Sustainability as success factor for tourism
welcome everyone to another episode of green talks I'm Andrea from Canary Green non-profit on the canary islands and with me today I have Andreas Koch and he is really the person you go to if you want to build a sustainable business future especially for the hotel year business so Andreas or Andreas however you want to say it welcome thank you for your time and tell us a little bit more about you and of course your projects well thanks a lot andrea for uh and inviting me to this to having the pleasure to talk about my full passion which is that since 20 years I'm working in sustainable tourism I'm coming from a world of cooperative tourism so I was responsible for environment sustainability as one of the largest co-operators tui i then founded an ngo with futurist that actually works with sustainable solution and as you see here blue contact was founded around 10 years ago to support hotels and destinations and to operators worldwide to move into sustainable tourism so this is my full pushing passion this is my belief this is what i'm doing since 20 years and just three days ago i'm happy that we are here together because just three days ago our new baby tourism the combination of tourism and rhythm for a new world after this crisis was launched and this is basically a work of the last 20 years combined in one new initiative exactly you have to tell us more about it because how can it what is true rhythm maybe maybe let's start there explain for us what you mean by tour rhythm well tourism is a is a well it's a word between rhythm and tourism so what my belief is and i felt it since 20 years that sustainability and tourism definitely belongs together but this crisis changed a lot of of the surrounding around us and when we restart now sustainability is not any more a concept for me it's really a business case scenario for all the tourism actors worldwide and of course for sure also on the canary islands where we are now because let's let's really dive into some of the aspects um if you look at the political agenda for example if you look at the eu green deal for going for circular economy going for biological food um uh going for emission trading going for really um embedding this the logic of sustainability in the whole political framework this is not only happening in eu but also worldwide so this is one of the big issues that is happening so there is a political framework changing then the the expectation of a lot of tourists that are now traveling after covid because they are more focused on health more focused on having a better surrounding in the hotels but also about the future generations like generations said for example one third of the whole generation is generation zed and with their expectations about an authentic tourism this is a lot of things that are changing in the in the environment so this is one part of the game that is changing and then i realized in my 20 years back and working in sustainable tourism i i realized four more really important aspects that are part of a business case scenario for tourism the one is everyone talks about energy efficiency water efficiency technical solutions we have done meanwhile around 300 energy audits with hotels around the world also in canary islands germany mauritius everywhere around the world and on average we have seen that these hotels save 30 of energy energy cost energy consumption without minimizing the quality for the guests so that's the second big point where i say you can do a lot of things without really bargaining on your quality for your guests so that's the second point the third point for me is really that a lot of people that work in tourism the employees are having a very hard time often because it's a really tough work in end and if you go for sustainability it's a lot of employer branding you can do a lot of things to inspire your guests to be become part of your sustainability journey and we can dive deeper into that i love that because this is always at the heart of any project that we are doing the fourth point for me is the local suppliers we all understood that what happens in china is is influencing us and the other way around so a more localized value chain is very logic because it's resilient everyone talks about resilience but in tourism it's even more you can create authentic experiences with local suppliers like for example on crete we we created tastings for cretan vines olive oils and that is a very big let's say consumer demand to have authentic experience and you can co-create that with your local suppliers and last but not least the guests you can you can really involve them in all your activities and you get free marketing social media marketing through all that activities that i talked about before so these are the five reasons why i definitely see for any region any two operator any hotel in the world that this is not a concept sustainability it's really a pure business case love that i love all all the aspects of it uh that so many it's it's really holistic it's really a holistic approach and um i wanted to ask you if so where can a company start to have sustainability as a business model because i think a lot of a lot of business people within the tourism industry they are afraid that it only will cost them is that true well as i try to mention um on the energy parts there you definitely see it's not about paying it's about receiving and the future about hotel business by the way is to produce more energy than you consume just to get you an idea we sometimes have in mind that actually we we have to save energy but the future is that we can produce even more energy than we consume it's not yet happening but in the next 10 20 30 years it will happen but to your point where where do you start basically what i do um i i talked about this initiative tourism so the first offer that tourism does is to offer a course it's a digital course about three months where we dive into that aspect and i have done that for the first round now with 20 people to really dive into that with top raters hotels destination and these are five modules that we designed out of this 20 years experience the first module is we just let everyone feel the trends so we present the 10 most important trends in the world that will definitely influence tourism but not every trend of that will influence every single two operator or hotel so you really have to understand which trend influences me so if you are for mice tourism like really event tourism not for a young young generation you might not think a lot about the generation z but if you are for younger people this will definitely influence you if you are uh on a coral reef you definitely will feel more about biodiversity and the coral reef bleaching and so on so you will feel more about that but what are the trends so this is the first module which present the ten trends and then we asked what does the two operators destinations which of them influence you because it's not on us to teach them what's happening it's about everyone to feel my dear this is changing i have to change if if i'm not changing i'm out of business so this is what's what's very important first module to get an understanding to inspire because what i realized the last 20 years andrea is we lot we we talk a lot about certifications in turin these are very important third-party certifications but not as a start as an end it's important as a start we have to talk about the hearts we have to understand we have to feel that this change is affecting me certifications are talking about the brains about doing a