Holiday-makers and travellers will easily be able to judge the efforts being made by tourism operators to reduce or eliminate the carbon footprint of their operation with a new certification system being launched by Ecotourism Australia’s new arm Climate Action Australia.
The Climate Action Certification Program is dedicated to ranking efforts to reduce carbon emissions. It is designed for all sectors of the tourism industry, regardless of size and level of carbon reduction already undertaken. It will include the tourism hotels, attractions, tours, transport, restaurants, travel agents, tourism commissions and industry bodies.
The pre-conference industry survey by Roy Morgan Research ranked climate change as the number one concern for the tourism industry. Forecasters and consumer research also suggest environmental concern is the most influential consumer trend for a generation.
This certification scheme will be a user-friendly, online questionnaire with on line instant help desk, and automatic filtering so businesses only deal with relevant questions.
The Australian tourism industry is straining in the highly competitive marketplace at present, with both domestic and international visitor numbers stagnating. Apart from being a practical, uncomplicated assessment, carrying the Climate Action Australia rating will give pro-active operators a competitive edge.
