Australia’s Great Barrier Reef tries to make sustainability cool
Editor’s Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.
It’s a common quandary: a traveler planning a vacation wants to be responsible, stay at a locally-owned hotel instead of a big chain and hire local guides who can take them off the typical tourist trail. But how?
Mark Olsen, CEO of Tourism Tropical North Queensland, has a name for these kinds of travelers: “conservation-curious.” He describes them as “people who are interested in conservation but don’t know how their holiday and conservation can come together.”
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Enter Guardian of the Reef, a website where people planning visits to the Great Barrier Reef can watch informative videos to unlock 10-20% discounts off of hotels or book custom experiences that aren’t available elsewhere. The platform, created with online booking company Expedia, is aimed at travelers who want to spend their money in productive ways but don’t want to spend weeks online researching every single hotel and tour operator.
According to data from Expedia, 90% of its users say they are interested in sustainable options when traveling.
Some of the bookable Guardian of the Reef experiences are traditional tourist activities like snorkeling trips and whale-watching cruises led by certified, licensed eco-guides. Others are specifically about conservation: visitors can help restore seagrass, an important habitat for sea turtles, or place “baby” corals on reefs where they can grow.
Still, there are limits on what the site can provide.
“It doesn’t book your flights,” says Olsen, who adds that travelers should also purchase carbon offsets.
