On the plus side, the introductory chapter by Martha Honey
(editor) and Emma Stewart provides a fascinating account (ok,
fascinating for us nerds) of the evolution of "green" tourism
standards.
Summaries of Central American tourism, the review of Australia's
NEAP, the analysis of underlying concepts and and the account
of developing ecotourism in Fiji during times of political unrest
are well worth reading.
My question goes beyond the pages of this book. Why do we
discuss certifying destinations or individual operations instead
of academic programs, conservation projects or ... (gasp!) tourism
officials themselves? Are we discussing certification a decade
too early? Certification seems to be a topic of interest for
foundations -- not travel operators or customers.
The concluding chapter attempts to respond to many of the
questions aised in Planeta.com's online
workshop and it's gratifying to see so many references to
our website. Yet this chapter -- and I would argue the book
-- fails to make the case that ecotourism certification is helpful
to travelers or communities at this time.
Beginning in the early twentieth century, the automobile
began offering many vacationers an introduction to independent
travel over long distances. So it is not surprising that Michelin,
the company that patented the first removable car tire in
1895, was the pioneer of an early hotel and restaurant rating
system via travel guides. (pp. 33-34)
Within the travel and tourism industry in Europe today
there are some 5,000 recipients of green certification logos.
(p. 211)
Certification programs seem to work best if they are implemented
on a country by country or, in some instances, a state by
state basis. This cuts down expensive travel by consultants,
permits involvement of a variety of local stakeholders in
the certification scheme and allows criteria to be tailored
to fit particular geographical, political or economic conditions.
(p. 361)
