Blog Posts By Author: Melanie Richards

After a client presentation in northern Italy last Thursday, I was traveling back to the Pisa airport, when Sadie, an executive assistant in London, rang me to tell me I was going nowhere fast and certainly not back to London. But she managed after a lot of hassle to book me a nice hotel where I waited...

Two days later I was sitting in my Pisa hotel dining room wondering how much longer I would be there (the travel agents weren't optimistic!) when I noticed that the people at the next table spoke English. Pretty soon we got to talking. Like me they were also stuck after a week's Italian language course.

"Why don't we rent a bus and drive back to UK?" I suggested.

Within minutes most of the diners, overhearing our conversation and likewise "stuck," mobbed us. They were all potential passengers. We had doctors from a conference on schizophrenia in Florence, biologists from a workshop in Pisa, families on holiday and a few business people making a group of over 40 including six kids. Within four hours, thanks to my Italian speaking friends, we had our bus with two drivers. In the end, 35 of us departed at 4 am the following morning for Calais leaving a number of disappointed people behind. Not enough space for everyone. We drove through the glorious northern Italian and French Alps and up past Lyon. 20 hours later, after three 10 minute 'comfort stops' (no time to eat so we carried food with us), we had arrived at Calais. Although we missed our ferry booking, the coach was much s..l..o..w..e..r than anticipated, we were able to get on the last midnight ferry to Dover.

Although exhausting, we made it!

I met great people.

It was relatively inexpensive - only euro 150 each - and a real adventure!

We were speeding through Delhi in darkness on our way to the airport. After a busy and successful trip to see our Jaypee Sports clients, we were enjoying some relaxation before a long flight home. Suddenly we looked up and saw not one huge banner high across the road advertising the launch of a new Jaypee residential development, the Lake District, but two or three in close succession. These were advertising phase one of the new Jaypee Greens Sports City, a city that we had just finished master planning. Already our client had engaged architects, designed residential apartment blocks and was marketing it ready to sell it off plan.

This is surely one of the fastest moving projects our master planning team in London have been involved in. But wow, it’s exciting! So often projects take years to come to fruition but not this one. India is certainly one of the most dynamic countries on the planet with a rapidly growing population and, therefore, an insatiable demand for new towns and residential areas. Roll on the next project in India...

Flying into Johannesburg over miles of undeveloped Africa, I'm reminded of all the bad press this continent gets. On the ground, however, I'm immediately overwhelmed by the warmth and enthusiasm of the people here in South Africa. My taxi driver chats happily about his job and how fortunate he was to get it. He leaps out the car at the hotel, whisks my bag out of the car, and wishes me a wonderful stay.

At the Hospitality Investment Conference Africa, I met delegates from all over the continent who were optimistic about the growth of Africa's hospitality industry.

Although often overlooked, I think Africa really has all the key ingredients for the development of successful industry—warm hospitable people (natural hosts), enthusiasm, unrivalled natural beauty and wildlife.

I look forward to us engaging in new projects on the continent as Africa emerges.  

What is ecotourism? It’s a term we hear repeatedly in the leisure and hospitality industry, and has enjoyed increasing usage over the past 10 years. It is often associated with high-end, small scale hotels and lodges in stunningly beautiful, frequently exclusive, natural locations. But what is it?

Although the term was first coined by Hector Ceballos-Lascurain, a Mexican architect and environmentalist in the early 1980's, it did not come into common usage until the 1990's. It is based on the concept of sustainable development:

"People need to strive to provide for their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs."

This concept was formalised with the signing of Agenda 21 at the United Nations Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This then led to what is known as the 'triple bottom line' concept where environmental, economic and social concerns must be satisfied to ensure sustainability.

This had important repercussions on the tourism industry and finally led to the evolution of a new type of tourism, "ecotourism" and various forms of sustainable tourism.

The term ecotourism has been widely used in many different contexts: there are a plethora of definitions and much controversy surround them. But that of TIES (the International Ecotourism Society) is one of the most widely accepted and relevant:

"Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people."

This means that those who implement and participate in responsible tourism activities should follow these ecotourism principles:

• minimize impact
• build environmental and cultural awareness and respect
• provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts
• provide direct financial benefits for conservation
• provide financial benefits and empowerment for local people
• raise sensitivity to host countries' political, environmental, and social climate

Although the above might seem like a tall order, ecotourism is basically about creating a balance to achieve a 'win-win' outcome and results in benefits for all concerned but particularly for local communities.

Ecotourism is often wrongly used by the hospitality industry to describe lodges that do not exhibit any of the above principles. This is often referred to as "greenwashing" where destinations, products, companies claim to be green and follow sustainable principles but are and do neither. It also attracts a number of myths. Some of these are:

• it is only concerned with nature
• lodges are basic and rustic, or conversely
• lodges are very upmarket and affordable to few

All are untrue…..ecotourism lodges are usually located in natural environments but can engage in many activities not related to nature as long as they are sustainable. They can range from simple and unsophisticated to luxurious and exclusive.

Kuyima Lodge in Mexico and Al Maha in the United Arab Emirates refer to their lodges as ecotourism resorts but interestingly differ markedly when scored against the ecotourism principles above. Kuyima was built using local building materials; it is run on renewable energy, and, provides jobs for local people who also manage it. Al Maha helps conserve the natural environment and operates a conservation area but it uses non-renewable energy and is owned and managed by Emirates Airlines, not the local community.

These examples are at opposite ends of the green spectrum where the most sustainable ecotourism i.e. increased social responsibility and decreasing environmental impact is considered "dark green." Less sustainable ecotourism is considered "light green."

So what has all this to do with us at WATG?

Our business revolves around the leisure and hospitality industry. We are leaders in this field in the design industry and so must be responsive to current trends and new thinking. Ecotourism is a relatively new trend and, although currently only a small percentage of the tourism industry, is growing very rapidly (20-34% per year according to the World Tourism Organisation.)