Tourism Minister Damien O'Connor today launched a new website promoting sustainable practices for tourism businesses.

The Tourism Ministry website is a resource that will allow all businesses to access valuable information from the joint Tourism Ministry-Ministry for Environment Sustainable Tourism Charter project, including practical assistance on business sustainability, Mr O'Connor said.

The website follows on from the recently released draft New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015, which identifies that the protection and enhancement of our environment has to be a key focus for the New Zealand tourism sector in the next decade.

"This is a great new initiative which will provide information and practical tips on how businesses can cut energy emissions and make smarter use of New Zealand's natural resources. All of us have a role to play in making New Zealand a world leader in sustainability and backing up the promise of 100% Pure."

The website is the latest in a series of resources involving the Tourism Ministry, including a compact disk produced with TIA called Tourism in Action, which provides excellent advice and support for another integral column of New Zealand's sustainability message – the development of successful businesses, Mr O'Connor said.

The sustainability website was created in response to feedback from businesses that they would appreciate such information in one place, tailored to tourism businesses.

The website:

• Collates information and links from a wide range of sources into one website, to save businesses time.
  
• Contains tips on how to become more sustainable, including both simple actions such as switching off computers at the end of each day, and more advanced actions such as utilising sustainable building technologies.
  
• Communicates why businesses should take action to become sustainable, and what the government is doing.
  
• Promotes sustainability and environmental performance, as a vital consideration for the tourism sector to be consistent with the 100% Pure New Zealand brand promise.
  
• Shares the knowledge learnt from the Charter project with other regions and businesses.

Six Regional Tourism Organisations support businesses participating in the sustainable tourism charter: Destination Northland, Tourism Bay of Plenty, Destination Rotorua, Latitude Nelson, Lake Wanaka Tourism, and Venture Southland Tourism/Destination Fiordland.

The website www.tourism.govt.nz/sustainability/ can be accessed via a link on the Ministry of Tourism’s website www.tourism.govt.nz

Further information: Content of the Website

1. The front page of the website contains some basic information about sustainability under the following headings:
   • What is sustainable tourism?
   • Why is it important?
   • Who is this website for? (stressing that the website is primarily intended to be informative for tourism businesses and operators, but Regional Tourism Operators and local councils may also wish to direct businesses to the pages.)
2. The website contains 6 main pages, designed to grab the reader’s attention. They are:
   • What can you do?
   • What’s in it for you?
   • What help can you get?
   • How can you get recognition for your efforts?
   • What is the government doing?
   • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
3. The page entitled “What can you do?” contains specific actions businesses can take to become more sustainable, divided into 10 easy steps and also more advanced steps. The advanced steps are separated again into logical groups such as Waste Management, Water Efficiency, Maintaining Momentum and Supply Chain. The advanced steps are based on the Ministry for the Environment’s monitoring spreadsheet, used by several of the Charter regions for measuring participating businesses’ progress. Currently, our intention is to add another dimension to this page in the future, with suggested actions grouped by specific sector types, for example motels, activity operators, and transport providers.
4. The page entitled “What’s in it for you?” points out to businesses the benefits they could experience by becoming more sustainable. It will also contain case studies of participating businesses, and currently this section invites businesses to send their success stories to the Ministry of Tourism to be incorporated into this page. .
5. The page entitled “What help can you get?” gathers information on contacts, general resources, useful tools and a detailed list of relevant websites. It also provides links to funding sources, and calendars of upcoming workshops which incorporate a sustainability aspect.
6. The page entitled “How can you get recognition for your efforts?” gives information on Qualmark’s new environmental accreditation currently under development, touches on some other accreditation programmes, and links to marketing guides, as well as specific awards businesses can enter.
7. The page entitled “What is the government doing?” gives information on the Sustainable Tourism Charter project, and the various other government initiatives focussed on sustainability (e.g. the New Zealand Energy Strategy, the Govt3 initiative and the government procurement policy). It refers users to the update of the New Zealand Tourism Strategy and its associated website, (www.nztourismstrategy.com).
8. The website gives opportunity for feedback from viewers, via an email link to the Ministry of Tourism. It also encourages businesses to send in their success stories for the case studies page. This recognises the power of real life experiences in motivating businesses to take actions to become more sustainable. .