The Business Case for Sustainable Tourism!

As students of business of course the business case matters to us! And it should matter to all of you readers out there even if you're not in business! Sustainability believe it or not WILL affect you! (I don't know how many more times I have to drill this into your head lol) And it will definitely affect the way business will be done.

Argument for sustainable tourism: It doesn't matter what you have eg) a 3 or 5 star hotel, guests need to feel safe. (I don't really understand what Rachael meant by this...do you? Post in comments below! I would love to know! lol)

Business and Sustainability

• Business = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
• Sustainability will affect this

The business case - reasons why businesses do it.

• customers want it (based on stats and growing trends)
• better business image - good PR
• future-orientation
• cost savings
• risk mitigation 
• Did you know there is a Dow Jones Sustainability Index? =O 
• And guess what? The 7 out of the top 10 WORST companies were in the tourism industry. (shame - I'm in tourism and to advocate for sustainability on this blog while my very own industry doesn't even do a very good job at being sustainable is kind of ironic *sad face*)
• employee retention

Fun point that Rachael mentioned. Businesses invest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in things that are related to them. Here I thought dove was just being a good company that cared but then Rachael said this "Why does Dove invest in water? - Because you need water to use soap!" lol I just found this funny and interesting.

So, in conclusion...

• CSR trend - more companies are being asked to report their efforts or why they aren't doing anything
• Problem - change is incremental and businesses want high returns fast and its hard to change this behaviour.

Interesting thing to think about: it has always been reduce, reuse, recycle but people always recycle first. Wouldn't it create a bigger impact if people REDUCED first and THEN reused and recycle? 

P.S. We had a guest speaker today - Christian Wolters from intrepid travel today (look them up if you don't know them! C'mon savvy people just google them!) Anyways here's what I wanted to say - They have this carbon mitigation strategy. And what this basically is, is carbon offsetting: they measure the total carbon they are using in their projects and operations and offset it to minimize what they've done. Usually offsetting financially. Some airlines do this, notice this the next time you fly - they ask you this question "would you like to contribute $2 to offset the carbon from flying?"

(Dodds R, Sustainable Tourism Development, March 10th, 2011)