Holidaymakers are only becoming more conscious of the impact their trip might have on the environment, and many popular destinations are catching on. Europe is undergoing a renaissance of its railways, with new high-speed train links and tourist routes on vintage carriages, plus the launch of monthly rail passes in Germany and Portugal.
Plus, hot spots all over the world, including Greece, Italy and Bali, are introducing measures to limit overcrowding, and protect their vital cultural heritage sites.
In a bid to make sustainable tourism more accessible, a sustainable travel index for 2023 has been developed based on info from Euromonitor International. The analysis is super comprehensive, with 56 different factors being evaluated, to calculate the most sustainable city.
Caroline Bremmer, head of travel at the data analysis company, says that ‘There are three main types of indicators. The health of a destination, relating to happiness, equality and social justice, then the specific impacts of tourism on the local environment such as hotel energy use, followed by the general state of tourism such as quality of infrastructure or dependency on international demand.’
As well as cities, the indicators also helped form a list of the most sustainable countries. Europe cruises ahead, with 19 of the top 20 most sustainable countries in the world being located there — Uruguay is the only non-European state to make the rank. The top five countries in the world, according to the sustainable travel index 2023, are Sweden, Finland, Austria, Estonia, and Norway.
The index has revealed that the most sustainable cities have a much wider global dispersal, but Europe still dominates, with seven of the top ten being located here – and three cities are in Spain.
At the top of the list, however, is Melbourne. The city has taken major steps towards renewable energy, and apparently, more than 40 percent of Melbourne’s electricity comes from sources such as solar and wind power. The city is host to a programme of events that they have made carbon-neutral, including Melbourne Fashion Week.
In second place is Madrid, which launched a fleet of petrol-free buses at the beginning of 2023, and Seville is third. This city inventively uses the methane produced from excess oranges to make electricity – pretty cool, right?
Here is the full list of the top 10 most sustainable cities in the world.
- Melbourne, Australia
- Madrid, Spain
- Seville, Spain
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Tallinn, Estonia
- Toronto, Canada
- Palma De Mallorca, Spain
- Las Vegas, USA
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Munich, Germany
Did you see that there could be a brand new high-speed link connecting four European capitals?
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