THISD

Why should hospitality and tourism businesses take any notice of “sustainable development” ?

Because that’s where the opportunities for success are.

The world is changing. Well, the world is always changing, but the pace is accelerating now and, as ever, the businesses that embrace those changes most effectively will be the ones that succeed and prosper in the new environment. In the not-far-distant future, that new environment is going to be one with a low-carbon economy.

Two major problems face us and they are reinforcing the drive for change. The first is the growing scarcity of fossil fuels as supply stagnates and demand grows at an ever increasing rate, especially from the burgeoning economies of China and India. The second is the growing acceptance that pumping gases from burning fossil fuels into the atmosphere is changing the world’s climate. Together, these changes are going to disrupt the lives and livelihoods of many millions of people.

As a result, people’s buying behaviours for tourism products will change over time, but how is not yet clear. A lot will depend on how government policies shape the markets for fossil fuels and their alternatives. If governments do nothing now and then impose ˜knee-jerk” restrictions when shortages and climate changes really begin to bite there will be sudden and drastic changes in the pattern of travel and tourism demand and the industry will have little time to prepare and adapt. If, however, governments can get to grips with planning the long term strategies needed to move towards low carbon economies and start implementing these plans straight away, then the industry has a chance to seize the opportunities the changes will bring.

As summer temperatures rise the European Mediterranean resorts, to take just one example, will be less attractive to visitors in hotter months. Costs will rise too as water shortages become an issue and the price of power for air-conditioning rises. Does that mean these resorts are doomed? Not if they can shift demand to the shoulder seasons of late spring and early autumn, when temperatures and water supplies will be more manageable. This will create other problems, as the school holiday period in the main source markets of northern Europe is currently mid-summer, so it won’t be as easy as just changing the advertising focus. Structural changes in society will be needed too.

The lower ski resorts in the Alps are short of snow year on year, but the higher resorts are thriving. The opportunity exists to expand the higher resorts to maintain overall capacity and to protect regional revenues and employment. This will mean drastic change for those who live and work in the resorts that will lose their winter visitors and populations will have to be adaptable and flexible. It will be hard, but it can be done.

The tourism industry’s own impacts on the environment and consumption of fossil fuels will have to be dealt with. Using Europe as an example again, the recent explosive growth in cheap short-haul flights is likely to end and companies will fail as fuel costs and taxes bite into profit margins. But Europe has an alternative in its high speed rail network, although for this to be a viable choice governments need to act to make rail travel price-competitive and to ensure that the power from the trains comes from renewable sources.

We need strong transport policies to make sure that travel continues to be possible even though fossil fuel use must decline. We need tourist destinations to adopt sustainable practices that reach out into their supply chains and incorporate the travel choices of their customers to and from the destination as well as around it. We need policies on an international scale to ensure that long-haul travel to developing regions where tourism is the only or main source of development revenue is recognised as a special case and protected.

These changes are inevitable and they will come sooner than many of us think. If we do nothing now then they represent threats and dangers but, if the industry can get its collective act together (something it has not shown itself good at in the past) then those threats can be turned into opportunities. The western economic model of the last 50 years, economic growth at all costs, cannot continue for long. However much we might kick and scream in frustration we are simply running out of resources. We will adapt to an economy measured more in terms of what people do than what they have and if we can develop a tourism industry with a light footprint, we can be a big part of that.