Easy Tips To Create A Sustainable Tourism Business Post-Pandemic
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With the end of the pandemic in sight, now is the time to seize upon the current gaps in the tourism market to create or rebuild your business around sustainability to attract tourists while lowering your overheads and building brand recognition. The need for sustainability within businesses is more important than ever with the impacts from the climate crisis becoming more pressing every day.
The tourism industry has taken a massive hit during the global pandemic with 75 million jobs put at risk worldwide. Luckily, recovery is just around the corner. This makes 2021 the perfect time to plan out how you can help your tourism business and those in your industry recover and build back better.
It is almost certain that many tourists will be wanting to travel as soon as this pandemic is over once borders have opened up again. So, how can you create a sustainable travel business post-COVID? In this blog, I’ll provide tips in two sections: for those looking to start a sustainable tourism business and those who already have a tourism business and are looking to operate more sustainably.
If you’re looking to start a tourism business:
Become a Sustainable E-Commerce business
Every holiday taker will need to stock up on travel essentials before their trip and now even the sustainability-minded individual is switching at home single-use products to more sustainable alternatives.
Creating a business that sells travelling essentials is a simple, easy option to make an impact on the travel industry. You can sell homemade or other sustainable retail products easily on sites such as Etsy or eBay from the comfort of your own home.
When making your products, you should use recycled materials to minimise waste and refrain from environmentally harmful materials like plastic. For instance, you can use recycled plastic to make tents, passport covers or even water bottles. By getting in touch with your creative side, you can tap into the potential of creating sustainable materials and products to make travelling more eco-friendly.
Start a sustainable accommodation: Upcycle Containers
Especially if you are looking to invest in starting a tourism accommodation to cash in for when tourism will return, building with sustainable or recycled materials can set you apart from the rest. Upcycled accommodation, such as converted shipping containers, is great for the environment as it makes use of materials that would otherwise be wasted. Containers, much like “tiny houses” are trendy and may have a lower carbon footprint than “traditional accommodations”.
Containers these days can now be fitted with temperature control, washbasins and furniture. Shower cubicles and toilet facilities are also available to provide your guests with the luxuries of a traditional holiday home. Up-cycled containers are a much cheaper alternative to buying a holiday house to rent, but can still bring in a solid revenue stream from tourists and holidaymakers alike.
Think outside the box
You don’t need to be a tourism expert to know that tourists are looking for authentic experiences and local interactions. There are still many gaps to be filled to present these kinds of experiences and tourism products.
You can start as small as providing a ‘local experience’ for tourists on Airbnb or come up with a concept for an experience yourself. If you need inspiration, look into new sustainable tourism concepts that have sprung up like refugee-led city tours, ‘plastic fishing’, ‘adopt-a’ schemes and skill-sharing events like locally-led cooking and art classes.
By knowing what is already out there, it will be easier to bridge the gap with your new sustainable tourism concept.
If you already have a tourism business:
Move your business online
Not only will moving your business online likely reduce your business’ carbon emissions by cutting out commutes and lowering your use of resources like paper, it will also naturally help you expand your reach.
Whether you’re a tourism operator or holiday planner, moving your travel business online and establishing an online presence will help you get seen and keep you up-to-date with customer demands. Making the switch requires small changes like investing more time into making sure your website is reaching its potential markets and is more appealing than that of your competitors. Having files and other ‘would otherwise be paper’ pamphlets moved online also helps to make you future proof as well as more sustainable. As many people around the world have smartphones, being able to access digital itineraries as a tourist is more useful and environmentally friendly.
Invest in sustainable energy
One way that you could make your tourism business or accommodation sustainable is to invest in sustainable forms of energy such as solar panels, wind turbines or hydro-power. These sustainable energy sources do not require fossil fuels and are therefore far better for our environment than other types of energy. Making the change will also save you money as they are cheaper to run than ‘traditional electricity’.
Tourists are becoming increasingly interested in the sustainability of the businesses they choose, therefore by having a sustainable source of power and communicating this to guests will make your accommodation more attractive hence resulting in more customers wanting to stay with your business. Plus, sustainable energy sources like solar panels can simply be attached to the roof with easy installation taking up no space at all, so making the change is simple.
After the buzz from the pandemic has become quiet, the focus on climate change will be much bigger with many industries keen to recover the damage that they have caused to our environment. This means that switching to sustainable power sources now will be better than making the switch later and will make you stand out as an example to your competition.
Find ways to appeal to sustainability-minded tourists (while avoiding greenwashing)
Now is the time to go for an eco certification to show your customers that you are serious about your commitment to the environment. The first step is to conduct an environmental impact assessment to see where your biggest footprint contributors lie.
Depending on your niche in the industry, there are specialised consultancies that can guide you through the process to measure, mitigate and offset your footprint to help you reach your sustainability goals.
Here communication is key. Use your social media channels to showcase that you have made operational changes to go-green with concrete examples and statistics. Set milestones like achieving carbon-neutrality or going plastic free and share your journey with guests and followers. By doing so, you will show the world that you are setting an example as a sustainable tourism business, which will pay off greatly once tourism returns in the ‘new normal’.
References
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/2020/04/how-coronavirus-is-impacting-the-travel-industry/
https://www.sjonescontainers.co.uk/
https://www.globalgreen.org/blog/how-to-create-a-sustainable-business-post-pandemic/
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