Blog (Sustainability) - Acorn Tourism

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Sustainable destination management is as much a necessity as it is challenging. A destination is a very complex ecosystems composed of multiple stakeholders that can sometimes have competing interests. Organisation, cooperation, collaboration, consideration of all stakeholders and effective systems for measuring and monitoring are essential. Sustainable destination management is not a target to achieve, it is a journey and ever evolving. A destination can never truly be sustainable, but some are getting pretty close! 

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Most individuals and businesses are becoming more aware of their carbon footprint and mindful that emissions should not creep back up to pre pandemic levels. At Acorn Tourism, we’ve been trying to work out how we can make our operations carbon neutral.

The journey has not been simple…

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You cannot manage what you cannot measure… Measuring and monitoring are essential tools when it comes to tourism. Whether the goal is sustainable, transformative, or regenerative tourism, a destination cannot effectively establish and achieve objectives if specific indicators are not measured to show evolution over time.

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Managing a destination sustainably is not an easy task, and there are various threats and challenges that destinations are increasingly facing.  And carbon offsetting and planting trees will, unfortunately, not be enough.  From threats linked to climate change and increasing GHG atmospheric concentrations to challenges related to the wellbeing of the population and visitors, the management of waste, energy, water but also culture and heritage, and the engagement of local businesses, it can sometimes be challenging to identify the next steps a destination should take.

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The Green Destinations Top 100 Stories is an annual competition launched in 2014 to help destinations at different stages of their journey towards sustainable and regenerative tourism. The Top 100 is an effective tool for every destination, whether they are looking to learn more about reporting and communicating sustainability, wanting to establish themselves as an industry leader by sharing an innovative project implemented, or looking for an achievable yet ambitious first step to learn more about destination sustainability guidelines.

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The Falkland Islands, a remote South Atlantic archipelago, has recently been selected to the 2021 Top 100 list released every year by Green Destinations.

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Embedding sustainable practices into all aspects of a tourism business has become more common these days.  It is widely understood that sustainability is key to minimise the negative impacts (such as over tourism, exploitation of children and wild animals, inauthentic tourism activities and poorly paid seasonal jobs) and maximise the positive impacts (such as promoting cultural heritage, job creation for economic independence, protection of wildlife species and habitats, job creation, community-led tourism).

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Blue tourism is a term used to describe Coastal and Maritime tourism. The sector has become an increasing source of income for destinations with attractive coastlines thanks to the development of multiple tourism activities such as cruise tourism, boating, watersports, scuba diving, marine life observation, fishing and recreational use of beaches. However, these activities often put a lot of pressure on local ecosystems and tend to damage the destinations’ environmental assets, which, very often are what visitors are attracted to in the destination. Sustainable development of these blue tourism destinations is therefore becoming critical to avoid altering their natural resources to a point of no return.