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Tropical North Queensland Sustainable Travel Hub launches

A dedicated Sustainable Travel Hub launches on TTNQ’s destination website today. This hub will help consumers plan a holiday with operators who are working to reduce their carbon footprint and give back to the local community.

The Tropical North Queensland Sustainable Travel Hub lists eco-certified operators, interactive conservation projects and immersive cultural experiences. It also includes blogs and a destination video on our promise of greater good, which will help travellers understand the value our region places on the environment and our community, so they can travel thoughtfully and with more intent.

In addition to the hub, TTNQ is launching the Pathway to Sustainable Tourism Toolkit to help our members adopt sustainable business practices, measure their footprint, and plan their journey forward for a more sustainable future.

The toolkit is an opportunity for the tourism industry to align with government targets to reduce emissions and meet the growing demand from consumers for more sustainable tourism. Sophisticated travellers are looking for tourism that is restorative, reconciliatory and ultimately regenerative.

Tropical North Queensland’s sustainability journey is part of our brand story and our organisation’s vision and mission. We will share that story at industry events and trade shows with a new Promise of Greater Good brand video.

 

Our promise of greater good is shaped around four sustainable tourism pillars:

  • Effective management: How are you managing sustainable practices across your business?
  • Social and economic: How are you helping the communities where your tourism product operates?
  • Environment: What are you doing to protect, conserve, educate and be a steward of the environment where you operate?
  • Cultural: How does your business support cultural heritage and reconciliation?

Many operators are already on the journey for greater good and we invite everyone to take the next step forward.

The simplest way to start is to undertake the free Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland ecoBiz program to help small to medium businesses establish their business footprint as baseline data to measure their performance annually. TTNQ has completed this step and begun implementing recommendations with the goal of being carbon neutral by 2026.

Ecotourism Australia’s newly launched Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard measures where a business is on their sustainability journey and once you reach a score of five it can be part of your Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW) listing.

Eco certification through Ecotourism Australia is an essential step in the journey and one which our destination has been very proactive in with our region accounting for the greatest number of eco-certified operators in Australia.

Another option is with EarthCheck, a global certification program that helps consumers make informed decisions about the tourism experiences to choose.

TTNQ is partnering with a number of projects to ensure our tourism industry aligns with State and Federal Government commitments to minimise the climate impacts of all industries in Australia. Our projects include partnering with Reforest to offset the carbon emissions of TTNQ events, joining the Tourism Climate Action Plan advisory panel and working with members to increase the percentage of eco-certification in the region.

Our promise about greater good is about continually improving as an industry and region, as well as introducing how our community has been making great efforts in sustainable business tourism practices to limit our footprint and proactively give back through research, conservation and regeneration projects.