Sustainable Tourism – การท่องเที่ยวอย่างยั่งยืน

◊ Hey you! Welcome to our contribution.

“Travel sustainable is like driving sustainable – basically not possible but travelling MORE sustainably, that is definitely possible”

◊ Introduction

Our project is about making travelling more sustainable. We highlight various aspects such as transportation, accommodation or even simple tricks and tips that anyone can easily implement.

In order to understand the following article in the best possible way, we would like to define the term sustainable toursim in a first step.

Sustainable tourism is a form of travel that has three main objectives:

(1) To have as little imp

act as possible on the nature visited

(2) To experience nature as closely

(3) Intensively and originally as possible, and to adapt as much as possible to the culture of the country visited

◊ Why did we choose this topic?

Rémy and I both have a flair for geography. Lia had even done her apprenticeship in an Asian travel agency and so we both shared our trait for traveling. Sustainability is becoming more and more important in today’s society and why not combine them? – This challenge definitely inspired us and we wanted to tackle it.

◊ The start of this project

The journey for this work was like turbulence on an airplane. At the beginning, we did careful research and filtered out important core information which we always shared on Instagram and favored our followers with weekly updates.

In the following video we would like to briefly present our vision of the project and give a small preview.

◊ Content, Research and Tricks

Advantages of sustainable Tourism [1]

• Benefits local community
• Helps to converse precious nature resources
• Gives tourist more honest look in local area
• Helps saving endangered animals

How can you travel more sustainable? [2]

• Don’t litter
• Bring reusable water bottles, straws and tote bags to avoid single use plastic
• Respect and follow local customs
• Ask before photographing people, especially children (ask their parents!)
• Support local shops
• Don’t support unethical animal tourism

Travel Options

• By Train
• Fly less and choose direct flights over layovers (when possible) –> Possibility to depense Co2 amount with: [Link –> myclimate – Ihr Partner für den Klimaschutz]

◊ Cool and sustainable Accomondations

• Treehouse / CHF 90 per night [3]
• The Sarojin / CHF 250 per night [4]
• Zeavola / CHF 290 per night [5]

◊ Our Survey

We thought it would be interesting to do a survey to see how our environment would react to it. We used the program “Kobotoolbox” to elicit the following questions and answers. We conducted the survey in the time frame of January 20 – March 11. There were 57 participants in total.

(1) "Term sustainable tourism" - Most people have heard of it before, which makes us very happy. nevertheless, there are still some people who seem to have never come into contact with this term.
(1) “Term sustainable tourism” – Most people have heard of it before, which makes us very happy. nevertheless, there are still some people who seem to have never come into contact with this term.

 

In this analysis, it is already the case that the problem lies fundamentally with the term. This shows us our primary research through the survey.
Therefore, it is even more important that you, the reader, know what “sustainable toursim” means.

Remark: Please kindly note, if you want to large the picture click on the image 

 

◊ Collaboration with Thailand and Switzerland

Interviews

We have worked internationally with Kallaya Chayapornpattana (Thailand/Bangkok) as well as with Sybille Bloch (Switzerland/Glattbrugg).

Who is Kallaya?

Kallaya works in the travel agency Diethelm Travel which is based in Bangkok. She is responsible for the German Speaking Market.

Who is Ms. Bloch?

Ms. Bloch is head of the sustainable market at Hotelplan and knows a lot about sustainability.

We asked both of them exactly the same questions in order to have a direct comparison.

Answers from Kallaya = Sustainable – Green

Answers from Ms. Bloch = Sea – Blue

How will tourism change sustainably in the coming years?

Before the pandemic the world and meaning of sustainability has become more and more common…The idea of building a new tourism structure where we will assume our responsibility and provide services according to it has become a priority nowadays. While moving to a full sustainability tourism will take long time , I truly believe that the Pandemic will accelerate the process in order to focus on 2 areas : Giving Back to the communities where we do send tourists to assure there is a sustainable tourism (CRM) from a to z , and actions in order to minimize the nature/animal fare impact.

Wir sind stark davon überzeugt, dass das Thema Nachhaltigkeit weiter an Bedeutung gewinnt. Dies v.a. in Bezug auf das Klima resp. die Klimaerwärmung. Als 1. Schweizer Reiseveranstalter haben wir als Hotelplan Gruppe (dazu zählt nicht nur Hotelplan Schweiz sondern auch unsere Schwestern in der UK, vtours in Deutschland und Interhome sowie unser Geschäftsreisenbusiness) die UNWTO Glasgow Declaration unterzeichnet, die uns verpflichtet einen Climate Action Plan zu erarbeiten. Daran arbeiten wir gerade. Aber: wir möchten uns nicht nur fürs Klima einsetzten, sondern die Nachhaltigkeit ganzheitlich angehen. Daran arbeiten wir laufend und haben dies auch in unserer Strategie verankert.

Is the demand for sustainable travel for example overland transfers, sustainable hotels there?

At the moment we are starting to see that the requests are increasing from the TTOO side , in order to have the options of accommodations that follow sustainable action , in order to be promoted ( excellent example is ZEAVOLA Hotel in Phi Phi Island). At the same time some TTOO that do have series , are starting to add some CRM activities to add a solid value to the programs , and as a result supporting local communities. At the moment are personal actions as per vehicles sides as are harder to control (Emission of CO2).

