What is ‘sustainability’?

In 1987 the United Nation’s Brundtland Commission (also known as the World Commission on Environment and Development Commission) released its final report, ‘Our Common Future’. The report popularized the term ‘sustainable development’, defining it as:

“…development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

An important point about this definition, particularly for tourism businesses, is that sustainability is about development – it does not preclude it, and it should not be seen as a barrier. Instead, sustainability asks that we ensure development is balanced between ‘the needs of the present’ against the needs of ‘future generations’.

The difficulty is, of course, how the tourism industry can achieve this balance. I’ll speak more to this point later.

Demand for sustainability

Many years have passed since the Brundtland Report was published. In that time, the acceleration of climate change has put sustainability front of mind across the world and risen to the top of the global agenda.

As a consequence, this is influencing consumer habits. Put simply, there is now a huge demand for sustainable options.

The World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) November 2021 report, ‘Trending In Travel: Emerging consumer trends in Travel & Tourism in 2021 and beyond’found that travellers wantto lessen their footprint and enhance their social impact. A survey conducted pre-pandemic discovered that 51% of global travellers were willing to exchange their original destination for a lesser known but similar alternative if it had a smaller footprint and greater community impact.

Similar findings can be found elsewhere. A Booking.com survey in 2021 reported that 83% of travelers want to make sustainable travel a priority in the future, and 70% are more likely to choose an accommodation if it has implemented sustainable practices.

In all cases, the number surveyed who want to opt for sustainable travel outnumber those who don’t – pointing to a clear consumer demand. And rightly so, for sustainability is a solution to the environmental crisis we find ourselves in. But how does the sector move towards this target state of ‘sustainable tourism’?

Making sustainability the norm

From adapting business models to nudge theory, there are many ways sustainability can move from ‘niche’ to the ‘status quo’.

The WTTC and Harvard’s joint publication Learning Insights: Behavioural Economics provides some intriguing insights into this. Of particular interest is how businesses can harness the power behavioral economics to influence consumer choices. From rephrasing messages for accommodation guests to reuse towels, to incentivizing airline pilots to make fuel efficiencies, there are fascinating approaches to the question ‘how do I become more sustainable’? I would urge all to read their findings.

Nudging consumers and tourism employees towards making sustainable choices provides a dual benefit: it will save businesses money, as well has relieving the burden on the environment. Happily, these solutions need not require significant, or indeed any, expenditure on behalf of business operators.

The lesson here is that the industry needs to make these choices easier. As the WTTC & Harvard note:

“This upends the classical approach that starts with education, assuming that increased awareness will ultimately lead to behavioural change and thus reduce negative impacts”.

Supporting the sector

Many enterprises in the sector have been operating a sustainable model for a long time now, yet others need help to get there.

The Sustainable Tourism Global Center (STGC), supported by Saudi Arabia, aims to help enable tourism operators reach net zero, protect nature and support communities. The initiative brings together governments, private sector, multilaterals and researchers to provide expert advice, tools and support the sector throughout the world. In particular, the Center seeks to support SMEs – the vast majority of the sector – who have few resources available to guide them.

The launch of the STGC in October last year marks a point where we collectively recognize that tourism must be part of the solution to climate change – and that solution is sustainability.

Saudi Arabia is doing its part, including progress on our world-leading developments such as the Red Sea Project, which will leave 75 percent of the island archipelago untouched, achieving a 30 percent net conservation benefit over the next two decades. Another giga-project, NEOM, will be solely powered by renewable energy and buildings will have a net zero carbon footprint.

And we will continue to drive the objectives of the STGC forward, enabling the global tourism sector to embrace sustainability, so that businesses, communities and the planet can reap the rewards.