How EMAS can support improving the sustainability of the tourism sector
Detalles
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World Tourism Day has been celebrated on September 27 every year since 1980. It is a key day to recognize the weight that tourism has in many economies, but also to underline that, like other activities, it has an environmental impact that must be reduced as much as possible to preserve the tourist destination, the greatest resource and on which the tourism sector depends. In addition, customers themselves are increasingly looking at the environmental behaviour of companies when organising a trip and their opinions guide other users, so the image of companies is more exposed in an evolving market that is expected to be increasingly sensitive to environmental issues. Tourism has the capacity to transform people and therefore to make tourists more respectful of the environment they visit and in which they usually live, and companies in the tourism sector can take measures to reduce the environmental impact of their activities and services, one of the tools they can adopt to do so systematically and effectively is the Community Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS, for its acronym in English). Any company in the tourism value chain, such as accommodation, catering services, transport, transport of cultural and artistic facilities, botanical parks and gardens, zoos, travel agencies, tour operators and many others can apply for registration with EMAS. EMAS is primarily a management tool that uses the concept of life cycle to assess all the direct and indirect impacts of an organization and incorporates an environmental policy into its management processes, in order to reduce them over time. Following the publication of the Transition Route for Tourism and the European Tourism Agenda 2030, the European Commission launched a call for commitments and pledges to stakeholders in February 2022. In this framework, public and private tourism agents are invited to share their actions and concrete objectives to contribute to the ecological and digital transition of the tourism sector and increase the resilience of the ecosystem. The call to share commitments is continuously open. The objectives of this webinar are to – Briefly explain what EMAS is and why joining EMAS can help tourism businesses reduce their environmental impact while ensuring transparency for their customers. |
