ~50% of a hotel total waste, and knowing how poorly waste in disposed of/managed in most places, targetting this issue with a collaborative lense seems of the most overlooked issue of all.
Taryn Gillson, Executive Director of the Impact Division & Community Conservation Fund Africa at Mantis Collection outlines the three pillars of engagement to which each Mantis property adheres: Conservation, Sustainability and Community. The resort is nestled deep in the South African wilderness, between Gqeberha and Grahamstown, within a 20,000 hectares conservation area. On this land, 6,500 species of plants flourish – 2,000 of which cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The place is also home to 421 species of birds and 48 species of large mammals including rhinos, giraffes, warthogs, zebras and antelopes.
Today more than ever, the hospitality industry is facing a tough call: How to grow sustainably and thrive amidst volatile times influenced by internal and external factors?
Risks affecting the hospitality industry are not only related to inflation, war, and geopolitics. Science has proven that climate-related risks and biodiversity loss are a threat to the fabric of society. The convergence of global systemic risks has a name: 'global polycrisis'[1]. The hospitality industry operates in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment. Thus, it is challenging for hotel owners, operators, and leadership teams to adapt to the constantly changing circumstances.
In times of uncertainty, many businesses focus on their internal operations to survive. However, the climate and biodiversity crisis as well as the 'perfect storm' cannot be tackled in isolation, ignoring neighbours, other stakeholders, and the environment we are part of. “Everything that we achieve collectively at The Long Run is about protecting ecosystems, restoring, and regenerating landscapes, and connecting habitats. This is more important than ever in the current climate — there are increasing pressures on resources and so land use and management is critical to protect wildlife, ecosystems, and communities.” (Michael Dyer, the MD of Borana Conservancy, Kenya).