Transforming tourism value chains in developing countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to accelerate more resource efficient, low carbon development

The tourism sector is estimated to be responsible for around five percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Strongly dependent on fossil energy and food imports, this sector creates value chains that make inefficient use of resources and are susceptible to climate change impacts. The project helped partner countries in their efforts to reduce and improve the efficiency of their resource usage in key segments such as the hotel/hospitality industry. Work also included analysing and updating inventories of greenhouse gas emissions and sustainable products and services. The project also developed integrated measures for mitigating emissions and improving resource efficiency, based on a lifecycle approach with specific indicators for mitigation and adaptation priorities. Lastly, the project helped to build up resources and expertise in local organisations and is very active in relevant networks with the aim of ensuring that project results can be shared at a national and regional level.

Project data

Countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Mauritius, Philippines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
IKI funding: 4,978,811.00 €
Duration: 01/2017 till 12/2022
Status: completed
Implementing organisation: United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment)
Political Partner: Department of Tourism (DOT) - Philippines

Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources - Dominican Republic

Ministry of Tourism - Dominican Republic

Ministry of Tourism & External Communications - Mauritius

Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Secretariat (OECS) - St Lucia
Implementing Partner: The Travel Foundation - United Kingdom

UNEP DTU Partnership*

Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP)
Online: https://www.oneplanetnetwork.org/value-chains/transforming-tourism

Skip to Project data

State of implementation/results

Project completed.
More than 103 companies are now part of the project, and eleven companies have submitted data to assess their greenhouse gas emission and energy efficiency performance through the resource efficiency tool developed by the project.
Capacity Building
- Due to the CoVid-19 pandemic, several hotels that the project is working with closed. Nevertheless, more than 37 capacity building workshops have taken place until the end of March 2022 totalizing over 2,000 participants.
- In Dec 2021, an online session on Organizing Sustainable Meetings and Functions was hosted in the Philippines and attended by 56 people
- In Oct 2021, the project organized a series of seven trainings on Sustainable Gastronomy in the Dominican Republic. An average of 30 people attended each training.
- An online seminar called "Transforming Tourism in action: Tackling plastic pollution" for Europe, Asia and Africa as well as the Latin American and Caribbean region was organised in April and May 2021.
- In the spring of 2021, an online Resource Efficiency Tool Webinar and Q&A session was organised and a train the trainer session was organised by WRAP on sustainable on Food Waste
- In June 2021, at least 174 participants joined via Zoom and Facebook Livestream on the “Circular Economy in the Hospitality Sector During COVID-19” training organised by PCEPSDI.
- In July 2021, a training on Circular Economy and Sustainable Gastronomy was organised in the Dominican Republic and attended by 29 people.
- In 2020, in the PH, local partners organized and conducted an online capacity building seminar titled “Food Safety and Food Waste Management” in collaboration with experts from an IKI-finance project led by WWF Philippines (www.international-climate-initiative.com/…). A total of 52 kitchen staff, management, chefs, and safety experts participated.
- Eliminating the use of hydro chlorofluorocarbons and increasing the efficiency of refrigeration equipment in hotels to reduce GHG emissions: In collaboration with the Kigali Protocol Programme, training on the conversion of refrigeration equipment was conducted in Puerto Plata.
Business engagement and communications:
- A private sector dialogue forum was established in the Philippines.
- A campaign on phasing out single-use plastics was developed and launched in the Philippines. The campaign has reached over 100,000 people online since its launch.
- A video featuring interviews of the local project team and key partners in the Dominican Republic has been developed with Deutsche Welle to present the plastic issue in the country.
- A COVID-19 toolkit was developed to leverage the engagement of tourism businesses and understand their needs in the recovery of COVID-19 and during their reopening. Several publications of the project discuss the challenges the tourism industry is facing in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it could contribute and benefit from a green recovery (see below).
- Businesses and project partners are continuously engaged through the project's website, global newsletter and Twitter account.
- A compendium of case studies was launched at the fourth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-4) in Nairobi.
Tool development and deployment:
- The project has created a low-barrier Resource Efficiency tool which can be used by hotels, restaurants and similar businesses to track their resource use, energy performance and greenhouse gas emissions.
- Local partners in the Philippines are preparing Performance Reports on an on-going basis using the results of the resource efficiency tool for businesses who have engaged in the data collection. These reports include data analysis and a visualization of the project’s national roadmap goals. The tool is also being updated to feature a Net Zero Trajectory.
Roadmaps and Action Plans:
- The project is developing a monitoring, reporting and verification system for roadmaps and action plans, as well as for individual businesses to measure the impact of implemented actions.
- Initially, 15 workshops were held in four countries, with over 700 participants, to gather key inputs to the sectoral strategy’s development. Four national roadmaps and action plans were published in 2019.
- Implementation plans were developed to engage stakeholders. In all countries, quarterly reports are made by business to track progress made on each solution.
- Implementation plans to advance in the priority areas are being updated on a regular basis to reflect engagement and progress made on each solution.
- The project’s private sector strategy was recently updated and implementation started with a private sector dialogue, two calls in the Philippines, and a multi-stakeholder dialogue in the Dominican Republic. In Feb 2022, a webinar on the project implementation plan for 2022 was organized in Dominican Republic with 57 people.