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Eco-Directory: A unique destination guide designed to help consumers make responsible travel choices. The guide can also be a useful tool for tour operators interested in industry Best Practices.
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Vol. 2, No. 2 February 2004
Sustainable Travel Report
The Responsible Tourism e-Newsletter
In this issue you will find:
1. Message from STI President, Brian T. Mullis
2. Tips for Responsible Travelers
3. Sustainability is Good Business, Part II
4. Eco-certification within the U.S. Travel Industry
5. Featured Tourism Supplier
6. Travelers' Philanthropy and Photography
7. Support Sustainable Tourism
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Message from STI President, Brian T. Mullis
Over 10 years ago Tedd Saunders, a visionary in the field of sustainable tourism, coauthored "The Bottom Line to Green is Black: Strategies for Creating Profitable and Environmentally Sound Businesses." One of the memorable themes of this innovative and inspiring guide was daily choices create long-term, bottom line effects.
Our focus at Sustainable Travel International (STI) is to ensure responsible tourism around the globe by teaching travelers and travel companies how to respect and protect the cultures and environments they visit. As conscientious consumers and travel companies, we all have opportunities to make a difference in our daily lives.
This month we will explore some of the ways travelers can get more out of their vacations and travel companies can achieve improved economic profitability through environmental conservation and social responsibility. The key to each is taking one step at a time ...
Wishing you all the best,
Brian T. Mullis
President
brianm@sustainabletravel.com
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Tips for Responsible Travelers
As responsible travelers, one of the best things we can do is research our vacations before departure. We'll be the first to admit that it's easy to get caught up in things, particularly before a big trip. Often, we don't have the time. In fact, research usually beings during our flight en route. But reading, learning, and gaining an appreciation of the people and places we visit is invaluable. Understanding really is the first step to making a positive impact and enhancing our own experience as travelers.
Imagine you are poor, but you are part of a unique culture and live with rare natural beauty that draws foreign tourists from all over the globe. They come in droves, pointing cameras at your children, haggling with the artisans in the market over a few cents, and dressing in ways that you consider to be inappropriate. Now imagine a different tourist, one who seems to have an innate understanding of your culture. One who asks for permission to take photos of your children and shares photos of their own. One who even learned a bit of your language ahead of time and read enough to ask you a few interesting questions.
You get the idea. Now do your homework! And remember that your guidebook is just that - a guide. If you want to truly experience a place, head off-the-beaten-path, utilize public transport, and visit the places where locals spend their leisure time.
For more "Tips for Responsible Travelers",
click
here. To
review our members' sustainable business practices,
visit our Eco-Directory.
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Sustainability is Good Business, Part II
Last month we provided information and related statistics for the growing market of responsible travelers as well as the benefits of pursuing sustainability. This month we've detailed additional research that supports the fact that "The Bottom Line to Green is Black."
- 54 million adult American travelers are inclined to book with travel companies that strive to protect and preserve the local environment of the destination. For a smaller group of travelers (17 million), the environment is a top priority when actually making decisions about which travel companies to patronize.1
- More than 50% of adult American travelers (80 million) are aware of at least one practice employed by travel companies to preserve and protect the environment of destinations. Travelers are most often aware of companies that ask customers to reuse towels/sheets (55 million travelers) and those that use energy saving practices (46 million travelers). More than 32 million travelers are aware of travel companies that recycle and/or that use local vegetation on property grounds.1
- The Marriott Worsley Park in the United Kingdom has achieved savings of US$90,000 a year on energy, water and waste after introducing an environmental management system to meet GREEN GLOBE 21 standards.2
1 Source: Geotourism: New Trend in Travel study, Travel Industry Association of America, National Geographic Traveler October 2003
2 Source: Green Globe 21, www.greenglobe21.com
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Eco-certification within the U.S. Travel Industry
The Sustainable Tourism Eco-certification Program (STEP) is a voluntary initiative, developed by STI and crafted in conjunction with leading experts form around the world, for the U.S. travel industry.
