Abandoned buildings can be an eyesore, a blight on a land- or cityscape, and even an embarrassment to many locals. Yet they are all a part of a place’s history and heritage. While not all are worth saving, many heritage buildings deserve a new lease of life. Here, Angelo Sciacca applies his passion for circular economics and participative planning to the problem.
Valencia aims to be a carbon neutral city by 2025 and has adapted a pioneering sustainable tourism strategy. Part of the commitment was to verify its carbon emissions from tourism-related activities, such as transport, accommodation, restaurants and leisure activities. The study showed that 81 per cent of the carbon footprint in the tourism sector came from travel to the city.
As part of the national Green Plan 2030, Singapore wants to switch from being a garden city to being a green city, with the vision of being a sustainable and innovative urban destination. One of Singapore’s advantages is that it has a government leading the country towards being carbon neutral, instead of relying only on the private sector.
A new sleeper train route linking Prague, Dresden, Berlin, Amsterdam and Brussels adds to the biggest planned extension of the European night train network in years. Concerns about climate change and Covid-19 are changing people’s travel preferences and some train journeys are in fact faster than flying.
In this interview for Skift, Florian Sengstschmid, CEO of Azerbaijan Tourism Board, talks about how the DMO used the pandemic to develop a solid, sustainable tourism strategy and emerge as a safe destination, ready to back welcome travellers. Since Azerbaijan is not a mass tourism destination, he hopes it will be easier and safer for travellers to enjoy the country’s immersive experiences when the time is right.
