The South African tourism industry will need to take steps to minimise its impact on the country’s finite water resources if it is to grow and maintain a tourism-based economy.
This is according to one of the country’s leading environmental advisors and specialists in water affairs, Dr Anthony Turton.
‘South Africa has a water-constrained mining-based economy. Gold mining is almost at an end and so we are transitioning to a new beneficiation type of national economy in which tourism will play a major part. A necessary precondition for a successful tourism-based economy is ecosystem health and functional integrity.’
‘A unit of water left in a functioning ecosystem sustaining a tourism initiative will have a return on investment that is significantly higher than a similar unit in the industrial or agricultural sector. We therefore need to start understanding the multiplier effect of water as it performs useful ecological services that will sustain our growing tourism industry. In this regard we need to value water in terms of goods and services it provides in Nature, by sustaining foreign revenue generation and job creation,’ Turton says.
Dr Turton is just one of the presenters who will be speaking at the upcoming Environmental Management in Tourism conference (EMiT) which takes places at the Sandton Sun Conference Centre from 9-10 November 2011.
EMiT offers a dedicated platform for debate around sustainable tourism, with presentations covering topics such as corporate governance, sustainability, green marketing and events, the profile of the green traveller, corporate social investment, 2023 the future of travel and tourism, selling and sourcing green products by the travel retail sector, and the impact that finite natural resources such as water, waste, and energy have on the industry.
EMiT is supported by FEDHASA, SATSA, the Event Greening Forum, FTTSA and SAACI. It is also partnered with World Travel Market’s Responsible Tourism Day 2011 and Green Globe Africa.
Draft programme
Master of Ceremonies: Simon Gear
- Corporate Governance and the Hospitality Sector
- Shades of Green
- Green Marketing and PR for Tourism
- Green Procurement as a Tourism Strategy
- Hospitality and Energy - a Strategy for Development
- Africa - a Sustainable Tourism Future
- Waste Management and Tourism
- Water Security - a Tourism Perspective
- 2023 - The Environment and the Future of Tourism
- Managing the Supply-chain in Tourism
- Australia’s Green Tourism Strategy - Positioning a Long Haul Destination with Green
- Green Meetings and events - Ensuring a ROI
- Green Tourism - a Global Business Perspective on Sustainable Development
- From Community to Profit (panel discussion)
Exhibition and sponsorship opportunities are available.
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