May 17, 2007

Tourism Groups Look For Sustainable Travel Solutions

Ecotourism may be just as environmentally damaging as traditional tourism because of airplane emissions in reaching remote and pristine areas, say industry experts at the Global Ecotourism Conference in Oslo, CDNN reports.

Ecotourism is growing at around three times the rate of the tourism industry as a whole, according to The International Ecotourism Society, one of the sponsors of the conference.

The roughly 300 delegates were planning to adopt a roadmap for the industry which will stress the need to focus on sustainable tourism. “The tourist industry should give priority to developing ecotourism in markets closer to home and to promoting environmentally friendly forms of transport,” one industry expert said.

Meanwhile, the World Travel and Tourism Council is trying to agree on ways to fight climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions from hotels, cruise ships and airliners, MSNBC reports.

The council is developing an overall sustainability agreement for council members to follow.

There are no exact numbers as to the volume of carbon emissions that tourism releases into the atmosphere, but the industry is dependent on construction, airline and sea travel and other activities that are often blamed for climate change.

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