Global climate change has led to increased attention on environmental awareness from the tourism industry.  Two events this year – the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) held in Brunei and the PATA Adventure Travel & Responsible Tourism Conference & Mart (ATRTCM) in Nepal – took on the ‘green’ theme to address this issue.

 

Yet, it appears that the ‘green’ focus continues to be a justification for promoting eco-tourism that caters only to a small niche market of environmentally conscious travelers.  At both events, the hotels held up as 'green' role-models were mostly small resort hotels located on beaches or nature conservation areas, where guests would have been prepared to forgo amenities like television and shampoo anyway.  Conventional mass market tourism and MICE industry is still a long way from being green, and there are no real solution for making tourism industry as a whole greener.

 

Let’s face it, MICE is very often associated with air, land or sea travel for large groups of people, large convention and exhibition centers, heavy dependence on energy, gifts and premiums made possibly with non-biodegradable materials, food wastage and plastic water bottles etc.  None of these go down well with the environment.  Green advocates advise various environmentally-friendly practices, but these are easier said than done.  For example, plastic bottles remain the most efficient and hygienic way to distribute clean drinking water to large groups of people on-the-move; maintaining convention hall temperatures above 25 degrees Celsius for a large flow of people (and still be able to actually feel like 25 degrees Celsius) may be technically challenging; and there may be other hygiene and cost issues with regards to recycling food and waste at hotels.

Then there were talks about using carbon offset as a payback to the environment.  But once a few hectares of forest area is cleared for development of exhibition/convention centers, hotels and surrounding infrastructures, no amount of carbon offset can replace that lost greenery.

Having said all these, it does not mean that the MICE industry should simply go into extinction, or shirk its responsibility for the environment.  Perhaps industry players should look beyond promoting eco-tourism as its 'answer' to sustainability of the business.  Conventional tours and MICE are here to stay for awhile, so the industry should really work with research institutions and suppliers to develop greener ways of delivering travel-related products and services.

At the ATRTCM conference, Regional Councilor for South and Southeast Asia of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Dr Arzu Rana Deuba commented that the travel industry "needs to continue to deliver satisfaction to customers and yet be responsible to the environment and society."  How aptly said.  Think of it this way: carbon emission from vehicles is one of the key contributors to air pollution, but we don't expect everyone to start riding bicycles or horses to work.  Instead, the car industry develops electric cars, clean fuel engines and other hybrid solution to tackle the problem.  So, why should general travelers and MICE delegates accept any less comfort from their hotel stays and activities.

Hence, for venue owners' part, they would need to work with architects and engineers to develop green technologies and standards in building the next generation hotels and convention centers.  Suppliers need to look into different ways of bottling drinks and manufacturing gifts/premiums, etc.

For MICE organizers' part, perhaps they should re-think about holding mega-sized events and activities to better manage environmental impact.  They may also play a part in managing the expectation of customers, thereby leading to some behavioral change and paradigm shift in the concept of 'having fun'.