However, challenges exist for these green tourism opportunities too. According to Yu from the World Green Organisation, changing tourists' behavior and encouraging responsible travel practices is always a challenge. Apart from that, implementing sustainable practices and reducing carbon emissions can increase costs for tourism operators and tourists.

　　“In some destinations, infrastructure may not be available to support sustainable tourism practices,“ he noted. “Establishing common standards and certification schemes for low-carbon tourism can be complex and time-consuming. But there are more benefits than downsides.“

　　Bayona from UN Tourism said that there are challenges to changing a society's mindset.

　　It is about “how we are creating public policies and how they are pragmatic, through incentives that can help the private sector, and how pragmatic they are to sustain and to maintain green buildings, renewable energies, using smart technologies to create the whole tourist infrastructure,“ she said.

　　However, achieving the equilibrium of having less consumption of natural resources with less environmental damage and pollution while ensuring greater economic output is easier said than done.

　　Fernando, the former chairman of SLTDA, said that the major challenge for countries now is the introduction of a sustainable tourism plan where all stakeholders understand their respective roles and are fully committed to playing their role from an implementation perspective.

　　“It is country-specific and needs to be handled in a professional manner,“ he said.

　　Even in a small country such as Sri Lanka, it cannot be handled single-handedly at the national level, he said; it is essential to get all the ministries, departments and provincial administrations involved.