Why is there a need for Sustainable Travel?

The very size of the travel industry demands that travelers practice sustainable travel. Considering that more than a billion people travel from city to city, country to country, jetting from one side of the globe to the other every year, the impact they have on the natural and cultural environment of their destination is obviously one of importance. The sheer volume of people traveling creates huge potential for damage to numerous natural resources and to the environment at large. For this reason alone “green” travel is crucial in ensuring that the negative impact on environmental resources is limited while simultaneously paving the way for more positive-impact travel in the future.

After four years of growth averaging at 3.6%, Travel &Tourism GDP growth slowed to just 1.0% in 2008, its weakest performance since the recessionary period. Two difficult years are forecasted, with Travel &Tourism likely to contract by 3.3% in 2009 and expand by only 0.3% in 2010. But, looking beyond the current crisis, Travel & Tourism is expected to resume a leading, dynamic role in global growth.

Scale and Importance of Global Travel

The Travel & Tourism industry is the largest business sector in the world economy, responsible for

GDP

• Real GDP growth for the Travel Tourism economy is expected to be -3.5% in 2009, down from 1.0% in 2008, but to average 4.0% per annum over the coming 10 years.

• Total Employment in 2009 is 219,810,000 jobs, 7.6% of total employment, or 1 in every 13.1 jobs. By 2019 this is expected to rise to 275,688,000 jobs, 8.4% of total employment or in 1 in every 11.8 jobs.

Exports

• Export earnings from international visitors and tourism goods are expected to generate 10.9% of total exports (US$1,980 bn) in 2009, growing (in nominal terms) to US$4,132 bn (9.8% of the total) in 2019.

• Tourism is a principle "export" (foreign exchange earner) for 83% of developing countries, and the leading export for 1/3 of poorest countries.
For the world's 40 poorest countries, tourism is the second most important source of foreign exchange, after oil. (TravelGreen.org)

Business travel and tourism both offer the opportunity for beautiful and remote communities to rise out of poverty provided they set up their travel/tourist infrastructure to favor a triple bottom line approach. On October 6, 2008, United Nations Foundation Founder and Chairman Ted Turner joined the Rainforest Alliance, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to announce the first-ever globally relevant sustainable tourism criteria at the IUCN World Conservation Congress. The new criteria - based on thousands of best practices culled from the existing standards currently in use around the world - were developed to offer a common framework to guide the emerging practice of sustainable tourism and to help businesses, consumers, governments, non-governmental organizations and education institutions to ensure that tourism helps local communities and the environment.

Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (2008)

• Demonstrate effective sustainable management.
• Maximize social and economic benefits to the local community and minimize negative impacts.
• Maximize benefits to cultural heritage and minimize negative impacts.
• Maximize benefits to the environment and minimize negative impacts. (UNEP)

With this global framework in place, the industry has a well thought out set of guidelines to work from to ensure a mutually beneficial outcome.