The Incentive Agencies Association (IDEMICE) presented yesterday a sustainability statement for incentive travel, aiming to establish a set of best practices and solutions to transition towards a sustainable tourism development model. This initiative seeks to reduce negative impacts while increasing positive impacts on the environment and local communities. The presentation was led by Iñaki Collado, IDEMICE's president, Alberto Gómez, coordinator of EVENTSOST, and Sergio Escudero, MICE & Travel Incentives director at ACCIONA Cultura, an IDEMICE associate. EVENTSOST contributed as an expert partner in sustainability management for events in drafting this document.
Incentive travels have a significant relationship with the sustainable development of destinations, potentially generating both negative environmental impacts and positive outcomes, depending on the approach taken by organizers. "The current economic and technological context requires us to have an impact on sustainability that we often cannot avoid," noted Iñaki Collado. Consequently, Collado advocated for implementing measures to correct, minimize, and offset the impact of incentive travels on destinations and the environment.
According to Alberto Gómez from EVENTSOST, the events industry must construct a solid and coherent sustainable narrative aligned with its objectives. "Our sector often lacks clarity on what needs to be done to organize more sustainable events. Establishing and communicating this narrative represents a significant step forward, as it marks the first time an association has taken a proactive stance and set the direction to follow. This opens up numerous avenues for improvement to realize commitments within our sector. Above all, it establishes ground rules so that all stakeholders involved—clients, agencies, suppliers—understand the common context for developing more sustainable incentive travels, ensuring sustainability becomes a hallmark of the trip's quality," explained Gómez.
The document, presented by Sergio Escudero, provides solutions on transport procurement, packaging use, accommodation contracting, sustainable catering services, sustainable production, workers' rights, generating positive impacts on surroundings, respecting local heritage at destinations, participant co-responsibility, and promoting sustainability.
While this statement emphasizes destination-focused measures, the decalogue also addresses the commitment of Incentive Agencies within their own operations. "We must not forget that sustainability must also be applied in all areas of our activities, especially in terms of sustainability in our facilities and offices, qualification and training of our employees and collaborators, keeping our team informed about sustainable and social responsibility actions being undertaken or planned, both internally and with suppliers and clients, and promoting within our sphere of influence the points outlined in this declaration to set an example for suppliers and clients," detailed Escudero.
While Incentive Travel Association members firmly believe in the necessity of continuing efforts to mitigate negative effects on sustainability, "as an economic sector, our intention should be to promote sustainable improvement of the resources we employ to organize incentive travels and base our decisions on organizing more sustainable trips on the guidelines we outline below, as a path toward sustainable continuous improvement across our value chain," concluded Collado.