We will be conducting a Pilot Test of the program this April. Though there will be no fee for participating in the Pilot Test, tourism providers will gain invaluable insights into managing their impacts and decreasing their operating costs, offering a great incentive to get involved in this important initiative. In addition, Pilot Test participants have a unique opportunity to help us shape the program for maximum impact in the market place
U.S.-based travel companies interested in participating in the Pilot Test should contact STI.
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Featured Tourism Supplier
Amazon Yarapa River Lodge
Amazon Yarapa River Lodge in Peru employs an innovative business model to foster grassroots community development and conserve Peru's imperiled tropical forests. This is a full-fledged sustainable operation with local ownership, local management, and local employment. It is also one of the best examples of comunity-based tourism in Peru.
Yarapa River Lodge's focus on local cummunity has nurtured a very close relationship with nearby villages. They help them with medical and transport concerns and also employ local villagers throughout the lodge. In fact, working for the lodge is a source of pride among neighboring villages. Case in point, the chief of a nearby village is one of the lodge's best guides!
Yarapa River Lodge has also established the Yarapa River Rainforest Reserve, in cooperation with the neighboring village of Jaldar and Cornell University. This reserve encompasses 10 square miles of pure, undeveloped rainforest surrounding the lodge. The land is maintained as a place that prohibits commercial hunting and fishing, but permits local villagers to live their traditional way of life, utilizing traditional weapons, including bow and spear, to hunt and fish.
This, however, is just the beginning! Yarapa River Lodge is spearheading the creation of a much larger reserve with many of their neighboring villages, Peruvian government officials, and Cornell University. They seek to set aside a giant corridor of preserved rainforest on either side of the Yarapa River, from its source to its outlet into the Amazon River. The final goal is to achieve National Park status or better. Many meetings have taken place to ensure that local people benefit, and the wheels are in motion to make this dream a reality.
Consider
supporting their efforts next time you travel to Peru by visiting
the lodge. The low water period or dry season runs from June through
November. For more information about the Yarapa River Lodge and
other responsible travel providers, visit
STI's Eco-Directory
or the lodge's web site.
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Travelers' Philanthropy and Photography
Diana Witherspoon of Life Images Photography, life-images.net, is currently undertaking a photo-documentary project about Travelers' Philanthropy. With her photographs, she hopes to show travelers that they can make a conscious choice to travel with eco-friendly tourism providers who support sustainable tourism and community development.
Diana has 18 years of experience in business development in travel and tourism and has been a professional photographer for 10 years. Diana has exhibited in a variety of venues and is an award-winning photographer. She wishes to support her personal values for social responsibility and help create awareness of the experience of other cultures and ecological environments with this photo project. Diana's intent is to use the photo documentary for speaking engagements, links on appropriate web sites, academic institutions' publications and travel and tourism programs, workshops for corporations, exhibits or venues supporting education and awareness for travelers' philanthropy, marketing about "travel for a cause" and to add to text for a book she hopes to publish about conscious travel. Diana also works for Adventure Travel Media Source, a PR company devoted to active travel, and she plans to use that marketing arm in order to gain consumer and journalist exposure to the concept of travelers' philanthropy.
Diana is putting a calendar of visits for photo shoots and interviews at various local projects supported by tour operators worldwide. If you would like to host her for a photo shoot of your project or if you have questions or need further information, you can contact her at diana@life-images.net.
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Our
success is dependant upon support from responsible
travelers, travel companies, and related organizations.
Make a donation, volunteer
your time and / or become
a member of Sustainable Travel International.
Your contribution will have a positive impact!
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For More Information
Please
visit
our web
site, email
or call 800-276-7764. If you want to spread the word about
sustainable travel and tourism, link
to us!
Should you not wish to receive this and other information from Sustainable Travel International, simply reply to this message with "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL
P.O. BOX 1313
BOULDER COLORADO 80306
PHONE 800-276-7764
EMAIL info@sustainabletravel.com
BUSINESS HOURS: 8am-5pm MST
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