Looking for Best Practices in Greening Tourism

Greening Mobility

ability to move Mobility is the ability and willingness to move or change; this can depend on motor skills, special tools such as a walking stick, walker, mobile standing frame or wheelchair, vehicles, uncongested roads, public transport; mobility with regard to one's home depends on availability of houses and being bound to an area because of a job or school, etc.
This definition on mobility has many references to sustainability. Making mobility green, is something so important to our business, to tourism, that if we do not succeed in making transport greener, using more ecologic transport means and moving "traffic jams" out from our lifes, we will not be able to let tourism be sustainible.
Governments and companies are working for a better mobility, a greening mobility.
In this section you'll find informatio on Greening Mobility. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here´s an Article by AMADEUS Spain on the conflict of Eco-concerned air-transportation. Or get it also Here: Savia_57economia_vuelosecologicos.pdf

Tagged: greening, mobility, oil, roads, transport

9 Comments

Comment by Oriol Miralbell on November 19, 2007 at 11:08am: Qatar Airways, Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Fuel Company (WOQOD),
Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Shell International Petroleum Company limited
and the Qatar Science and Technology Park sign agreement to study
benefits of Synthetic Jet Fuel WEBWIRE – Thursday,
November 15, 2007 Today at the Dubai Airshow Qatar Airways,
Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Fuel Company (WOQOD), Airbus, Rolls-Royce
plc, Shell International Petroleum Company Limited and the Qatar
Science and Technology Park signed an agreement to research the
potential benefits of Synthetic Jet Fuel in aviation engines. The
objective of this study is to address the feasibility and potential
benefits of using Gas to Liquid (GTL) synthetic jet fuels. GTL is a
technology that takes natural gas and converts it to liquid
kerosene. The properties of GTL kerosene are largely similar to
conventional jet fuel making it a ’drop in’ replacement for today’s
kerosene, capable of being used in today’s aero engines, aircraft
and airports without any modifications.

Comment by Oriol Miralbell on November 23, 2007 at 7:12pm: Greenskies: Aviation & Environment Conference for
Australia

Marcus Endicott posted in his group Green-Travel:

The Australian Aviation Council (AUSAC) which is the peak aviation
industry body representing all sectors of the Australian aviation
industry on issues of common interest, will be hosting a landmark
event.

Greenskies, Australia's only Aviation and Environment
Conference, will be held on the 26th and 27th of November 2007, in
Sydney, Australia.

Currently, there is no issue of greater interest and importance to
our industry than the environment; specifically, aircraft carbon
emissions and their consequences.

The aviation industry has done more than any other industry in
terms of reducing its environmental impact over the last 4 decades,
and although accounting for less than 3% of greenhouse gas
emissions the aviation industry is highly conspicuous and an easy
target for governments, environmentalists and the media.

Irrespective of the true effects of global warming, any failure by
the aviation industry to address the issue of greenhouse gas
emissions poses one of the greatest risks to the industryâ€™s
future and thousands of Australian jobs.

The aviation industry in Australia has the opportunity now to take
control of its own destiny. Greenskies is affirmative action by the
industry to seriously address this issue.
Visit: http://www.greenskies.com.au/

Comment by Oriol Miralbell on January 4, 2008 at 1:53pm: A Report by Paul Easton in NZ's The Dominion Post says that
research showing greenhouse gas emissions from air travel are
higher than first thought could hurt the lucrative tourist
market.
From Travelomole.com we got these news today:
International tourism is a huge money spinner for New Zealand,
earning $8.3 billion in the year ended March 2006, "As a country we
need to think seriously hard and come up with meaningful offsetting
strategies if tourism is to remain a cornerstone of the New Zealand
economy," Otago University researcher Craig Rodger said.

