How Green can Tourism be?

[Enviro-mental]

I've been wondering this question for a long long time now. Is it possible to have a green holiday? With emissions of aircrafts, to hiring a car to eating out~ I mean how many people would rather cycle than take a cab? It all depends on the nature and culture of a country, so which countries are greener?
I found this article where the top dogs of the industry talk about their point of view of tourism and being green.
How green can tourism be? | Metro.co.uk

[harasseddad]

i don't think it can - by definition "tourism" implies travelling. You can certainly have a green holiday, but going abroad or driving around the countryside implies using carbon - so it isn't green.

Having said that it's certainly possible to have a less damaging holiday. Damage mitigation measures could be:

1 Don't fly
2 Don't go to new, exotic places - where the locals will be encouraged to destroy lots of habitat to put up hotels and swimming pools: instead go to places where the damage has already been done - such as the costa del sol.
3 Once you get there don't travel around, just sit on the beach so as to minimise your carbon footprint.

So, providing you take the ferry instead of flying, a club18-30 holiday in marbella is probably the greenest option after the "sit in your living room watching david attenborough programs" holiday.

:-)

[Paul mabbott]

There's a complex of things here. Basically it's a matter of will you be causing more pollution on your holiday than you would staying at home and how much damage will you cause by travelling to your holiday destination. There are also social and political consequences of how/where you holiday - not necessarily simple environmental matters but possibly of major consequence for the World.

On the basic matters (a) don't fly unless you're travelling to the other side of the world for a lengthy period and, hopefully, doing something useful while you're there.
Choose where you go on the basis of what damage you will be adding to that already done by humans; include whether that includes encouraging nasty international companies to destroy more natural spaces ....

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by harasseddad

i don't think it can - by definition "tourism" implies travelling.

Yes, there's a lot of compromise but if you drive a car daily, take a train daily then you are not making things worse by travelling by train or hiring a car when you go on holiday.

I agree that you should not even think about air travel within Britain or most of Europe; if you travel further then make sure it's for a useful journey over a long period and take some action to offset the plane damage .....

[Doggle Avaddit]

If any of you fly to Ireland you may want to consider going by Turboprop.

I have seen Aer Arrans claims before, when I flew to Ireland on one of their Turboprops, and, if true, they make compelling reading:

Airline propagates latest-technology turboprop solution to reducing aviation emissions on GreenAir Online


Particularly the bit that says

"for a journey of less than 600 nautical miles, or 90 minutes flying time, a turboprop uses up to 70% less fuel than a similar-sized jet, emits 20% less CO2 per passenger-km than newer jets and produces three times less NOx than a car and 40% less than a train".



This might just be clever marketing and/or creative use of data.


Anyone able to analyse this and tell us if its fact or misleading baloney?

[Hobjob]

Originally Posted by harasseddad

So, providing you take the ferry instead of flying, a club18-30 holiday in marbella is probably the greenest option

Especially when you drink too much

[hobble]

I help manage five star eco holiday lodges in Cornwall. The lodges were built on site using FSC wood and local Cornish Larch and skilled tradesman from the village. They are insulated with lava rock and newspaper, have recycled glass tiles in the bathrooms, solar panels and grass roofs.
They also sit on small pads of concrete which has greatly lessened the impact on the site.
We created a new watercourse throughout the site, put up bird boxes, and bird tables outside some of the lodges.
The whole site has been planted and areas left for wildlife, wildlife habitats have been created.
Each lodge has the facility to recycle, glass, plastic, paper, tins and also compost from peelings etc.
We supply Fairtrade teas and coffees, Ecover cleaning products, and local handmade soap in cardboard boxes.
We promote local shops and veg boxes.
As for the green travel we actively encourage people to leave their cars behind, with ideas for days out without the car, bus trips, bike trails, local walks and we will collect guests who travel by train.
All staff walk to work and we are involved in the visitor gifting scheme for The Wildlife Trust.

So those people who don't fly, and travel to stay with us are actually making a small difference.

[Enviro-mental]

We need to be realistic about taking vacations (even though so many car manufactors claim to be environmentally friend, if they do great extra bonus).
But I agree with Paul, there is a compromise because who'd want to lug their bicycle around on a Train if their destination is very far out. (if that is even allowed).

This is kind of off the topic but I've read recently that they've started making compact folding bicycles - hmmmm....now that could be an option too.

Anyways thanks for your comments guys.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by harasseddad

i don't think it can - by definition "tourism" implies travelling. You can certainly have a green holiday, but going abroad or driving around the countryside implies using carbon - so it isn't green.

Having said that it's certainly possible to have a less damaging holiday. Damage mitigation measures could be:

1 Don't fly
2 Don't go to new, exotic places - where the locals will be encouraged to destroy lots of habitat to put up hotels and swimming pools: instead go to places where the damage has already been done - such as the costa del sol.
3 Once you get there don't travel around, just sit on the beach so as to minimise your carbon footprint.

So, providing you take the ferry instead of flying, a club18-30 holiday in marbella is probably the greenest option after the "sit in your living room watching david attenborough programs" holiday.

:-)

It could be argued that travelling to exotic places to see interesting wildlife encourages the local community to retain it - instead of flogging it to the chinese for medicine, the rest of the world as pets/ garden plants or burning it to the ground to graze cattle......

[nakedgardener]

Originally Posted by Paul mabbott

There's a complex of things here. Basically it's a matter of will you be causing more pollution on your holiday than you would staying at home

The logic here being that if you don't care at home... then don''t care on holiday???????... If you do care at home.. then take the green option.

It seems that some of us should make the sacrafice.. while the rest just carry on as if nothing matters.

It's all about consuming the Earth's resourses.. holidays are just another way of using up resourses in the name of econonic development... another product to be used up!