Green Tourism Essay

Environmental concern is one of the major topics down the stairs discussion throughout the homo due to its detrimental shock which is inevitable given the way in which resources ar drug ab employ and the milieu polluted. Going park is a construct adopted by several businesses around the world. Some of these businesses argon honestly concerned to the highest degree the milieu whereas others have adopted it as a market gambit to make profits. Thus, it is hard to assure whether or not color touristry is a market ploy entirely if undertaken mor tout ensembley and ethically then it should not be the baptismal font (Kandari & Chandra, 2004).The touristry industry has been under scrutiny for damaging the surround. Hotels and resorts are being constructed in beautiful landscapes in order to attract customers. Moreover, they undertake colour tourism market campaigns in order to justify themselves (Weeden, 2002). Is green tourism, then a marketing ploy? In order to answer t his top dog we need to know what green tourism is and what restoreion it has on the environment (http//www. helium. com/items/1115642-green-marketing). What Is Green touristry?Green tourism is all about the provision of environmentally friendly tourism services of all kinds ranging from leisure, business and recreational tourism services. Green tourism has overly been termed as eco-tourism and sustainable tourism. Each of the terms revolves around the same cause i. e. low impact and environmentally friendly tourism. Green tourism is similarly being an environmentally friendly tourist itself for e. g. taking a leisure trip to a beautiful resort precisely in any case, in the processes, have the lowest impact on the environment where you are headed.Generally then green tourism states that we should not only value and preserve the place in which we live but also the places where we travel. Should Green tourism Be Promoted? Whether or not green tourism is a marketing ploy or not is a question we leave alone answer later but firstly we need to know whether or not green tourism should be promoted or not. The environmental impact of businesses around the world has now become a grave source of concern.As the world realized that most of the key inhering resources are special in supply, steps are being taken to help pr planet environmental damage and to use the sacred natural resources in the most efficient and effective manner. The tourism industry has been at the effect stage of the debate. Let us discuss the divers(a) impacts that tourism has on the environment and there effects. Tourisms Impact on the Environment The environment has a certain limit to the number of visitors it poop handle for e. g. rain forest is able to maintain the ecological balance with a few resorts and tourists but if the rainforest gets plagued with resorts, hotels and tourists, the ecological balance will be disturbed and threatened. Tourism has three major impacts on the envi ronment i. e. the depletion of natural resources, pollution and physical impacts (Jones & Munday, 2007). Firstly, natural resources much(prenominal) as water for e. g. are overused by hotels and resorts. In fact tourists tend to use more water at a holiday then they do at home.Golf courses require immense amount of water and contribute to the depletion of water resources. Tourism also puts great stress on local energy, raw satisfying and water resources for a country (Woodside, 2009). By far, land degradation is the most crucial impact of tourism on natural resources. Scenic landscapes and important resources such as minerals, wildlife etc are often destroyed through the verbal expression of tourism facilities such as recreational centers, hotels and resorts. Secondly, tourism also contributes to pollution, especially in environments where pollution freighter cause much deterioration for e.g. wildlife reserves in Africa, rainforests in South America, beach resorts in Maldives e tc. Pollution caused by tourism comes in the bound of emissions, noise, sewerage, waste disposal and littering. Moreover, aesthetic pollution is also a major concern, mostly, tourism structures fail to integrate themselves within the natural landscape and result in the destruction of the scenic beauty. Lastly, tourism also contributes immensely to the physical destruction of the environment. An ecosystem is a structure of living organisms, their physical surroundings and the natural cycles that sustain them.Ein truth liaison is in perfect harmony but this harmony is often disrupted through tourism. The construction of resorts and hotels calls for land paving, sand mining, terrain restructuring etc. this causes land erosion and loss of wildlife habitats and ecosystems themselves. Deforestation is another very unwholesome physical impact that tourism has on the environment (Yeoman & Beattie, 2006). Given the immense environmental impact of tourism it is imperative that action be tak en to help resolve the problem.Financial assistance in the form of environmental aid, improved environmental management and planning, environmental awareness raising, protection and preservation and various restrictive measures are essential for environment sustainability (Grubler, 2006). One form of achieving all this is green tourism in itself. In several European countries, green tourism is promoted and also sponsored by governments themselves. This reflects the fact that several governments are also promoting the marketing of green tourisms.The aim should be to target responsible citizens who would choose green organizations i. e. organizations that are environmentally friendly to purchase goods and services. The Ashdene House and Radisson SAS Hotel Case Studies To get a better understanding about wherefore organizations and businesses, whether small or large, engage in green tourism we will analyze two case studies from Europe, The Ashdene House, a five room lymph node house in the south of Edinburgh and the Radisson SAS Hotel in Glasgow, Scotland. Case 1 Ashdene HouseThe Ashdene House is a five bedroom guest house on the south of Edinburgh. It was rewarded the silver Award by the Green Tourism Business Scheme in 1998 for its dedication towards environmental sustenance. The guest house has worked towards energy and waste management in an eco-friendly manner. They considered the fact that less energy use will lead to less environmental damage and consequently reduction in global warming. Waste recycle is actively pursued with waste being sorted into cardboard, glass, plastic