4. Case studies

Case study 1 – Zero Energy Hotels (neZEH)

As it has already been mentioned, one of the key goals of tourist accommodation establishments is to take actions to reduce power consumption, improve energy efficiency and increase the use of renewable sources of energy. neZEH hotels can act as an example in this field, as they reach very high energy efficiency. They cover a large portion of their energy demand from renewable sources, including renewable energy produced on site or in the nearest area. This allows significant (up to 70 percent) reduction of energy consumption. One of these hotels is the Best Western Hotel Ajaccio Amiraute in France [15].

Hotel description

Best Western Hotel Ajaccio Amiraute is a four star hotel with a 4-storey building and 68 rooms. It offers spa, heated pool, sunbathing deck, private roofed garage, WiFi access, conference halls, reception, business lounge, restaurant and snacks available 24 hours a day. It is located in a convenient area, with a harbour view, close to the sea, city centre and airport. From the beginning of its operation it has been assumed that the environmental impact of the hotel should be as small as possible. In 2013, this hotel became the first in Corsica to receive the EU Ecolabel mark. It confirms that the hotel performs various actions to reduce its negative effect on the natural environment. As it is emphasised (e.g. in hotel brochures), it saves energy and natural resources and also prevents climate changes [13,14].

Implemented solutions

Taking actions to improve energy efficiency of the hotel was a continuation of its environmental initiative from 2013. The first step to implement the changes was an energy audit. As a result, environmental issues have been identified and analysed, and possible corrective actions have been proposed. The actions implemented by the hotel included:

• Installation of a double flow controlled mechanical ventilation
• Installation of balancing valves within the heating system
• Installation of a balancing valve within the domestic hot water system
• External insulation
• Wall insulation in unheated corridors
• Replacement of inefficient lighting with LED systems
• Replacement of old glazing with 4/16/4 glasses with solar control
• Installation a double-flow HVAC system with a heat exchanger
• Installation of a solar thermal system and a heat recovery equipment within the greywater system
• Installation of a Building Energy Management System
• Installation of pressure control valves on taps and showers
• Staff training
• Encouraging hotel guests to change their behaviour, e.g. by issuing leaflets describing the actions taken to improve hotel energy efficiency and containing guidelines that tell them what they can do.

Advice given to hotel guests included:

• A request to turn off heating or air conditioning when the window is open
• A request to turn off the TV standby mode at night
• Information on bedding replacement every 3 days or upon request
• Information that an average bath requires three times as much water as a shower
• A request to throw cans, glass/plastic bottles and newspapers to a bedroom bin, while other waste to the bathroom bin [13]

Benefits of described solutions

The hotel indicated benefits both for guests and for the environment (Tab. 3).

Table 3. Examples of benefits achieved at the Best Western Hotel Ajaccio Amiraute [13]

Case study 2 – The role of tourism in educating for sustainable consumption

The promotion of sustainable consumption requires the shaping of specific social attitudes. Generating and satisfying needs resulting in limiting the volume of consumption and choosing goods produced with respect for the environment requires from consumers firstly awareness and secondly involvement in the process of broadly understood nature protection. Today’s consumption patterns are not at all conducive to sustainable consumption, as they are based on the satisfaction of all needs, often voiced unreflectively. At the same time, the satisfaction of these needs is supposed to be immediate and not require any effort from the consumer. In this way, attitudes of demandingness are intensified, consumerism develops, and social bonds are eroded. Satisfying growing consumer needs involves the problem of indebtedness, with the consequent loss of freedom and the development of a modern form of slavery.

Tourism has considerable educative potential. Depending on the form of tourism, a tourism product can serve the needs of consumerism, providing a quick and easy recordable experience. However, it can have a different character. A tourism product can lead to the levelling of negative attitudes, education and the shaping of positive character traits of tourists. Since man, evolutionarily, is adapted to exertion, physical activity is necessary for proper development and functioning. For the proper development of children, it is necessary to make physical effort, take up challenges, and enjoy achieving a certain fitness, especially when the effort is made in a peer group. Hence, initiatives are being developed that comprehensively provide opportunities to shape socially desirable attitudes.

Case study 3 – Wislok River Gorges, Ambitious Tourism Basin

Through careful observation and analysis of the tourism market, social changes, the needs of the population and the leisure business, a group of people-initiated activities to create a comprehensive, specific tourist offer. The venture was named Ambitious Tourism Basin (pol. Zagłębie Ambitnej Turystyki) and is being implemented in the area of Beskid Niski (Municipalities: Besko, Bukowsko, Dębowiec, Dukla, Iwonicz-Zdrój, Jaśliska, Krempna, Komańcza, Nowy Żmigród, Osiek Jasielski, Rymanów, Zarszyn). The initiative is intended to be multidimensional. On the one hand, it is a commercial venture, bringing together entities from the tourism industry to offer a comprehensive tourism product during the so-called high season. On the other hand, during the low season it is to focus on providing tourism services aimed at schoolchildren and focus on educational issues.

The creators of the Ambitious Tourism Basin refer to the need to create an “educational industry” to form young people, shaping their characters in accordance with the so-called “civilisation of life”. The characteristics of this civilisation are: activity, commitment, love, friendship, generosity, gratitude, sustainability, fidelity, efficiency, sacrifice, victory, perseverance, bravery, teamwork, joy. All these qualities stand in opposition to the so-called civilisation of death, the foundation of which is consumerism.

A tourism product that is supposed to shape the positive characteristics of tourists, should require them to moving through an attractive tourist area using muscle power. Thus, it should be hiking, cycling, horse riding, canoeing, skiing, etc. In the municipalities participating in the agreement, points are to be created that offer accommodation, hire tourist equipment and provide comprehensive information on the sporting as well as cultural offer. The offer is presented on the website PrzełomyWisłoka.pl [10]

The activities of the Ambitious Tourism Basin include many initiatives, the common denominator of which is the development of tourism to promote the tourist values of the Low Beskids, making a high-quality tourist product available to people of different material status and educating young people to develop socially desirable qualities. These activities include efforts to create and develop Multi-Purpose Tourist Roads (greenways). These are routes serving non-motorised users and are laid out along natural nature corridors, historic trade routes or railways [30]. Multifunctional Tourist Routes designed in the Ambitious Tourism Basin are intended to serve both local transport, the purposes of the timber industry, for example, but also tourism.

Ambitious Tourism Basin also carries out activities promoting historical and cultural tourism. Selected Polish communes of the Beskid Niski in agreement with the Presov Region in Slovakia created an agreement to create and promote tourist attractions based on the natural values of the Wisłok Gorges, rich history and cultural heritage, on the basis of the Slovakian experience from the Snina region. In the cultural-historical area it is planned to carry out a reconstruction of the World War I battle in Mymoń [16]. The emerging national-historical map is to consider the specificity of cycling tourism and contain a rich layer of historical and natural information.

The effects of the project’s activities focus on shaping young people’s attitudes as: activity, commitment, love, friendship, generosity, gratitude, persistence, fidelity, efficiency, sacrifice, persistence, bravery, teamwork and joy.