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UNIT 4: ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
4. WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT
Critically discuss the following statements. Your answer should be about 1,500
words long.
‘Whose responsibility is environment quality? The tourism industry’s, the
hospitality business’s, the tourist’s, the supplier’s, or all?’
‘Tourism and hospitality trade associations can be very effective in promoting EMS
in the industry.’
‘EMS is equally important for small to medium-sized businesses and large
companies.’
5. GROUP PROJECT
Develop and carry out an environment status review of your hotel school or the
hotel and hospitality department (if it is part of a larger college or university).
Based on the findings of the review:
• Create an environment policy for the school or department;
• Establish environment objectives and targets;
• Develop an environment-management checklist.
6. GROUP DISCUSSION OR WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT
Critically review the following article. Then consider this question:
What EMS steps and wider sustainable tourism actions could be taken in the
Egyptian Museum in Cairo and in Egypt as a whole to improve conservation and
environment protection?
Many Mummies
From The Economist, 31 July-6 August 1999
Egypt has more antiquities and tourists than it can cope with. Stopping the latter
from destroying the former is its biggest challenge.
Many countries would envy Egypt’s predicament. With the possible exception of
Italy, no place in the world contains such a colossal stash of antiquities. Trouble
is, Egypt enjoys only a small fraction of Italy’s wealth. Just coping with what
has already been found (let alone with the artefacts that keep pouring out of
Egypt’s bottomless archaeological motherlode, or with the hordes of tourists who
want to see the stuff, or with the constant threat of encroachment on sites) is an
increasingly onerous burden on the government and museum authorities.
At the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the numbers are awesome. With more than
120,000 ancient objects on display, and even more crammed in the basement, the
century-old building is stretched far beyond capacity. Despite costly renovations
completed last year, the hall containing the gold of Tutankhamun packs in such
a crush of visitors it is beginning to resemble Grand Central Station at rush hour.
Over the next decade the numbers are expected to rise from 2m to 8m a year.
Controversial plans for a mega-museum have been mooted, but its construction
remains a distant prospect.
In the field meanwhile, each week produces exciting new finds, creating yet more
pressure on bulging storerooms, as well as on the time and budgets of those
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