Why do travelers, be they on business or just visiting, prefer to go to Switzerland rather than, say, Ukraine? It’s no surprise: It is easy to reach Switzerland and to travel within the country. Switzerland is also clean and makes visitors feel safe, and offers a combination of traditional culture and natural beauty.
Despite such benefits, the continued popularity of Switzerland and other desirable destinations is by no means a given. Maintaining the relative purity of the environment while promoting and growing tourism is critical, as competition intensifies among regions to attract the ever-growing number of travelers.
A recent study by Booz & Company (part of the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2008) found that environmental factors may determine whether travel and tourism sectors thrive or falter in the coming years. The report evaluated the health of the tourism industry in 130 countries based on 14 pillars important to travelers, private operators, and public authorities, including regulatory framework, infrastructure, and cost to natural, cultural, and human resources.
The study found a direct correlation between overall competitiveness and sustainability. Switzerland, for instance, is ranked number one overall out of the 130 countries in the index and number two in environmental sustainability, whereas Ukraine comes in at number 100 overall and number 83 in environmental sustainability. That helps explain why Switzerland’s travel economy brought in an estimated US$60.9 million in 2007 and Ukraine’s was worth just $11.3 million, even though Ukraine is almost 15 times the size of Switzerland.
Ironically, a boom in tourism, although desirable, often leads to degraded environmental conditions, and in time to fewer tourists, unless a country takes sustainability seriously. Large numbers of visitors alter patterns of development, impinge on natural resources, tax limited water and food supplies, and create pollution, scaring away future visitors.
Improving the environmental sustainability of a country’s travel industry is not a simple matter of cleaning up the environment and laying down restrictive laws regulating what such industry players as airlines, resort operators, and developers can and cannot do. The private sector, which has long been averse to spending additional money to comply with environmental regulations, must be induced to become part of the effort and thus to view sustainability not as a threat but as an opportunity.
Four critical environmental issues face the travel industry . First, emissions, contributed primarily by airlines but exacerbated by air conditioning, heating, and ground transportation, are a long-term, global problem. Second, the impact of deteriorating natural resources can be felt on a regional level. Third, waste is primarily a local problem, and unsustainable, short-term solutions to waste management not only endanger fragile ecosystems, they also put tourism at risk in the long run. Finally, noise pollution remains a major local issue, especially for the airline industry in neighborhoods located near airports, despite significant improvements in the noise levels of modern aircraft.
Addressing these problems holistically requires strong public-sector leadership that often involves stringent regulations to prevent long-term damage to a country’s travel resources and reputation. That’s because environmentally friendly projects that typically must be led by the private sector, such as transportation infrastructure, alternative energy production, and waste management, too often languish unless the government can convince companies to participate, either through regulation or incentives. When California enacted legislation to force the state’s largest industrial polluters to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020, the state created a carbon market that lets clean energy producers sell carbon credits to polluters who could not or would not reduce their emissions.
Of course, the best solutions benefit both the private and the public sectors, and boost the environmental sustainability of a country’s travel industry overall. The Tuscan region of Italy, for instance, has erected regulatory barriers to the construction of large resorts and provides incentives for restoring old farmhouses into small lodges for tourists, in order to preserve the region's cultural heritage and natural landscape.
Nearly every country in the world has something to offer the curious traveler, through its culture, history, or natural beauty. The factor that will make the difference between those countries that welcome visitors from around the world and those that languish will be the way in which attractions are developed, marketed, and preserved, not only for current travelers but also for future generations of tourists. The countries that develop, implement, and maintain a sustainable tourism strategy today will be the winners of tomorrow.