Tourism update | 30 June 2023

30 Jun 2023

The ACCI Sustainable Tourism Advisory Committee met virtually last week to plan the basis for a net zero emissions target for tourism. Susanne Becken, Professor of Sustainable Tourism at Griffith University, delivered a presentation about ‘The Tourism Net Zero journey’.

Professor Becken challenged the committee to understand the science behind net zero and the limited role of offsets. She discussed ‘greenwashing’, the use of false and misleading environmental claims, and the dangers of it. She detailed the process to establish an emissions baseline, and a roadmap for reductions, before establishing a target.

The committee discussed initiatives being undertaken by regional tourism organisations, including emissions reduction and biodiversity initiatives in regional tourism plans. It was agreed that the Sustainable Tourism Advisory Committee could play a role in sharing the baseline modelling from Professor Becken, and the regional plans as they are developed, to encourage other regions to do the same.

Ecotourism Australia also shared some of the work they are doing and that of Earth Check. They also detailed their Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard that measures where a business or tourism operator is on their sustainability journey at a point in time and assesses the following four pillars of sustainability:

  • Environmental impacts
  • Socio-economic impacts
  • Cultural impacts
  • Sustainable management

The committee agreed to gather more data on the various initiatives across the tourism sectors and will reach out to the broader ACCI Tourism membership to provide examples of their sustainability work. Members are invited to submit any of these examples to [email protected].







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