[Webinar] Dr. Gina Alcoriza, Asst. Professor - University of the Philippines | GIBS IRE Talks Series

Sustainable Tourism 2.0: Innovations for a Greener Global Footprint
📌 The discussion focuses on Sustainable Tourism 2.0 post-COVID, emphasizing the integration of green economy principles into the tourism sector.
🌍 Sustainability is defined as the ability to use economically sound practices that minimize negative environmental and societal impacts while conserving resources for future generations.
⚖️ Sustainable tourism must balance the three pillars: Progress (Economy), People (Society), and Planet (Environment), to ensure development is holistic.

Environmental and Societal Challenges in Tourism
🚨 Tourism contributes significantly to environmental destruction through issues like litter/waste, climate change, and massive consumption of resources.
🏭 Key environmental stressors include billions of tons of plastic/solid waste, air pollution from transportation (especially air travel), and human settlement converting natural/farmland areas into tourist sites.
⚠️ Addressing these challenges is vital to mitigating risks like global warming and health risks associated with environmental degradation.

Innovative Sustainable Practices and Business Integration
♻️ Innovative practices involve achieving sustainability across social, economic, and environmental dimensions, including reducing operational energy use and adopting a circular economy.
🚲 Specific environmental initiatives include sustainable movement (like using bicycles), water efficiency, and converting farms to support tourism (Farm Tourism).
🏢 For tourism businesses, sustainability must be integrated into the vision, mission, and values at a micro-level, alongside robust Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Case Study: Alby, Philippines and Resilience
🌋 Dr. Gina shared the example of her hometown, Albay Province, near the Mayon Volcano (a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve), which faces threats from earthquakes, eruptions, and typhoons.
🚫 Local initiatives since 2010 include banning plastics in stores, mandatory solid waste segregation (no collection without segregation), and implementing preemptive evacuation protocols due to climate change vulnerability.
🤝 The region prioritizes Community Based Ecotourism (CBT), exemplified by Palawan, where locals manage tourism, adhere to carrying capacity limits (e.g., limiting visitors to underground rivers), and avoid large external investors to maintain control and environmental protection.

Post-Pandemic Recovery and Technology Use
📈 Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines bounced back by first focusing on local movement, establishing Farm Tourism sites, and then developing domestic and international tourism.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 This recovery involved strong Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) through tourism councils, ensuring stakeholders (boatmen, restaurant owners) have a voice in planning.
📱 Technology, like mobile apps, can effectively guide tourists toward sustainable choices by spreading timely, factual information, but proper use is crucial to avoid conflicts with responsible tourism goals (e.g., job displacement concerns related to AI/robotics).

Key Points & Insights
➡️ Sustainability is everyone's responsibility; act now to protect our "common home" by aligning corporate strategies with government mandates and NGO partnerships.
➡️ Tourism businesses must internalize sustainability by ensuring it is part of their organizational culture, values, and objectives, balancing profit with care for people and the planet.
➡️ Localized resilience strategies, like waste segregation policies and limiting access based on carrying capacity, are highly effective models for protecting biodiversity and natural assets within tourism development.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Jan 21, 2026, 06:49 UTC