Sustainable & Responsible Tourism as a Business Strategy

Continuing with our topics presented at our Annual Conference, this one was presented by Don Scott, co-owner of Tanda Tula Safari Camp:

We often see all these ‘greeny’ words in advertising campaigns, but are they just words or are they words that you live by?  Eco-Friendly, Sustainable, Nature-Based, Planet Positive, Ethical, Nature Based, Responsible…      Unfortunately Greenwashing is Bad Business, making claims you cannot substantiate carries real risk.  Today’s guests are savvy, unsubstantiated claims are increasingly being called out by guests and journalists on social media—the damage can be lasting and severe.  Besides this, our source markets are legislating with various directives.

Just ask yourself a few logical questions regarding responsible tourism:

Would nature-based activities be enhanced or degraded by mass tourism?

When operating remotely, is it wise to source goods and services from far away?

When your business operate in a rural community, is it wise to alienate that community?

Is there any business reason to allow your core tourism attraction to be     degraded?

In answering these questions honestly, we come to one conclusion:  Doing the right thing is also the smart thing as a business strategy!  So Why aren’t more of us doing it?  So lets talk about perceived barriers to certification:

Not knowing where to start;  Concern about the cost;  Concern about the effort;  Fear that the bar is too high.  The opposite is true… The online     system is fully guided, no guesswork, self-assessment before audit removes the fear, best practice examples are given in every section, knowing there are various tiers makes it fee achievable.  The guided process takes the mystery out of it. 

View the full presentation below and start your process today!