Although widely used, tourist ecolabels lack coordination. They may be created by sectors of the economy, specific businesses, groups, or governmental organizations. They have different global ranges and locations. They have some influence on how consumers make purchases.
From labels come ecolabels. Labels are merely descriptions of certain elements connected to a good or action. Ecolabels provide information to consumers in addition to the actual goods or services. Ecolabels can be created using a variety of qualities, including texts, images, fixed, trustworthy, and local. How consumers, who are the tourists, react to an ecolabel will depend on its social, political, and fiscal dimensions. In a scenario where different stakeholders are interested in pushing for ecolabels, the tourism sector is greatly improved and the benefits enjoyed.
Reflective Commentary
Ecolabels can achieve significant success in tourism only if they are set at the right time following right procedures. Equality, efficiency and proper evolution procedures for ecolabels will aid in promoting tourism. The history of ecolabels can be traced back to the year 1987 when the Blue Flag for coastal zones in Europe was introduced (Galarraga Gallastegui, 2017). In the following year it was both economically and socially acknowledged by the citizens in most European countries. Good ecolabels in tourism should follow some set principles, questions that need to be asked will always revolve around the ecolabels sustainable strategy, number of visitors, protection of cultural heritage of the local area of destination, environmental quality protection and transparency. The public should always be informed of all changes that are being made on the pre-existing ecolabels so as to ensure they are aware of everything that goes on around them as a way of minimizing conflicts.
Eco organizations may assess ecolabels differently; external experts may be sent in the field to evaluate the projects or they may be offered directly through the office.
The aim of making ecolabels effective is aimed at ensuring that tourism activities are sustainable and no environmental degradation can be experienced through tourism activities (Buckley, 2017). Regional, national and even international certificate labels that recognize sustainable activities and services in the tourism and hospitality industry exist. These ecolabels may be basic in some extent to focus on some areas of the tourism sector and not others. Example is the one that focuses mainly on environmental criteria like the Green Key label. Environment is one key pillar to sustainability, others will include social and economic components. The Tourism Sustainability Council(TSC) is the one mandated to establish the sustainability criteria for tourism and hospitality firms all over the world. Eco labels will always help tourists make decisions on choosing their destinations. This implies in the simple fact that one will tend to prefer visiting polices that are less polluted compared to the ones that experience more pollution. This makes it a fact for jurisdictions in the tourist attraction areas to always ensure they set and put into place achievable and realistic ecolabels (Nils Kraus, 2017).
References
Nils Kraus, N. (2017). The Rise of eco labels in tourism. Tourism Review. Retrieved 1 May 2017, from http://tourism-review.com/eco-labels-in-tourism-can-be-trusted-news5084
Buckley, R. (2017). Tourism ecolabelling (1st ed., p. 6). New York: CABI publishing.
Galarraga Gallastegui, I. (2017). The use of eco-labels: a review of the literature. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
