Sustainable, Green or Eco Tourism?

Sustainable, green or eco tourism - What’s the difference?

Different people understand sustainable, green or eco-tourism to mean slightly different things. However, what is generally agreed is that any such initiatives will aim to ensure tourism delivers social, environmental and economic benefits for all, as well as a fantastic holiday for all our visitors, now and in the future.

A sustainable holiday in mid Wales- where to stay and what to do.

For more information on green places to stay and environmentally-friendly activities, see Green Accommodation for visitors to mid-Wales.

Don’t destroy what visitors come to see

Mid-Wales is a fantastic place to enjoy a holiday. It is endowed with beautiful landscapes, a diverse range of wildlife, and an abundance of places to relax or enjoy the peace and quiet, an increasingly rare and much sought after attribute nowadays. Often, it is these natural assets which many tourists cite as the main reason for their visit to the area. With a growth in the number of visitors, there is a danger that the tourists and businesses risk destroying these very resources upon which they depend. 

Growth of tourism

In mid-Wales, as in many other rural regions, the nature of the rural economy has changed dramatically. Tourism is now the single largest contributor to the local economy; displacing the economic importance of traditional, land based industries, such as agriculture/forestry.

Gross Value Added (GVA) to the Wales economy (£-million):

                  1989     2000

Agricuture    £141m  £60m

Tourism        £518m  £3491m

Given this growth in tourism, there is now an acknowledged need to understand and address the impact this economic growth on the natural resources which provide the foundation of the tourist industry.

Climate Change - reducing our eco-footprint

The reality of climate change is now widely acknowledged; as is the acceptance of our responsibility to find ways of reducing its impact and consequences. Tourism, like other activities needs to try to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and take other measures to reduce its footprint on the planet and its future.

To give a general example, using the concept of the Ecological Footprint, published by WWF in 2008: 

The Ecological Footprint calculates how much productive land and sea is needed to provide us with the energy, food and materials we use in our everyday lives.

It allows us to see who is over-consuming, taking more than the average share of the Earth’s resources and, at the other end of the scale, who’s not getting enough.

If each person had an average share of all the productive land and sea available on the planet, it would work out at about two hectares for each of us. In other words:

We should have an Ecological Footprint of 2 gha per person

Sustainable: 2 gha / person

Powys: 5.35 gha / person

Wales: 5.03 gha / person

However,as the above figures shows, the average welsh person uses over five global hectares of resources.

So, if we continue like this, the growing human population would need three Earth-sized planets to sustain our current consumption patterns.

Where are those other 2 planets?

Sustainable tourism -  reducing world poverty and conflict?

In fact, some impacts of climate change and other human activities, which are degrading natural environments, are likely to further reduce the environmental resources (air, land, food, water, forests, etc) humans depend on to survive,

For example,:

Sea level rises, changing weather patterns, soil erosion, increased incidence of pest and disease will all have major impacts on the availability of food and fresh water. 

Ultimately, increasing competition for scarce resources could contribute to regional poverty, increased migration and increase pressure for social unrest and conflict

Sustainable tourism - Responsible tourism - Ethical tourism

Sustainable tourism offers the opportunity to help visitors appreciate the impact of their holiday on:

• The natural environment
• The local people and community in the holiday destination

This can be rewarding for the visitors, who increasingly appreciate the environments as well as culture, history and general social circumstances of the local communities. Such a rewarding holiday experience often prompts visitors to return again and again. 

It can also help build relationship between local people and tourist. Local communities gain pride in their own lives and avert resentment of tourist among locals, based on misplaced perceptions of tourists as remote and wealthy.