When individual hotels first started trying to become more sustainable, they actually had to fight their corporate headquarters in order to be able to do things differently from the normal company operations. Now major hotel brands are adopting sustainability from the top, mandating brand-wide efforts, and using that as a major marketing hook.
Sustainable tourism has also become a more mainstream idea in communities and destinations. Where there were a few of us whackos out there originally, it has now grown to a national consciousness―the U.S. Travel Association has even launched a Green Travel website―and the U.S. is now in a position to collaborate with, and compete with, international destinations around sustainability.
Tourism is also being increasingly seen as a viable part of the new green economy. Where our industry has been justifiably scrutinized―partly around the carbon emissions from air travel, and partly around some exploitative developments around the world―we are now showing how our industry can be part of the solution and can indeed help to educate other industries who come to us for hospitality.
And sustainable tourism helps to show that there does not have to be an inverse relationship between the environment and the economy, that you can save money and even make money by instituting sustainable policies.