Sustainability
Sustainability is a term frequently overused in tourism and is a buzzword often used as a marketing tool so we understand if you’re a little sceptical. But, for us it is a way to help preserve Dartmoor's natural environment, take care of its communities and leave a positive footprint. Rather than a checklist or stand-alone achievement, sustainability is a journey of continual improvement.
We're not mass-market
Our experiences aren’t bland, mass market tours achieving maximum profit. They are special, unique experiences that support and benefit Dartmoor’s people, communities and landscapes.
We don't greenwash
‘Greenwashing’ (using misleading or exaggerated claims about ‘green’ credentials or sustainability) is common in tourism. For us, sustainable tourism has to also be about integrity, honesty, transparency and accountability.
We're a very small business without a dedicated sustainability team. We're not perfect, sustainability is a journey not a stand alone achievement, and we get things wrong. But what's important is to start. And below are a few examples what we're doing.
What is Sustainable Tourism?
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) defines sustainable tourism as “Tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.”
We're with Travelife
It is also about measuring and monitoring impacts and this is one reason we have signed up to an accredited certification scheme through Travelife - a fair and affordable system that helps tour operators and travel agencies to manage and improve their social and environmental impacts by complying with sustainability criteria. Travelife runs a certification scheme suitable for a small company such as us with limited resources including funds and time.
Not costing the environment
Sustainable tourism for us also means a form of tourism that does not come at a cost to our environment. But, man-made climate change is the greatest challenge in the present day. Carbon emissions and greenhouse gases are already leading to a global shift in our weather patterns and biodiversity including on Dartmoor - our home.
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’The impact of climate change on Dartmoor will continue to be wide reaching, with warmer, wetter winters, hotter, dryer summers, increased (and decreased) river flows and an increasing frequency of extreme weather events, the effects of which are already being seen.’
A working case study
But, we don’t have the financial resources to pay a carbon footprint consultancy who specialise in measuring carbon footprints. So instead, we are a case study working with postgraduate students on the Responsible Tourism Management Postgraduate Course of Leeds Beckett University in the UK – the only responsible tourism management MSc certified by the UNWTO – working on creating a carbon calculator for small businesses such as ourselves which will allow us to introduce carbon labelling on every experience we offer making it easier for you to make more informed decisions. This is a work in progress
