Tourism Destination EcoMeter
The Problem
The conservation challenges caused by tourism are complex and poorly understood. They are often minimized when compared to the direct economic value of the industry. As a result, there are few incentives or resources available to mitigate tourism-related threats. Yet researchers are increasingly finding that although the impacts of tourism are lesser than many other extractive industries, they are significant enough to merit measurement and remediation. Habitat loss and fragmentation caused by tourism infrastructure has major impacts on wildlife distribution and demographics. Tourists inadvertently cause physiological and behavioral stress in wild animals. Air travel for tourism is the principal contribution of greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, amplifying the impacts of climate change on global ecosystems. The abundance and richness of non-native and invasive species is significantly higher in tourism than non-tourism destinations. Tourism is also known to increase pollution from runoff, plastics and single use disposable items, and chemicals from sunscreens, fertilizers, and pesticides. The many impacts of tourism have proliferated across some of the world’s most ecologically sensitive and economically important destinations. The impacts add up over time, endangering natural attractions and the wildlife and communities that depend on them.
Our Proposal
The tourism industry has a tremendous amount of potential to shift natural resource use away from extractive industries like mining and large scale agriculture or urban development. If managed appropriately, tourism can be a truly sustainable industry. We propose to develop a digital application widget, the EcoMeter, to encourage tourism businesses and destinations to maximize their contributions to conservation and positive local economic growth, while minimizing negative impacts on people and nature. The EcoMeter is a tool for simplifying the reporting process and reward system needed to facilitate large-scale shifts to sustainable tourism practices. EcoMeter is a self-reporting platform that businesses, visitors, and communities will use to report the social and ecological performance of destinations. The EcoMeter will be provided as a resource to be incorporated into the websites of major travel booking companies (e.g. Booking.com, Hotels.com) and associated existing sustainability programs (e.g. TripAdvisor’s GreenLeaders program). The EcoMeter will be widely used, creating a publicly accessible source of information that the public, businesses, governments, academia, and conservation organizations can use. Most importantly, the EcoMeter will incentivize and enable tourism businesses to improve contributions of their operations for people and nature, functioning as a means for sustainable economic growth, conservation, and social justice.
We Assume that...
the widget would be mainstreamed;
the destinations will populate data;
tourists will use it to select & review destinations;
mechanisms will be used to prevent inauthentic reviews;
the app incentivizes social/environmental sustainability.
subject-matter experts from IUCN and other organizations and businesses participate in developing shared categories to measure that are simple yet informative.
Constraints to Overcome
The biggest barrier to sustainable tourism management is the lack of participation in monitoring, evaluation, and reporting. There is sufficient existing technical knowledge but the problem has gone unaddressed because there has not been a collaborative effort to develop a holistic, broadly visible, easy-to-use platform for destination owners and operators to learn about what to evaluate, how to do it, and why they should. Existing initiatives have not been integrated with the tools travelers and businesses use most, such as booking engines. This will be addressed by working through a well-known entity, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), to ensure that this technology is applied by leading travel platforms. Working through the IUCN addresses another major barrier, which has been a lack of consensus on which criteria and protocols can be distilled to user-friendly basics and standardized across destinations and tourism businesses.
Current Work
1. Conceptual design of EcoMeter interface for: business, traveler, community. 2. IP filings. 3. Soliciting widget developer for prototype. 4. Grant writing. 5. Convening IUCN-led video-conference / virtual workshop on the criteria to be included. 6. Working with developer to incorporate criteria into widget. 7. Creating prototype for pitches and investors. Activities over next 6+ months: 8. Initial discussions with travel booking companies 9. Convening IUCN-led video-conference / virtual workshop on the “how-to” improve recommendations to be included 10. Completing widget development
Current Needs
In terms of resources, skills, and knowledge, over the next 3-6 months our primary needs include: recruiting an app developer to make a low-cost, appealing prototype of the widget. We will need (and source from IUCN, GSTC, and other organizations) technical expertise in topic areas of: tourism and biodiversity, water conservation, sustainable infrastructure, waste management, travel and greenhouse gas emissions, and community and cultural impacts of tourism development. At the end of the 6 months, to move the project forward, we will then need funding to: a) convert the widget from prototype to final version, b) develop an API for users of publicly-available data, and c) utilize existing connections to access key contacts at popular travel booking companies.