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RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Ivo Martinac
School/Work Place : Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Contact : im@kth.se
Year : 2007

While it seems to be gradually dawning on humankind that the quality of our lives and (in extremis)survival of our and subsequent generations will depend to a significant extent on our ability and willingness to make urgent and significant corrections to our lifestyles, it is much less commonly understood how such changes should be structured and pursued towards a wholesomely sustainable outcome.

We urgently need to become more innovative about how we can accelerate the processes through which humankind will realize, understand and appropriately deal with complex environmental, economic and social challenges, natural or man-made. This relates to the pursuit and effects of travel and tourism as much as it concerns any other facet of our lives.

A substantial portion of travel and tourism is pursued to satisfy our needs for leisure, excitement and pleasure. In a world of visibly diminishing natural resources, and rapidly increasing environmental, economic and social challenges, any human activity pursued for pleasure and entertainment should be scrutinized with particular concern for how and to what extent it competes with higher-priority needs, as well as whether and how it can be responsibly pursued in the long term.

We urgently need to become more innovative about the ways we transport, accommodate, feed, entertain and cater to multiple other needs of travelers, such as to develop products, build/modify relevant infrastructure, develop business models and practices, and establish behaviors that will not threaten the ability of subsequent generations to pursue travel and tourism as part of their lifestyle.

While by no means a panacea for responsible tourism, the adoption of more efficient technologies and innovative mechanisms for their implementation can significantly contribute to pursuing a sustainable triple-bottom line in the travel and tourism sector. Innovative technologies are discussed that can be applied towards mitigating resource consumption and environmental impacts in travel and tourism, and mechanisms are presented that can accelerate the adoption and implementation of such technologies on a larger scale.

Rethinking and implementing more efficient infrastructure and technical systems is an urgently required component in the complex transformation travel and tourism needs to undergo to continue enhancing our overall quality of life.


List of Articles
No. Subject Views Datesort
5 Think Tank VII Environmentally Sustainable Practices of Victorian Tou... file 7965 Oct 13, 2013

Environmental sustainability has been a growing concern in our society for the past twenty years, and is a primary issue of many leaders of the tourism industry. In spite of the many efforts to encourage and/or enforce environmentally sound ...

Author: Sue Beeton, Sue Bergin-Seers & Christine Lee 

Year: 2007 

4 Think Tank VII Tourist Perceptions of Environmentally Friendly Innova... file 24557 Oct 13, 2013

As the environmental movement got underway and environmental awareness came into focus in the late 20th century, the tourism industry began incorporating 'environmentally friendly' efforts into their business practices. Requests for towel r...

Author: Kathleen L. Andereck 

Year: 2007 

» Think Tank VII Innovative Technologies in Travel and Tourism - Toward... file 3205 Oct 13, 2013

While it seems to be gradually dawning on humankind that the quality of our lives and (in extremis)survival of our and subsequent generations will depend to a significant extent on our ability and willingness to make urgent and significant ...

Author: Ivo Martinac 

Year: 2007 

2 Think Tank VII The New World of Travel 2.0: Application of Social Sof... file 7749 Oct 13, 2013

"Web 2.0" is a term used to refer to the emerging new wave of innovation on the Internet. Some see it as a second high-tech wave, marking the recovery from the technology and Internet "bust" at the end of the 1990s (O'Reilly 2005). Character...

Author: Alan A. Lew 

Year: 2007 

1 Think Tank VII Web 2.0, Tourist Activated Networks and Sustainability... file 4818 Oct 13, 2013

With the emergence of Web 2.0, the Internet has begun to realize its potential in supporting the tourism experience. This presentation will first identify a number of applications within Web 2.0 that are visitor oriented - from Expedia and T...

Author: Daniel Fesenmaier 

Year: 2007 

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