The Return of Wood: The Potential of Wood for More Sustainable Tourism

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The Return of Wood: The Potential of Wood for More Sustainable Tourism

U(P)erspective

The Return of Wood: The Potential of Wood for More Sustainable Tourism

Sustainable Incorporation of Wood in Tourism is environmentally friendly due to the renewable nature of the resource and the biodegradability of the material. It creates healthy living and working conditions and contributes to mitigating the effects of global warming. In recent years, we have noticed an increased trend in tourist awareness regarding the use of sustainable materials in tourism offers. After decades of waste separation and reduction, concerns about reducing carbon footprints and saving energy, tourists, especially young people, are rapidly embracing a new favorability towards renewable resources, including wood.

With the LesTur project, we aim to initiate new professional discussions in the tourism community and encourage greater use of wood in Slovenian tourism. Although the current generation of decision-makers in Slovenian tourism grew up with popular slogans such as "Wood is beautiful," "Tourism relies on individual thinking," and "On the sunny side of the Alps," which promoted three exceptional resources of our country—wood, knowledge, and geographical location—the attitude towards the use of wood in Slovenian tourism remains uncertain. We have found that a neutral attitude, negative perceptions, and stereotypes about wood and its use in tourist facilities (e.g., wood is not solid, safe, typical, economically efficient) are sometimes barriers to the faster transformation of tourism into a sustainable industry.

With the aim of promoting wood in the offers and image of tourist destinations in Slovenia, the University of Primorska has undertaken another one in a series of initiatives, research, and events that promote the use of renewable resources for a sustainable future of the environment and society. As tourism is the focus this time, we have joined forces in the LesTur project with the knowledge of the University of Primorska's Faculty of Tourism Studies Turistica, UP FAMNIT with its Sustainable Built Environment program, and the Portorož Tourist Board, which has taken on the challenge of assessing the state and potential of wood for the purposes of further sustainable development of the destination.

The Portorož Tourist Board is one of the key players in the golden label of the national Green Scheme of Slovenian Tourism, which the destination received for its sustainable efforts. The further ambition towards sustainability is for tourism providers who have already effectively implemented numerous measures for sustainable development to also introduce measures for the use of renewable resources as the foundation of the future bioeconomy.

Within these incentives, numerous institutes are already working on researching and innovating in the field of wood processing and utilization as a sustainable material. Among them is the Slovenian InnoRenew CoE. However, the findings of their research and innovations that enhance the strength, safety, and aesthetics of wood while preserving all the positive effects of this natural material on humans (health and well-being, stress reduction) are still insufficiently promoted among tourism decision-makers.

With the aim of raising awareness, we presented the results of the LesTur project in the form of an exhibition, intending to encourage a positive attitude towards wood among tourism professionals in a popular yet informative manner. The exhibition is on display until July 10, 2023, in the gallery of Turistica in Portorož, and preparations are already underway for its traveling version throughout Slovenia.

The project and exhibition address questions about the tradition of using wood in Portorož tourism and explore where and why wood usage was initially abandoned and then revitalized. They demonstrate that Portorož has a century-old tradition of using wood in tourism, and it was wood that extended the first welcome to its tourists. Most of the sea-to-land connections were made of wood, including piers, walkways, and coastal structures. Numerous plans of these structures have been preserved to this day. In addition to tradition, the exhibition also presents sustainable reintroduction methods of wood into modern offers (e.g., Thalasso Spa Lepa Vida in the salt pans) and visualizes projections through internationally acclaimed design concepts on the use of wood in future tourism (e.g., Pino Park near the Marina Portorož).

There is no longer any doubt that wood is making a comeback in tourism. We simply need to help dispel doubts within the tourism community about whether it is worth using wood.

Dr. Aleksandra Brezovec, assoc.prof.,
LesTur project manager
Department for Sustainable Destination Development
UP FTŠ Turistica Portorož

The LesTur project was co-financed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation and the European Union from the European Social Fund.