Sustainability in our daily business

Nowadays, sustainability should be part of our daily thinking. However, the actions towards a more sustainable tourism, for example in a hotel or in a destination, do very often not reflect the positive attitudes towards sustainability of most people. Most touristic actors do not implement broad sustainability programmes. Instead, they take some isolated actions which fall short of the holistic concept of the three pillars of sustainability, i.e. ecology, society and economy. Most of the time touristic actors focus on actions which increase their short-term financial profit. That’s one reason why we often observe measures towards better energy efficiency because a lower resource use directly and immediately lowers costs. However, the (long-run) benefits of others actions are often not recognised in the industry, and sometimes it is even feared that actions towards sustainability decrease guest comfort. But, if we take for example social responsibility seriously and have high working standards in our businesses, the employees are more satisfied. This will directly result in a higher guest satisfaction which again increases the repeat visit rate and therefore the demand for this specific product. This example should show you that the short-run expenditures of higher working standards will be outweighed by the long-term benefits.

It is one of the aims of the WTFL to show the industry that sustainability is an important issue and should be an integral part of our daily business. The WFTL wants to contribute to this discussion by discussing the benefits of sustainable tourism and increasing the knowledge about sustainable tourism. 

Dr. Roger Wehrli