ENVIRONMENTAL AUDITING - A TOOL FOR ASSESSING THE ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE OF TOURISM FIRMS

It is acknowledged that tourists, as consumers of environment, can damage the very resources which form the basis of the tourism industry. What can be done to make current tourism activities environmentally more compatible? The initiative rests with the tourism firms themselves. Environmental auditing provides tourism firms with a tool to assess their environmental performance, identifying any negative environmental impacts and evaluating the opportunities to change current practices in order to improve that performance. The advantages and procedures of environmental auditing are summarized and examples given of the actual and potential application of the different types of environmental audit by tourism firms. Factors influencing the adoption of environmental auditing by tourism firms are discussed and the extent of current use by British tourism firms reviewed. In conclusion, it is argued that the adoption of environmental auditing will lead to improved environmental performance of tourism firms but not necessarily to environment-sustainable tourism.