El Nido Resorts joined the rest of the tourism community in celebrating WTM World Responsible Tourism Day last November 10, 2011 by hosting coastal and underwater cleanups around El Nido and Taytay, followed by snacks and drinks. Ninety-seven staff members from Miniloc, Lagen, and Apulit Island Resorts selflessly volunteered their off-duty hours to pick up 510.7 kg of trash from El Nido and Taytay’s beaches and reefs. Guests were treated to a free round of Copa Verde cocktails and pica-pica as they attended the Green Hour presentations by our Environmental Officers. The Green Hour presentation highlights the steps El Nido Resorts has taken towards becoming a success story in responsible tourism.
The day’s haul: Styrofoam = 14.5 kg, glass = 106.4 kg, rubber = 14.5 kg, plastic residuals = 245.3 kg, plastic bottles = 82.5 kg, metal = 17.5 kg, rope = 14.5 kg, and shoes (actual shoes and none of them match!) = 15.5 kg.
First launched in 2007, the World Travel Market (WTM) World Responsible Tourism Day is the result of the 2002 Cape Town Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations, a side event preceding the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. The event was attended by 280 representatives from all tourism aspects from 20 countries. The objectives of the WTM WRTD are to:
- help drive change by educating more responsible behavior with the travel and tourism industry and traveling public
- explore the issues of how countries and destinations are made more sustainable, including case studies for best practices
- educate the marketplace and debate key environmental-related issues to push the agenda and be a catalyst for change
- harness the influence of World Travel Market as an international business forum to encourage the industry to drive the responsible tourism agenda forward
Ten Knots Group Environment and Sustainability 