Tourism

Tourism - one of Cornwall's single biggest sectors, bringing in about a quarter of our GDP, and providing jobs for about a quarter of our working population. And about five million visitors....

 And just like agriculture, and light industry, and ICT, and everything else - monumentally reliant on oil.

 It's fair to say we're not even really sure what a carbon-free tourism industry would look like. But we DO know we have to change the way we use oil as a sector; and that with that we can start the change not just how this industry, with this many employees, operates - but possibly start to change the behaviour of some of the those five million visitors.

Now there's a challenge.

And we're starting to rise to it. The Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project (CoaST) has over 1100 members - and of those, over 600 are businesses. We're not even sure of the county wide figures, but that's at least ten per cent of the tourism industry. If even one per cent changed they way they behaved, and then started to have an impact on their visitors ...just imagine. So be in no doubt that ten per cent is just going to just give up and roll over. There's so much we can do - so much we are doing. And we've barely started.

 So if you're a tourism related business - or have contact with one (and let's face it, most of us here do!) - then see if you can start to help make a difference. Start looking at everything from your energy bills, to where you get your food from, to how our visitors get here. And then start thinking about how you can help our visitors work with us on this one. And if you're not sure where to start, ask CoaST. That's what we're here for. And let's face it. It's not like we've got time to waste...