Blog: 2022 New Year, Old Crisis. So what exactly is our plan?

Since March 2020, the Aotearoa/New Zealand tourism industry has experienced a systemic event so catastrophic it has resulted in the near collapse of our highly buoyant sector worth in excess of $41 billion.

While the economic and social losses from the Covid-19 pandemic have been astounding, the next crisis facing the sector will be its defining challenge. The impact of climate change and how the tourism sector responds to increasingly savvy consumers, navigating climate reduction targets, understanding and demonstrating environmental mitigation strategies (with real evidence and data), and reporting on progress are just a few of the many issues the sector is facing.

Beyond the pandemic, how tourism responds to the next crisis will be its defining challenge

Within tourism, offsetting flights with international carbon credits, tree-planting, and corporate social responsibility programmes have been offered up regularly as green solutions. In reality, they provide almost no benefit to the sector and perpetuate green-washing if they are not demonstrating actionable and measurable outcomes that our communities and environment so desperately need.

What do we want to see? A dedicated climate action plan agreed upon unanimously by all tourism sub-sectors. It is the only way the our tourism industry can truly address its commitment to meeting urgent climate action targets. Yet no one is talking about this.

For our small start-up business in the tourism sector (that works across tourism, events, and communications) it has becoming increasingly disappointing to see the lack of decisive climate action by tourism leaders.

There is no doubt, being at the forefront and challenging the Government’s pandemic response is important but there are many of us expecting to see a strategy discussion that extends far beyond the opening of the international borders in July 2022.

Beyond Aotearoa/New Zealand, the world has moved on. Not only from Covid. Destinations have skillfully pivoted by developing and implementing regenerative strategies that demonstrate real action on climate change. Municipalities, local Government bodies, and tourism entities have and continue to work cohesively to create sustainable solutions. These include identifying and measuring the social and environmental impacts of their activities, seeking out regular engagement with residents to better understand the impact of tourism and events, collaborating with science and research academia on how tourism influences urban regeneration, and embedding sustainability in every part of their tourism and event strategies.

Asia Pacific destinations are prioritising regeneration and demonstrating climate action in their tourism strategies

Sadly we’re very behind. The Aotearoa/New Zealand tourism sector are woefully lacking in both our assessment and our decision making on climate change. This has come as a result of a somewhat disjointed industry with many sub-sectors that don’t collaborate effectively and not one governing body or ministry. Additional pressure from the tourism destination funding models has meant that sustainability and regeneration are not prioritised or resourced effectively. Consequently tourism businesses are slow to adapt due to lack of knowledge, resource, and funding.

Where do we go from here? What do SME’s like us expect in 2022? Firstly we want to see a collaborative sector-wide approach to climate action. We want to see every sub-sector prioritise regenerative tourism with initiatives that every tourism organisation can access, without the requirement of a membership.

Beyond 2022, we want to see Aotearoa/New Zealand destinations benchmarking their progress on sustainability against other Asia Pacific cities so we can see how measure up and track our own progress.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa: Sustainability Commitment for tourism operators

Locally, initiatives such as Tourism Industry Aotearoa’s Sustainability Commitment for tourism operators are a good entry point for tourism businesses wanting to learn and develop sustainable initiatives. Ekos and Toitū offer solutions for carbon management, assessment, and measurement. There are also some great sustainability resources outside of the sector. However, we would like to see tourism industry specific tools and resources developed by the tourism sector for the tourism sector.

We also want to see green funding initiatives and investment to support tourism businesses to develop innovative solutions to sustainability challenges. We need tourism employers to prioritise, adapt, and build knowledge and capacity in their teams on sustainability and regeneration.

At a Government level, we want to see an agreed approach to data, analysis, and reporting on climate change and impacts specifically for the tourism sector.

Finally, we want to regularly hear from our tourism and event leaders on climate action and how they intend to contribute to a low emissions, climate resilient future and ensure we have a long lasting sustainable sector.

The Tenth Letter are an Aotearoa/New Zealand based consultancy that specialises in sustainability, impact, and communications for the tourism and events sector. We represent Global Destination Sustainability Movement in Asia Pacific and we’re an International Collaboration Partner at Meet4Impact