Sustainable Sustainability

Posted by Travel Weekly

"Travel is like fire. Out of control, it can wreak devastation, but if you harness that energy, it will keep you warm, enrich your life. The power of travel is an incredible force for good in the world."

That's how Costas Christ, director of sustainability for Virtuoso, summarized the amazing race that marks today's travel. More people can reach more destinations in less time than ever before, yet saturating pristine places risks crushing cultures and environments. How can an industry that accounts for 5% of global carbon emissions increase responsible repeated visits? And how can sustainable travel's financial bottom line reach the green promised land without going into the red?

Sustainable travel, defined by the U.N. World Tourism Association as "development [that] meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future," has gained traction from the backpacking days.

In May, Mandala Research published a report titled "The Role of Sustainability in Travel and Tourism, 2016," which posited that 60% of 2,300 U.S. leisure travelers had taken a "sustainable" trip during the previous three years. They spent an average of $600 more per outing, and they stayed seven rather than four days on trips that "bring higher benefits to local communities including job creation, giving back and volunteering." 

"Travelers are looking for authenticity," said one of the study's co-sponsors, Barbra Anderson, foundingpartner of the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based consulting firm Destination Better. "They want to go to a place where they think companies are taking care of their business and the environment." And, she added, "sustainable travelers spend 41% more."

One trip in three years might not seem all that frequent, and the study's identification of eight types of responsible travel, ranging from community to geo to agri, might seem too broad to some. 

But Brian Mullis, founder and CEO of Sustainable Travel International and another study co-sponsor, called the report "a huge wake-up call." Mullis' Portland, Ore.-area group has helped more than 100 destinations protect natural and cultural assets, and he projected that 56 million to 60 million U.S. travelers are choosing destinations and travel companies based on sustainability practices.

"This is too big to ignore," he said.

The evangelist

Fasten your virtual seat belt when speaking with Virtuoso's Christ. His passion for sustainable travel is palpable; he even lives on an organic farm in Maine when he's not consulting or writing about it. 

"What business in its right mind would not want to take care of its product, make sure that it's healthy?" Christ asked rhetorically. "Distill it down to business logic: If we don't protect the product we trade in we're going to be out of business soon."

Christ articulated three sustainable-travel pillars: "Environmentally friendly travel opportunities, support for the protection of cultural and natural heritage and direct, tangible benefits to local people."

This requires nuance, he said."Travel shouldn't conquer a destination but enhance it," he said. "But you wouldn't have the greatest migration in the Serengeti if it weren't for travelers and their dollars." Similarly, he added, "it's very hard to protect and safeguard cultural heritage if the people who liveclosest ... haven't [been given] a seat at the table."

Virtuoso asked Christ to look at sustainable travel more than a decade ago, to bolster a portfolio that now numbers more than 2,000 agencies, travel providers and destinations. Virtuoso now offers its travel advisers webinar training, live events and a Sustainable Travel Leadership Award program. Virtuoso.com is developing an interactive sustainability platform for operators and hotels. 

"What do we really sell?" Christ asked. "We sell culture and nature. When was the last time you read a brochure saying, 'We'll give you a great spa treatment in a clear-cut forest?' In the sustainable world, the [profit and loss] includes the environment."

Destinations sustainable

Kenya's Masai Mara and Pensacola, Fla., on the Gulf Coast are literally and figuratively half a world apart. But both locations needed to combine financial success and sustainable practices.

Cottar's 1920s Safari Camp features 10 posh tents and family antiques, an homage to when the Cottar family's great-grandfather, inspired by Teddy Roosevelt, moved to Kenya. The 6,000-acre Olderikesi Wildlife Conservancy preserves natural habitats in concert with the local people.

"We run the tourism entity, and the conservancy is owned by the Masai community," co-operator Louise Cottar said via Skype from Nairobi. "We worked for 10 years to have the community allocate one plot in perpetuity that can't be subdivided. We don't make a profit from that. But it attracts a higher-yielding clientele, and I think we get more business out of it."

Cottar's is one of 10 "ecospheres" allied with Long Run, which protects more than 5 million privately held natural acres. Long Run has a "4C" framework: conservation, commerce, community and culture. 

"They helped us think through our business," Cottar said. "It was a very arduous process. It's not something you can 'green-wash.'"Cottar's employs its own rangers, builds roads and operates an on-site school that has trained staff. Water purification and runoff collection replaced trucking in 12,000 plastic water bottles a year over eight-hour drives, and the camp broke even within 10 months. 

"We then put the savings into other initiatives that were sustainable but also helped the bottom line," she said. "We've chosen to have fewer beds and more wilderness, so there's a premium."

An all-inclusive room costs just under $1,000 a night per person in peak season, and occupancy has run at about 30%, which Cottar attributed to Kenya's at-times shaky politics and an oversupply of beds in the region (two-thirds of bookings are through agents, with commissions ranging from 25% to 40%). 

"To work and protect, with the community, from poachers and others," is a Cottar's precept. 

But community interaction isn't always a magic sustainability bullet. When I was in Ecuador some years ago, local tour guides went on strike for more tourism to the fragile Galapagos Islands. Poor governments can beequally aggressive. Nevertheless, local involvement is a key to meaningful experiences, said Jamie Sweeting, who is both G Adventures' vice president for sustainability and president of its associated Planeterra Foundation.

"You have to raisethe capacity of the community so it can make decisions actively and not passively," Sweeting said.

Cottar agreed. 

"We asked the community what kind of engagement they wanted," she recalled. Instead of dancing for tourists, "they wanted to showcase some of their learned experiences: how you graduate from one age group to another." The women sell their wares in the camp's shop. "They decide what to make; they make the profit," Cotter said.

And profit, Cottar concluded, "has to underpin sustainability, and vice versa.  Though a far different venue, Pensacola and its Destination 2020 plan also aim to attract tourism without compromising local living. 

"We asked, 'What do we want to look like five years from now?'" said Steve Hayes, Visit Pensacola's president. "It was build more condos vs. saying we have a certain feel and ambience that we don't want to change. How do we grow tourism so we don't lose that? If you're going to develop you want to do it smartly and have a good investment."

Destination 2020 caps construction, protects parkland and supports a turtle-protecting Leave No Trace beach ordinance. The plan promotes off-season visits and tourism styles from historic-district encounters to a National Park Service ferry with docents describing local habitation.

It also means saying no to incongruous events. A televised festival was nixed because it would "set back our progress in building a family environment," Hayes said. "It's more about the quality of what you're showcasing. If we do it right, we'll still reap the economic benefits."