Going Green

Last year, an article in The New York Times proclaimed “ecotourism” the buzzword of the year.

The story looked at the way in which countries and suppliers are tripping over themselves to capture this lucrative segment of the market.

Ecotourism can be broadly defined as tourism that’s environmentally responsible and respects local communities and cultures. Regardless of what you call it green tourism, eco-conscious travel or responsible tourism it’s definitely moved from the fringes to the mainstream.

A generation ago, only penny-pinched backpackers and granola-eaters would seek out a rustic hotel with a compost heap in the back and solar panels on the roof. Today, with global warming at the top of the world’s

political and social agenda, it’s the well-heeled traveler who wants to know that a hotel or tour operator is doing what it can to protect the environment.

What does this mean for travel agents? TravelAge West looked into its crystal ball and came up with 11 ways that climate change and the eco-conscious travel movement will change the way that you do business. Of course, no one knows what the future will bring there’s probably a counter argument to every prediction we make but there is no doubt that the topic of ecotourism is a trend that agents need to stay on top of in order to succeed.

1. Knowledge is power
In the future, the sale will go to the travel agent who can speak with at least a modicum of authority on the subject of environmentally responsible travel and tourism. You won’t need to be able to recite Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” slide show by heart, but you will need to be able to converse intelligently on the subject.

Eco-conscious clients who find themselves dealing with an agent who doesn’t know the first thing about ecotourism will take their business elsewhere or bypass an agent entirely and go straight to the supplier.

But with so much information out there, where should agents start?

The International Ecotourism Society, along with Conservation International and the Rainforest Alliance, all offer excellent educational resources on the subject of environmentally responsible tourism and travel.

For the latest on climate change and what it all means, look for the new (and surprisingly readable) report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

2. Act, don’t react
Travel agents who want to stay ahead of the curve will offer eco-options to clients without being asked. That means you’ll present clients with the option of purchasing carbon offsets, or offer to find out what your client’s destination features in the way of green resorts and suppliers, in the same way you bring up travel insurance today.

If all this sounds like work on top of more work, ASTA president Cheryl Hudak offered a different perspective.

“I would look at this as a good thing,” she said. “It gives us more of a unique, niche product to sell, and anytime we have something new to sell our clients, it makes us more valuable.” Finally, don’t forget that if your marketing material doesn’t talk about your commitment to eco-conscious travel, you’ll likely lose clients to competitors who say it loud and proud.

3. To offset or not to offset?
Carbon offsetting is a way for consumers to balance out the harmful effects of carbon dioxide, or CO2, emissions. Say your client flies roundtrip from Los Angeles to London. That’s 10,925 miles, making her responsible for about two tons of CO2 emissions. If she invests $35 in a tree farm or renewable-energy project, she’ll make up for some of the damage.

Carbon offsetting is controversial. Critics complain that offsets are a salve for guilty consciences and a distraction from the real problem our addiction to oil. Moreover, offset calculations vary wildly. Cheaper calculators amortize offsets over 100 years or longer while more expensive calculators yield environmental benefits in just a year. On the whole, though, offsetting is generally considered to be a good thing. Travel agents and tour operators will continue to offer these greenhouse gas-fighting tools, but only as one option among many for reducing a traveler’s carbon footprint.

To find out more about offsets, check TerraPass or Native Energy.

4. Rating systems
AAA Diamonds and the five-star rating system will still twinkle brightly for hotel guests, but eco-conscious travelers will also want to know about a hotel’s green rating.

Clients will want to know who’s using solar energy (try Fiji’s Turtle Island); who’s recycling waste water (Marari Beach Resort in India has its own treatment plant); who’s helping conserve threatened coral reefs (members of Mexico’s Riviera Maya Hotel Association are doing good work in this area); and which airlines are offsetting carbon emissions (the U.K.-based Silverjet claims to be the world’s first carbon-neutral airline).

