Sustainable tourism taking root in Alberta

Not that long ago, the extent of sustainable tourism in Alberta could almost be summed up by hotel room signs encouraging guests to re-use their towels and turn off lights when they left.

But times are rapidly changing.  In today's hotels and motels, low-flow showerheads and toilets are increasingly commonplace, as are energy-efficient lights and appliances.  Behind the scenes, some lodgings are using non-toxic cleaning materials, re-using waste water in flowerbeds and even installing solar panels or turning kitchen grease into biodiesel for running grounds equipment and shuttle buses.  Meanwhile, tourism transportation companies are filling up with biodiesel, operating hybrid taxis and offering vehicle rental customers the option to purchase carbon offsets. 

With soaring fuel prices and escalating operating costs, all these tourism operators are discovering that embarking on energy-efficiency upgrades is just good business practice.  But they're also finding that these and other green actions are attracting the business of travellers who are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of their journeys.

"We're seeing more enquiries - particularly from Europe but also from elsewhere - about what sustainable measures our tourism operators are putting in place," says Don Boynton, Communications Director for Travel Alberta.  "It's become a more important factor in bookings' decisions by vacation planners and by independent travellers."

Alberta tourism operators are certainly noticing this shift in attitude.  In February, nearly 40 industry officials attended a sustainable tourism workshop hosted by Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation.  Delegates agreed sustainable tourism is not a niche market but instead something all operators need to incorporate into their operations. And they recognized that a coordinated provincial plan is needed to develop and promote sustainable tourism in Alberta.

"One of the first things we need to do is create a common language, so that when we use the term "sustainable tourism", people know what we're talking about," says John Samms, executive director of Tourism Canmore, who is leading an initial working group, formed at the workshop, on developing that provincial plan. "Right now, if you ask 20 people what it means, you'll come up with 20 different ideas."

Another focus is to improve what we're doing in the province. One way to do that is to find early adopters of best sustainable practices and market their successes to other people in the Alberta industry.  It needs to be a series of baby steps.  You can't get to the top of the ladder if there aren't rungs along the way."