Green tourism is just the ticket

Reducing food waste

"Once you are in your destination, you need accommodation — so hotel is the next consideration. This is still an area where hotels can do better," Loh from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said. "Their energy and water efficiency are major aspects, as well as how they deal with reducing food waste."

Tourists go out to eat — hence how a city deals with local transport and food waste makes a difference too. Restaurants can do more by working with the government on waste management, Loh said.

Some restaurant chains provide options for smaller meal portions. "This helps to reduce food wastage," the professor said, adding that moves to curb plastic straws and single-use plastic cutlery will also help reduce carbon footprints in cities.

Sustainable tourism, shopping and packaging remain a global issue, and there is the behavior of tourists and how they consume, she said.

Felix Lee Kin-ming, an executive with Hong Kong-based Climate-Tech Energy Global Consultancy, said at a tourism event earlier in Hong Kong that he agrees on the importance of sustainable tourism development.

His company provides low-carbon tourism training and certification for tour managers, so that they can advocate low-carbon concepts to their guests, such as reducing the purchase of bottled water, avoiding the use of disposable items, and bringing their own toothpaste, toothbrushes and water bottles.

"Low-carbon tourism helps protect the environment while also providing a richer and more meaningful travel experience," he said.

However, challenges exist for these green tourism opportunities too. According to Yu from the World Green Organisation, changing tourists' behavior and encouraging responsible travel practices is always a challenge. Apart from that, implementing sustainable practices and reducing carbon emissions can increase costs for tourism operators and tourists.

"In some destinations, infrastructure may not be available to support sustainable tourism practices," he noted. "Establishing common standards and certification schemes for low-carbon tourism can be complex and time-consuming. But there are more benefits than downsides."

Bayona from UN Tourism said that there are challenges to changing a society's mindset.

It is about "how we are creating public policies and how they are pragmatic, through incentives that can help the private sector, and how pragmatic they are to sustain and to maintain green buildings, renewable energies, using smart technologies to create the whole tourist infrastructure," she said.

However, achieving the equilibrium of having less consumption of natural resources with less environmental damage and pollution while ensuring greater economic output is easier said than done.

Fernando, the former chairman of SLTDA, said that the major challenge for countries now is the introduction of a sustainable tourism plan where all stakeholders understand their respective roles and are fully committed to playing their role from an implementation perspective.

"It is country-specific and needs to be handled in a professional manner," he said.

Even in a small country such as Sri Lanka, it cannot be handled single-handedly at the national level, he said; it is essential to get all the ministries, departments and provincial administrations involved.

The SLTDA has initiated the required, initial steps with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme. It is the initial step of a long journey that needs to be pursued with commitment.

"We need to learn through best practices of other countries," he said. "Surely, we have a lot to learn from countries such as China as we tread forward."