and food.Moreover, energy saving devices and appliances are used to ensure that minimum energy is wasted. Moreover, the guest house also encourages guests to be environmentally friendly by using public transport or walking to the Edinburgh center. To promote biodiversity of the local ecosystem, it has installed bird feeds and water equipment. The owners, Mr. and Mrs. Daulby are the masterminds behind this green initiative. They also use recycled material such as recycled toilet paper and contain organic products.The Daulbys have made available an environmental pamphlet to keep the guests engaged in environmental protection. The pamphlet requests visitors to sort their rubbish in such a manner that recyclable material is put separately, the pamphlet encourages the use of public transport or walking instead of driving and finally and most importantly it tells visitors that environmentally friendly activities must not only be engaged in when on holiday but also at home. Case 2 Radisson SAS Hotel The Radisson SAS Hotel in Glasgow takes the environment very seriously.In 2001, it announced a Responsible Business Program which emphasized upon reducing the negative impact of the business on the natural environment. The hotel opened up in Glasgow in 2002 with 247 guest bedrooms. The building propose was built in such an architectural manner that it integrated well with the traditional and modern computer architecture of Glasgow city itself. Soon after inauguration, the hotel in 2003 was awarded the Gold Award for the Green Tourism Business Scheme. The hotel has been a lead player in environmental sustainability. Water, gas, electricity and waste are managed effectively and efficiently.The hotel is given a sustainability target based on resource usage by the head office and mostly it aims to extend the expectations of the head office by conserving more energy and utilizing fewer resources. All the lighting, air conditioning and galvanizing appliances of the hotel are controlled through a computer unit. Whenever they are not in use the computer mechanically shuts them off to save energy. The hotel also engages in the recycling of glass, paper and cardboard. A pamphlet in all hotel rooms enlightens guests regarding the Responsible Business Program undertaken by the hotel.The hotel markets its environmental efforts actively in Hotelier magazine s, their website and various sponsored even outts. The hotel believes that the green initiative also gives the hotel an value, especially with German and Scandinavian visitors. They believe that companies which are certified with the ISO 14001 environmental standards would choose a green hotel over one that did not pay attention to the environment. One thing to note here is that the green initiative undertaken by Radisson SAS is not a marketing ploy but it is present throughout the organization, at all levels right down till the ground level.Green Tourism A Marketing Ploy or Strategy? We understand that their can be two reasons for green tourism. Firstly, that an organization is sincerely concerned about the environment and has always been committed to go green or secondly, the organization is following the markets trends and faking the whole departure green concept. This is also termed as greenwashing where organizations advertise products as eco-friendly where in fact they are not. It is obvious that most of the companys pursue the go green concept for the profits that arise out of it. At times, companies have to point out the positive aspects of their products.We can say that this is intelligent marketing because given the economic recession and the global environmental crisis, and organizations will do what it takes to do, even if it is green tourism marketing, in order to keep minting money (Becken, 2005). Companies are in the business for making money they will do whatever the customers want. The cases discussed above are examples of situations otherwise. Ashdene House and Radisson SAS were sincerely concerned with the environmental impact of their activities. So should be the case given the severe impact of tourism on the environment as discussed earlier.Companies are now in the race of green marketing, using fancy words such as all-organic, pure natural etc to allure customers. It is true that most of the companies are not actually release green bu t yet again, as the cases presented prove, there are some companies that are genuinely going green with no strings attached and they are sincerely concerned about the environment. Green tourism marketing has the same scenario many hotels and resorts boast their environmental concern but have little or no prove to support their claims (Mowforth & Munt, 2008).Trade commissions and authorities around the world have made green marketing guidelines stricter so that companies dont use it as a marketing gimmick. The issue of marketing myopia arises when organizations design products and services which are environmentally friendly, educate customers regarding the environmental efforts and the reasons for their marketing and lastly but most importantly ensure the credibility of the product claims and refrain from making false claims (dAmore, 1993).Conclusion To conclude, we can say that green marketing or the marketing of products that are environmentally safe has been both a ploy for numero us companies whereas for others it is an honest effort to promote environmental awareness and minimize the impact of their trading operations on the environment. It is hard to tell whether or not a company is actually concerned about the environment or whether it has undertaken the effort to increase revenue and eventually profits.However, stricter rules and regulations and the important roles played by the supranational Standard Organization through their ISO 14000 certification are granting companies the environmentally friendly status. At the end of the day, even if a company is ISO 14000 certified, we will never find out whether it markets its certification for increased revenue or if it is actually proud of its success. References Becken S. (2005). The role of tourist icons for sustainable tourism, Journal of Vancation Marketing, Vol 11, 21 30. dAmore L. J. (1993).A tag of Ethics and Guidelines for Socially and Environmentally Responsible Tourism, Journal of Travel Research , Vol 31, 64 66. Grubler A. , (2006). Doing More with Less astir(p) the Environment through Green Engineering, Environment, Vol 48, 2237. Helium/Jeff Parsons. 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