![\""Without](\"https:\/\/travindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/hanekom.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
T<\/span>he third day of World Travel Market 2018 opened on a note of optimism. \u201cWTM is such a celebration and testimony to our worldwide tourism industry;s vibrancy and multiculturalism,\u201d declared Derek Hanekom, Minister of Tourism, South Africa, in his keynote address for World Responsible Tourism Day 2018. “It\u2019s up to all of us to spread the responsible tourism message loudly, clearly and far and wide.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the deeper message that Hanekom then shared was not one of celebration, but of urgency. He said there were two topics that the industry most had to address – climate change and overtourism. \u201cWithout massively changed behaviour the world stands to destroy itself,\u201d he said. \u201cLong before then the growth in tourism stands to come to an end. We are perilously close to the point where carbon emissions will irreversibly change the symbiotic life systems that sustain life. If we don\u2019t do this we will remain on the tragic path of being the architects of our own destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n We will remain on the tragic path of being the architects of our own destruction<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He called on the industry to become change agents – providing the example through our actions that sends the right message to our guests. \u201cIf tourists see responsible practices away from home they are much more likely to adopt them when they get back,\u201d he commented.<\/p>\n On the subject of overtourism, he was equally clear. \u201cThe key issue is host communities feeling excluded and crowded out by tourists,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is becoming a major problem\u201d, he added, explaining that Responsible Tourism requires that communities are consulted, benefit from tourism, and are integrated into tourism development in their neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n \u201cTourists don\u2019t want to be viewed as unwelcome visitors or destroyers of lifestyles, habitat and the environment,” he said. “They want to feel embraced and welcomed and feel that they are making a positive difference to the places they visit.\u201d<\/p>\n Let us be the industry that leads the world towards sustainable practices<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He then focussed on his own country\u2019s experience, in particular the Cape Town water crisis that has received global attention recently. He saw the country\u2019s response as providing a template to prove that it is possible to radically and rapidly transition to more sustainable ways of operating. Having implemented a host of water saving measures, he explained, the city has reduced consumption by more than 50% in just three years. \u201cFrom adversity the city has become a global leader in best water practice,\u201d said Hanekom.<\/p>\n He concluded with a call to the whole industry to become a true leader in developing a sustainable future. \u201cLet us be the industry that leads the world towards sustainable practices,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we do this we will ensure there is a world, and one with people living in harmony with nature and each other, and enjoying fulfilling, sustainable tourism experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n For the flagship World Responsible Tourism Day debate, three leading women from the industry discussed the topic \u2018Responsible Tourism – how much progress have we made?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve moved beyond the stage of just acting from morality,\u201d said Dr Susanne Becken, Professor of Sustainable Tourism, Griffith Institute for Tourism. \u201cWe don\u2019t have much time left. In the last year or so, issues such as overtourism and the recent Cape Town water crisis have made it clear that we are reaching the limits to what we can consume.\u201d<\/p>\n We are reaching the limits to what we can consume<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Both industry representatives agreed that tourist demand for responsible tourism is growing rapidly. Inge Huijbrechts,Global Senior Vice President Responsible Business and Safety & Security, Radisson Hotel Group, said: \u201cIt\u2019s an absolute necessity for us to align as a company with the Paris goals on climate. Also our consumers are demanding it. We want to do the right thing.\u201d Helen Caron, Purchasing Director, Hotels & Resorts, Cruises, Destination Experiences, TUI Group, agreed, commenting: \u201cThis is what our customers are telling us they want.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe elephant in the room is that many people fly on their holidays,\u201d suggested moderator Tanya Beckett. \u201cMany airlines still see it as a compliance thing,\u201d commented Dr Susanne Becken. \u201cIt\u2019s not embedded in their thinking that they should be truly part of the solution. And it means customers who fly to a hotel that is working on sustainability feel a disconnect. The next step is for airlines to move beyond compliance into truly making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Huijbrechts observed that larger companies like theirs with resources and global reach have a responsibility to build the necessary partnerships to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and then to also connect with other players in the industry. \u201cWe have a responsibility as a company and also collectively,\u201d she said. Agreeing with the need for collaboration, Becken commented: \u201cWe need these ideas to multiply. Tourism is such a successful industry, growing so fast. We need to share the ideas to achieve what is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe debates around sustainable and responsible tourism haven\u2019t focussed enough on issues around employment,\u201d said Andreas Walmsley, Associate Professor, University of Plymouth. \u201cThe employee as the immediate stakeholder needs to have more of a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n Several of the panellists represented companies who are positive exceptions on this issue, and are recognised for their approach to employment. \u201cIt is desperately sad that there is so much in work poverty,\u201d commented Patrick Langmaid, owner of Mother Ivey’s Bay Holiday Park in Cornwall, which is the only accredited Living Wage campsite in the UK, and won a silver award in this year\u2019s World Responsible Tourism Awards. \u201cWe took the view that we need to treat our staff as we would wish to be treated ourselves,\u201d he said. Observing that where he works in Cornwall there is a lot of poverty as well as considerable volumes of tourism, he commented: \u201cas far as hospitality is concerned it shouldn\u2019t be like this, because we are a premium brand. People like Cornwall. They like to come here.