Jein! Eine Frage die sich nicht so einfach beantworten lässt resp. kam dazu gerade ein Report (im Anhang) heraus, aus dem hervor geht, dass die Nachfrage halt auch immer etwas mit dem Preis zu tun hat. Wir als Anbieter haben hier aber auch noch viel Arbeit vor uns. Travelhouse, unsere Spezialisten-Marke hat bereits Reisen mit nachhaltigem Charakter auf dem Markt: so können unsere Kundinnen und Kunden beispielsweise Regionen und Länder im Zug, zu Fuss oder mit dem Velo erkunden. Wir glauben daran, dass solche Reisen Zukunft haben, aber nie die Flugreisen völlig ersetzten werden. Hier ist unser Dilemma: wir sind keine Ingenieure, die Fluggesellschaften auch nicht. Aber, wir setzten Druck auf bei den Fluggesellschaften und fordern klimafreundlichere Lösungen, diese geben den Druck weiter an die Flugzeughersteller. So hoffen wir, dass Fliegen künftig weniger schädlich für die Umwelt ist, wenn nicht sogar eben klimaneutral.

Had Covid19 an impact on sustainability in Thailand?

As mentioned before perhaps has accelerated the actions by TTOO, and put more pressure on DMCs that were not following the sustainability leads.

Diese Frage ist sehr schwer zu beantworten. Thailand kann noch immer nicht vollständig bereist werden, darum ist es nicht einfach, sich ein Bild zu machen. Die Natur konnte sich sicherlich an ganz vielen Orten erholen. Es ist aber davon auszugehen, dass viele eher nachhaltige Projekte u.U. ausgebremst wurden, wenn eben keine Touristen mehr vor Ort waren resp. Geld ins Land gebracht haben. Wie Covid19 einzelne Länder und Destinationen in Bezug auf die Nachhaltigkeit beeinflusst hat, werden wir erst in den kommenden Jahren herausfinden können.

Are the costs for sustainable hotels massively horrendous compared to normal hotels?

At the moment there are not so many data to be compared , as most of the sustainable properties are 5* , and 4* Plus , and in terms of rates it is depending on the property : SONEVA KIRI ( one of the most expensive hotels in Thailand) , Zeavola ( the most expensive hotel in Phi Phi Island) , but there are also not that expensive hotels , so it does depend on the properties.

Es gibt wenn dann, nur sehr marginale unterschiede bzgl. Preis. Zumindest nicht bei den Landleistungen. Bei der Fliegerei jedoch schon – hier kostet stand heute die Kompensation des verursachten CO2, und nur wenige Kunden sind bisher bereit, diesen Zuschlag zu bezahlen. Bei den Landleistungen gibt es hingegen wirklich kaum preisliche Unterschiede. Hier ist es eher die Frage, wie seriös nachhaltige Lösungen tatsächlich sind. Es gibt beispielsweise weltweit über 200 Labels für Hotels die Bezug nehmen auf die Nachhaltigkeit – ein wahrer Dschungel also.  

What are the target groups for sustainable tourism (rather families, individual travellers ect…)?

Sustainable tourism aim to cover all targets in tourism as it will be a new way of traveling . The change is coming from the mentality of the travelers , and it will take time but will target all travelers.

Diese Zielgruppe genau zu umschreiben ist momentan noch relativ schwierig. Dies hat v.a. auch damit zu tun, dass wir gerade aus der grössten Krise überhaupt rauskommen (also wir sind sehr optimistisch, dass wir nun Corona wirklich langsam aber sicher überstanden haben). Heisst, dass die Zahlen und Angaben der letzten 2 Jahre natürlich kaum zur Hand genommen werden können. Wir glauben jedoch, dass die Zielgruppe für solche Reisen v.a. die Menschen sind, die sich stark für das Thema Fussabdruck und generelle Nachhaltigkeit interessieren. Da wir v.a. bei der Ernährung wissen, dass dies tendenziell besser verdienende, etwas ältere Mitmenschen sind, die auch entsprechend gebildet sind, können wir diese Werte sicherlich als guter Startpunkt für unsere Zielgruppe nutzten.

Picture with Kallaya

◊ Conclusion Video

We have summarized the two interviews and underlined the most important points. We have commented on them, reflected on them and documented them.

◊ End

We want to kindly thank our collaboration partners, for their participation and support:
Kallaya Chayapornpattana
Ms. Bloch

In addition, we would like to thank the reviewers:
Celia Kägi
Ueli Grass

Authors of this project:
Lia and Remy

◊ Sources:

[1] How Tourism Benefits Nature and Wildlife (sustainabletravel.org)
[2] Why is sustainable tourism important? (brainybackpackers.com)
[3] The Treehouse-Villas Hotel Koh Yao (treehouse-villas.com)
[4] The Sarojin Hotel (sarojin.com)
[5] The Zeavola Hotel (greenpearls.com)

◊ On topic posts on dontwastemy.energy

Glacier melting & Floods – Climate crisis’ Effects

☷ See the project teams here »
☵ Some words about the contributions »

4 thoughts on “Sustainable Tourism – การท่องเที่ยวอย่างยั่งยืน

  1. Thank you for your informative post. Your self-made videos are very good. The illustrations and diagrams are excellent. The collaboration with Kallaya is very cool.

  2. Your topic is very interesting and informative. I myself have a close relationship with Thailand, which is why I find it very good that you have also reported on the situation in Thailand. Your tips for sustainable travel are very helpful and can also be implemented well! I will certainly pick up some points for my next trip to Thailand this summer.

  3. Hey Guys
    First of all let me say that I am a huge fan of your project. It was so interesting for me to learn about sustainable tourism. I really enjoyed reading your post and watching your videos. The only thing that was missing for me were some informations about europe. Since I am from europe that would have been a bit more interesting for me. But I also liked learning something about Asia.

    Keep up the good work!

  4. Nice Post! The next time I‘m travelling, I‘m trying to follow some of these small tipps to help the environment!

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