Extraodinary Experiences in Adventure Travel
I am pleased to announce my recent affiliation with V.A.S.T, an exclusive supplier program of Virtuoso. The new 2012 VAST Flipbook Catalog is now available. This is exclusively be offered to Virtuoso clients.
You'll find something new in the catalog - a sustainability reference for each Supplier. You'll see ways in which each Supplier contributes to the environment or social issues. Look for the "Travel With Meaning" on each Suppliers' listing. Please click here to view the 2012 Catalog:
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/vast/2012/
Going Green Matters by Costas Christ
Costas Christ is an editor and columnist with National Geographic Traveler and Chairman of the World Travel and Tourism Council – Tourism for Tomorrow Awards. He is also Virtuoso's Director of Sustainability.
We often hear about it, but do we really know what it means, and why it is increasingly important to travel businesses today? Let's be clear on the definition up front: Sustainable Tourism has three key pillars:
- Environmentally friendly practices: reduce, reuse, recycle
- Support for the protection of cultural and natural heritage: collaboration with conservation organizations working to save endangered species, promoting cultural traditions through support for the arts, and helping to protect historical monuments, etc.
- Economic and social benefits to local communities in travel destinations: support for education programs
, healthcare initiatives, employment of local people, etc.
All this can really be summed up as tourism that gives back to people and the planet. This is the future of the travel industry. The World Travel and Tourism Council, made up of the 100 top travel companies in the world (including Virtuoso), has stated that sustainable tourism may be the most significant transformation in the history of modern travel - rewriting the way people travel and also how the tourism industry does business. In a ground-breaking study, the financial firm Accenture analyzed Fortune Global 1000 companies and found that companies that had sustainable practices embedded into their businesses outperformed companies that did not, across the board.
The bottom line – those travel businesses that understand sustainable tourism today and incorporate it into their company practices will become the businesses that succeed tomorrow in the emerging global green economy When you get right down to it, the travel industry depends upon our planet's wonderful cultural diversity and the inspiring beauty of nature. One day, we will not be talking about travel companies that are "green" versus those that are not – all travel businesses will be doing their part to practice sustainable tourism. And that day is closer than you think!
So what are you waiting for - I would be pleased to start planning your "Excursion to any corner of the world".
Please contact Patty Shachat at (978) 777-8945n or patty@tvlcorner.com
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