DMC says industry must do more for environment

Richard Devadasan, manager, MICE, SNTTA Emir Tours has slammed the inbound tourism industry for its lack of concern for the environment and says tour operators and DMCs must do more to protect it.

“There are plans to ‘green’ Dubai from a business perspective but to make sure we look at green issues as far as tourism goes is crucial because its one of the biggest industries,” said Devadasan. “I think the government needs to have a bigger drive in cleaning up and getting us to do a better clean-up act.”

“I get a lot of slack from my clients who say, have you seen your desert and all the rubbish that’s been left out there?” he added. “It’s appalling the amount of wastage that we have when we organise a conference – we don’t have enough recycling agencies in this country, which is a shame.”

SNTTA has brought in a number of ‘eco-initiatives’ as part of its meeting planning such as using jugs of water on tables rather than bottles, recycling plastic lanyards and badges and donating white boards and markers to locals school instead of throwing them away.

Devadasan admitted that while these actions were “baby steps” he now wants the entire tourism industry to come together and make a conscious effort to cut down its carbon footprint in the form of a 'green table forum' where ideas on how to go green can be shared and acted upon.

“The objective of the green forum is that we all stand together and have it as a policy to go green - all the industry should be united. The idea is to connect with people and get to know if they agree with me on these grounds and put a plan together that’s going to put Dubai in the league of destinations which are already green conscious.”