On September 27th, the World Tourism Day which for 2023, under the slogan “Green Tourism and Investment”, highlights as a priority the need for more and better targeted investments for people, planet and prosperity to achieve the recovery of tourism and its future growth and development.
This date, promoted by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), was (UNWTO), an entity of the United Nations Organization, stresses the importance of investing in projects focused on three fundamental axes; those that work for people, through investment in education, training and skills; for the planet, with investments in sustainable infrastructure that enable the acceleration of the green transformation; and for future prosperity, by investing in innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.
According to the United Nations, the tourism sector employs one out of every 10 people in the world. Therefore, with regard to investment in skills, it also indicates that by 2030, millions of people with hospitality qualifications will be needed each year as tourism workers worldwide and that a further 800,000 jobs per year will require specific vocational training.
In terms of its relationship with the planet, the organization points out that the tourism sector must fulfill its responsibilities for solving the climate emergencywhich, according to the Global Risks 2023 reportThe World Economic Forum’s “The World Economic Forum,” is one of the most urgent risks of the next 10 years. In this regard, at the global level, the emissions reduction would provide a $24.7 trillion investment opportunity in the green building sector in emerging market cities by 2030, of which $1.5 trillion would be in hotels, resorts and restaurants.
The United Nations also stresses that digitalization and innovation and entrepreneurship programs are a strategic priority to support the most vulnerable groups, including women and young people, and that they are crucial to improving the skills of those working in the tourism sector.
In this context, the European Union has sought to establish measures to help accelerate the ecological transition and the transformation towards a green, sustainable, decarbonized and resilient economy, with a first horizon of 2030, and with a forecast of zero emissions in 2050. The ecological transition represents an important economic opportunity and impact on the labor market, which must respond with the creation of new jobs and the reorientation or transformation of existing ones, with special importance being given to professional training processes. In addition, innovation, both technological and in terms of efficient natural resource management models, is key to this transition process.
With this objective and in terms of training, the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), through the Empleaverde Program and together with the Spanish Office of Climate Change, has published the study “Employment and ecological transition. Yacimientos de empleo, transformación laboral y retos formativos en los sectores relacionados con el cambio climático y la biodiversidad en España”, which details. training needs and identifies 14 priority axes (sectors) with high transformational potential, among which is the sustainable nature tourism.
Also, with the designation of the Biodiversity Foundation as an intermediate body of the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), it will be possible to give continuity to these lines of work through the Empleaverde Plus Program with a horizon until 2029. Within the framework of this program, the Foundation will contribute actively to the development of jobs related to the ecological transitionThe aim is to identify new green and blue employment niches and to evaluate other methodologies and instruments, with the objective of promoting labor market insertion and improving the skills of workers and entrepreneurs in sectors such as tourism.
In addition, the Foundation, through the Emprendeverde NetworkThe company supports the creation and consolidation of new businesses that contribute to green recovery and biodiversity conservation, including the following sustainable tourism entrepreneurship projects that are currently active.
Thus, the koan Consulting initiative, in operation since 2000, is a company dedicated to tourism consulting with a specialization in sustainable and responsible tourism. Quei Vitorino is a rural tourism project born in 2011 that offers visitors different ecotourism experiences in the Natural Park of Fuentes del Narcea, Degaña and Ibias in Asturias. Also, in the rural accommodation sector is Casa Marinete, an initiative started in 2017 that not only offers ecotourism experiences at the mouth of the Guadalquivir but also aims to become a meeting point for naturalists and nature lovers. Finally, in 2015 Snorkeling Experience was born, a coastal ecotourism project that focuses on environmental outreach in order to bring science closer to the general public.
