KEY POINTS:
Overseas travellers feeling guilty about the carbon miles they incur flying to New Zealand are increasingly trying to compensate by demanding eco-friendly tourism when they arrive here.
Carol Maxwell, Landcare Research sustainability adviser, said more and more travellers from the northern hemisphere were wanting evidence of sustainable tourism in New Zealand.
Ms Maxwell, who is speaking at the New Zealand Tourism Industry conference in Auckland today, said the United Kingdom market was particularly strong in requesting such information.
"Anecdotally we hear that English travellers are asking their travel agents to provide evidence the places they are going to and products they are buying are environmentally friendly."
Ms Maxwell said it was an emotional issue for such tourists who liked to think of themselves as "good people".
In cases they were anxious about incurring a huge carbon footprint by flying to New Zealand from the other side of the world.
"The issue of travel miles is huge. They are very environmentally driven - show me you are environmentally friendly, make me feel better and I will travel here."
In some cases independent travellers or large travel organisations wanted actual proof, like being shown environmental management policies, she said.
Ms Maxwell said foreign travel agents were also asking for similar information when they came to New Zealand on trade shows.
"There were initial rumblings about this two to three years ago but in the last six months to a year it has been heightening and becoming more obvious."
Ms Maxwell said competing countries like Norway were meanwhile getting leverage off the carbon miles dilemma.
"Taking full advantage of this Norway had a promotion running in Europe - we're not as far away as New Zealand, you don't need to emit all that nasty carbon into our environment in order to visit great fiords, mountains and people ... therefore stay closer to home."
Ms Maxwell said one seat on a round-the-world trip produced about 7.5 tons of carbon.
"That is about the amount that you can get on one hectare of land planted in trees, per year and only once those trees have reached a decent size and only while they are growing."
Ms Maxwell said there was an emphasis on the need for tourism operators to put in place real green behaviours.
"You can't just have pretty pictures and a couple of bins, you have to prove that glass is going to the recycling centre. You need to get credible."
Ms Maxwell said the New Zealand tourism industry was responding reasonably well, especially small operators and many of the large ones like Intercity which aimed to become the world's first carbon neutral public transport company within three years.
