Italian sustainable tourism: full speed ahead. Three Regions, Trentino, Sicily and Tuscany take the podium in the ranking compiled by Avvenia, a specialized company of the Terna group. For now they are the best placed. Perhaps Italy has taken the right path with a growing number of Ecolabel-branded structures, the environmental quality certification recognized at European level. Terna has surveyed the sites which offer higher ecological standards in this period of the year. The three Regions – of the North, of the Center and of the Sud- have facilities of all types available equipped with low energy consumption equipment and systems. Obviously, we cannot rest on our laurels, despite the podium conquered by the aforementioned Regions. The road to national average standards is still quite long.
The Ecolabel brand – the experts from the Avvenia Study Center told Ansa – represents an added value for all those tourist businesses which, by embracing energy efficiency policies, derive an economic as well as an image benefit. On the other hand the indication of tourist agencies in the bouquets offered to customers is also growing: hotels, campsites, residences, apartments. What does the state do? Not much centrally. It is the Regions and local bodies that are doing their bit to support innovation. The proof also comes from data from Ispra (Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) according to which out of 186 facilities, 56 (about one out of three nationally) are located in Trentino Alto Adige. Furthermore, Bolzano is the queen of urban tourism sustainability. In Sicily there are 30 certified structures and 17 in Tuscany.
The 2018 tourist season is going well, foreign visitors are on the rise and what matters in this context is the attention paid to minimal environmental impacts by young guests. The brand Ecolabel continues to be synonymous with quality, but theUnion European Union is preparing a new version. Others stricter evaluation criteria and parameters in particular for the reduction of CO2 emissions. The advances coming from Brussels also indicate rewards for those companies that will invest in self-generation of electricity or will make exclusive use of renewable sources. A question arises: will the green-driven government (?) make itself felt with tourism businesses?
