EDITORIAL
In 80 days around the world
In 1873 Jules Verne published his novel “In 80 Days Around The World”. Back then, travelling the world in
80 days was a real challenge. Today it is a real challenge to get 80 days off, whereas you can make it around
the world in less than 24 hours. A weekend in London now sounds more like the order for a military operation
than a relaxing excursion.
Phileas Fogg, the protagonist in Verne’s novel, was rich. He had to be, because travelling was expensive – so
expensive in fact that Fogg had to spend almost half of his considerable wealth on the endeavour. Today,
travelling is cheap, which on the one hand has set off a democratisation process for holidaymakers, but on the
other hand has also caused brutal pressure on prices among the providers, casting social and ecological shadows.
What today is the tertiary sector, for Jules Verne was Passepartout, Phileas Fogg’s butler. The name can be
seen as programmatic for today’s service industry: “passer” (passing) partout (everywhere) is often the motto
that calls for fulfi lling the client’s every wish, no matter the cost.
Jules Verne’s book is also a snapshot of the possibilities available at that point in time. In the 1860s, the first
railway connection across the USA was fi nished, the Suez Canal had just been opened, and steamers were
replacing sailing ships all around. Thus transportation was thrust into the hydrocarbon age, with all its economic
and touristic advantages and ecological disadvantages.
All these factors continue to resonate through the tourism industry, infl uencing the sector in both good and
bad ways. Speed can often only be achieved at the expense of the environment, and low prices hinge on the
exploitation of the environment and the social component. The modern-day Passepartouts, i.e. the tourism
workforce, are used beyond their job description and often all the way to their emotional core. Reason enough
for us, then, to have a closer look at modern mass tourism and its implicit challenges from a sustainable
perspective in this edition of ERSTE RESPONSIBLE RETURN – The ESG Letter.
Sincerely
Mag. Gerold Permoser
Chief Investment Officer (CIO), Chief Sustainable Investment Officer (CSIO)
Gerold Permoser is Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of
Erste Asset Management. In this function he is in charge
of the asset management activities and investment
strategies of all investment funds of the Erste Asset
Management Group in Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic,
Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia.