The group visiting Aruba was two years in the planning. ECO DMS put together a great educational program, in an effort to showcase product Aruba, at its best.
The guests were all top buyers, members of Site, the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence, the Northeast chapter. They came to Aruba to experience a ‘SITE Unseen,’ a series of exclusive retreat events designed to connect hospitality professionals and SITE members from all across the Northeast region, of the USA.
The idea was simple, bring members of both worlds together on an incentive-level destination, such as Aruba, with fantastic resorts, and an extensive menu of incentive experiences.
Site, Unseen event guests, stayed at the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino, and kicked our tyers, so to speak, they wanted to see what we have to offer, with the goal of recommending us to their future VIP group clients.
Aruba and ECO DMS rolled out the red carpet, wined and dined the top decision-makers, and also introduced them to hotelier Ewald Biemans, who dropped by for a presentation.
Writes Wichita Villacres, CEO of ECO Destination Management Services in Aruba and Curacao: Ewald’s presentation was extraordinary, as he talked about saving our environment, and how each of us, especially meeting planners can support that important global movement. Ewald inspired everyone to examine the way they do business and the toll, doing business the old way, takes on the planet.
Ewald, I asked, what did you do?
Clients, replied Biemans, are beginning to ask difficult questions. Is the destination recycling? Are you moving towards renewable energy? How do you protect your oceans, flora, fauna, and the safety of your water? Are you reducing your carbon foot print fast enough, by cutting CO2 emissions? How do you put yourself and your visitors into a general saving state of mind?
As a destination, dependent of travel, your carbon foot print is innately huge, states Biemans. What are you doing about that?
Things have shifted lately, and clients now want to know how the DMSs are shuttling large groups of people around the planet on incentive trips. And DMSs are forced to answer BIG questions about the sustainability of their trade.
Only in Aruba, says Biemans, as soon as these questions are asked, people roll their eyes and shift the conversation. But the unbearable recent heat waves and the frequent, extremely wet, tropical storms, are slowly waking islanders up. Too slowly.
Biemans reports that he has been presenting all over the globe, at all important tourist conferences, the model of Bucuti, a small hotel that made it its mission to make a difference. The Bucuti and its best practices, as you know, were picked by the United Nations as THE model to be scaled and replicated, around the world.
We even offset the CO2 emissions of my travel, we take everything into consideration, you have to, Biemans notes, if you are aiming at a Leed or a Carbon Neutral certification.
(LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – this should be a standard for Aruba, it would save tons of CO2 emissions and, in the end money for the investors. We could save the country 20-30% of foreign exchange, not having to pay for the oil, imported to burn for electricity and water production.)
As a result of Biemans’ presentation at Site Unseen, buyers are learning to demand responsible environmental behavior, making their clients happy and helping save resources. Buyers are learning to demand a more sustainable experiences for their clients, which in turn pressures the DMSs to pressure the resorts, and other businesses, to come on board the sustainability movement.
We know what to do, we just have to do it.
