How EMAS can support improving the sustainability of the tourism sector

World Tourism Day has been held on 27 September each year since 1980. It is a key day to recognise the weight that tourism has on many economies, but also to underline that, like other activities, it has an environmental impact that must be reduced as much as possible in order to preserve the tourist destination, the greatest resource and on which the tourism sector depends.

Moreover, customers themselves are increasingly looking at the environmental performance of companies when organising a trip and their reviews are guiding other users, so the image of companies is more exposed in an evolving market that is expected to become more and more sensitive to environmental issues.

Tourism likewise has the capacity to transform people and therefore, to make tourists more respectful of the environment they visit and the one in which they habitually live, and businesses in the tourism sector can take action to reduce the environmental impact of their activities and services, one of the tools they can adopt to do this in a systematic and efficient way is EMAS, the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme.

EMAS registration can be requested by any company in the tourism value chain such as accommodation, catering services, transport, cultural and art facilities transport, parks and botanical and zoological gardens, travel agencies, tour operators and many others. All organisations in the tourism sector wishing to improve their environmental performance can register to EMAS.

EMAS is mainly a management tool which uses life-cycle thinking to assess all direct and indirect impacts of an organisation and embeds an environmental policy in its management processes in order to reduce them over time. If a company wants to increase and communicate the environmental sustainability profile of their business in the tourism sector, whatever the activity, even beyond tourist accommodation, they should register to EMAS.

Following the publication of the Transition Pathway for Tourism and the European Agenda for Tourism 2030 the European Commission launched in February 2022 a call for commitments and pledges to stakeholders. Within this framework, public and private tourism stakeholders are invited to share their concrete actions and targets to contribute to the green and digital transition of the tourism sector and increasing the ecosystem’s resilience. The call to share the pledges is continuously open. EMAS-registered tourism organisations are invited to share their good practice!

The objectives of this webinar are: 

• to briefly explain what EMAS is and why joining EMAS can help tourism companies to reduce its environmental impacts while ensuring transparency to its customers.
• Learn about the sustainability policies of key actors such as booking platforms and be informed about the latest related climate Ambassadors actions for the promotion of a more environmentally friendly tourism in Europe.
• Learn from the experience of EMAS-registered organisations the benefits of EMAS registration.