When it comes to the carbon impact of holidays, the focus has long been on the journey, not the destination.



Yet a growing stable of accommodation providers in Australia are on a mission to change that, switching over en masse to renewable energy in a bid to attract eco-conscious holidaymakers.

Hospitality operators are cottoning on to the fact that the natural features that draw tourists in also have the potential to power their hotels and hostels – from the solar and tidal capacity of beach getaways to the wind and geothermal power potential of mountainside hot spring resorts.

Dozens of destinations have taken up solar PV in recent years, such as Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort in Queensland, which promotes its solar as part of an effort to save the Great Barrier Reef that guests are coming to visit, or the 1.8MW of solar panels installed at Ayers Rock Resort (with assistance of financing from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation) in a bid to capitalise on the desert heat.

Tucked away in the Bass Strait separating mainland Australia from Tasmania, ecotourism destination Flinders Island is installing a tidal energy system to make the most of the waves that batter its coastline. Representing the wind sector is Wolgan Valley Resort up in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, where a turbine pumps water for guests from a nearby dam.

Thomas Hillig, the managing director of THEnergy sustainable consulting, says the more far-flung holiday destinations of Australia are leading the way for a very practical reason – guests don’t want their downtime disrupted by noisy small-scale fossil fuel power sources.

“At remote hotels that generate their power onsite with diesel generators, the advantages of renewables are most obvious,” he says. “Diesel gensets are loud and emit hazardous exhaust gas. In addition, trucks that transport the diesel to the hotel cause additional annoyance.

“Wind and especially solar energy are clean and less noisy than diesel gensets. After they are constructed, fuel deliveries are not required.”

Of course, just because the green credentials of the destination are suddenly a factor, it doesn’t mean the journey no longer counts and such remote destinations tend to involve long gas-guzzling car voyages or extended carbon-intensive flights.

More accessible physically if not financially, high-end urban accommodations with the budget to do so are also going green, such as the solar thermal-powered Accor Group hotels at Sydney Olympic Park.

Outside the luxury market, hostel chain YHA Australia has found a way to invest in renewables on a budget by following in the carbon footsteps of airlines that allow customers the option of paying extra to offset the emissions of flights.

YHA’s Tom Smith says guests can opt to chip in towards the chain’s sustainability efforts, pointing to recent efforts by Sydney Harbour YHA as an example.

“They’ve won award after award for sustainability and they’ve installed a great new PV solar panel system only in the last month or so – the panels were installed with 50% funding from YHA’s Sustainable Hostels Fund, which is generated by guests’ donations and matched dollar-for-dollar by YHA,” he says.

Donations from the fund have gone towards solar hot water systems at YHA locations at Adelaide Central, Byron Bay, Cairns Central, Glebe Point, Pittwater, Grampians Eco Lodge, Melbourne Metro and Alice Springs.

YHA has also been active on the sustainable front in New Zealand, where their hostel servicing the bubbling mud pools of Rotorua harnesses geothermal energy through a down-bore heat exchanger.

The New Zealand YHA has also not forgotten about the journey, with its Low Carbon Traveller initiative having given away over 4,000 discounted nights to backpackers travelling on foot or by bike since 2011.

Such efforts could prove lucrative for the hostel chain – the 2013 study Green Retail and Hospitality Report – Waste Management by McGraw-Hill Construction found that the core business of hotels is positively affected by green efforts.

Hillig, whose THEnergy consultancy offers workshop and marketing programs to businesses within the hospitality and renewable-energy sectors globally, cautions that, despite all the progress down under, the region is by no means a world leader.

“What we have not seen so far is a commitment from a hotel chain to fully switch to renewables such as the Melia group has done in Europe,” he says.

He also thinks that the marketing potential of green energy in the tourism industry has not yet been fully harnessed by those taking it up.

“The use of renewable energy also offers a great opportunity regarding communication and allows for attracting new target groups,” he says. “However, we see that many hotels do not play that card very actively.

“Especially chains seem to be aware that they are still at the beginning of a development and that active communication on their first flagship renewable energy projects might raise questions regarding other establishments where they have not done anything yet.”