Green passport - a site for the green traveler
Green passport - a site for the green traveler.
Green travel tips are for the world's growing number of international tourists willing to holiday on a living planet.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched a Green Passport campaign.
The
internet-based campaign, "Green Passport", aims to raise tourists'
awareness of their potential to contribute to sustainable development
by making responsible holiday choices.
Achim Steiner, UN-Under
Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "Tourism, the
world's biggest industry is booming. By 2020, the number of
international arrivals by air and by sea could reach 1.6 billion
annually.
"This growth brings the prospect of income and
economic development to countless tourist destinations in rich and poor
countries alike. The challenge is to manage this growth sustainably.
Governments have a key role to play, but so too do individuals and
families when planning and going on holiday," he said.
"Many
consumers are now making green domestic choices from sourcing
electricity from renewable sources and choosing eco-friendly
investments up to buying leaner and greener cars. Packing a Green
Passport along with airline tickets, the swimming costume and the sun
lotion means tourists no longer need to leave their green credentials
at home but can make them part of the holiday of a life-time," added Mr
Steiner.
Stefanos Fotiou, head of UNEP's tourism unit, said: "By
browsing the Green Passport web site consumers will be able to find
practical tips to help them reduce their environmental and social
footprint while they are on vacations. Tourists will discover that
traveling green is not as hard as they imagined.
In 2007,
international tourist arrivals reached nearly 900 million and by the
end of the decade this number is expected to reach more than one
billion. As tourist numbers grow, so will their demand for energy,
water, and natural resources to support their holidays.
"There
are some encouraging signs in terms of market response to the problem.
Tourists are increasingly expressing concern about the quality of the
environment at their holiday destinations," said Fotiou. "However,
there is clearly a gap to fill in order to shift from discussions on
responsible holidays to concrete actions."
The new UNEP campaign
will provide information to tourists to help them prevent some of their
impacts by avoiding certain behaviors that greatly affect the
environment and the society. The green travel tips are addressing all
the holiday's cycle, from travel planning and packaging to the way back
home.
For example, the campaign encourages tourists to:
   * Choose responsible service providers
   * Reduce the consumption of energy while on the road or in their hotel
   * Buy locally made and environmentally friendly souvenirs
The
Campaign has been launched by UNEP, jointly with and the French
Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning and
the Brazilian Ministries of Environment and Tourism.
It is an
initiative of the International Task Force on Sustainable Tourism
Development, firmly rooted in the move to accelerate a global shift
towards sustainable consumption and production (SCP) that emerged from
the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held in
Johannesburg in 2002.