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The WHL Commitment

WHL is committed to promoting and supporting the development of sustainable tourism. We do this by encouraging all WHL partners (our franchisees) to proactively seek out, list and promote those accommodation and other travel service providers undertaking initiatives which support sustainable tourism objectives.

We also expect all our franchisees to lead by example in their community by minimising their environmental footprint and by having programs in place to extend the benefits of tourism to the broader community. The WHL team have also made a personal commitment to minimise our environmental footprint and to contribute to sustainable tourism initiatives in some way.

WHL Activities in Support of Sustainable Tourism

There are a number of specific actions WHL is undertaking to further sustainable tourism practices.

Caring for the Destination Ratings


In doing the work of collecting information about SME accommodation providers to put online, WHL identified many small SMEs that are actively engaged in projects which, in their own way, are positive steps towards improving sustainable outcomes for the destination. None of the initiatives are "certifiable" to existing standards, but they are good, they are meaningful to the SME involved and address specific local needs.

Examples include employing and training orphaned children, supporting local schools, running a turtle hatchery, restoring a damaged coral reef, teaching traditional building skills, supporting volunteer workers, and restoring historical buildings.

WHL then started to write up some of these initiatives as "brand differentiators" for the respective accommodation providers, highlighting for travellers what the accommodation providers were doing. WHL grouped them under a "Caring for the Destination" banner. Some initiatives were small and some were large, but many offered guests either a unique experience or, at least, an opportunity to feel that by staying with this accommodation provider they were doing some good.

As a small SME already competing in a difficult market, trying to differentiate yourself only on price, location and facilities is a slippery slope. The only real way to distinguish yourself is by selling a unique experience, and this is what WHL is encouraging them to deliver via the "Caring for the Destination" initiatives.

This led to the idea of an "eBay style" bottom-up, sustainable tourism marketing model. The SME accommodation provider (the supplier) markets their initiative(s) - now a core part of their product - and the traveller (the buyer) gives them a rating after staying at the property and provides feedback online for other travellers to read and evaluate in making their buying decision.

It's still early days with this new rating. Whilst we think a traveller driven approach to change is the way to go, and that the Internet is the way to do it, there are many challenges. The IFC (part of the World Bank group) is financing a 3 year project managed by the International Centre for Responsible Tourism (ICRT) at Leeds Metropolitan University to look at these challenges, make recommendations for changes and measure impact. Key will be getting travellers behind the idea, so we need your support.

Integrating Community Based Initiatives into the Tourism Experience

WHL has been working with the IFC in the Mekong on a project called Stay Another Day. The idea behind Stay Another Day is to introduce a range of community projects (cultural, social or environmental) into the travel experience mix. In many destinations there tends to be a couple of iconic "must do" sights or activities, and all the rest is missed by travellers, simply because they don't know about it or it is not accessible.

It's a great pity that this is the case because the win-win potential here is enormous. Firstly, for travellers there is an immensely interesting and engaging part of the destination they are missing. It's often a chance to see 'behind the scenes', and to experience life in the local community as it really is. For the project concerned, helping them tap the tourism sector can represent a fabulous opportunity both to raise needed funds and to get the message out about what they are doing.

There is much to do still to develop this idea, however results from the early work done in 2006 and 2007 are very encouraging and we are looking to extend the concept to South Africa and Nepal working with Ashoka, the global association of the world's leading social entrepreneurs.

Climate Change

The need to do something here is clear. We've started by adding a couple of global CO2 offset partners to our sites (every page of every site) and by encouraging everyone who books travel via our sites to purchase these offsets. We want to do more however.

The next step in each country (ideally in each destination where we have a web site) is to try and identify projects which are contributing in some way to reducing the effects of global warming. The projects may be focused on improving energy efficiencies; on alternate fuel / energy sources; on carbon capture via reforestation, etc. The important thing to us is that the projects are real, and that they are engaging local people.

We will then work with these projects to profile them for tourists coming to the country. We think tourists will have an interest in donating to these projects (being as they are in the country or destination they will visit) and in many cases we hope that it will be possible for travellers to visit these projects. If travellers visit the projects and are given the chance to understand the benefits and make a personal connection to the people involved, we think there is also good potential for an ongoing interest to be maintained. This could lead to more funds flowing to the project after the travellers return home. WHL will try to facilitate this via a web based project update and traveller blog.

Earth Day Network

The Earth Day Network (EDN) seeks to grow and diversify the environmental movement worldwide, and to mobilize it as the most effective vehicle for promoting a healthy, sustainable planet. They pursue these goals through education, politics, cultural events, and consumer activism.

Each year on April 22 global Earth Day is celebrated and special activities are arranged by organisations around the world to build awareness in local communities about sustainability issues. Up until now many communities in the developing world have not played an active role in Earth Day activities and so EDN and WHL are looking to cooperate to try and change this.

It is intended that WHL will work with local communities to select and develop events to support Earth Day and that EDN will profile these events around the world and encourage their membership to visit these destinations and support these events. Other educational activities are planned with accommodation providers to help them become more energy efficient.

Business Edge Tourism Training

Business Edge is a unit of the IFC specializing in management training for SMEs. In 2007 they started work on a series of training modules for the tourism industry covering marketing, operations, HR management, financial management and sustainable tourism. WHL is partnering with Business Edge to introduce the product to SME accommodation providers and has been contributing to the development of both the marketing and sustainable tourism modules. Results of pilots run thus far indicate the courses have been very well accepted by SMEs. WHL will continue to support the roll out of these courses in several ways.

Firstly a monthly newsletter for accommodation providers will be launched late 2007 which will incorporate a number of operational hints and case studies. There will also be downloadable training material available from the WHL web site and hard copy self-instruction booklets available from WHL partner offices.

Secondly, WHL has developed a readiness audit tool to allow us to evaluate the capabilities of SME accommodation providers and their readiness to be marketed to the global FIT market. Training needs identified can then be addressed by selection of the appropriate Business Edge modules. This is a new development in 2007 and it is not expected that all the training modules will be launched until later this year.