Switzerland Convention & Incentive Bureau (SCIB) and Lucerne Tourism Board Case Study
Adventure Travel World Summit (ATWS), Lucerne: 8 – 11 October 2012
Context
In October 2012 the annual Adventure Travel World Summit event took place over one week in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The yearly event, organized by the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) representing a global community of more than 800 members, aims to support and benefit from the creation of sustainable adventure travel markets with focus on people, planet and profit, to network with destinations, tour operators, travel agents, accommodations, service partners and media partners worldwide and to access and deliver global and regional news, research, events, networking and education.
The 2012 Adventure Travel World Summit was the most sustainable ever organized by ATTA, thanks to the initiative of the Switzerland Convention & Incentive Bureau (SCIB) and Lucerne Tourism. At the first site-inspection, it was proposed and agreed right away by ATTA to organize the 2012 Summit using the International Standard for Event Sustainability (ISO 20121).
Switzerland and its partners, the Lucerne Tourist Board, The KKL and The Transport Museum hosted the first day of the programme. This included providing a diverse programme of a day of different excursions and tours for the 643 delegates with which to sample the local area’s culture, nature and history. In addition, the delegates were provided with a warm welcome address by the Switzerland Tourism and Incentive Bureau, a buffet style dinner at The KKL Exhibition venue and a tour of the Transport Museum.
Switzerland:
- First rank of the Environmental Performance Index of Yale University
- 3 Swiss cities among the top 10 of the Mercer International study on quality of like in cities
- First rank in the Booz Allen Hamilton study on sustainable tourism
Support
The aim was to ensure sustainability was integrated was integrated throughout the program of the Adventure Travel World Summit (ATWS). To help achieve this, an initial sustainability workshop was held with the main tourism providers in Lucerne by Sustainable Events Ltd. As a result of this workshop, objectives were identified and an action plan was put into place.
Leadership
Sustainability champions were chosen to ensure that sustainability was addressed in all areas of the event that were under the control of Switzerland Convention & Incentive Bureau and Lucerne Tourism Board.
The CEO of Switzerland Tourism addresses the importance of sustainability in Switzerland welcome speech:
Planning
The bidding process took place online to reduce waste, and no printed invitations were sent out. The delegates travelled by public transport throughout their stay in Switzerland, this was achieved by providing all delegates with Swiss Travel Passes. During the conference, any messengers needed made their way either by bike or foot. Only locally sourced food and beverages were served at the conference.
An online survey was sent to over 20 hotels to measure the extent of their sustainability behaviour across not only the event but in their general practices.
This helped to raise awareness of the event and of sustainability to these hotels.- An information pack was created and circulated, including the sustainability policy sent out to all stakeholders and suppliers.
- Total waste generated by 5 hotels over the event period was 1,114.55 KG, none of this went to landfill but was either reused or recycled.
- Hotel Des Balances used 100% of their 264KG waste as fuel for energy.
- 590 M3 of waster was drawn from its original source
Data was collected at the event to be reported using the GRI EOSS framework- An initial workshop held with the main Switzerland identified EOSS (Event Organizers Sector Supplement) indicators.
- These indicators and the data and evidence are gathered below. Where you see this sign (EO2) this is the EOSS GRI indicator that the data supports.
- By hosting and providing access to all the tourism and event facilities, future economic boost from this event could be expected from those delegates sourcing relevant activities for their own events and clients.(EO1)
- (EO2) During the tours which took place, the modes of transportation taken during conference were:
- Ferry and Sailing Boats
- Trains
- Mountain bikes,
- On foot walking
- Kayaking,
- Public buses
- Cable car
- Private cars/taxis
- Number of Swiss passes provided 643
- All delegates were provided with food and beverage provided by The KKL, the food was clearly marked, healthy and vegetarian options were provided. The food was served on crockery and plates so this reduced the amount of waste used. All the food is local to the Lucerne area using local farms for the produced used and the wine was also provided by a local winery.
- Delegates had access to free water throughout the event and beverages were served in glasses. (EO8)
All the gift choices for the delegate bags were considered for sustainability which included chocolate and cookies from the region, Swiss Army knives which are reusable, a foldable and reusable backpack and the delegate bags were produced in Switzerland and made from a sustainable material (EO9).
- The one event guide that was produced used recycled material and featured a section on sustainability (EO9).
- 10 students from a local university were invited to blog live about all aspects of the event.
From social media such as Twitter we can see that one of the delegates picked up on the sustainability efforts of the event:
- Lucerne already holds a Energy City Report PDF Gold Award for the European Energy Award which again assures the organiser that the destination for their event is already working to be a sustainable one.
- The following videos from Barbra Albrecht Director at the Switzerland Incentive & Convention Bureau and Lukas Hammer Marketing Director of Lucerne Tourism outline how they supported the implementation of sustainability at this event. importance of sustainability in events and tourism.
Objectives:
- Communicate the importance of sustainability to all stakeholders during the planning of the event
- Measure The Adventure Travel World Summit event using the GRI EOSS framework
- Create and communicate a sustainability story and share this internationally
Three key objectives were set around sustainability, covering stakeholder engagement, measurement and promotion.
Operation
Objective 1
What the hotels measured:
100% of waste from the hotels was either recycled or used as fuel for energy
Objective 2
About GRI EOSS
In 2011 an Event Organizers Sector Supplement (EOSS) was launched by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to enable the event industry to be able to report on their sustainability behaviour and data through a globally recognised framework. This huge step forward for the industry is being adopted by those organisations who want to share best practice with their main interested parties or stakeholders and provide leadership in the industry.
Travel
Number of miles delegates travelled by air: This result is achieved by calculating the mileage from the airport of the capital city the delegate flew from to Zurich airport and back: 6,861,245 km this is equivalent to 2,031.64 tonnes of Co2 Emissions.
Where did delegates travel from and what was the carbon emission?
The total distance travelled by delegates was 6,861,245 km
The estimated total Co2 Air Travel Emissions by delegates was 2,031 Tonnes
Food and Beverage
Materials
(EO13). The sustainability information for this event has been publicised through this online case study which is free to view on the Positive Impact website, it will also be linked to from the eMentoring newsletter which will be distributed to the event industry. Additionally;
Objective 3 (EO11)
- An onsite survey of delegates was carried out which asked what the event industry thinks about sustainability, the challenges that face the industry and what resources are needed to help implementation.
100% of delegates surveyed rated the future importance of integrating sustainability in events as “Very Important”
- The ATWS final report contained additional results of delegates surveyed about their perception of the event and sustainability.
This case study was promoted at the Event and Incentive Travel industry exhibition EIBTM 2012. Director of the Switzerland Convention & Incentive Bureau (SCIB) Barbra Albrecht presented this case study findings for the first time to the industry. You can download a copy of the presentation here: Adventure Travel World Summit – EIBTM Presentation.
Continual Improvement
Click on the following ATWS Summary to watch a summary video of the event as produced by the Adventure World Travel Summit organisers.
The Switzerland Convention & Incentive Bureau (SCIB) will be continuing to support the implementation of sustainability in the event industry in Switzerland and engaging with their tourism boards to take the lessons learnt and best practice set by Lucerne Tourism.
Walking Tour
During the Best of Hiking Tour Day of Adventure, delegates experienced a 2 hour boat ride on the lake, a delicious traditional biscuit a gentle hike to the monument where Switzerland was created, lunch in a local restaurant with local food, a public bus ride back to the meeting point
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