“At the moment, it’s probably the minority of people who ask about [environmentally responsible travel]. But with what’s going on with the global warming debate, travel agents will have to become very conversant in these things,” said Jamie Sweeting, senior director for travel and leisure at Conservation International. “What are the environmental policies at a certain resort? How responsible is a specific cruise line or hotel company? If I go for the cheapest airline, how can I offset the CO2 emissions? I think travel agents will need access to all of that kind of information.”

Unfortunately, there’s no single source for finding out whether a supplier has made an effort to go green. There are, however, lots of certification agencies, some with more stringent standards than others. Some are independently audited; others not.

One of the best sources is the Rainforest Alliance’s Eco-Index of Sustainable Tourism, which lists sustainable tourism businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean. The index’s Web site features a searchable database in English and Spanish. To be included on this list, a business must be certified by an ecotourism certification program or recommended by a reputable conservation organization that vouches for its use of sustainable practices.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council, is the benchmark for green buildings. Unfortunately, clients won’t have a lot of selection here only four hotels have made the grade. The Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa, which won coveted gold certification from LEED, boasts of being the greenest hotel in America. Along with a Gideons Bible, guests will find a copy of “An Inconvenient Truth” in their rooms.

Although there is no universally accepted green certification for cruise lines, in recent years domestic and international shipping organizations, environmental associations and even port authorities have recognized the cruise industry’s efforts to become more responsible environmental citizens. Conservation International’s Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB) has put together a good summary of cruise lines’ environmental initiatives in a report titled “From Ship to Shore.”

What about a list of eco-conscious travel agents? ASTA has some catching up to do in this regard. Our efforts to secure a list from ASTA of travel agents specializing in ecotourism were largely unsuccessful.

5. Conservation begins at home
“Before we ask our partners to behave more responsibly overseas, we have to look at how we operate at home,” said Jim Sano, president of San Francisco-based Geographic Expeditions. To maintain credibility with clients and overseas travel partners, agents will also have to adopt environmentally responsible business practices in their own offices. In other words, they’ll need to walk the walk before they can rightfully talk the talk.

Agents should take a close look at what their office is consuming, throwing away and purchasing. Use low-energy bulbs and turn off lights whenever possible. Purchase recycled toner cartridges and set your printer to economy mode. Use post-consumer recycled paper. The next time you replace the carpet, purchase recyclable carpet tiles rather than rolled carpet; you’ll only have to replace the worn spots and not the entire floor. Offer rewards and incentives to employees who use public transportation to get to work.

Conservation International offers good tips for minimizing your eco-footprint at the office. The Minnesota Environmental Initiative put together a step-by-step guide to making printed material more eco-friendly as well.

6. But who pays?
In the future, it can be expected that travel agents will have to pass on at least some of the additional costs for a greener industry to their clients. But will clients be willing to pay more for a green-rated travel supplier?

Sano, of Geographic Expeditions, thinks they will. Starting with its 2008 products, the company will add a 1 percent “conservation fee” into the cost of its trips. The money will go to a “living planet trust” that funds scientifically valid offsets.

Sano doesn’t expect clients to balk at this 1 percent conservation fee. Most are high-end travelers, so an additional $50 on a $5,000 trip isn’t going to break the bank.

On the other hand, noted Conservation International’s Sweeting, most consumers are driven by the bottom line.

“Why should you have to pay more for a hotel to be environmentally responsible, especially when so many of the things they do to be environmentally responsible is also saving them money?” he said.

According to Sweeting, being green might not always mean paying more. The green-rated tourism industry could be in the same place that the organic foods market was a decade ago. “Ten years ago, 20 percent of the U.S. public said they would prefer to buy organic foods, but only 2 percent was actually buying it,” he said. “In the last 10 years, there’s been a democratization of the organic movement. It’s not unique or special to be organic anymore. That’s meant that prices have come down.”

