The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, NC

Local News

September 11, 2009

Sustainability vital for tourism

T. J. ROYAL

Dr. Pat Long told the Tarboro Rotary Club Thursday he has "the best job in the world," promoting sustainable business practices for tourism in the state.

Long told the club at The Fountains at The Albemarle that such sustainability is so important, if a community does not brand itself as being sustainable, "you're going to be losing your marketplace" to other areas.

The director of the country's only Center for Sustainable Tourism at East Carolina University, Long said North Carolina so far "has a nice reputation" across the country as a tourism destination. Whether it's the ski slopes of Western North Carolina or the coast, "we don't want to lose those special reasons why people will come here" by not working to preserve the state's natural environments, he added.

Long's work, and also that of future graduates from ECU's sustainable tourism program, includes educating businesses at tourism destinations about ways they can save money and cut their waste.

Several Rotarians raised their hands when asked if they had switched to compact fluorescent light bulbs in their home, and that they recycled materials.

When asked, the Rev. Dr. Christopher Edmonston told Long that when he performed a wedding service in California this summer, the hotel he stayed at had a recycling program for its linen.

"Our behaviors are changing a bit" in regards to trying to conserve energy, save money and limit waste, Long said, especially after the $4-per-gallon gas over last summer.

He also highlighted conservation efforts within the state at tourism destinations. At the Highland Lake Inn in Flat Rock, customers are "demanding a different kind of food" grown locally and without the aid of pesticides, he said.

The Proximity Hotel in Greensboro has 4,000 square feet of power-generating solar panels, and even an elevator that generates electricity back into the grid for usage.

With those efforts and others taking place, to help prevent continued, accelerated climate change, Long also told the group that managing the influx of tourists to environments is just as important.

In some cases, "we are loving great places to death," he said.

Rotarians who had been to Venice, the Galapagos Islands and Romania said Thursday they enjoyed those trips because of the natural beauty and uniqueness of the environments.

The Galapagos in particular are only supposed to have a limited number of visitors every year, around 25,000. But Long said some years, that number reaches 100,000.

Another area of concern for sustainable tourism comes with affordable housing, such as at popular ski resorts like Vail, Colo., and along the coast here in North Carolina.

Besides ski resorts all over dealing with changing weather patterns, Long said that Vail lacked around 6,000 workers for its resorts, because of the pricey housing within that area. The employment situation for coastal and resort areas is also not helped, because many property owners do not stay in there year-round, he added.

East Carolina is offering a master's of science degree in sustainable tourism, pending authorization from the state. One of the program's graduate assistants, Shannon Arnold, told the Rotary Club it is "so unique, so well-rounded and so organized," and that she will specialize in getting local businesses connected with their representatives on sustainable policy matters.

The program so far has had 60 inquiries, from Michigan, Florida, students attending Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill, and also students from abroad, Long said.

While he noted that North Carolina is unique in the U.S., as the only state currently with a sustainable tourism director associated with state tourism authorities, Long warned that "we should not let Tennessee or South Carolina take away market share" by getting so far ahead in implementing statewide conservation policies.

Before relocating to Eastern North Carolina and ECU, he spent 30 years as a faculty member at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was previously past president, CEO and chairman of the board of directors for the National Rural Tourism Foundation, established by Congress in 1992 to promote rural tourism efforts.

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