EcoTourism Training

EcoTourism Ireland can help you achieve Eco-Label Certification, which in turn gives you the opportunity  to standing over your Green business policies and operations. This helps avoid greenwashing and gives the consumer the confidence to know that they can rest assured that green means green!

Ecotourism is defined as ‘responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people’ (The International Ecotourism Society (TIES))

Core to ecotourism and to the EcoTourism Ireland’s philosophy is the concept of environmental sustainability and the EcoTourism Ireland label has been developed with this in mind.  A genuine ecotourism travel experience is based on a number of principles that make demands on both ecotourism operators and their guests.  Visitors can expect to gain privileged insights and knowledge about the nature and culture of the region they have come to see, and they can also be assured that the people involved in providing their holiday have adopted environmentally sustainable practices. Furthermore, ecotourism operators should be actively contributing to the conservation of their local biodiversity and cultural heritage, and ensuring that steps have been taken to minimise their operations impacts on local nature and culture.

The Ecotourism Ireland Label can be applied to travel and tourism products that are nature based and have an element of interpretation involved.  For example, guided wildlife tours, nature based training courses, food trails, archaeology tours, hill walking trips etc. The  nature  of  Ecotourism  Education  is  best  delivered  to  networks or  at destination  level  where a  group  of  businesses decided they  wish  to  develop  their products  based on this  ethos. In many  areas  the  local  support  of Leader Companies and Fáilte Ireland can  be  the  first  step  to  get  some support  and   resources  for  delivering  cost effective training. A  key  aspect  of  training  is networking and mentoring for  the  business.

Additional Supports:

Environmental guidelines  available for Festivals and Events, Cruising, Business Tourism, and Equestrian Centres on the If you are just starting to look at energy, water and waste management, there are lots of FREE guides available which provide easy tips to follow to get you started. It’s important to know what no and low cost steps you can take to cut costs in your own business and begin to monitor and measure the amount of resources you use and importantly where and why!  Remember, you can’t manage what you don’t measure!

Assessment and Training

EcoTourism Ireland can offer specialised environmental training in response to demand from the industry is delivered around the country.

Every business is different and struggles with different issues, so there is nothing quite as valuable as having an environmental assessor come to your business and carry out a review of your operations. All recommendations and advice can then be tailored specifically to your requirements and matched with the amount of time and resources you have available.

As well as this, bespoke training programmes are also available to businesses and can be tailored to meet the needs of a group.

Eco-label Certification

Certification allows tourism businesses gain third party recognition for their efforts in environmental management, and communicate achievements in a meaningful way to customers.

Marketing and Communications

Once you’ve done all the hard work it’s important that you communicate this to your customers. EcoTourism Ireland has developed a number of tools to provide you with the tips and confidence to market your green credentials by understanding who to tell, for what purpose, and through which channels. As most of your potential customers probably check out your website before they choose your business, it’s important that your on-line communications are up to scratch and that you are communicating sustainability through your website

Guidelines

Environmental guidelines  available for Festivals and Events, Cruising, Business Tourism, and Equestrian Centres and other organisations.

Green Business