third party certification which is very important in the end if you have done all the measures but in the beginning it's about feeling that you have to change so this is the first module the second is really because i feel that everyone talks about um that sustainability cost so the second module is definitely about saving energy it's about energy of water efficiency what we simply do in the second module is we give every hotel the 30 best measures out of our last 300 energy audits how you immediately the next day can save energy costs because i want people to feel that this is possible so they get a checklist like if you do that it did huh it's happening just maybe two examples um all three examples so that what what we mean with that one is you talked about the showers the newest technology of towers mix in air so you're not using 12 15 20 liters per minute but only six liters per minute and no one realizes because the air is mixed into the water so there is no difference in the quality but this is a payback time if you change all your showers in three months so one example the other is strange example now how often does your housekeeping team clean the toilet or flush the toilet when you're cleaning the the room we realize it's going up to 15 to 20 times because they don't realize it and it's okay if you only do it three times that's that's single single measure that often happens just some small little examples about behavior change or led technology all the people talk about the bulbs but not about the fluorescent bulbs for example in the kitchen or in the offices that they run much longer than normal bulbs and that's payback time very fast i can continue like that but there are we gather 30 messages measures to identify first savings so that's the second module where we teach this 30 measures and immediately you can start to grow you can feel it the third module then goes into the employees how can you involve inspire all your employees so we we made a concept of the trained trainer training where we when we train hotel we we give everything that we know how we design the training to the people in the course so they can the next day do the course so with all the presentation we have a card game inside where we gather the best examples so we give them the card game that they can play cards with the employees it's very easy to access um training modules how they can start the next day uh training involving their employees it's not easy right now because often employees are way in the crisis but now they come back so that's why we launched tourism just now on the world environment the day on last friday this is a third module the fourth module if you have involved your employees you've saved money you know why you're doing things is how you involve your suppliers so there's a tool inside how you rate your suppliers how you can prioritize the suppliers that are most important because it's not really important to focus on all your suppliers that want to focus on the most important 20 so how do you rate them how do you inspire them to create authentic experiences with you so there's a booklet inside about the best i think it's really three measures we collected from the world how hotels and destination designed authentic experiences with suppliers so you can get expired again inspired again what you can do and the last last module then is about if you have understood why you're doing things you save money for energy efficiency you involve your employees you involve your suppliers the last one is and that's because you don't want to do green washing you have to do the first steps before then you involve your clients then you don't go into social media then you go into communication the last module is about how you best enrich your customer touch points in a hotel for example before the booking at the reception in the room or in a destination when people book it or as a tour operator how you enrich your customer touch points with that sustainability measures so you involve your guests you do a social marketing you do you go you go out with your measures and do a um a branding of what you're doing so these are the full five modules that we designed to easily jump into that in three months always two weeks in between so you have time to digest you get a checklist always before that so you understand where your studies is and after three months you have a feeling okay this is the road i want to travel so that's the the course that we designed it it's running now for the first time and i i was deeply touched by the feedback we got we just collected all the feedback on the tourism page you can look at it it's fantastic how the people reacted to that course how they understood that they can start just tomorrow by simple measures oh my god this is so powerful i think what you are doing is like the missing link to what we know has to be done but how to do it and you're basically giving the solution in three months course that is you know made made for you and can can yeah just make changes instantly like we were saying like 30 things that you can start today to actually save money in your business right away and then just deepening i i love that i love all aspects of it you know that's exactly what we stand for as well that you really i mean that you educate but also that you connect you connect with the people you connect with the destination with the the people working and producing on the destination it's it's incredible i it's incredible and is it um applicable to all destinations around the world it's applicable to all destinations not all of the 30 measures for example for energy efficiency actually count for everyone for example if you talk about heating in a very hot destination malicious where you need air conditioning you better look at the air conditioning instead of the heating okay so there are some things where you actually dive into certain aspects of that but the basic logic is applicable everyone everywhere else because the basic logic andrea is it's it's not coming from the from the from the aspects of sustainability because a lot of a lot of the initiatives coming from we have to do waste management we have to do energy efficiency we have to do hazardous substances but in tourism if you talk about that i would say brain languages like you have to focus on that and talk about have to that's not the tourism language the tourism languages we invite you to come to our destination and we want to show you the best possible aspects of authentic experience in our destinations so tourism talks a lot about how about the human capital about how you involve your your employees your staff your your suppliers your guests it comes from a human point of view and then dives into the into the sustainability aspects okay so that's why it's applicable all over the world because what i realized in my project for example right now i have a huge project on my ratios to restart mauritius based on the sustainability principles i have a project by the way also on lansa road where we connect the wine tourism with a hotel industry and i realize in all this project that the human capital is always the same logic we all want to be part of something good we just sometimes may i say may i say give our souls away when we enter into our workplace but if we get our souls back at the workplace i realized for example in our crete project if you give a hotel employees the chance to design with a local farmer and a local producer of authentic healthier food the chance to present such a course such a tasting in the hotel it's hell a lot of fun it's had a lot of passion