CREATING A SUSTAINABLE TOURISM BUSINESS

This course will help you explore how to make your tourism business more sustainable. You will find out how to implement sustainability in your tourism business operations. You will also gain practical knowledge on the topic of sustainability. 

Who is this course for? 

The course is intended for tourism professionals in management positions, and anyone interested in the topic.

What will you learn? 

• You will learn who and what is affected by a tourism business
• You will learn to account for the impacts of a sustainable tourism business 
• You will learn how to implement sustainability into your tourism business operations
• You will learn how to market a sustainable tourism business.

Keywords: Sustainability, tourism, management, sustainable tourism 

 

The Environmental Viewpoint

In this section, you will learn about the the environmental benefits of creating a sustainable tourism business.

Lesson 1: Practice the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Environmental impact

We are all part of the problem of waste. When we misuse packaging and single use plastic, it has a negative impact on the environment.  About 30% of greenhouse gases are produced by waste. It takes a lot of energy and resources to produce single use items only for them to be discarded. The waste we create is contaminating our world, transmitting diseases, harming nature and affecting economic development through tourism. 

Consider how long it takes to decompose… Did you know that only 10% of plastic waste can be recycled? We must consume less by reducing and refusing. The goal is to create as little garbage as possible. 

Don’t despair. There are things we can all do. Here a few practical solutions you can take to make a change and adopt to manage waste: 

• Composting reduces food waste, which otherwise breaks down into methane, a gas that’s 86 times worse than CO2. 
• Avoid fast fashion. Invest in products that last. 
• Bring your own cup rather than use plastic cups. 
• Bring your own refill bottle. It’s nicer and can be used for years. 
• This is one of our biggest sins… Move to reusables. Bring your own containers and reusable bags. 
• It’s easy, to reuse or recycle glass. 

Remember we all are responsible. Solutions are available and every single action you take can have a positive impact on our planet.

Reduce – Reuse – Recycle: That’s the name of the game when you want your business to have less of an environmental impact.

1. Reduce the amount of items that end up as waste.
2. Reuse products as often as possible. 

• Recycle items that you need but which cannot be reused.

Benefits

1. Prevents pollution caused by reducing the need to harvest new raw materials
2. Saves energy
3. Reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change
4. Helps sustain the environment for future generations
5. Saves money
6. Reduces the amount of waste that will need to be recycled or sent to landfills and incinerators
7. Allows products to be used to their fullest extent

Reduce, Reuse or Recycle

Think about the following resources. Should they be reduced, reused or recycled?

Water: Reducing water consumption is always a very good idea. But water can also be reused. The water you used for washing dishes or taking a shower can be reused for watering the garden.

Plastic bags: Use as few plastic bags as possible. At best, use none at all. Use a cotton bag to go shopping. You can reuse this bag many times. 

Take-away cups: Definitely a ‘reduce’ item. Why not bring your own reusable cup? This can also be a nice merchandise product with the logo of your tourism business that you can sell to tourists.

Timber from building: Recycle or reduce, depending on what form and shape it has. Even if it’s just little pieces – you could still use this to build a raised bed for planting herbs or just having fun creating a little artwork with it.

Plastic water bottles: For sure, those need to be reduced. They mostly end up in landfills or, worse, they are discarded carelessly in the environment. If you really need to use plastic bottles, buy big bottles and take a few glasses, so that everyone can share. They can also be reused and recycled.

Another great way to practice ‘reducing’ could be to shop for as many things locally as possible. See the next lesson on this for more details.

Lesson 2: Shop locally

Think global through acting local.

Often touted as the best way to be environmentally friendly and support your community, buying local means just that – purchasing items grown or manufactured near your home. By purchasing food and other goods that are produced locally you help to save on harmful greenhouse gasses and stimulate the economy in which you live.

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

A fairly modern truck emits at least 112 grams of harmful gasses per km per tonne of cargo. Meaning, buying one tonne of building material that has been transported over 1,140 km by truck from Mombasa in Kenya to Kampala in Uganda will result in 127.7 kg of greenhouse gas emissions, speeding up global climate change.

NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY

Buying locally also presents a special networking opportunity among businesses. Choosing to buy from other businesses within your community can lead to new connections, special discounts, and the chance to collaborate and support one another’s brands. 

Purchasing locally also means that you know a bit more about quality control; you can understand the manufacturing processes better and whether or not potentially harmful chemicals and byproducts were involved.

