On September 5, within the framework of the Ho Chi Minh City International Tourism Fair 2024, the forum “Green transformation, Net Zero tourism – creating the future” took place. The forum attracted experts from many fields interested in tourism development, aiming to seek advice on the legal corridor and practice of implementing Net Zero tourism.
Experts join the Net Zero travel forum.
Mr. Luong Quang Huy, Department of Climate Change, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said, people think that tourism has little or no impact on the environment but in fact it is not.
Tourism is closely related to transportation, accommodation, sightseeing, shopping, etc., so it greatly affects the environment in terms of emissions and waste.
According to calculations, Vietnam emits about 500 million tons of CO2 per year, with an average of about 5 tons per person per year.
“For example, a family of four from Hanoi traveling to Ho Chi Minh City for a few days and then returning to Hanoi will emit about 1-2 tons of CO2. This shows that tourism has a great impact on the living environment, many tourism businesses still use fossil fuels instead of renewable energy,” said Mr. Huy.
To meet the requirements of green tourism development, Mr. Nguyen Van Dung, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, said that along with the general development trend and implementing the commitment of the Vietnamese Government towards the goal of zero emissions, Ho Chi Minh City has implemented tourism development activities associated with 17 sustainable development criteria of UNESCO.
Master Nguyen Thanh Hoa, representative of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Information and Communications, shared at the forum.
Accordingly, the city quickly and effectively implements sustainable tourism development plans from human resource training to development and calling on people to participate in protecting natural resources.
According to the United Nations Tourism Organization, after more than two years of restoring operations, the global tourism industry has almost recovered. In the first quarter of 2024, there were more than 285 million international tourists globally, reaching 97% of pre-pandemic levels, with Asia-Pacific reaching 82% of pre-pandemic levels.
For Vietnam alone, in the first 7 months of the year, the total number of international visitors reached nearly 10 million, an increase of 51% over the same period last year and an increase of nearly 2% over the same period in 2019.
Guests and experts attend Net Zero tourism forum
Booking.com's 2023 Sustainable Travel Report shows that globally, 80% of survey respondents said that sustainable travel is increasingly important to them.
In Vietnam, 97% of Vietnamese tourists surveyed said they want to travel more sustainably in the next 12 months.
Of these, 75% of travelers said they were willing to pay more for certified sustainable travel options, and 83% expressed a desire to leave the places they visited greener and cleaner after they left.
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