\u201d<\/p>\n We need to treat our staff as we would wish to be treated ourselves<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He went on to explain that while it cost around \u00a340,000 a year for his company to pay higher wages, the positive business impacts were profound. \u201cWe get a stable workforce, it is easier to recruit, we get the best people, and we retain them,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the past they would leave to get a few pence more.\u201d<\/p>\n He explained how paying higher wages feeds through into increased productivity, which leads to an enhanced guest experience, who are then repeat booking, and recommending his business to their friends, all of which feeds through to remarkably high occupancy rates at Mother Ivey’s Bay Holiday Park of 90%. \u201cIt\u2019s all down to my team,\u201d said Langmaid. \u201cThe business case it that we treat our wages as an investment rather than a cost, and we are making more money as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n Liutauras Vaitkevicius, General Manager, Good Hotel London, explained that the London-based hotel describes itself as a \u2018for profit not for profit\u201d, as it reinvests all its profits in the NGO it also runs and in other good causes. It works with the local council – Newham – to train 20 young and long term unemployed people every quarter, providing them with the skills and confidence to work in the hospitality industry and ensure them a sustainable future.<\/p>\n I fundamentally believe that for purpose initiatives are not separate to profit initiatives<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Intrepid won a Responsible Tourism gold award for its work in Colombo Sri Lanka, where the lowest-paid staff member is paid LKR 27,000 per month, in a country where the national minimum wage is LKR 10,000 per month. The company also provides health insurance, paternity and additional maternity leave, five days of educational leave per year; and the opportunity to travel on an educational Intrepid Group trip free of charge anywhere in the world every year.<\/p>\n James Thornton, CEO, Intrepid Group, said his company\u2019s shareholders are getting a better return, thanks to his company investing in such schemes. \u201cWe have better staff, providing a better experience,\u201d he said. \u201cI fundamentally believe that for purpose initiatives are not separate to profit initiatives. \u201c<\/p>\n Having commended the other panellists for their efforts, Kevin Curran, Vice Chair, Unite London Hotel Workers Branch, observed that unfortunately they were exceptions to the general approach to employment adopted across the industry, which is more often defined by causal and seasonal work patterns, outsourced work, zero hours contracts and poor prospects for development. \u201cIf we want an industry that is successful, we need to train and develop the workforce,\u201d he said.The industry needs to provide this training on site and during office hours, he added, as most staff have to endure long journeys to and from home each day, combined with physically exhausting work. \u201cThe workforce is already there, but we need to make it worth them staying in our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n About 12 million indigenous people have been displaced from their land to make way of tourism development, explained Mark Watson, former executive director of Tourism Concern. \u201cThey aren\u2019t consulted on the development, or benefit from it in any way, and often are treated as attractions,\u201d At its worst, he explained, companies run \u2018human safaris\u2019, where the communities are nothing more than an object to be gazed at and photographed.<\/p>\n He said the ignorance we have of indigenous people\u2019s lives means tourists are often disappointed to see that the people they visit have mobile phones and satellite TV, wishing to see them living as an unchanging artefact of an ancient way of life. \u201cHow do we allow them to maintain what they wish to maintain of their culture,\u201d he asked, \u201cwhile supporting their wish and right to develop?\u201d<\/p>\n Communities are nothing more than an object to be gazed at and photographed<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There are still 573 registered tribes across North America, explained Camille Ferguson, Executive Director, American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association. She said her organisation\u2019s mission was to develop an indigenous tourism that sustains and develops their many diverse traditions and values. \u201cIt is really important that all tribes take control of tourism,\u201d she explained, \u201cand we don\u2019t let tourism take control of us.\u201d She said tourism needs to be a way for indigenous people \u201cnot to preserve their culture, but to perpetuate it.\u201d<\/p>\n She told various stories of how American Indians have been excluded from many well known stories, ranging from Route 66 to the American Civil War and Grand Canyon. She gave the example of their work training indigenous people to be guides at the Grand Canyon, sharing that there are 11 tribes still living within the area of the Grand Canyon. \u201cWe have brought a sense of place back into that view,\u201d she said<\/p>\n The concluding presentation of this year\u2019s WTM Responsible Tourism programme was given by Cameron Taylor, Tourism and Heritage Consultant and Author, TTJ Tourism, who works with the Nunavut people of Northern Canada. He reflected on how differently the indigenous concept of sustainability is to that presented in most of the discussions taking place at WTM.<\/p>\n Most discussions perceive acting sustainability as being about our efforts to sustain something else, conceiving of humans as somehow separate from the environment that we damage and then need to save. That\u2019s not how indigenous people such as the Inuit see it, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe environment isn\u2019t external, it is internal.\u201d commented Taylor. \u201cLandscape, land and people are all one and the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With a prophesy that “Growth in tourism stands to come to an end,” South Africa’s minister for tourism Derek Hanekom went were few, if any, other tourism ministers would dare to go. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":28562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[675,16,130,17,2667,138,534],"tags":[1285],"yoast_head":"\nResponsible Tourism – how much progress have we made?<\/b><\/h2>\n
Employment and Decent Work<\/b><\/h2>\n
Indigenous Tourism<\/b><\/h2>\n