Television in Britain is punctuated with the advertisements of companies parading their green credentials to sell more products. Nothing wrong with that. But here in Scotland we are going further and parading our nation's green credentials. The Scottish Government has committed itself to a target that "Scotland will be Europe's most sustainable tourism destination by 2015". Happily we are starting from a strong position since a recent poll of 60,00 enquiries at www.responsibletravel.com ranked Scotland as the top European eco-destination.Yesterday I was at Cameron House on Loch Lomond with other members of Scotland's 'Tourism Innovation Group' to discuss how this bold objective can be translated into the management of individual destinations and tourism sectors.
The goal is an ambitious one but here are a series of first steps already taken towards that destination.
- Climate Change Scotland - the Tourism Innovation Group's carbon offset scheme for Scottish tourism with the investment remaining in Scotland (the first such national scheme).
- The 4 Bs initiative - Boat, Boot, Bike, Bus - in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.
- Cairngorm Mountain - National Centre for the Mountain Environment.
- Carbon Neutral Biggar - Scotland's first carbon neutral village?
- Trees for Life - restoring the Caledonian Forest (Glen Affric forest regeneration, above).
- Visit Scotland's Sustainable Tourism Unit.
- Wild Scotland and its innovative Best Practice Guidelines
And every tourist to Scotland can contributeto our objectives. Using accommodation with membership of the Green Tourism Business Scheme is now madatory for Scottish Government employees travelling on business.
Please make it mandatory for you too!
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