"I decided to take a walk on the beach,
and I saw four young Bangladeshi men struggling to drag a portable
air-conditioning contraption to a beach shack. It was a heavy,
metal box, trailing all sorts of electrical wires in the sand
behind it."
The man relating
this unlikely scene was Chris Luebkeman, director of Global
Foresight and Innovation for the U.K.-based Arup Group. He was
talking by cell phone from his hotel room in Dubai.
The workers, he
said, were from a nearby hotel and were trying to bring a little
cool comfort to a handful of tourists spending their afternoon on
blistering sand. The sight of it "may just have been one of the
most ridiculous things I have ever seen."
Luebkeman's job
is to peer into the unsettled future by studying details of the
present-day world. And in the contrast between the commonplace and
the unusual -- even in things that appear ludicrous -- he seeks
inspiration for change. The very idea of cooling a beach cabana in
one of the world's hottest climates with expensive, portable air
conditioners, particularly in these days of hyper-awareness
regarding carbon emissions, flies in the face of what is fast
becoming the agenda of responsible environmental behavior for
tourism providers.
The incident that
Luebkeman observed is one example of increasing dissonance between
the boom in travel worldwide and global environmental concerns. It
is also emblematic of the issues being confronted this week by
industry leaders at the 2007 World Travel and Tourism Council's
Global Travel and Tourism Summit in Lisbon.
The WTTC, whose
97 dues-paying members include the CEOs of the world's largest
travel companies (think American Express, Starwood, TUI, Marriott,
Carlson), meets annually to discuss pressing industry concerns. And
as the world is poised to anoint travel the cultural common
denominator of the planet (it now accounts for some 10% of the
global gross domestic product and employs more than 231 million
people worldwide), the question of just what is appropriate
business behavior in the age of global warming has jumped to the
top of the agenda. The theme of the summit is "Breaking Barriers
and Managing Growth."
With leisure
tourism projected to grow 4.2% annually over the next decade, and
with an emerging middle class in China and India preparing to
inject hundreds of millions of travelers into the infrastructure of
world tourism, environmental and social challenges are already
reaching critical mass. The WTTC Summit is drawing, in addition to
its own membership, hundreds of interested parties to join in the
discussion about how to plan for future travel and tourism
responsibly.
In the weeks
leading up to the summit, Travel Weekly conducted a series of
interviews with top tourism industry leaders -- some WTTC members,
some not -- as they prepared to head to Lisbon. It became amply
clear during those discussions that both awareness of climate
change and the use of human capital are driving new decisions and
new perspectives on balancing sound commercial judgment with social
responsibility.
On the whole,
industry leaders say they are convinced that the journey of
discovery they are now taking will lead to new ideas and a better
understanding of how to balance environmental and social challenges
with one of the most favorable economic 
opportunities the industry
has ever enjoyed.
"We have a
situation which, I must say, I haven't seen in my 42 years of
activity in this crazy industry," said Jean Claude Baumgarten,
president of the WTTC. "Things are doing fine all over the world.
Traffic is growing, ... which is fantastic. And it seems like the
goodies are equally spread all over the world.
"So that creates
on one side good feelings. But growth creates new challenges. It
creates new types of priorities."
Amid the backdrop
of the vital contributions world travel can make to cultural
interaction, to human understanding and to international stability,
voices like Luebkeman's warn that if the industry doesn't take
steps to build for the future with environmentally sound designs
that help reduce energy consumption, waste and other problems that
add to its carbon footprint, then pressure from outside, in the
form of government regulation and taxes, may do it for them.
(Luebkeman will be moderating a session at the summit.)
Andrew Cosslett,
CEO of InterContinental Hotels Group, said he would be making his
first trip to a WTTC Summit and was approaching it with high
expectations.
"We certainly
start with a view that says, on the whole, the travel industry is a
good thing in the world," Cosslett said. "There is no question that
the demand factors are very powerful and that notwithstanding any
concerns around environmental issues, there will be strong
tailwinds pushing growth in the travel market for the next decade.
There are tremendous drivers here, and it is a positive thing to
bring people in the world together.
"But the question
is: How can you make a consistent impact for the good? I think our
business is trying to begin the process of understanding what more
we can do in that area."
For many, the
discussions at the summit, which will be held as a forum in the
round, are a starting point in what, until now, have been isolated
commitments to environmental responsibility by
corporations.
At Fairmont
Hotels and Resorts, that commitment started nearly two decades ago,
with environmental awareness followed by specific actions. Michelle
White, Fairmont's director of environmental affairs, said she saw
the gathering as a milestone in the evolution of a more responsible
tourism industry.
