Do we have to convince consumers tu be eco-friendly?

[Oriol Miralbell]

One of the biggest concerns of tourism managers is how to implement greening measures in their processes and services, without impacting negatively their customers satisfaction. Some people beleieve that eco-friendly means lost of comfort, and they only feel they can implement greening measures when the customer is also eco-friendly.
There ara many studies done in this regard, especially in the public transport domain, because authorities hav to fight often against the people's prejudices on the consequences of green policies.
Many cities halls have ruled new norms for the speed-limts in the main entrance highways to their cities, from 120 Km7h to 80 Km/h with big contestation from the citizens.
A recent study has shown in this regard, that authorities may be confident in these soft policies, because, besides having a positive result in reducing carbon emission (a 30% approximately), the results of te studu "entail important consequences for programs to support sustainable mobility behavior. Now policy makers can legitimize the application of soft policy measures, because the ecological impact of mobility behavior is not only affected by infrastructural factors or unchangeable sociodemographic characteristics, but also by mobility-related attitudinal variables. "
Now, my question to this debate is: do we have to convince/teach tourists to be eco-friendly, or can we rely on the everyday more general concern of people with environmental sustainability and the threat of climate change, and just implement greening measures in our company, according to Greening Tourissm best practices?

Referred study: Marcel Hunecke, Sonja Haustein, Sylvie Grischkat and Susanne Böhler, Psychological, sociodemographic, and infrastructural factors as determinants of ecological impact caused by mobility behavior, in
Journal of Environmental Psychology, volume 27, no. 4. Pages 277-292

[laia oto llorens]

Dear Oriol,

You raise an essential matter.

A week ago I went to Vall de Núria, which is considered a model for sustainable tourism and quality. They have signs and explanations all over the place about their sustainable practices and invite customers to help them in keeping the place as environmentally-friendly as possible. However, bins for organic, plastic and paper are often misused and the waste management fails to be efective. The collaboration of customers is a critical success factor. The question is how to be more effective in getting our clients to be more committed to this, to take part in the companies' effort to reduce and manage waste (and optimise water consumptions, etc.).

Collective habits take time to change, unless change becomes an imperative. There are measures to create the imperative, such as economic incentives or disincentives. The inevitable longer term road is education and awareness creation campaigns.

PD. Look at today’s first page of AVUI about waste management in the rail station.
http://paper.avui.cat/pdfs/pdf.php?id_pdf=/pdf/08/0228/080228diari0...

Laia

[Eric]

Laia,

You talk about economic incentives to create change in behaviour. I believe that integrating, with the product, a system of reward towards responsible tourists can be a solution, in order to encourage good habits.
But it must not be seen as a boring obligation to get price reduction, and must be part of a general communicated message. You must change the idea that eco-friendly tourism is not fun.

Eric

[Conectafrica]

Hello,

I think we do have to convince consumers to be prosumers & eco-friendly, like this:

The Story of Stuff, Intro: www.storyofstuff.com
Part 2, Extraction
Part 5, Consumption
Versión completa en español: http://territoriosred.blogspot.com/2008/06/la-historia-de-las-cosas...

I think it's good to see the full version on www.storyofstuff.com

Too much stuff!
;)

[Oriol Miralbell]

Great videos Stef.
According to what it's been said in the videos I guess most people won't have time to listen, even watch these videos. We should think on how to explain them these things in a more entertaining way. Is this possible?
Oriol

[Conectafrica]

Hello,
I agree with you, but I don't have better words in my mind, sorry.
I'm I getting 100% digital learner?
;)

[Ricard]

Hi all,

The "Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione Ambientale Prevenzione e del Veneto" (ARPAV) has been a fun animation to promote sustainable tourism.

The animation is the comparison between two types of tourists and their behavior way of travelling. A tourist alternative practicing sustainable tourism (marked with a green exclamation point ! ). And the typical tourist (also known in Spain as "guiri") conducting mass tourism (represented by a flowery question ? ).

At the end of animation, it presents conclusions about the benefits of each of the tourist behavior.

Hope you enjoy it!

http://www.arpa.veneto.it/home/htm/viaggiatori_e_viaggiatori_2.asp

Ricard

[Oriol Miralbell]

Thank you Ricard for sharing this video with us.
Oriol

[Maria]

In my point of view, firts we have to teach/show/convince people in general to be eco-friendlly, in their our country and also when they are travelling. When the people see/will see the importance to be eco-friendlly, and they star/will start to demand that in their trips, then the companies will start to introduce eco-concience in their own firms, in all departments. I believe in the change "down-up".
I also like the video of the story of stuffs, it's clear

[Oriol Miralbell]

I completely agree with you Maria. Governments, especially local governments, and schools (teaching children and teens) have to work in increasing citizens conscience about the importance of keeping environment clean and consuming responsibly. This is not easy, but is one of the main benefits that local policy can afford to local communities. Tourism is especially vulnerable and fragile when tourists decide not to care about environment and don't want to act in a responsible way.