Understanding sustainable communication and the transformation of a more environmentally conscious tourism sector, might rely on how the state, private sectors and consumers work together to reduce carbon emissions.
PRs and marketeers roles will continue to look at how they can creatively showcase their organisations sustainable success stories. Tourism is all about supporting local communities and sustainable economic growth to a destination. As PRs and marketers our roles have often been to communicate what leaders of an organisation require in order to succeed — whether to appease stock prices or to increase the occupancy levels. However, juggling profits with ethical approaches has never been questioned so much.
Changes in many different forms have always been part of how the tourism industry revolves, it was a fossil fuel that developed the train by means of coal and steam, a century later this method of transport is a part of a more sustainable way to travel. What an organisation communicates will influence how its customer will buy into their brand.
1. The Role of Community Communications
Within the tourism sector in 2023 there will likely be a bigger role for the need of parallel communications by the organisation and community inclusion. Organisation communications will need to consider how they include the community within their operations. Voices need to come as much from the environment an organisation exists in (people around an organisation), as much as the organisation itself – when it comes to trying to promote commerce and economic growth.
2. Understand if an Organisation is Green Hushing vs Green Washing
Sometimes the most effective sustainable orientated organisations do not always showcase what they do, and on the opposite side the green washers are not always losing. Communicators, marketeers and board members should follow key ‘Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) Guidance - misleading environmental claims and social responsibility’ guides. Should a PR believe their organisation is breaking rules, using the ASA guidelines to present evidence and raising issues internally within their own organisation should always be considered. A lack of compliance, and external backlash or scandal can often be more costly than ignoring a problem.
To gain competitive advantages, organisations leading sustainable movements, also need to invest more in their promotion to gain competitive advantages instead of ‘green hushing’.
3. The alignment of environmentalism and geology
Communicators and digital marketers should start to consider all aspects of the world we live in when thinking about the environment. Biology, and ecology are essential for tourism and food chain sanctuaries. Going forward awareness for geology will play an important role in resources of a local business, such as utilising materials for building development, quality to grow foods nearby, cleaner infrastructure and energy management. Thus the topic of geology within environmentalism may start to occur more often in the future. In order to understand the history of our planet, communicators may want to start to think about the broader elements of the world’s resources.
4. Showcasing supply chains and locality are an important marketing message
The days of flying in lobsters from halfway across the world will start to decrease, and organisations will focus on their own local offering, the habitats and environments that they exist in will play a bigger role in PR stories. Luxury marketing and PR will need to focus on the local craft and education of their workforce, who will have the ability to create high quality local offers from what is around them.
5. History vs Trends - the role of the media and PRs
Often history and learning from the past is more important than creating a short term concept of a trend, trends often come from past learning, whether from historic ways of growing food, reintroducing past ideas or looking at what didn’t work to ensure a company is communicating the right things it is doing.
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