Page 35 - Express Travel World

SUSTAINABILITY

BUILDING A

SUSTAINABLE ECO SYSTEM

India ranks 6th in Sustainable Tourism Index

NA Group, a global both the private sector and pub- agencies, logistics firms focused
Fortune 500 com- lic sector with data to enable on the mobility of people, goods
pany focused on THE SUSTAINABLE TOURISM INDEX: positive change,” said Adam and services. These wide-rang-
Htourism, logistics Tan, CEO and vice chairman of ing interests mean that HNA
and financial services, an- OVERALLRESULTS (SCORES OUTOF100) HNA Group Group takes the findings of the
nounced its sponsorship of a Sustainable tourism is de- Sustainable Tourism Index very
white paper entitled '2018 Sus- fined as the creation and promo- seriously and is committed to
tainable Tourism Index', using tion of a tourism industry that providing top quality services to
research carried out by The preserves or enhances a coun- its customers in as sustainable a
Economist Intelligence Unit try's social, cultural or environ- manner as possible. HNA Group
(EIU). Tourism accounts for ap- mental capital. Governments, and its subsidiaries are spear-
proximately 10 per cent of world the private sector and average heading efforts to push the
GDP and just under 10 per cent citizens all play a role in driving agenda on sustainable tourism,
of all jobs. Driven by rising tourism toward positive out- exemplified by programmes
wages in emerging markets, comes. The Sustainable such as HNA Group flagship
tourism is primed to power fur- Tourism Index, produced by The carrier Hainan Airlines' Green
ther global growth, however the Economist Intelligence Unit and Aviation Initiative, which in No-
industry can only realise its full sponsored by HNA Group, com- vember of last year involved the
potential through sustainable pares the policies and practices company's first transpacific
practices. of ten countries around the flight powered by biofuel. "The
world in building and managing a Sustainable Tourism Index is an
Keyfindings include: sustainable tourism ecosystem. important body of research be-
● France and Germany exhibit HNA Group started as a re- cause it shows that the effective
the strongest commitments to gional airline in the southern pursuit of sustainable tourism
sustainable tourism while China Chinese province of Hainan but requires a high degree of coordi-
and India's high-growth tourism over the last 25 years has devel- nation between the business and
sectors could provide a founda- oped into a diversified company public sector, as well as civil so-
tion for action and leadership in spanning the globe. Its assets in ciety and individual tourists
sustainable tourism into the fu- the tourism sector include air- themselves." said Michael Gold,
ture. line companies, aviation serv- the EIU editor in charge of the
● Fragmentism reigns in sus- ices, hotel management, travel research programme.
tainable tourism-related policy-
making. Local, regional, and na-
tional policymakers in every
country surveyed can protect
and grow their tourism indus-
tries through enhanced integra-
tion across jurisdictional bodies.
● Large businesses have made
major strides in sustainability
and sustainability reporting
however small businesses have
to keep pace.
"Sustainability is more than
just a regulatory requirement, it
also allows for long-term prof-
itability for business. Since our
founding HNA Group has placed
great emphasis on sustainability,
and we hope that the Sustain-
able Tourism Index provides

EXPRESS TRAVELWORLD 35
February 2018