Last year, we launched the Nature Positive Travel & Tourism report and toolbox, closely followed by the Nature Positive Vision for Travel & Tourism. Over 150 tourism businesses, destinations, and civil society representatives registered their support, ensuring our sector was represented at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in December. Together, we showed that Travel & Tourism companies can be “Guardians of Nature”. 

COP15 also saw the adoption of the Global Biodiversity Framework. Hailed as the ‘Paris Agreement for nature’. This calls on governments to put in place stringent regulations for corporate biodiversity assessment, monitoring and reporting. Our Nature Positive Travel & Tourism report and toolbox provide the guidance and resource to help travel businesses respond to this call to action. 

Working with our partners, ANIMONDIAL, we have joined the UNWTO, the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance and others to integrate the “Nature Positive” approach throughout our sector. In 2023, we will continue to support Travel & Tourism providers to measure their impact on nature, adopt biodiversity safeguards, and seize opportunities to act. This community is still growing, and we invite more organisations to join us through signing up to our Vision. 

The Nature Positive Vision for Travel & Tourism aspires to a future in which the industry has adopted a Nature Positive approach by 2030: integrating biodiversity safeguards and reducing impacts throughout operations and value chains while also undertaking actions to protect and restore nature. It also encourages Travel & Tourism to support and inspire governments, business, and society to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework and help transform humanity’s relationship with the natural world. 

 Over 80% of Travel & Tourism’s goods and services directly or indirectly rely on nature’s resources and functioning ecosystems.  

Nature-based tourism generates annual revenues of over US$600 billion, supporting millions of jobs and providing opportunities for countries to grow and diversify their economies while protecting their biodiversity and natural heritage.  

According to the World Economic Forum, loss of biodiversity / ecosystem collapse is now considered one of the three most severe risks facing the world over the next ten years. 

The United Nations reports that for every dollar spent on restoration, between three and seventy-five dollars of economic benefits from ecosystem goods and services can be expected. 

To realise the actions required to deliver on this Vision for Travel & Tourism, please consult the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) publication “Nature Positive Travel & Tourism: Travelling in Harmony with Nature”. Together with the Toolbox, it aims to help Travel & Tourism stakeholders understand and act on the urgent need to protect biodiversity and restore nature. 

During COP15 in Montreal, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance (the Alliance) announced a new collaboration which will bring together the public and private sectors in a shared vision to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.

Biodiversity is declining at a faster rate than it has at any time in human history and the Travel & Tourism sector plays a pivotal role in reversing this. The link between biodiversity and climate change is clear; decreasing our impact on nature will undoubtedly help us better tackle issues such as climate change and habitat loss. “The Travel & Tourism sector needs to realise our products are at risk if biodiversity goes away. We must value nature, and the mechanism to get this message across is through tourism,” said Megan Morikawa, Director of Global Sustainability Office, Iberostar.

Panel features: Daniel Turner, Director, Animondial; Megan Morikawa, Director, Global Sustainability Office, Iberostar; Rick Sasso, Chairman, MSC Cruises USA; Moderated by: Fran Golden, Journalist

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