Here’s Part 1. This is a study of all the official state tourism websites, where we’re looking at the presence (or lack thereof) of green initiatives and information. In part 2, we’ll be looking at the next 10 websites, from Hawaii to Maryland.

Hawaii (www.gohawaii.com/):- There’s no green section, but a search revealed a whole lot of listed businesses on the website offer eco-friendly tours and lodging, eco adventures and even a ‘Bio Bettle’ eco car rental service. Too many listings for me to elaborate, but its all good stuff. Useful and practical. It would be great if Go Hawaii should bring it all together on one page.

Idaho (www.visitidaho.org/):- No seperate green page. There are only two items on the site related to the environment. One is a press release which touts zip line tours as eco-friendly because it doesn’t consume power, and the other is a business listing (www.milehighoutfitters.com) which offers an eco tour (although their expertise seems to be in hunting vacations). Other than that, Idaho is a wash.

Illinois (www.enjoyillinois.com/):- There’s no seperate green page, and multiple searches using all possible related keywords revealed all of 3 items related to eco-friendliness. Two of them were private businesses, and one is a temporary exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry - A smart home, which is a a real, three-story modular and sustainable “green” home in the Museum’s own backyard. Come January, even that won’t be there, and the Illinois State Tourism website will score a big fat zero on the greeniness meter.  

That’s a bit surprising, actually, because I just read an article on Bloomberg News which says that Chicago is out-greening New York and Los Angeles in terms of green rooftops atop Chicago hotels and other buildings. Anyway, we’re just rating the state tourism websites, not the cities, so…

Indiana (www.in.gov/visitindiana/):- The website is down with a server database error message, and it looks permanent. You can still see the sitemap or the page for travel professionals, but there’s no sign of anything related to the environment. And there’s no search either. Safe to say that Indiana is going to end somewhere at the bottom of this list. 

Iowa (www.traveliowa.com/):- Has a page for green trips, which has a couple of documents detailing ways to conserve energy and minimize waste. The only other thing I could find was the Blue Heron eco-cruises, which was listed in the online travel guide. Nothing to rave over, but at least they tried.

Kansas (www.travelks.com/):- No seperate green page. Searches returned either zero or no relevant results.

Kentucky (www.kentuckytourism.com/):- No seperate green page. All relevant searches returned zero results.

Louisiana (www.louisianatravel.com/):- No seperate green page. Search came up with a bunch of eco-friendly hotels - All outside Louisiana. They have green hotels listed for New Zealand, India, Monterey and San Diego and lots of other places, but not a single one inside Louisiana. Well, nobody said anything in Louisiana made sense, so we’ll just let this one slide.

Maine (www.visitmaine.com/):- No seperate green page. Searches came up with an eco-friendly Inn (www.thefiddlersgreeninn.com/), a few Bed and Breakfasts, and the Frost Mountain Yurts. Update: As you can see in the comments below, Maine does have a page for green lodging, which lists all the businesses participating in their Green Lodging Certification Program.

Maryland (www.mdisfun.org/):- No seperate green page. All searches returned non-relevant results. Then I thought maybe their search was out of whack, so I tried Google site search, which showed zero results for all relevant keywords. Shows Google is still accurate, and the tourism website of Maryland has squat in terms of green options.

In summary, Hawaii is doing fine even without the tourism website’s help, Iowa has a token nod with general instructions for green travel, Illinois was a dissapointment, and I’d rather not say anything about the other seven, in the interest of keeping it civil.

Continued in Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

Posted on October 14th, 2008 by PLing
Filed under: Sustainable Travel