The Vancouver Olympics started when this article was being written. It is a matter of course for people to look forward to seeing the outstanding performances of athletes at the sports festival. This time, however, Vancouver drew keen attention in something else, too. It was global warming. They worried about the lack of snow on Cypress Mountain where free style skiing and snow boarding competition took place. The media covered the situation of snowless mountains not only from the perspective of race condition but also from that of climate change. (In fact, the games successfully took place thanks to the efforts of many people who hauled snow from nearby mountains.)

Incidentally,, the snowless Winter Olympics took place as the public movement was losing a momentum to tackle the issues of climate change. Last December, the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Copenhagen only to fail to reach an agreement over post-Kyoto Protocol framework. Make matters worse, it was reported in January that a part of the fourth assessment report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 turned out to have little scientific basis.

As for response to climate change, there are two approaches, namely adaptation and mitigation. For example, in a winter resort area, the local industry such as accommodations, restaurants and ropeway service companies are largely dependent on the ski market. In such a community, the lack of snow directly hits their economy and employment because a decline in the number of skiers drags down sales. How can the ski resort adapt to various issues caused by climate change? That is one aspect of responses: adaptation. The other is that the rampant development of resort area may exacerbate global warming since tourism and ski businesses activities that are unconsiderable of environment emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. The challenge the industry faces is to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions while sustaining their business. How can the industry mitigate the effects of global warming? That is the other aspect of responses: mitigation.
It is an issue in which the ski industry is both a victim and an offender. The winter resort is likely to be negatively affected by global warming while the area itself emits greenhouse gases. Of course, it is true of every industry including tourism.

In the past, the tourism industry has taken measures to tackle climate change based on activities by individual service providers: transportation operators including air and rail carriers tried to reduce CO2 and accommodation facilities attempted to regulate emission. Recently, however, a movement to realize a low-carbon future gives eco-tourism momentum: tourist destinations themselves aim to achieve sustainable tourism, i.e., "Carbon-neutral Destination". For example, Caribbean countries gathered at a conference last July to reveal their aspiration to become the first Carbon-neutral destination in the world. They cited various measures such as vulnerability assessment of tourism resources and environment evaluation of tourism as well as modeling approach of climate change on a regional or national level. Scotland, too, has set its tourism strategy, "the Tourism Framework for Change", aiming at realizing the most sustainable tourism industry in Europe. One characteristic of the marketing plan is that it is not aiming to increase the number of tourists, which is likely to bring about environment destruction but to increase the amount of tourist consumption, which leads to change the quality of travel. Their target is to increase the average tourist consumption as much as 50% by 2015. (It is now reviewed under the tough economic situation.) Thus even local tourist associations have now begun to strategically promote sustainable tourism.

Japan has seen the drive for carbon-neutral destination, too. Last November, Kurobe-Unazuki Tourism Promotion Association hosted a seminar for promoting low-carbon tourism by utilizing electricity as a part of Low-carbon Tourism Project activities. The purpose of this project is to attract tourists and create new opportunities for local businesses by promoting a new concept of hot-spring resort; including introduction of small scale hydro-power generation and electric cars into public transportation system. They are now considering the plans to prohibit the use of automobiles in the central area of the resort and to introduce park-and-ride system that allow visitors to park their cars outside the town and use electric shuttle bus service inside the town.

Last year, the team of JTB Tokyo Metropolitan Corp. and Panasonic Cycle Technology Co. Ltd. were awarded the Environment Minister's Prize for their " Eco-bike: Tabi-chari or rental electrically-assisted bicycle for tourists". It promotes tourism and health while protecting the environment. The idea has been highly evaluated for a new business model of eco-tourism aimed at realizing low-carbon society. The introduction of electric-bicycle rental service to tourist destinations may generate a new traveling style which will replace or complement sightseeing on foot.

Under the leadership of the Japanese government, Promotion Council for the Low Carbon Cities was organized in 2008 to help communities take actions toward low-carbon society. Communities which want to thrive on tourism will have to pursue sustainability in a strategic way in the future.

Since regional spontaneous efforts have limits in their know-how and human resources, some nation- wide approaches may be required. To cite an example of the UK, the Green Tourism Business Scheme, or sustainable tourism certification scheme, which started in Scotland, is now carried out across the country. It is a certification scheme that governments, businesses and individuals are involved with. Businesses such as accommodations, tourist facilities, restaurants, visitor centers, conference facilities and tour operators that meet the required standard, are awarded a Gold, Silver or Bronze certificate according to their level of achievement. The list of awarded operators is available on their website.

Scotland has taken an initiative in establishing the scheme, regarding itself as a leader of promoting Eco-tourism in Europe. According to a survey, 80% of visitors to Scotland feel the country protecting the natural surroundings and 40% of them decided to visit Scotland because of their interest in the environment. Furthermore, 80% of the U.K. citizens are willing to pay additional 30-70 pounds per night if they stay at an eco-friendly hotel. ( Source: http://www.greentourism.org.uk/marketinfo.html）
It should be noted that the philosophy to conserve environment is not the sole driver for them to promote sustainable tourism, but they are doing it strategically based on the identified market needs of travelers.

The Japanese government has laid out a clear policy target to attract 30million foreign tourists annually in the future. Tourism will further grow internationally and have various impacts on economy, society and environment. It means that people involved in tourism have to take responsibility for realizing sustainable society.

As the Japanese government has set an ambitious goal of CO2 reduction, the tourism, the second largest job-creating industry after auto industry, should play a leading role in tackling global warming if it takes pride in being Japan's leading industry in the 21st century.

＜Reference＞

Denki Unazuki Project
http://unajin.unazuki-onsen.com/?p=3242

Scotland: the Green Tourism Business Scheme
http://www.green-business.co.uk

Interview Implementing sustainable tourism in Scotland: an interview, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Volume 17 Number 6 November 2009,pp.747-752