One of the items likely to be on your list is food – locally produced and sold food. What type of food you’ll have access to will greatly vary depending on where you live. If you are in South Africa, perhaps wine, lamb meat and fruits are on your list. Folks from Ghana might think about yams, pineapples, coco beans and plantains. 

What kind of goods do you know of that are produced from local raw materials in your region (city or province)? Which of those might become necessary or useful when establishing a tourism business?

Lesson 3: Protect biodiversity

Protecting biodiversity is not only good for humankind in general – it is also very important for running a sustainable tourism business. There are two key aspects to this.

Firstly, it is highly likely that your business will somehow build on experiencing an aspect of nature – like a safari, whale watching, scuba diving, a guided forest walk, or even a local cooking workshop. Therefore, you need to have a vital interest in keeping your environment healthy so that your visitors have a great experience. 

Options to help nature thrive

Learn about your local species

What do they feed on? Where do they nest? At what time of the year should they be left alone? How could they be supported?

Focus on endangered species

How could you help them particularly?

Impact natural areas as little as possible

For example, stay on pathways, leave no garbage behind, don’t feed wild animals only to attract them.

Meet local communities, rangers and indigenous people

How do they protect natural areas? What do they think tourists and your business could do, to help foster local biodiversity?

Secondly, besides showing people around and letting them experience your amazing natural beauty, you will most likely want to offer some kind of meal or snack to them. And this is where your local food and the farmers that produce it come into play. 

Food = Edible biodiversity

Food and biodiversity have a very special relationship. You could say, food is ‘edible biodiversity’. In fact, tourism plays a crucial role in this relationship – the greater the variety of local species of food that you offer to your guests, the more attractive it is for farmers to grow it and, therefore, the more biodiversity we can help to protect.

Did you know?

How many plant species have been cultivated for food?

60

600

6000

Supporting your local smallholder farmers by buying their crops has a number of benefits that you should bear in mind.

ECOSYSTEM

1. Many grow locally adapted crops that do well in your climate and soils.
2. By growing local species they support keeping agricultural traditions and ecosystems alive.

MARKET

• Buying their crops means providing them with a market – and if there is a market, they will continue to produce food.
• In terms of food security, it is always good to have a strong local farming community.

CULTURE

• Serving locally grown food to your visitors means sharing your local culture with them. That might also educate tourists on locally available foods which, in turn, might create an even bigger market for local farmers.

In case you think this is a great idea, but you wouldn’t know where to best look for local farmers, here are a few ideas that might help you:

• Your local fruit and vegetable market
• Farmer co-ops (a group of farmers producing and selling their produce jointly)
• Agricultural NGOs that support smallholder farmers
• Women farmer groups

The Social and Cultural Viewpoint

Lesson 1: Cultural representation: Be authentic

Culture could be 1000 and 1 things.

From language to food, education, how society works, beliefs, values and religion – much belongs to the term ‘culture’. Culture is rich, diverse, fluid and it changes over time. It is also the reason many tourists come to visit foreign places.

In tourism, there are always at least two cultures involved:

1. The culture of host communities
2. The culture of the visitors

Tourism is a great opportunity to showcase the culture of your people to visitors. In sustainable tourism, we try to focus on representing culture in the most genuine or authentic fashion. This may, however, not always be possible.

Servicing culture

A good illustration of this are eating habits, which can vary greatly from culture to culture. Let’s take the spiciness of a food as an example. Some like it very spicy, others are simply not used to spicy food.

But see for yourself…

As you have seen, the culture and (eating) habits of the guest must be considered. Then it is all the easier and more promising to bring your own culture closer to the guest.

So, these are the questions we should be asking ourselves:

1. Which parts of our culture should we represent and how?
2. How far do we need to respect the visitors’ needs and wants and where do they perhaps interfere with our own values and aspirations?
3. Are there perhaps some types of tourists that we would rather not host?

The local communities need to decide on these issues, based on their very own values and beliefs – and not anyone else, such as tourists themselves or foreign tourism companies.

There are always ways to make tourists understand how important safeguarding your own culture is to you and perhaps even invite them to experience it. 

Lesson 2: Protect vulnerable groups

Sustainable tourism businesses should respect the equality of men and women – they should promote human rights and, more particularly, the individual rights of the most vulnerable groups.

Every society has people who are more vulnerable than others. In tourism, the following parts of society are especially vulnerable:

1. Children
2. Elderly people
3. People with disabilities
4. Ethnic minorities
5. Indigenous peoples
6. Poor people
7. Pregnant women

They will find it most difficult to protect themselves – perhaps they cannot read or write or they might lack any kind of influence or power to protect their own values, property and way of life. 

