TRENDS IN PROMOTING ROMANIAN ECOTOURISM CERTIFICATION PROGRAM Hornoiu Remus Ion Academia de Studii Economice din Bucure ti, Facultatea de Comer, Catedra de Turism-Servicii, Calea Doroban ilor Nr.15-17, et.7, sala 2701, sector1 Bucure ti, rhornoiu@yahoo.com, 0721-523462 Zamfir Ana-Maria Academia de Studii Economice din Bucure ti, Facultatea de Economie, Piata Romana Nr.6,, sector1, Bucure ti, anamaria_zamfir@yahoo.com, 0726-395635 An ecotourism certification system must create a demand for its services among travel intermediaries and tourists as well as among tourism providers, in order to be successful. As one of the recent certification program, and focusing on multifaceted, worldwide industry, successful marketing will require sustained and dedicated support from a wide variety of stakeholders. This paper provides recommendations for promoting and marketing Romanian ecotourism certification program in order to increase consumer demand for certification and to grow the supply of certified ecotourism businesses. Key words: Ecotourism, certification, marketing Introduction Certification, a voluntary procedure that sets, assesses monitors and gives written assurance that a business, product, process, service, or management system conforms to requirements, is growing rapidly throughout the world. It is commonly used in many professional sectors from academia and nursing to financial investments. Tourism, as the biggest industry in the world, is no unfamiliar to green certification programs which create and monitor sustainability using criteria and standards assessing ecological, economical, and socio-cultural responsibility. To be sustainable in their goals, green certification programs in general, and ecotourism certification program in particular must involve a variety of stakeholders. Education, outreach, promotion, and marketing are not only necessary, but critical. Necessity and opportunity of ecotourism certification promotion The topic of defining an obvious ecotourism certification product in order to reduce confusion among users is an essential one that must be addressed to carry out a successful marketing campaign. This is a number one priority and challenge. Secondly, in order to be really successful and produce a sea change within the industry i.e., to develop industry-wide practices in the name of sustainability certification programs must involve a significant number of service providers as well as consumers of all types. The first stage is to work with suppliers. Certification proposers must persuade an important group of tourism providers that becoming certified is in their advantage: that it will diminish costs, enhance marketability of a product, reduce risks, and improve company image. They must go out and sell these virtues to a wide range of businesses within the industry. While at first it s not too complicated to find businesses who split environmental and social responsibility values, to step forward to be the first to go through the certification process, this is not enough. Certification programs must draw businesses that are eager to consider certification but are not sure that it will be worth their time and money to go through the process. Once they do so, a certain momentum develops and the growth of certified products takes on a life of its own. The second stage is to create sufficient demand among customers and intermediaries to produce a market for increasing numbers of certified products. Customer surveys show a delitescent interest on the part of tourists in patronizing ecotourism suppliers, but to date, this interest not often translates into actual demand for ecotourism certification programs. The challenge, therefore, becomes a chicken and egg issue. For producers to go through the process of becoming certified, they want to be guaranteed that there is consumer demand. Also, a wide range of customers are not likely to pay for certification and are not acquire certified goods, unless there is an enough supply and alternatives to choose from. As a result, novel 908
certifying organization must keep a balancing act: convincing producers to sign on and become certified even before a conscious and involved market exists, while also rising awareness and marketing certified products even before there are many available. Other issue that many green certified products and services face is that the label of the certification program is not well understood or easily recognized. Ecotourism certification, which integrates environmental and social standards, is complicated. While many environmental criteria can be evaluated by measuring performance measures or through development of environmental management systems, social and cultural criteria and their assessment are considered uncertain and unreliable. In adding to the equivoque about what ecotourism certification labels mean, consumers and tourism providers are justifiably confused by the propagation of programs around the world. Each ecotourism certification programs has its own criteria, and often going beyond markets. Without rigorous assessment of the criteria and processes used by each one to evaluate and certify tourism providers, consumers presently have modest assurance that they will receive the services they are looking for. A response to this will be the foundation of the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council, a projected international accreditation organization for ecotourism certification programs which will establish and monitor international standards, as well as promoting awareness of ecotourism certification around the world. Recommendations in marketing Romanian ecotourism certification program Ecotourism must be developed in Romania because has an attractive natural and rural environment, a potential good business, a high necessitate for nature conservation, a niche tourism capable to bring an affirmative destination image and a growing incoming flow of tourists. Ecotourism is a tool to connected socio-economical value to nature, a tool to sustain local communities, a tool to communicate environmental values and nature conservation to local people and tourists. Theoretical ideas can meet practical requirements and expectations by elaborating a high quality ecotourism products and communicating to the international market, setting up nature conservation method connected to ecotourism, stimulating socio-economical of local communities, rising a high nature interpretation component and high environmental standards. Ecotourism certification system in Romania is planned as a guiding system: to give credits for best practices. It is based on the international experience like Nature and Ecotourism Accreditation Program (Australia Ecotourism Associations) and Nature s Best (Swedish Ecotourism Association) (Jonasson, 2007) and adapted to the Romanian circumstances. The ecotourism certification system in Romania covers eco-destinations, tours organized by tour-operators or guides, small scale accommodations. Methods for Ensuring Credibility Property examinations and audits for new and continuing members are keys to guarantee credibility of the certification