Meeting Planners See Beyond Just Optics on Environment and Overtourism
Photo Credit: Attendees sit outside during an event at a former agricultural college in Devon, England. Increasingly, meeting planners are choosing sustainable locations and organizing activities focused on the environment. Flickr / Transition Network
Skift Take
Planners are starting to embrace their role in addressing climate change — and are moving beyond just surface efforts to preserve the environment and local communities. This trend is an important one, and hopefully continues to pick up speed.
With severe weather events becoming more common, and millennials and Generation Z having more of an influence on corporate travel and events, companies have realized that sustainability efforts need to be less about optics and more about real change.
The good news is: It looks like real change is starting to happen, albeit very slowly. Meeting planners have a large role to play in promoting environmental health, as they are responsible for choosing the venue and often location for events, as well as organizing activities. Many are rising to the occasion, coming up with creative and meaningful ways to not only reduce waste but also to reduce widespread overtourism and foster community efforts.
“Meeting planners in so many ways support what a corporation's image is all about,” said Catharine Chaulet, CEO of Global DMC Partners, a network of destination marketing companies. “And corporations and CEOs today are extremely
