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Not 100% – but four steps closer to sustainable tourism

February 18, 2021

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment published a media release urging for a substantially smaller environmental footprint. See below some of the key findings and please visit the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment website for the full article.

“The Commissioner is urging the Government to take advantage of the pause in international tourism to transform the sector to one with a substantially smaller environmental footprint.

New Zealand’s tourism industry has grown rapidly in recent decades but Covid-19 has brought international tourism activity to a halt, threatening the livelihoods and commercial viability of many of New Zealand’s tourism-related businesses.

But tourism is not as environmentally benign as it’s made out to be, and the discontinuity created by the pandemic offers an opportunity to address some of the long-standing environmental and social issues associated with the industry.

This report puts forward four proposals that could make a real difference to some of the problems outlined in the Commissioner’s 2019 report, Pristine, popular… imperilled? The environmental consequences of projected tourism growth.