Are tourists willing to pay more for green travel?

According to him, travellers are becoming more and more aware of green travel (a remarkable increase from 9 percent in July 2007 to 22 percent in July 2009) but it doesnt mean that they are ready to pay more for it: only 9 percent of consumers say they are willing to pay more to use travel service suppliers that offer eco-friendly options. Among these consuymers willing to pay more to tarvel green, 39 percent would pay as much as a 5 percent fare to an environmentally responsible supplier, and an equal percentage would pay between 5 and 9 percent more.

This results are out of travelhorizons, a quarterly survey of American’s travel intentions co-authored by Ypartnership and the U.S. Travel Association. The most recent iteration of this nationally representative survey of 2,362 adults was conducted July 21-28, 2009.
Visit http://www.ustravel.org/ and http://www.ypartnership.com/ for more info

Visit https://www.greenty.com/ for more details about eco-hotels

Greenty.com live

Dear Readers,

we have just soft launched the new Green Travel Search Engine https://www.greenty.com/

Cuurently the test version only accounts 20 eco hotels but we have 1000+ eco hotels revieweds that will be live in a couple of weeks from now …

Enjoy the tour !

Greenty.com is the first eco-travel search engine & a 2.0 portal on responsible travel
Our goal is to simplify the search for green travel for the consumers. We are not a travel agency, we only improve search for everyone through our three unique features:
Our search technology: we search for information on eco holidays, resorts, tours, hotels webpages, tour operators, OTAs, blogs, social networks, news sites, directories… pretty much every place imaginable on the internet. That enables us to organize and display web content about eco tourism in a very useful manger. You can start searching now
Then our travel experts rate and classify the eco tourism opportunities to make the search results even more understandable and reliable for our users – through the unique Greenty Index
Finally, the Greenty community contributes information to help enhance the search experience. Greenty.com users can add reviews to increase the relevance of Greenty.com‘s content on eco travel. You can rate a green hotel here

Green Globe moves into Greece and Cyprus

Another geography is being added to the leader of eco travel certification. Green Globe has announced a partnership with Green Wealth, Ltd. to Deliver Green Globe Licensed Products in Greece and Cyprus Markets. There are 9,000 hotels in Greece and Cyprus so that is an interesting move. However we dont know how many potential eco or green hotels there is in Greece and Cyprus.

The GG products and services that will be delivered by Green Wealth include:

– Green Globe Certification, the international green certification scheme. More info at http://www.greenglobecertification.com/

– Green Globe accreditation training

– the Green Globe Index tool . More info at http://www.greenglobeindex.com/

– and the whole range of Green Globe consulting services.

That’s another sign that Ecotravel certification will go across the globe with coherent and guidelines under the leadership of Green Globe, 5% of which is owned by the WTTC.

Egypt, a new place for ecotourism, ecotravel and green hotels?

Egypt is an incredibly attractive tourism destination; it all started more than 2000 years ago when Roman travellers visited Egypt to see the ancient pharaonic ruins.

Today tourism is Egypt’s most important industry, with 2.2 million jobs – however over 75% of the country’s tourist activity is concentrated on the Red Sea – thus mass tourism threatens to ruin Egypt’s unique heritage.

Fortunately there is an extremely active Ecotourism Committee in the Egyptian Tourism Federation, accessible at http://www.etf.org.eg/ETFCommittees.asp?comm_id=3

Their area of action includes protecting natural areas and cracking down on illegal hunting.

They also produce a weekly half-hour program in cooperation with Egyptian satellite television called Egypt the Land of Beauty which features Egypt’s protected areas, ecotourism activities, eco-lodges, and indigenous tribes of Egypt’s three deserts.

The passage of a law in 1983 has also led to the declaration of 27 protected areas in Egypt that you can locate online at the following map:

Hyatt catching up with the eco trend ?

Hyatt Regency O’Hare, one of the flaghotel of the group, locatred next to Chicago, USA, has just announced a number of environmentally friendly initiatives, such as

– extensive recycling,

– water conservation programs,

– energy conservation programs.

The hotel has just received the WasteWise certification from the Environmental Protection Agency, and is claiming to constantly strive to set industry standards in responsible eco-friendly practices.

We have covered Accor and IHG in this blog – happy to learn that another major hotel group is embarking on a green policy…
Happy to hear the feedback of guests and visitors in the hotel !

Caribbean en route for a greener tourism

We highlighted a couple of times already the move to the region for a more responsible tourism.

The region is indeed suffering badly from a degradation of its ecosystem, from potential sea level rise, coastal erosion, extreme weather events to an increase in disease.

Therefore the region has launched a so-called Caribsave program where tourism boards, tourism operators and partner are planning to:

– Model regional, national and destinational climate-change potential
– Assess vulnerabilities
– Measure and evaluate knock-on impacts on tourism and livelihoods
– Inform and develop regional policy
– Develop, implement and monitor adaptation and mitigation strategies
– Build capacity and transfer skills through design and implementation of initiatives
– Create the world’s first ‘Carbon Neutral’ tourism region

Lots of goals and targets then , we will keep you posted on the outcome…

US national parks green awards announced …

The annual awards, established in 1989, honor significant natural resource accomplishments in six categories. And the winners are …

Marc Albert, Natural Resource Manager, Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site (resource sharing with Salem Maritime National Historic Site and Boston Harbor Islands National Recreational Area).

Patrick Reed, Superintendent, Mammoth Cave National Park

Fred Bunch, Chief of Resource Management, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

Kathy Jope, Natural Resources Program Lead, Pacific West Region

William C. Malm, PhD, Air Resources Division, Fort Collins

The awards have been presented in Portland, OR on March 5, 2009. …

More info

A ethical travel guide

The fully revised new edition of Tourism Concern’s Ethical Travel Guide has finally been published.

The new guide does list places to visit and to stay in in more than 60 countries . If you’re tired of the usual travel guide book, and want to be more responsible when you travel around, this is the book for you. Find hundreds of new ideas for your next holiday and visit amazing communities not listed in other guidebooks. From construction projects in Tibet to luxury Greek island breaks, there is something for every budget.

The guide also gives a background to the many ethical and practical issues involved in ethical tourism, including a new section on travel and climate change.

TUI embarks on a more sustainable approach

A very good news for a more responsible travel – the world’s # 1 Travel Group, Germany-based TUI has just announced a plan to accredit green hotels within a more eco-travel comprenhensive policy:
– TUI has identified over 400 hotels in its offering to be audited . For sure ther will be incentive for hotels to look after the environment, their employees and local communities. Long term they are looking at over 50 per cent of ex UK customers staying in green hotels.
– Green Hotels will be assesed by Regional Sustainability Advisors through intensive 6-day sustainability audits.
– TUI UK has as well now a sustainable development agreement as part of all supplier contracts, to ensure that suppliers are getting greener: for less impact on the environment, their employees, and the local community.
For sure this is a great news – a sign thatthe whole industry is embarking on the green trend