Tourism stakeholders ‘must embrace sustainability’: Farrant
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The global tourism industry must embrace sustainability and adopt new ways of doing business if it is to survive and prosper, Stephen Farrant, director of the International Tourism Partnership, told World Tourism Forum in Lucerne last week.Despite this, Farrant also outlined the great progress already made by many companies, and drew on examples of innovation and best practice that could be adopted by the wider tourism sector. “The tourism industry is not alone in facing growing environmental and social pressures, and the coming decades will call for a ‘revolution of innovation’,” said Farrant. “But there is some very interesting innovation already happening, and we need to accelerate the change and help every tourism stakeholder adopt more sustainable business practices,” he added. Farrant cited a recent poll of 766 CEOs where 93 percent of those surveyed said that sustainability is critical for their business’s success. “The tourism industry cannot rely on ‘business as usual’ if it wants to continue to grow and prosper as it has in the past. The days of freely available natural resources and cheap oil are limited. Certain modal shifts are essential – such as investing in high speed rail as a viable alternative to air travel for many journeys, increasing the adoption of solar energy, and pursuing efficient hotel design to make better use of resources. We won’t be able to continue as usual when, to give just one for example, the global consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, and the World Bank is forecasting that by 2025 the demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 50%.” he said.Farrant cited Abu Dhabi as an example of design innovation, solar power projects, innovative partnerships and community investment programmes. “Covering an area of 2,300 square metres, 560 solar panels have been installed on the roof of one of the carparks located at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). More than 90% of the hot water at the new Aloft Hotel at ADNEC is supplied through energy harnessed from solar panels”.
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