program. All new properties should go through an initial on-site inspection in order to obtain certification. These inspections should be kept anonymous and all results should be pending from the property management until the end of inspection. Examinations should be conducted by independent experts of ecotourism and sustainable tourism. It is recommended that more than one specialist should examine each property in order to make the audit less biased. Different inspectors should be in charge of assessing separate standard, based on their field of expertise. For example, criteria of environmental infrastructure should be assessed by a proper expert, while an expert in a different field may be more appropriate to address social and cultural standards. Separating examination responsibilities according to area of expertise will bring more credibility to the inspection process. The certification criteria and the examination process should be made very clear to both providers and consumers. This can be realized by adding the certification standards and details of the examination process on the certification program s website, and distributing them to providers, who should also share them with customers. If the certification system is affiliated to an organization, details of the criteria and examination process should be sent to all members through either email or a newsletter annually in order to reduce consumer confusion. Credibility in the certification program can also be achieved through alliances with compatible organizations that actively show support for the program. Partnerships with business and organizations that are already well-knew and respected by consumers and providers are keys to increasing the visibility of the program. 909
Marketing Strategies Romanian ecotourism certification promoters should hire a public relations person once the program is running and there is an adequate amount and diversity of certified products and businesses. They extend positive contacts with the media, are present to conferences, create promotional and advertising materials, and develop marketing and outreach partnerships with other businesses. The results are seen in wide name recognition. Concentrating on a niche consumer market is appropriate for new programs trying to gain buy-in. As an example, the Romanian ecotourism certification system can begin by concentrating on the educational tourism market. Originally targeting groups that are already eager to participate makes the most sense as a consumer marketing strategy. Marketing to Consumers Marketing to those to make distribution - travel agents and tour operators - is a plan to help marketing The Romanian certification program. Suppliers who have confirmed interest in social and environmental responsibility should be courted and educated. Educational travel associations, while not creator of volume, are likely to share sustainability values and would be good marketing targets to start with. Marketing success can be guaranteed by making relationships with intermediaries such as travel agents. Even as the role of travel agents has reduced with the increase of the Internet, there are still many tourists who consult with travel professionals before making bookings. Business tourists, especially, are likely to work with corporate tourism departments and agencies. It will be significant for ecotourism certification systems to present themselves to the main travel agencies and to promote the advantages of using certified businesses. Information about ecotourism should also be provided. Romanian ecotourism certification programs could propose discounts or other benefits to regular customers of certified businesses and to members of collaborator association. The ecotourism movement must generate affinity groups and involve them in dialogue on subjects relevant to local concerns in order to get their buy-in. Marketing to Providers The Romanian ecotourism certification program should provide more than just a seal of approval to participating small scale accommodations, tours, and attractions. Offering technological assistance to participating small scale accommodations is necessary for program recruitment. This can be realized through an on-site examination of the property and can be coupled with the auditing process. Supplying an evaluation of environmental management and infrastructure and a list of suggestion for improvement and ways to fulfill them after examination will give providers more incentive to join the ecotourism certification program. The certification program should furnish a resource guide to all participating small scale accommodations, tours, and attractions. The guide should be a collected database of relevant ecological information to support managers faced with the challenges of implementing environmental programs at their lodges. The guide should include a wide range of environmentally friendly product vendors. Marketing messages that support provider recruitment are those that link better ecological management with improved resource efficiency and reduced costs. For those small accommodations scale, attractions and tours that are already ecological-efficient, messages that promote achieved market share from environmentally conscious tourists and greater marketing through program participation are common. Still, because the latter benefits have not been knowledgeable at this point in the evolution of ecotourism certification, they should be considered as marketing messages for the longer term. As an alternative, marketing messages should comprise and stress the value of technological assistance and informational resources for greening of providers business. When promoting to Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), technological assistance oriented towards growing efficiency and reducing costs are especially important. In order to furnish these businesses with reduced cost methods and strategies for increasing their sustainability, they should also be trained to monitor energy and management costs and savings in order to reduce overhead expenses. 910