it's had a lot of inspiration for their job and at the same time it enriches their authentic experience their guests expectations and that's the the beauty of that that course the beauty of that times we are living in we we can take our feelings our souls into the business that we are actually operating in and if you allow people that um i could give you another example of more issues if you want i i i love that example so much like on mauritius i was working with a with a huge company of 400 in an incoming agency of 400 employees and we design new excursions based on the challenges that we have on mauritius like we have the challenges which poor gap so how do you involve the local employees the local people in the communities biodiversity challenges is one aspect water is a challenge plastic as a child so we designed excursions that address the challenges of mauritius at the same time involve the employees to to to design something that solved the the challenges and inspire them to offer that course and it's it's it's being launched uh soon so this is what i realized in all our project that the common sense is really the human capital we want to be part of the good we don't want to do something against this world we want to be part of the solutions and tourism has a best possibility to design that solutions and at the same time be be part of successful development of a of a of a region of a hotel so that's that's the beauty of of of tourism yeah yeah again it's just so powerful i absolutely agree with you on every point and and love that how you're describing it so beautifully because i also think you know i mean you know one third of our lives we go to a job and you know if we just feel replaceable we won't give our everything we won't be there 110 for our employer or for our colleagues or for our guests so exactly what you're saying it makes such a strong company and you want to go to work because you're not just getting a paycheck at the end of the month you are you're contributing and you're sharing your home your destination it's beautiful it's absolutely beautiful and and the ripple effects right like you were saying in the beginning this is it's a new way of of doing of creating the future and look in the back here i know here i choose this picture of the the world in a nutshell like this is tourism like uh when you look at the cannery island uh when canaria is as a as a world in a nutshell everything every beauty of that world you have on canary islands or gran canaria and every challenge of the world you have there not every but a lot of charges so if you solve in tourism the challenge that we have you are the world in a nutshell so you are a blueprint of the world how you can address that and invite people employees suppliers guests to look at it in the same way but not as a burden but as a as a as a yeah as a as an inspiring part uh you can easily relax and take a nice excursion and really get that but the world in a nutshell is for me tourism so what you are saying is really this the same logic what you do i i really love your mission um what you're doing there because it's really making people aware that this is that this is actually possible exactly exactly yes and and that's exactly why i wanted you here because again it's like this bridge between we have to connect the tourists with the hotels and and all the destination right uh with with the tourists and just create this future that we that we want right um so yes andreas where can we find you where can we connect with you and get our hands on your course i mean i will link everything below of course but yes tell us before we have to part our ways for today yes well i mean everything is like really uh i i we have done our best to compile all the information on tourism.com so uh we will link up that tourism.com into it there you see the video why this is the best time to start there you see the offers that we make we divide it into three offers that you see that for the hotels the courses there are description of the courses there we will start the course soon i think it will be might be august september when we start the course because we realize that some are really just starting up again with us getting new employees and really starting this again so we don't want to disturb that but after that we would like really to invite people to understand well if you want to change be part of that the beauty is it's a it's a course where we not only teach things but we also exchange with hotels and destination from around the world so we we change good examples we don't want to be the ones who know the best example we just give the platform and teach our know how so you will find everything on tourism.com there there is really the description of the course how we work with destinations how we work with with hotels and um i've i've done numerous of talks in the last six months i i uploaded all my talks about what i'm talking now about sustainability as a business casa uh case scenario how do you involve your employees i have a lot of speeches that that i really did the last six months it's all uploaded there so everyone is very free um to to contact us on that i'm very happy it's just three days out and we didn't do a lot of advertisement right now on that but it's coming uh one by one and we have designed three interactive elements every month one is a club for those who participate in the course so every month there will be a club for all those that participate in the last courses to really come together because sometimes you have questions again coming up so you have a club there where you meet all the people that have done the course and secondly every month i introduced tourism because i want to share what i shared with you now my my know how my understanding and all the good examples i can see so i will have one event every month talking about that and the last event is uh also monthly i always invite one leader uh to talk with them about their story they're they're they're walking the paths of tourism or sustainability to learn that this is not just a concept that's really something that gives back a lot to you or to you to yourself to your employees and to your business okay so these are the three offers you find them all on the course on the on the tourism website and there is a small little calendar of all our events you can easily sign up for free for all those events and you are very much invited and i fall in love with the cannery island blue contact because the company for example was founded on the canary islands i have projects on the canary islands so i think you will be one of the leaders in creating sustainable tourism solutions especially with the help of people like you and yeah wow this is amazing thank you so much andreas and um yeah i love what what you've done what you're doing what you're working on that you give continuous support you really make it approachable you know this starting the change you make it really easy and approachable and and um yeah just doable i think it's absolutely fantastic so thank you for today and um yeah let's just stay in touch of course thanks so much for andrea for letting me know but it's it's last but i i have to say i'm i'm i'm making it approachable yes but i'm just awakening something hopefully that is already there because we all want to do something good so i try to awake that part in everyone and i i'm happy that a lot of uh get inspired by that so thanks so much for inviting me really a great job that you are doing i love your platform and good luck on that thanks for for inviting thank you
2021-06-18 12:55
