carbonneutraltourism.co.uk

JWT, an advertising agency, have produced an interesting list of things to watch out for in 2008.  They include a ‘carbon tax’, ‘climate sightseeing’, ‘eco - fatigue’ and ‘green weddings’.  Read the report here.

The NZ Herald reports that “Carbon emissions from visitors’ air travel to New Zealand equal total emissions from the country’s coal, gas and oil-fired power generation, say University of Otago scientists.”

The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators report that the number of tourists travelling to the Antarctic, during the summer season, have increased from approximately 6,700 people in 1992/1993 to to 28,200 in 2005/2006.  On the one hand does this indicate people are visiting destinations before they may be lost forever?

GfK Roper Consulting Green Gauge is syndicated report of US consumers’ attitudes towards the environment

ABC Online reports that the average basket of food in Australia has travelled 70,000 kms by the time it has reached the consumer!  The report continues and suggests that in some instances the energy which is used to produce the food can be more significant in terms of CO2 emissions.  Rather than just looking at the CO2 produced from the ‘food miles’ it could be more appropriate to look at the CO2 through the whole life-cycle of the ‘food.’

An interesting article in The Times in which six visionaries provide their view on how to create a green and more sustainable future.  The visionaries include:

• Lord Norman Foster
• Steve Skill, a biochemist and pioneer of algal cultivation.  Steve Skill hopes that algae will be the biofuel of the future
• Philip Kithil, CEO of Atmocean, and ocean-pump inventor who hopes that ocean pumps will tame hurricanes and enrich seas
• Frank Zeman, a carbon-capture engineer and research scientist at Columbia University who designs ways of capturing CO2 from the air
• Russ George, founder and CEO of Planktos who hopes to enrich plant life by sprinkling iron on oceans
• Dickson Despommier, microbiologist at Columbia University who has pioneered the vertical-farming concept

The Co-operative Bank’s Ethical Consumerism Report has just been published.  It’s encouraging to see that “last year, on average, every household in the UK spent £664 in line with their ethical values compared with just £366 in 2002, an increase of 81 per cent.”  Read more here.

Environmental Strategies and Their Impact on Hotel Performance written by Enrique Claver Cortés, José  Molina Azorín, Jorge Pereira Moliner and Dolores López Gamero looks at environmental management as a source of competitive advantage for hotels.  Visit the Journal of Sustainable Tourism’s website.

The BBC have just written an interesting article on the environmental impact, from a CO2 perspective, of tourism and the expect growth of tourism. There are some staggering statistics, for example, international tourist arrivals are expected to increase to 1.6 billion by 2020 (from Jan - to Sept 2007 the figure is 610 million international arrivals).

I wonder what impact tourism climate change debate will have on tourism in the UK? For example, will UK residents take less long haul trips and short breaks overseas? Could this lead to a boom in domestic tourism?

South West Tourism have published an interesting document on tourism in the south west and visitors’ attitudes towards the environment. The following is very encouraging to see: “Most visitors (65%) feel that it is very important for tourism businesses to provide an assurance that they support their local area & environment. A further 31% believe it is important.” Read the report here (opens as a separate PDF).