When you set up your tourism business, make sure you don’t:

1. Exert any pressure on members of vulnerable groups
2. Disrespect anyone’s human rights
3. Use land without seeking prior permission from the original landholders
4. Exclude any of these vulnerable people from your business decisions on issues that may impact their lives.

Out of these vulnerable groups, women deserve a special focus. They represent half of the world’s population, but very often are disadvantaged in many ways. 

Gender inequality 

Even today, women are not treated equally to men. Even though the situation is generally improving, many women and girls are still suffering.

Here are a few global facts from the UN that help you understand the circumstances many are in:

Whether you are a man or a woman, we can all agree it is not fair to be treated like this.

Looking at tourism, there are also a few noticeable imbalances between both genders: 

Fact 1: In most regions of the world, women make up the majority of the tourism workforce.

Fact 2: Women tend to be concentrated in the lowest paid and lowest status jobs in tourism.

Fact 3: Women perform a large amount of unpaid work in family tourism businesses.

In your tourism business, make sure that men and women are paid equally for the same kind of work, protected from any kind of sexual harassment or bull

Lesson 3: Treat them wisely: Cultural heritage sites

Cultural heritage sites are usually physical places that in some way have a strong connection to land and people (good examples are ancient buildings and natural areas). These sites are often magnets for tourists. They like spending time there, immersed in the often special atmosphere to learn about the history and meaning of the place.

Simultaneously, these heritage sites create business opportunities for locals. For example, you could:

1. Provide guided tours and information
2. Offer transportation to and from the site
3. Offer refreshments on site
4. Guard the site and make sure it doesn’t get littered or damaged

In terms of sustainability, however, you always need to consider the carrying capacity of such a place. Every building, village, forest or mountain top can only hold a certain number of people before it becomes damaged or the atmosphere starts to deteriorate significantly. 

Carrying capacity

Imagine:
Hundreds of tourists marching through an ancient forest area every day, dropping rubbish here and there, wandering off the pathways – what would this look like after a few years?

Additionally, you need to consider that this place is special to your culture and to your own people – and you should keep it that way.

A thriving tourism business… or not?

Imagine this: In your area there is a traditional tribal village – a cultural heritage site…

Problems begin

The village is popular with tourists and lots of small local businesses provide tours of the village, put together traditional dance shows at the village entrance and show tourists around. In fact, recently, the number of tourists has increased significantly and locals complain about the noise and pollution they cause.

Questions arise

• What is the role of ‘sustainable tourism’ in this case?
• Do you perhaps need to restrict the tourist numbers visiting the village?

Time to act

The role of sustainable tourism would be to ‘balance out’ the situation. The tribal village is receiving too many visitors and its environment is starting to deteriorate. Villagers – one of your most important local stakeholders – are already complaining. Time to act.

A solution in sight

You could call for a stakeholder meeting where you ask the villagers and the tourism business owners to agree on a visitor limit that is ‘sustainable’ for this village. Villagers might want to see fewer tourists, but business owners will be keen to see more. This needs to be carefully negotiated. You could also manage this by the law of demand and supply – if you ask for a slightly higher entrance fee to see the village, you might be able to increase your revenue and at the same time keep some tourists that are not so keen to stay away.

Summary

Using your cultural heritage sites as a tourism attraction is great – you just need to very carefully think about what kind of tourism should be established there and how many people should you allow to visit it, so that future generations can enjoy this cultural site as well.

How to Market Your Sustainable Tourism Business?

Lesson 1: Choosing a ‘target market’

Do you remember the example of the indigenous village that had visitors but too many of them? The villagers decided to limit the number of visitors and make the visitor experience more sustainable. But how do they get the word out that their tourism business is not only just awesome, but also sustainable? Let’s take a look at how this can work.

Should their tourism businesses be created to serve anyone or should they aim at a particular group of travellers? Which way will they enjoy most success?

• Serve anyone or
• Aim at a particular group of travelers

The best idea in marketing is to create a product or service with your desired group of tourists – your target market – already in mind. 

• What are their particular needs?
• What do they enjoy most?
• On what aspects might they be flexible?

Different target markets

A suitable tourism business would need to be able to accommodate groups of tourists and focus on easily accessible and scenic spots with enough time for everyone to take pictures.

