The Tourism Principles And Practices Tourism Essay
Tourism is becoming the worlds largest industry and it is being recognized that tourism must preserve and protect the environment and natural attractions so that people will continue to travel, and must set use limits so that sites will be truly sustainable [1] . However tourism, as well as bringing improvements in areas such as the economy, also has the power to destroy the environment. Impressive examples of this are hotels and other accommodation establishments, which contribute to almost a quarter of tourism emissions in general (21%) [2] . Recently, tourists have started to become more interested in the environmental impacts of their travels, and thus the tourism and hotel industry has started to pay more attention to the protection of the environment.
2. LITERATURE REVIEWS
Considering the complexity and wideness of the topic, in order to implement a plan to save costs and reduce consumption a good research and documentation about the subject is required. This issue has become an actual problem which is being discussed in many journal and magazine articles. Firstly, it is necessary to find adequate information to quantify in statistics and explain in detail the history of this issue and describe it. For this section 2 university texts were used: Goeldner, C. R. Ritchie, J. R. B. (2009). Tourism Principles, Practices, Philosophies (11th Ed.) New York: Wiley and Sons., Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the Tourism Sector Frameworks, tools and practices. An International Seminar focusing on Developing Countries and Small Island States. (April 2008) Oxford, United Kingdom. Moreover, a small research was carried out on the internet using some websites which talk about tips and suggestions adopted in this sector.
3. ECO-FRIENDLY MEASURES
A strategic planning and implementation of policies, that pay attention to the costs, bring benefits not only the environment but also to the hotel itself. By observing methods and techniques of sustainability, immediate economic objectives can be achieved, but the most important thing is that the measures implemented are for the long-term. Consequently, every manager should be familiar of what are the environmental and energy aspects of its business/organization in order to improve upon them and reduce waste and costs. To achieve this goal, a seaside superior hotel needs to change its habits and introduce innovations that use natural resources or transform their systems in low-power systems as seen in some example reported below.
3.1 Natural resources
The use of natural resources is the cheapest measure. Correspondingly, there are a number of systems to minimize emissions which use simple methods that simultaneously may also reduce costs. Firstly, an accommodation should install large sun-facing windows or skylights on facades and celling. In this way, during the day, electricity consumption is minimized because the natural daylight filters throughout the windows, thus reducing the need for artificial lights. Conversely, it is important that this type of glass maintains a cool temperature inside because this could be a problem during the summer period.
Secondly, solar panels can be installed to harness solar energy. Indeed they use the sun’s energy and transform it into useful energy and heat for human activities.
Considering that we need to analyze a hotel on the seaside, the accommodation could also benefit from exploiting the sea with simple structures that support the main goal of becoming an eco-friendly hotel. Some example of how this is possible can be taken from the Hilton hotel in Malta; the only eco-friendly hotel that achieved the European eco-label certification. In the same way a hotel on the seaside could take advantage of this and with a process of desalination in an osmosis system, this type of water can be used as drinking water. In addition, sea water desalinated can be used for cooling (in summer) or heating (in winter) for the hotel. Thus it decreases the need of fossil fuels. Furthermore, this used water could be cleaned in a biological purification plant and together with harvested rainwater be used for toilet flushing and irrigation of the gardens. Although initially these systems can have high costs, in the future they will significantly reduce consumptions and costs of the accommodation.
3.2 Waste disposal
Another fundamental measure in an eco-hotel is waste management and recycling. This is a strategy that reuses waste instead of disposes of it. Recycling avoids the waste of potentially useful materials, reduces the consumption of raw materials, and reduces the use of energy, and therefore the emission of greenhouse gases. This method is very simple to implement. It is important that in each and every place of the hotel (kitchen, restaurants, rooms, offices, public areas etc…) recycling bins are provided. In the office, they can minimize the paper size and replace the normal print ink with soy-based ink which pollutes less. Also plastic laundry bags can be replaced with cloth bags. After this step managers must familiarize staff and guests with this measure by offering products that contain recycled material such as newspaper, magazine and organic bags.
3.4 Maintenance
As stated in the introduction, all this behaviors and systems must be long-lasting and the only way to achieve this objective is maintenance. First of all, all the guestsaa‚¬a„? rooms must be controlled for infiltration of hot and cold air throughout windows and doors. Then air conditioners and heaters need an annual maintenance which checks if there are problems and if the room temperature is acceptable for each season. All the bulbs need to be replaced with energy saving light bulbs that further reduce costs. Subsequently, also office and restaurants must be regularly monitored with zero-cost measures. Some examples could be allowing hot food to cool before storing in refrigerators and freezers, not overloading refrigerators, regularly clean fans, verify if doors fit and close correctly and defrosting freezers frequently since frost build ups reduce efficiency. Those are all zero-cost actions that should reduce environmental problems, costs and consumptions.
3.3 Staff and guest education
At the end, the staff and guests should be educated about these eco-friendly measures. With simple gestures, tourists can limit energy consumption and be more aware of protecting the environment and reducing pollution. For example, tourists can pay attention to reduce the use of water when it is not necessary, can use and heating and A.C. with consideration, pay attention to the waste disposal and always remember to turn off the lights. The last action mentioned can also be supported with sensors, installed by the hotel, that automatically turn off lights and air conditioning once the guest has left his room. On the other hand staff can collaborate for other type of eco-friendly measures. For instance, in restaurants, waitress can reduce emissions levels promoting national wine and food (e.g. seafood) because usually international food is imported by air. In addition , members of the hotel can distribute brochures and allow fieldtrip visits to their back of house to promote this system not only to customers but expand it to all those who are interested in protecting the environment.
4. REASONS
If we examine the causes of the growing interest in eco-tourism, there is a wide range of possible answers. The main reasons are the protection of the environment and saving more money from the hotels. In addition, those who use these systems and achieve these goals are rewarded with international and European certifications such as Ecolabel certification. It is granted only to hotels with systems of environmental excellence that respect ecological and performance criteria established. These criteria are then reviewed and where necessary, improved by providing better environmental quality of services. Moreover, tourists are starting to worry about the consequences that their journey can bring to the environment and in this way as Thomas Tanzilli, director of Federalberghi Rome said “Besides the environmental issue, it has also become a commercial problem.” After that tourists are interesting in this type of tourism for a big numbers of reasons such as:
The presence of local biological food with 0 kilometers
People are tired of conventional tourism and they want to seek new challenges.
international aid and incentives arise to support tourism projects for the purpose of environmental protection
eco-tourism accommodations became more affordable and accessible
There is an increase in travel for educational purposes.
Finally, in thinking people is maturing an increasing awareness that environmental conservation is not the only reason, but it can also bring economic benefits.
5. CONCLUSION
In recent years this great way to reduce environmental pollution through hotels has been promoted in many ways from important tourism organizations such as The World Tourism Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In addition, the habits of tourists who stay in hotels are changing. In fact, with Advertising put aa‚¬aˆ?aa‚¬aˆ?specially in the rooms of the hotel, the guest feels responsible towards helping the environment and working with the whole staff. To conclude, eco-tourism is not simply constructed by systems and environmental measures implemented by the hotel, but it is a set of attitudes that all components of that particular hotel should assume both inside and outside the building.
