Sustainability

BehaviorSMART recently launched the beSMART Platform – a proprietary solution powered by insights from behavioural science. beSMART enables travel businesses and destinations to adjust service design across their supply chain ecosystems in order to seamlessly steer travellers towards better options. The platform makes responsible choices easy, practical, and profitable for travel businesses, enabling them to close the intention-action gap, i.e. travellers’ growing desire to enjoy more responsible holidays and their inability to act on that.

Watch the demo, Welcome to the beSMART Platform! to see beSMART in action.

Fast and Effective

Each “Topic” on the beSMART Platform (e.g., Promote Local Food) takes only 3–5 hours to complete, enabling businesses to activate change and observe effects quickly. The platform empowers individual businesses — accommodations, food services, activity providers — as well as destination teams in marketing, sales, communications, and operations. It’s also highly effective for entire destinations (and their supply network), outbound operators and their suppliers, DMCs and their suppliers, and networks such as associations or chains.

The Unique Value of beSMART

The platform is powered by science-based knowledge about traveller psychology packaged as micro-actions that travel destinations and businesses can quickly apply to their communications, operations, product design, and measurement. These influence behaviours such as buying locally, reducing carbon footprints, or leaving no trace in nature.

To illustrate the effects of the actions that you can find on beSMART:

• 38% reduction in general waste at a camping complex in Norway resulting from a smart adjustment of visual signs at waste collection points
• 100% of the guests at an accommodation complex in Bohinj Region (Slovenia) opt for less visited spots featured with engaging descriptions on a list with suggested places to visit
• 20% reduction of the waste generated by an Italian operator of sailing adventures resulting from simple food shopping tips

The European Commission’s Transition Pathway for Tourism, published in February 2022, identifies 27 topics for action (see Appendix 1). The implementation of all should consider three priorities according to the Commission: “the green transition (environmental sustainability and climate neutrality); the digital transition; the move to a greater resilience.”

Building sectoral resilience requires strategic investment and support for sustainable practice.

There will be public and private sector responses. International aviation emissions are included in EU climate goals. Product and demand will evolve. Clients increasingly require carbon-footprint information. Some may travel less but stay longer. For aviation-dependent destinations, especially islands, how to mitigate impact once on land becomes an ever more pressing concern. With remote working now widely accepted, relocating for a longer period may become more practical and appealing. Group tourism is showing a shift to smaller, more in-depth itineraries.

ETOA as co-chair of the Tourism Manifesto was pleased to support the inclusion of decarbonisation as the first of its four policy priorities in its 2024 – 2029 EU Mandate, Tourism in Transition: A New Consensus for Change.

In March 2023 the European Commission published proposals for a Green Claims Directive. For the official EC presentation on the proposal and related circular economy initiatives, click here.