To help industry members better understand sustainable tourism and help businesses improve their current business models, the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) partnered with Switzerland Tourism to produce a series of reports on sustainability in adventure tourism. The five reports offer insight and actionable advice for industry players looking to take conscious steps toward implementing more sustainable practices. The goal of these reports is to provide an accessible resource that is valuable for businesses of all sizes and stages of their sustainability journey.
Determine Your Baseline
The first step towards improving sustainability is evaluating current practices. ATTA and Switzerland Tourism’s report “High Moments, Low Impact: Rethinking Adventure Travel’s Sustainability Efforts” took advantage of the halt in tourism as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic to look at the state of sustainability practices in adventure tourism up to that point.
The report indicated that a variety of positive changes have already been made in recent years, thanks to the ever-growing concern regarding the impact of tourism on the world. However, a general lack of industry-wide standards and market awareness has prevented much progress from gaining significant traction among businesses and travelers at an industry-wide scale. This offers a great jumping off point for industry members to gain an overview of where things stand within the adventure travel business and where businesses can hope to go from there in terms of sustainability. Download the Report
Consider Women at Every Step
“The Influence & Impact of Women in Adventure Travel” highlighted the importance of fostering women in leadership, marketing to women, and promoting equal opportunities for women throughout the industry. Generally speaking, women make up more than half of the clientele in adventure travel but are not often accurately represented in marketing strategies or business structures.
This second report from ATTA and Switzerland Tourism indicates where businesses can make improvements in their practices regarding women employees, women travelers, and women in local communities. Women play a crucial role in every aspect of adventure travel, and gender equity is a key pillar of sustainability. Download the Report
Choose Sustainable Transportation
ATTA and Switzerland Tourism collaborated on a third report, “Responsible Transitions in Transport”, to research aspects regarding transportation in the adventure travel industry, including public transportation, challenges professionals face, and what could be done better to reduce emissions.
Given that a large aspect of travel is transferring people from one place to another, it comes as no surprise that transportation is the highest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the tourism industry. Check out the full report to better understand public transportation as a component of the tourism ecosystem and learn how to make more sustainable choices regarding transportation when planning itineraries. Download the Report
Make Events Sustainable
To better understand how components of adventure travel events can be made more sustainable, Switzerland Tourism and ATTA partnered with the goal of making ATTA’s annual signatory event, Adventure Travel World Summit (ATWS), held in Lugano, Switzerland in 2022 the most sustainable ATWS yet. Out of this project came “Envisioning Sustainable Events,” which reviews the sustainability of the 2022 ATWS from the viewpoints of organizers and attendees.
This report highlights how, as part of the continued pandemic recovery, there has been a renewed enthusiasm for connection in the form of in-person events for industry leaders and adventure travelers. This report offers insight and considerations for hosting sustainable events and minimizing emissions, which can be used as guidelines for business leaders looking to make responsible decisions. Download the Report
Emphasize Sustainable Experiences
The report “Creating Sustainable Experiences in Adventure Travel” studied how the adventure travel community encourages traveling with greater consciousness, awareness, and appreciation. It showed that with travelers increasingly asking for sustainability at the forefront of business operations, there is a necessity for businesses like tour operators, accommodation providers, and venues to rethink the experiences they offer in terms of how sustainable they are. Members of the adventure travel community are already responding to this demand by marketing sustainable and regenerative experiences.
This report is a great resource for adventure travel businesses to learn about and gain inspiration from what other members of the industry are doing to make their experiences more sustainable. It also offers guidance on how to cultivate the environmental, social, and economic aspects of sustainability in adventure travel experiences, which businesses can incorporate into their practices moving forward. Download the Report
Determining how to implement changes to develop a more sustainable business can be daunting at first, but these five reports are full of information and concrete steps toward sustainability to take. Using these as a resource to guide your practices will help ensure that your business can transition smoothly into its most sustainable version.
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