"Environmental
awareness ... is on the upswing in the industry," White said. "A
lot of organizations have a lot of work to do. But the environment
is not a destination, it is a journey, so there is always something
to do. I think as an industry, we are starting to wake
up.
"So just having
this particular summit and having these people in one room
discussing these issues is significant because these are the
decision-makers."
That point was
echoed by others preparing to attend the event as well as by
outside observers. The influence of chief executives and other
industry leaders participating in the discussions (Travel Weekly's
editor in chief, Arnie Weissmann, is a speaker at the summit) is
not only important, they say, but will bring candor to the
discussions, even between those who compete with each other on a
daily basis.
"CEOs are also
individuals," Baumgarten said. "The CEO of an organization has to
put his personal conviction in sync with the daily job. I think we
have more CEOs who are deeply convinced that this is the right
thing to do. And the combination of the two will bring more candid
dialogue than [skeptics] might consider."
Some of those
CEOs are putting their money behind their convictions. The group
includes Jeff Clarke, the CEO of Travelport, which owns Orbitz and
Galileo. Travelport has pledged to buy the carbon offsets to cover
the carbon emissions generated by the travel of industry and public
sector leaders to the WTTC Summit.
Travelport has
made other contributions, as well, Clarke said, particularly in
promoting transparency in the industry. He said his company was
providing or planning to provide environmental ratings for hotels
and other suppliers to enable consumers to see the environmental
interests of those they might do business with and to exert their
own influence, via spending choices, on environmental and corporate
responsibility.
"This is on the
mind of every CEO in the industry," Clarke said. "It is not only on
our minds because of responsibility, but also because it is a
personal interest, a personal interest of mine and many other
CEOs.
"I don't think
there is any debate any longer on the impact of carbon on world
temperatures," he continued. "There is no question: The scientific
evidence is in, and now is the time when the industry needs to
react to this.
"One of the
things we at Travelport can do as an intermediary, as technology
providers, is to measure travel. We have the ability to do that.
There are 800,000 bookings a day. We know where the destinations
are. And we are considering initiatives to start building improved
transparency by setting up travel indexes that let consumers and
environmental organizations know the extent of travel."
Travelport has
also created a partnership with the nonprofit Carbon Fund to help
consumers voluntarily pay to offset carbon emissions that result
from travel. Capital raised in that process is being used to fund
energy production from wind, waves, solar and co-generation
projects. It is also being used to plant trees, which remove carbon
dioxide from the air and replenish oxygen through
photosynthesis.
While the airline
industry is often singled out as a major source of carbon
emissions, there are other sources of travel-related emissions that
rank higher, including cars and other ground
transportation.
In the car rental
industry, some companies are acknowledging that reality by offering
hybrids and alternative-fuel vehicles for customers who want a more
environmentally friendly ride.
Luebkeman notes
that only 3% to 4% of greenhouse gases are traceable to aircraft.
Nonetheless, the perception that planes are a major source of
emissions has motivated companies like Natural Air, a small airline
based in Costa Rica, to become carbon neutral.
To do that,
Natural Air has focused not on finding alternative fuels, as has
been proposed by Virgin Atlantic's Richard Branson, but on carbon
offsets that include company efforts to plant enough trees in Costa
Rica's forests to account for the carbon that the airline's
operations put into the atmosphere.
Environmentalists
say, however, that while airline emissions are very much on the
public's mind, hotels and other buildings related to tourism
infrastructure are potentially a greater source of environmental
pollution.
Hotel chains say
they have long taken steps to design and build properties to make
them more energy efficient. And they point to initiatives with
customers to reduce water usage and linen usage as a way to reduce
their environmental impact.
Ed Fuller,
president and managing director of international lodging at
Marriott International, said the lodging industry had made other
major steps over the past few years to improve its environmental
status. But he acknowledged that there was more to do.
"There are other
parts of the industry that could be more conscious and aware of the
issues," he said, "and things like the summit will give people the
feeling that there is effort under way. I think cooperation and the
opportunity to talk about it is very positive.
"When you get
right down to it, the world is ready to try to turn this situation
around," he continued. "Yet people also want to be able to take
advantage of travel and use those opportunities to have a better
understanding of the world around them."
Arthur de Haast,
Global CEO for Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, said: "It's in the best
interests of the travel and tourism industry to take the issues of
environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility
seriously. The WTTC Summit is an excellent opportunity for the
world's most influential companies to address them in a
comprehensive and coordinated manner."
...CONTINUED...