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Working
towards being carbon clean scores for Sri Lanka Tourism
At the recently concluded ‘PATA CEO Challenge 2008 on
Confronting Climate Change’, Sri Lanka Tourism’s
Earth Lung initiative to work towards being carbon clean within
a ten year framework was lauded by travel and tourism industry
leaders, as an industry first. Two hundred and thirty six
leaders of travel and tourism attended the sessions held at
the Centra Grand and Bangkok Convention Centre at Central
World, Bangkok, Thailand on the 29th and 30th of April.
New Zealand and Sri Lanka were the only destinations featured
among the eleven panellists of the rapid-fire session on boardroom
challenges. Ed Fuller, President and Managing Director of
Marriot International was asked by the moderator, CNN International’s
Kristie Lou Stout “Now that you know what Sri Lanka is
doing with its Earth Lung Programme, will you invest in a
hotel in Sri Lanka.”
The response from Fuller was “I was there one and half
weeks ago, and we certainly are considering the possibility.”
He added “In Europe, consumers say: we will not buy your
hotel unless you have an environmental programme we can see”
Sri Lanka and New Zealand were cited as ‘destinations
striving towards carbon neutral status.’ From the private
sector the main scorers were Six Senses Resorts and Spas,
Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts, Marriot International and
Australia based Intrepid Travels, for their current actions
and proposed solutions to the climate change crisis. Sri Lanka’s
Sigiriya Hotel was featured at a breakout session on hotel
initiatives for its carbon foot print measurement and offsetting
initiatives.
For further details visit http://www.ceochallenge.pata.org/
www.ceochallenge.PATA.org/blog
www.travelmole.com/liveatthemole.php
www.tipsfromthetlist.com/events/pata-ceo-challenge
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