Tourism industry leads in terms of total emissions globally

Pollution is having a significant impact on the tourism industry, forcing businesses to quickly come up with appropriate strategies to achieve sustainable development.

Sarah Wang from the WTTC speaking at the Markethub conference

According to Sarah Wang from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the tourism sector accounted for 8.1 per cent of the total emissions globally in 2019, and at one point increased to 9.8 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region.

However, the impact of the pandemic and changes in tourists’ travel preferences have made them more aware of the need to plan responsible trips, and this attitude is spreading that to businesses that provide tourism services.

“The tourism industry is evolving and focussing on sustainability. We see a lot of investment in sustainable and green practices,” Wang said.

Data from the technology platform Hotelbeds shows that 70 per cent of the travellers feel that they would like to be more eco-friendly, and 45 per cent of them consider that waste is the most important environmental issue.

Elena Perez, chief human resources officer of HBX Group, the umbrella organisation for several brands like Hotelbeds, Bedsonline, TravelStack, and Roiback, said that Hotelbeds has practical solutions to respond to tourism's emissions.

“Luckily, we’re not a company that is responsible for large amounts of emissions. We have a plan to reduce them even further, which has been effective this year,” she stated.

Hotelbeds has organised virtual events to share best practices from within the industry, and has some sound initiatives to raise awareness.

“When we learned about a campaign to reduce single-use plastic from one of our partners, we did activities internally to drive the same thing,” Perez said.

She added, "HBX Group planted around 12,000 trees in Thailand last year. We did the same in Mallorca, where they have space in the mountains to grow forest areas.

“Sustainability is not a nice-to-have, it is a must, but it requires the effort and collaboration of all players in the sector,” she commented.

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