On the international responsible tourism week – development of ecotourism product
On the 10-12th of February, specialists of Baltic Environmental Forum together with marketing practitioner and ecotourism experts from Estonia and Sweden tried and developed a new tourism service, a footprint tracking. Symbolically, the meeting was held on the international responsible tourism week.
Firstly, participants tried a short version of footprint tacking service. Later on, they discussed how to improve this service, talked about criteria of ecotourism, the existing market and marketing opportunities.
“Ecotourism market in Lithuania is distorted. Nature experiences with no fee do not allow development of concurrent paid services. Those who provide free services are not obliged to ensure quality neither in moral nor in financial aspect. Enthusiasm fades away after few times and there is no continuity,“ – said the specialists of Baltic Environmental Forum during the discussion. „Due to complicated conditions, it could be advisable to focus on foreign tourist and not on the locals,“ – added a representative of ecotourism from Sweden, Jeppe Klockareson.
„Maybe the certification system “Nature’s best” could help to improve ecotourism in Lithuania,“ – discussed Jeppe Klockareson. He explained that this system is oriented into the process of assessment and improvement but not into the final point of certificate attainment. Many businessmen and tourism operators significantly improved quality of their services by diminishing impact to environment even if the certificate is not attained.
Already in 2015 Baltic Environmental Forum represents for society footprint tracking service and will share with the interest groups the experience of ecotourism improvement.
The project „Improve preconditions for eco-tourism in Lithuania“ is partly financed by The Nordic Council of Ministers.
