Visitors to New Zealand are becoming increasingly aware of the
sustainability practices tourism businesses have in place.
Incorporating sustainability into the way you manage your business
can help ensure your product is more appealing to our visitors,
while also helping to protect New Zealand's core tourism product -
our environment.
Tourism New Zealand research suggests that international
visitors are satisfied with the way New Zealand is delivering on
their environmental expectations.
Visitors also have high expectations of tourism operators. Many
visitors said they expect tourism operators to be taking actions to
reduce their impact on the environment.
As well as meeting the expectations of our visitors, taking
actions to reduce environmental impacts can also save money,
increase employee engagement and improve operators' reputations.
Sustainability is also a good marketing 'hook' among consumers that
are looking to reduce their own environmental impacts through what
they buy.
So what can tourism operators do to make their own businesses
more sustainable, and more desirable to international visitors?
There are plenty of places to go for help.
Going green
- The Ministry of Economy Development's Tourism Strategy Group
website has information about sustainability for tourism businesses and a directory of other assistance available
- The Tourism Industry Association (TIA) is involved with
projects aimed at improving the sustainability of tourism
businesses, including the Tourism Energy Efficiency Programme in
conjunction with the Energy Efficiency and Conservation
Authority
- TIA's website also has links to a number of websites and organisations
that can assist tourism businesses in this area
- Visitors look for an environmental accreditation - and Qualmark is one of
the most comprehensive and integrated quality assurance schemes in
the world. The sustainability component of Qualmark, known as
Qualmark Green, will help you assess your current environmental
performance and put in place initiatives to improve.
- Local sustainable tourism advisors can also help. These
advisors are funded by the regional tourism organisations and the
Ministry of Economic Development's Tourism Strategy Group (see www.tourism.govt.nz) to help tourism businesses
improve their environmental performance
- Carbon offsetting is an option for businesses that are unable
to reduce all of their emissions themselves. It involves paying
someone else to offset emissions by helping fund emission-reducing
projects. Programmes like carboNZero help you to measure emissions
created by your business and decide how to reduce and/or offset
them
- Paying for carbon-neutral certification is also an option. The
advantage is being able to market your business as carbon neutral
and gain a competitive edge with environmentally-conscious
clients
- Both energy and money can be saved by reducing consumption and
improving efficiency. Something as simple as making sure vehicle
tyres are correctly inflated can make a difference to the amount of
fuel used. Training drivers how to operate vehicles for maximum
fuel efficiency is also worthwhile. For more information on
fuel-saving tips, see www.energywise.govt.nz
- Whatever you decide to do, don't forget to involve your staff.
They will often have great ideas of what you can do within your
business to improve your performance, and you will need their
support to make your initiatives work. You'll probably find your
staff are proud to work for a business that takes sustainability
seriously