For this kind of tourist you will need to be very cost-wise, so that you can offer a low price. However, your facilities can be basic. What you do need to offer, however, is a special experience that is exciting, rare and fun to do with just a few people taking part at any given time.

For the villagers, the Tourist Type 2 is the more suitable target group, because smaller travel groups are exactly what the villagers want.

The key idea is– check who is visiting your area the most, try to identify the various types of tourists and their specific needs and wishes. Then go and design your tourism services accordingly. And never ever try to be perfect for just everyone. Rather be special and carve out a niche.

Lesson 2: Sending the ‘right’ message

The villagers have identified their target group and know what kind of tourists they would like to welcome as guests. Now they need to get the word out. But how?

Do good and talk about i

Here are some ideas on how you can share with visitors how you are doing good for the environment and local cultures and people.

1. Transparent info

Provide clear information about your effort to be more sustainable.

2. Credible examples

Show credible examples of your sustainability work on your website and social media.

3. Engage your visitors

Provide tourists with the opportunity to participate in those efforts – partake in a beach cleanup or looking after a vegetable garden for your kitchen.

4. Stay current

Regularly update your sustainability messages – don’t just rely on pictures and news blogs posted long ago.

5. Ask for guest comments

Try to get your customers to comment on their experience with you, like what they enjoyed the most and how they feel about your sustainability ideas. 

6. Respond

If customers get in touch with questions or comments, respond in a humble and honest fashion.

For example: ‘We’d like to see less meat on your menu.’ Respond by explaining why you can or can’t integrate this suggestion and thank them for taking the time to write to you.

7. Stay realistic

Embrace the attitude that you might not be a perfectly sustainable business just yet and that there are still plenty of issues to work on.

Summary

Following these rules will provide you with a strong and credible marketing message for customers. 

The problem with marketing sustainability is that customers might doubt that tourism businesses practice what they preach. It is important that guests are involved in sustainability efforts and that communication is open and transparent. This helps to build a relationship of trust with the guests.

Lesson 3: Using certifications and labels

Seek sustainability certification by a third party

Sustainability is often what is known as a credence quality – meaning it is very difficult to assess the claims about whether its sustainability efforts are true. Customers just have to believe it.

Depending on what kind of a business you manage, there may be a number of different certificates available that testify to the fact that you operate in a sustainable fashion. In fact, since the 1990s, over 100 sustainable tourism labels have been created globally. 

Advantages

1. Improve your sustainability performance, because someone actually checks on your performance.

2. Because you act more responsibly, you can decrease your operating costs by saving water and electricity or cutting down on waste.

3. Getting certified sometimes makes it easier to ask for technical assistance from NGOs, donors or governmental bodies.

4. Having an independent third party testify to your sustainability gives you a marketing edge. 

The certification process

The process of being certified is fairly simple:

Step 1: Research

Look for labels/certificates that apply to your type of business – like hotels, restaurants or tour operators.

Step 2: Contact

Contact the agency responsible for certification and ask for a list of criteria.

Step 3: Criteria

Go over the required criteria to see which ones you meet and where you might need to improve.

Step 4: Costs

Check on certification costs and assess if you can afford to get certified and how this also might impact your pricing strategy.

Step 5: Get certified

If you can meet the criteria and afford to be certified, go through the process and let everyone know that you are now sustainability certified.

Lesson 4: Educating your customers – or perhaps not?

Recognizing the value

You have to make your guests understand that what they are paying their hard-earned dollars for is really worth their while.

Offering certificates and labels on your website is a great way to show your sustainability efforts to potential customers. Once tourists book your services and stay with you, you have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to convince them of your value. The more convinced they are of your services, the more likely it is they will return, tell their friends about you and give you a great ranking online. 

Here are a few ways of how you could achieve this:

Money

Set money aside to pay for biodiversity tracking measures.

Meaning

Make your tourism product more than just tourism – give it a greater meaning, such as helping to conserve biodiversity, even if it is just a single kind of animal

Show and tell

Offer sustainability tours of your business and show and tell your customers all the little things you do.

Engage

Encourage them to participate in sustainability endeavours as much as they like. Let them help you manage the compost bin, show them how to save fresh water or let them donate to their favorite school project in your community.

Explain

Explain and tell them about what foods and beverages you are serving to them and what they mean to you, your people and the environment.

You might be surprised; how positive your customers react to this.

One thing, though, you need to bear in mind:

Don’t try to force your customers into doing something. This might very well be the last time you see that customer. If you encourage your visitors, do so in an unobtrusive and careful manner.