Dr Rodger and co-researcher Inga Smith have issued a study adding
up the contribution of international visitors' air travel to New
Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from international
aviation do not yet come under the Kyoto protocol, but might be
included in the future.
[more information at:
http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1125214.php?mpnlog=1&m_id=_rnbmdn

Comment by Oriol Miralbell on March 26, 2008 at 1:25pm: An excellent study done by Britta K. Gross and Ian J.
Sutherland
from General Motors and Dr. Shenk Mooiweer from Shell Hydrigen
shows what's going on with Hydrogen energy for mobility and
explains many of the Qudos most of us (ignorant consumers)
would
like to know:
Where comes Hydriogen energy from?
How much contamination does it generate to produce Hyrdrogen?
What will this energy cost to the consumer? etc.
You can get this document here:
"http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/assets/documents/2008/10Things.pdf">
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/assets/documents/2008/10Things.pdf

Comment by Oriol Miralbell on August 3, 2008 at 3:09pm: After the article from Alex Steffen "Cities: a Smart alternative to cars" appeared on Businessweek, I believe that we have more views on how we should consider to face the problem of pollution cuased by private transport means.
Don't miss this article..

Comment by Oriol Miralbell on August 4, 2008 at 5:02pm: Carsharing is a great possibility to move cheap, independent and without having your own car.
Here you have the Carsharing company in Barcelona.
Carsharing - a sustainable solution
Carsharing in Wikipedia
World carshare cities inventory

Studies show that carsharing users are more aware of the real cost of their transport, and make judicious choices between public transport, carsharing cars, rental cars, taxi, motorbike and bike for their trips – resulting in less cars, less space used by cars, less fuel consumed and less hothouse gases emitted.

What is carsharing?

We offer to our clients the use of our fleet (at this time: 117 cars in 33 locations in Barcelona, Sabadell, Granollers and Sant Cugat). If you’re an Avancar client, and you need a car for a few hours, or a few days, it’s really simple:

1. You call us (7/7, 24/24 service), or go to our reservations website https://client.avancar.es , to reserve the car you need, at the location that suits you best, for the time you think you will be needing it.
2. You go to the location (all our cars are in public parkings, open and supervised 24 hours a day, and easy to reach on foot or by public transport) and find the car in its reserved parking space.
3. You open the car with your Avancar chip card, find the keys in the dashboard locker, and drive away… For the duration of your reservation, the car is yours.

Some more links:
Worldcarshare on Yahoo groups
Carsharing network

Comment by Oriol Miralbell on August 4, 2008 at 5:22pm: Community Bicycle Program.
More and more cities in the world are offering the possibility to move with the bicycle to a very low cost. In Barcelona, "Bicing" has been such a succesful solution that it has more than 40.000 users that use 2,000 bicycles available at 150 statrions (see the map here)
The succes can also easy become a nightmare for the townhall, because the service collapses especially on the week.ends when teen-agers and yougsters use it by night to move from one place to the other. Anyway, the service works good because everyone from 16 years on can use it and for a low cost (24 EUR per year) and no supplement if they don't use it for longer tha 30 minuts every time. This is a resasonable fare inside the city.

You can learn more about Community bycicle programm in Wikipedia.

Tourists can also rent bicycles in Barcelona at:
BudgetBikes Barcelona
Barcelona Biking com

Here some more information of the TOP 12 BICYCLE FRIENDLY TOWNS

Comment by Oriol Miralbell on August 4, 2008 at 5:45pm: Railway travel: a clean and sustainable way to move

I've always loved to travel by train. It's pleasant and you have all the time to watch through the window, enjoying the landscape, getting to know other travelers, reading books, having a short nap, or even leaving your mind free to think anything else.

You'll always know when you'll leave and when you arrive and you only have to watch to be on time at the gate and be aware of when you reach your destination. If you've booked your seat, you're done.

Fast trains are less ecological but in long trips they can be a green substitute to the airplane and take more or less the same time. In Europe most countries have invested lots of public money to build a dens network of Fast trains that connect most western Europe cities.

Here are some links that may be useful:

Rail travel tour in Canada
Interrail Europe
TGV-Europe
How to travel by train in Europe
Rail Links in Asia
Assia Passenger trains
Japan Railways
Rail Australia
Africa Travel Guide
Railway in South Africa

Comment by Oriol Miralbell on February 6, 2009 at 12:59pm: I learned through Twitter from @greentravel about a port in Terracurve (sustainable green travel) with the title: Airlines must work together towards a new future, calling the industry to work together and explaining some experiments done by air companies in using bio fuel, reducing carbone mission and saving energy. In this article there's a link to the site of Aviation Industry Commitment to Action on Climate Change that is worth to be visited.

We welcome these initiatives.

Does anybody know some similar initiatives in other transportation means (railway, bus, cruises, etc.)
You could ad this in the Greening Mobility section