This week’s article brought to you by www.bnbsure.co.za

The Copenhagen Conference moves on with the arrival of all the big-name politicians over the next few days (the cynic in me has to ask - does this mean the end of any progress that might previously have been made?), and soon we’ll know what the world intends doing about global warming.

Trawling the internet for answers to the question of how tourism should be - or is - responding, I found this pdf brochure on the World Tourism Organisation’s site: ‘From Davos to Bali: A Tourism Contribution to the
Challenge of Climate Change.’

Man, it’s full of all the right words: “mitigate,” and “common framework,” “rapid deployment,” and “targeted milestones.” But having read it through, I’m still not sure what we’re expected to do - other than to be aware of the problem.

So I went back to the WTO’s site and found a link to climatesolutions.travel - which aims to be “the central gateway for information on solutions available to help the tourism sector respond to climate change.”

Frustratinggggggggg! You can’t access any of the information without being logged in - and the registration process requires an administrator’s intervention. And who knows when that will happen.

So I moved on. Google: “tourism climate change.”

Here I found a link to the SA Government site, and through it, to the Climate Change Conference site (it took place in Midrand in March this year) - a much more user friendly site, packed with information.

Curiosity lead me to download Joanne Yawitch’s first presentation (I had heard her speaking on the radio from Copenhagen earlier in the week), and there I learned that South Africa has been more than pro-active in the field of climate change for some time - although, of course, President Zuma has used Copenhagen to make our position on the question quite clear.

To paraphrase Ms. Yawitch: The country has developed two scenarios - ‘Growth without Constraints,’ and ‘Required by Science.’

‘Growth without Constraints’ asks, “what if SA had no carbon constraint, no climate impacts?” Emissions in this case would grow almost four-fold - from 440 megatons of CO2-eq in 2003 to 1,600 megatons by 2050.

In the ‘Required by Science’ scenario the question was: “what if we could achieve what Science requires of us?” In this case, emissions need to peak, and then decline by between 30% and 40% by 2050.

‘The Gap’ thus created is the difference between where emissions might go and where they need to go. (‘The Gap’ is equivalent to 1,300 megatons - or more than three times the annual emissions measured in 2003.)

“The conclusion is self-evident: we cannot continue to grow without a carbon constraint. (Otherwise we face a four-fold increase in emission by 2050.) If the rest of the world had to follow this path it would be disastrous for South Africa and Africa. A 4 to 6 degrees Celsius temperature increase would far exceed what we regard as ‘safe.’”

Yes but.

Am I any closer to understanding precisely what tourism has to do to achieve this? (Because, you see, we can’t just leave it to government - which very often doesn’t live in the real world).

No.

Google again. And this time - bingo! Someone with a sensible suggestion: Harald Winkler, an associate professor at the University of Cape Town’s Energy Research Centre makes that point that the supply and use of sustainable energy should come first, and that mitigation of climate change would then follow as a logical spin-off (in Engineering News)

The article, by Christie van der Merwe, continues: “Winkler said that climate change mitigation policy should start with local sustainable development, rather than goals set in climate terms.

“This was outlined in a book authored by Winkler, which explores national sustainable energy options within the context of international climate change. The book is titled: ‘Cleaner Energy Cooler Climate: Developing Sustainable Development Solutions for South Africa’.”

Great! At last I think I’m beginning to understand what individual people and products in the tourism industry can do - even if it’s only in the short term. And I’m beginning to understand that solar heaters, wind and water turbines, gas from waste - and other technologies that can be adapted for use in our industry - really can make a difference…

The Tourists Are Coming! Are you ready?
By Dave Jack, Managing Director of BnB SURE

Two things are certain as we head for December and the holiday season, and as we look ahead to next year and the excitement it holds. Firstly the tourists will be coming - and secondly they will be both local and international.

There are many establishments available to these tourists in the form of B&Bs or guesthouses, self catering units or even holiday homes that have been rented out by the owner.

Each of these carries a huge risk to the owner.

Perhaps the largest risk is the liability that could stem from a visit by a tourist. A bad fall - the cause of which can be attributed to the negligence of the owner - could mean the loss of everything the owner has ever had. Imagine if a foreign tourist issues summons against you for $1m - that’s a lot of Rand. About R8 million, in fact - much more than most ‘ordinary’ South Africans have available. And that’s before the legal costs come into it - which in this sort of case could easily amount to another R2 million.

Is it only the liability risks that cause a problem? Not at all.

Make certain that you have the correct cover to suit your needs. One would not insure, for example, a butcher shop on a policy designed for a florist - yet there are literally thousands of B&Bs, guesthouses and holiday homes that are insured on incorrect policies. Price often becomes an issue - but again, a person should not buy a suit of clothing that doesn’t fit simply because it’s cheap!

One of the most expensive things one can buy is cheap insurance.

Many B&Bs are insured in terms of personal policies, but several insurers have confirmed that they will not respond to losses when a property that is insured on a personal policy is rented out in any way.

Other B&B’s have conventional commercial policies in place - but in most cases they have very little Liability cover and none of the specialist cover that the owner would need to have for this type of risk.

More loss of money for the owner.

Different policies in the market have been designed differently - but BnB SURE’s policy has been designed in conjunction with the hospitality industry so that there’s no guessing as to the cover needed. It’s all there.

So make sure that you have the right cover before those tourists, both local and international, descend on you for the holiday season.

Contact BnB SURE - or ask your broker to contact us - via www.bnbsure.co.za.

Now go away on holiday - it’s in the economy’s best interests.