As an organisation that encourages and promotes sustainable tourism, the World Travel & Tourism Council is leading by example by endeavouring to minimise the environmental impact of its foremost event, the Global Travel & Tourism Summit.

Through its partnership with Sustainable Travel International (STI), WTTC has made significant inroads into making this event “greener”.

This year’s summit will be centred around the Aria Resort & Casino, CityCenter, Las Vegas – perhaps the most sustainable venue chosen for the summit yet. The Aria holds a number of high-level sustainability certifications including the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold certification. The extensive facilities within the CityCenter make it the perfect venue for the Summit and related events, reducing the commute between venues, and therefore making the level of greenhouse gas emissions lower.

Also introduced this year are best practice measures which include more stringent measurement processes to quantify, collate and report the total environmental impact of the summit. This takes into account not only the emissions generated by delegates’ travel, but also those generated by the event operations. This includes measuring indicators such as energy and water usage, and waste.

Where the greenhouse gas emissions cannot be mitigated, WTTC regularly offsets the remaining emissions through Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) certified offset projects. Following last year’s Beijing Summit, WTTC offset over 1,880 tons of CO2 emissions through various forestry offset projects; that’s equivalent to the average electricity use of 228 American homes for a year.

STI is a global leader in sustainable tourism development. The non-profit organisation’s mission is to promote sustainable development through responsible travel by providing programmes that help travellers, businesses and destinations protect the environment, preserve cultural heritage and promote economic development. STI is dedicated to taking a holistic approach to addressing sustainable development within the travel and tourism industries by providing solutions-oriented programmes that generate tangible results and affect long-lasting change.

LasVegas.Mobi

With the WTTC Summit underway, City.Mobi is celebrating the success of its new guide to Las Vegas.

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.

However, each city retains its own mobile identity via a dedicated domain. Already on offer are Brussels.Mobi, Paris.Mobi, Sanfrancisco.Mobi and Sydney.Mobi.

LasVegas.Mobi is the latest in this illustrious line up, offering click to call functionality – which means no scribbling down telephone numbers.

Most entries are also linked to websites where users can quickly access more detailed information if needed.

Other key features include information on accommodation, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, nightlife, shopping, and transport.

City.Mobi guides include user reviews and traveller utilities such as a translation guide, currency converter, news and local weather guide.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is attending the WTTC Global Travel & Tourism Summit in Las Vegas, 17-19 May 2011 at the Aria Resort & Casino. To find out more visit http://www.globaltraveltourism.com