It is suggested that members of Romanian ecotourism certification program to be the providers instead of the consumers. These providers can have advantages such as support with promotion, marketing, advertising, and booking. These advantages are especially attractive to small scale accommodations because they often cannot afford to market sufficiently on their own. Through participation to an ecotourism certification program that dynamically marketing accommodations, tours and attractions to consumers; therefore, these are more likely to want to participate. Furthermore, building a referral program that keeps record of small scale accommodations customers and refers them to others in the program will encourage provider buy-in. Once a certification program is properly appreciated and used, less marketing to tourism providers will be needed as businesses will want to become certified for the image value as well as increased patronage. Marketing Tools The commercialization or give-away of a guidebook or directory featuring certified Romanian small accommodations, tours and attractions can increase consumer buy-in. The directory should be distributed to travel agencies, tour operators, and travelers alike. It should give common information about the Romanian ecotourism certification program, certified businesses and their sustainability ratings, maps, photos, and background information on tourism and its impacts. The ecotourism certification programs should consider make a magazine or newsletter that promotes an ecological message as well as one of high service and quality of certified providers. Constructing a website directed at consumers will aid the program. This site should contain clear information on the criteria and examination process of the Romanian ecotourism certification program in order to decrease customer confusion, and it should contain a section for making online reservations at the certified small scale accommodations. The site should also include information on all participate small scale accommodations, tours and attractions for greater customer comprehension. It is important to make relationships with general and travel and tourism media to guarantee improved exposure and marketing value. Ecotourism certification programs should involve public relations staff to enhance and constantly maintain personal relationships with key media players. Romanian ecotourism certification will persuade reporters to visit the small scale accommodations and provides them with lots of information and resources to facilitate their investigations. It is recommended to send efficient information about properties and the program to travel and tourism trade media through e-mails; should focus on significant media channels, build a database to store contacts in, and supply reporters with updated and newsworthy information. It is also recommended that Romanian ecotourism certification system practitioners to take part at conferences, trade shows and gatherings of interest to the travel community and industry, as well as to meetings with environmentally and socially responsible or sustainability audiences. A low-cost method to marketing the program to tourists is to distribute an informational catalog listing certified small scale accommodations, tours and attractions at tourism information centers. In order to boost interest and support for ecotourism, the catalog should also raise awareness about tourism s impacts, problems and solutions. It should explain what tourists can do to minimize negative impacts of tourism and support communities and natural systems. Obvious, one of the options is to look for and support certified providers. Another option is to share the message of ecotourism with friends, family and work colleagues. In order to be successful and to be attractive for customers, promoters of Romanian ecotourism program should create and sell a brand. This brand involves consistency and a certain level of quality and service. Consistency must be preserved between all certified ecotourism providers in order to certification program sell its name as a valued brand. Name recognition and use the brand as a marketing tool take many years to develop. Partnerships and Alliances The Romanian ecotourism certification should form alliances with well-known travel agencies and operators which will assure that small scale accommodations, tours, attractions that are members of the program with be appropriately promoted in the travel and tourism industry. Partnerships can imply bigger commissions to travel businesses and agents when they book customers into certified accommodations or 911
with certified inbound agents. They imply common promotion in advertising materials as well as on websites, and collaboration at trade shows, conferences and other forums. It is also recommended alliances with a variety of other businesses such as certified providers, which can be used for common advertising and to build powerful relations and connections between the certification program and the providers. Customer-oriented campaigns co-sponsored by certified businesses and other tourism and travel providers - airlines looking to express environmental responsibility; credit card companies; internet sites, travel and tourism intermediaries (tour operators and travel agents); magazines other publications with social and environmental responsibility missions; financial institutions with similar missions; government bodies interested in environment and tourism; and other certification programs - can have larger exposure than campaigns organized and implemented solely by certification practitioners. And, costs of such campaigns can be divided among those implied. Proper partners for Romanian ecotourism certification program are providers of goods and services that supply energy and water efficiency, reduce waste, and produce or sell environmentally sound products (e.g. soaps and cleansers, organic food, compact fluorescent light bulbs, etc.). Bibliography: 1. Bendell J., Font X., Which Tourism Rules? Green Standards and Gats, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol.31, No.1, pp.139-156, 2004, Elsevier Ltd, Great Britain 2. Bien A., Conduct Field Tests of marketing Lessons Learned, Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable development, 2006, The International Ecotourism Society, USA 3. De Vincente J., Demand for certification: tourist industry and marketing experts, Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable development, 2004, The International Ecotourism Society, USA 4. Dragulanescu I.V., Tourism Systems and local development policies, International Conference on Tourism, 2007, pp. 12-21, ASE Bucharest 5. Dragulanescu I.V., Costal landscape changes and sustainable tourism development, International Conference on Tourism, 2007, pp. 85-97, ASE Bucharest 6. Dragulanescu I.V., Innovations in tourism industry, The International Conference on Commerce, 2008, ASE Bucharest 7. Font X., Sanabria R., Skinner E., Sustainable tourism and ecotourism certification, Journal of Ecotourism, Vol.2, No.3, pp.213-218, 2003, Elsevier, Ltd, Great Britain 8. Font X., Environmental certification in tourism and hospitality: progress, process and prospects, Tourism Management, Vol.23, 2002, pp.197-205, Elsevier Ltd, Great Britain 9. Lewis K., Certification in Ecotourism, Eco-currents, 2007, The International Ecotourism Society, USA 10. Nistoreanu P., Tanase M., The relationship between the integrated tourism development of a region and the respective local communities of Romania. A moral approach, Amfiteatru Economic, 2008, ASE Bucharest 11. Sanders E., What businesses seek from certification and the range of incentives that governments, NGOs, trade associations, and others could offer, Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable development, 2004, The International Ecotourism Society, USA 12. Thompson B.H, Coyle J., Trade issues in sustainable tourism certification: an examination of the constraints imposed by international trade rules and organizations (NAFTA, WTO, ETC.), Barriers to trade,, Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable development, 2005, The International Ecotourism Society, USA 912