7. Travel globally, hire locally
In theory, travel and tourism benefit local communities by creating jobs and a new market for goods and services. In practice, things don’t always work out that way. Jobs often go to imported workers, and excursion outfitters and shops are sometimes owned and operated by outsiders.

A case study in The International Ecotourism Society newsletter, EcoCurrents, used the small town of Majahual in Mexico’s Yucatan as an example. Several years ago, a new cruise port and large-scale tourism development was touted as a boon for the local economy. In fact, little money ended up in the hands of locals, who have since soured on the notion of tourism. Protecting the local environment requires the collaboration of the local population. Unless they’re benefiting directly from measures to protect the environment, locals are likely to feel exploited and not participate.

Travel agents and other tourism retailers will want to make sure that they’re using suppliers who work with as many locals as possible, said Tom Damon, president of Southwind Adventures of Littleton, Colo. That’s not always easy to do; travel agents will need to do some legwork. Ask questions of tour operators and other suppliers: Who are you hiring? Who’s leading your excursions? Who owns the souvenir shop where you drop off clients? Agents should stay on top of reports in the mainstream and industry press as well.

8. Meet the people
Environmentally responsible travel goes hand in hand with socially responsible travel. If your clients aren’t making an effort to support local communities, their best intentions at conserving the environment may be for naught. Plus, locals who enjoy a decent standard of living will be better equipped to partner with tourists in the greater goal of environmental sustainability.

Travel agents will need to take this into account. The San Rafael, Calif.-based Destination Himalaya includes stops at medical clinics, orphanages and schools as part of its itineraries in India, Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet. Many clients are so impressed with social and economic projects that they voluntarily pull out their checkbooks, said Destination Himalaya President Sanjay Saxena.

9. Get on the bus
A motorcoach may sound like a carbon-spewing monster on wheels, but in fact, bus travel is more environmentally friendly than if each traveler rents a car or mucks about the wilderness in a Jeep. Many clients who want to lessen their carbon footprint will opt for this mode of travel. But even clients who insist on doing the driving themselves will want a fuel-efficient rental car, especially in eco-conscious Europe. Enterprise and Hertz, among others, are getting into hybrids and fuel-efficient cars in a big way.

10. Helsinki, anyone?
Global warming is changing the international tourism map with alarming speed, which means you may be rethinking where to send clients.

For example, rising temperatures will make southern Europe brutal in the summer. With alpine resorts opening later and closing earlier, you’ll also be sending fewer clients on ski holidays. Many island destinations the Maldives are currently threatened could face a variety of problems due to beach erosion, coastal flooding and wind damage. Your scuba-diving clients may seek out coral reefs less impacted by man-made destruction. Even South Florida will cause concern to clients due to changes in the intensity and frequency of hurricane seasons.

The chilly Arctic region may see changes in tourism patterns too. A longer summer season might work to the advantage of cruise tourism and activities such as whale watching, but shorter winters could reduce the range of the fauna and flora that attract visitors.

11. And then there’s the guilt
No doubt about it, international travel contributes to global warming. Aviation of all types accounts for 2 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. Even the most responsible tourism is bound to leave an eco-footprint, no matter how small.

But you might change your way of thinking. One school of thought holds that the net benefits of global tourism outweigh the damage.

Sven-Olof Lindblad, founder and president of Lindblad Expeditions, the small-ship expedition company that practiced environmentally responsible travel before it was fashionable to do so, maintains that tourism provides the money and means to protect fragile ecosystems.

On top of its own environmental efforts, Lindblad rewards passengers who dip into their own pockets to pay for local conservation programs with vouchers redeemable on future trips. In the Galapagos Islands, the incentive program has generated more than $3.5 million to help eradicate feral pigs on the island of Santiago and pay for patrol boats in the National Park Marine Reserve.

Richard G. Edwards, chief marketing officer for the Montana-based tour operator Austin Lehman Adventures, put it simply: “Traveling is the way that people connect and care about each other in a global sense. How are you going to get people to care about the planet if they haven’t seen any of it?”