Green Options » tourism

Big Cruise Liners Inundate the Venice Lagoon

Eva Pratesi — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:06:36 +0000

Italy’s failure to apply EU directives is not only related to the garbage emergency in Naples. A recent article by Fulcro Pratesi, President of the environmental group Wwf Italy, makes a plea to save one of the most enchanting Italian cities from degradation. Summer is coming and big cruise liners are devastating the Venice lagoon creating a health hazard for residents.

Tourism has been part of the life of Venice for centuries; however, in the last years, the city has faced grave problems due to the tremendous volume of tourists each year. Residents say that whereas the centre of Venice was once full of shops selling ‘real things’ but now most shops sell souvenirs such as Merano glass and carnival masks.

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Biggest Water Festival on Earth Opens in Spain

Nayelli Gonzalez — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:09:36 +0000

Expo 2008, the international exposition on water and sustainable development, opened its doors to the world on Saturday in the Spanish city of Zaragoza.

Situated along Spain’s largest River, the Ebro, the 62-acre expo aims to inform people on global water issues and serve as a discussion forum for advocates and international policy makers. A goal of the expo is to produce a “Zaragoza Charter” which will detail recommendations to address such issues as access to clean water, water scarcity, water wars, and water conservation.

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Thailand’s Idyllic Islands Under Threat

Masimba Biriwasha — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:01:54 +0000

Early night, the tide rises out of the sea like an elongated tongue and lashes a part of the shores of Kho Phi Phi island, located in Southern Thailand, throwing up an assortment of garbage, including plastic, wood, cigarette boxes, water bottles, metal, glass, paper, rope, cardboard, etc.

A stone throw away from a part of the shore, hordes of tourists from different parts of the world lounge on a sandy beach under a starry night, guzzling away to an antics-filled fire show, unconcerned about the sea’s spew.

Even though there are signs posted throughout the island encouraging visitors not to dump garbage, the sea’s vomit, so to speak, is evidence enough that only a few take heed of the message.

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Eco-Tourism gets Political Boost

Susan Vallee — Sun, 18 May 2008 06:10:07 +0000

I remember reading the little placard on the bathroom vanity advising me to hang my damp towels with curiosity. We were on vacation and it was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing. We did this at home, but it seemed more practical - a way to avoid doing laundry each night. There was also a note about turning the lights out when we left our room. Little things.

We discussed the hanging of the towels and the turning off of the lights over a shrimp dinner that night at some tourist trap. I remember my mom saying that if we all do a little, we can do a lot. So I thought it was great when I heard of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s new executive order that requires state agencies and departments to hold meetings and conferences at lodgings that meet the new Florida Green Lodging standards.

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Will New Indiana Jones Movie Be Good for Peru? Probably Not

Levi Novey — Sun, 18 May 2008 04:00:48 +0000

Set for its world premiere today at the Cannes Film Festival, and then its wide release on Thursday, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will feature Peru prominently in its story. One preview for the movie shows a plane flying over the Nazca Lines and according to another the characters will also take their quest to find the Crystal Skull into Peru’s jungles. Looking back at the past Indiana Jones movies, Peruvians should hold their breath before cheering the arrival of Indiana Jones in theaters.

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Tsunami Survivors Still Struggle

Mark Seall — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:00:27 +0000

3 years after the Indian Ocean Earthquake of December 2004

“The sea is a different colour today - a Tsunami might come”, the old woman said, her eyes tinged with sadness as she sold bottled water from a counter in a long row of dilapidated shacks.

The scars of the 2004 Asian Tsunami can be seen everywhere. Besides the fear that remains in peoples faces, a nearby tree lay un-rooted whilst trucks trundle uncertainly across a rickety wooden bridge. The legs of the original concrete bridge, destroyed by 100 ft waves, stick out of the water like broken teeth.

Your local travel agent might have you believe that it’s all over, that the resorts have been rebuilt and it’s business as usual on Thailand’s Andaman coast. But cycle a few hundred meters outside of the resorts where Westerners enjoy cool Singha beers and the warm hospitality of the Thai people, and it’s a very different story.

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Life Goggles: Green Hotel Rating System Launched in Great Britain

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:07:08 +0000

Editor’s note: Got a trip to the UK coming up? If so, Life Goggles notes that it will soon be easier to find eco-friendly accommodations, as the British Tourism Board has launched a new program for certifying “green” hotels. This post was originally published on Tuesday, April 29, 2008.

VisitBritain, Britain’s National Tourist Board has launched a new program to help accommodation providers and visitor attractions in England take the first steps toward becoming sustainable businesses.

The Green Start project aims to encourage a “rapid, widespread and significant increase in the adoption of sustainable tourism principles” by offering a validated sustainable accreditation scheme.

Jason Freezer, VisitBritain’s sustainable tourism project manager, said: “VisitBritain is committed to encouraging sustainable businesses. However, nearly two-thirds tell us they need more guidance on developing their business in that way.”

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Red, Green & Blue: Eco-Tourism or “Green” Colonialism?

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:53:21 +0000

You know, just 10 years ago, few vacations sounded as thrilling to me as an "eco-vacation." Maybe two weeks in a rustic part of Costa Rica on the lookout for wild scarlet, green-wing and blue-and-gold macaws squawking in the trees, flocking to claylicks or just soaring through the warm, moist tropical air from one spot to another. Or, though I’m not the cold-weather-type, cruising along the Alaskan coast to drink in the astounding, other-worldly beauty of natural blue ice 10 stories high, majestic snow-capped peaks and, possibly, even the rare thrill of spotting a polar bear doing its thing in the wild.

But now, a decade later, I’m far more conflicted. Yes, eco-tourism has helped lift many marginal or struggling indigenous communities out of poverty or hopelessness. Even in parts of the developed world, such as the Florida coast where I live, tourism brings a bounty of dollars and, as a result, a more-vibrant, liveable community for the locals as well. But a travel-based economy is a double-edged sword.

Even beyond the negative echoes of colonialism and cultural arrogance some types of travel might conjure up, there’s a far darker aspect to eco-tourism today: the possibility that sincere, well-meaning travelers who seek only to benefit a fragile environment or a developing community are actually causing, in the long term, more harm than good. Primate groups managed so as to be viewed more conveniently "in the wild" are stressed to the point of infanticide, while the very notion of "global-warming-based tours" seems nothing less than perverse. Plus, the whole notion of offsetting the carbon emissions damage of your vacation has, I think, been fairly effectively discredited: there’s no free lunch and there’s no carbon-free globe-trotting either.

So what’s the answer? I’m not sure. Few experiences are more illuminating than a first-person glimpse into an exotic, even threatened, locale, and such encounters can go a long way toward encouraging those with means to help make meaningful changes for those without. But the thought of cruise ship after cruise ship anchoring off the coast of Greenland to let travelers watch ice sheets melt is, to me, abhorrent. Rather than taking a strong stance here, I’m more interested in hearing how others view this environmental Hydra facing the world’s most privileged.

What’s your take?