World Responsible Tourism Day

Jeffrey Van Staden - 10. November 2010 - 12:05

Today is the WTM World Responsible Tourism Day.

A few months ago we were asked if we'd like to apply to be an ambassador for this initiative. In order to be accepted there was a bit of a proccess and I needed to explain why we thought we qualified and what we were going to do to promote the event. I explained that I would write a blog (this is it) and find a means of communicating our responsible tourism practices to as many people as we could. We obviously qualified. We went one better though. We co-founded The African Fair Travel and Trade Organisation. Talk about over achieving! check out www.aftto.org

As co-founder of AFTTO I will be writing a weekly blog on my views on the tourism frontline. Here is my first attempt:

My tourism Dilemna

I became involved in tourism as scuba diving instructor and skipper about 10 yrs ago back home in Sodwana Bay, South Africa.

Two things became clear to me very early on. The first being that I wanted to spend my life in this, probably the most rewarding industry there is. Secondly, that by inadvertently encouraging the growth of tourism I could in fact be damaging the very essence of what it is I loved so much.

10 years on and having moved on to a very different area and level of the industry I don’t feel any different. All these years I have been plagued by this dilemma. I need tourists to travel in order to pursue my career goals, but I am thereby also aiding the increase of Co2 emissions and possibly also helping to cause the negative cultural and social impacts which go along with tourism. So what do I do? I can’t very well tell my clients to rather stay at home. For one I need to make a living, but more importantly Africa, especially Africa, is in dire need of economic growth and tourism is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, industries in the world. Tourism to developing countries gives local peoples an opportunity to benefit financially from maintaining and celebrating their ancient traditions, rather than having to abandon such traditions and family life to seek employment elsewhere.

So the answer is quite clear to me, tourism has the ability to do a country and its inhabitants a lot of good. But what starts happening when tourism in developing countries starts to pick up and the tourists start to pour in? Whose responsibility is it to make sure that tourism takes place in a responsible and sustainable manner? Is the responsibility of the destination government? The tour operator? The property owners? Or is it the responsibility of the tourists themselves?

I would argue that it is the duty of all the stakeholders and I guess I am not the only one who has come to such a conclusion. Sustainable tourism has become a buzz phrase in the last few years, but strangely enough its more spoken about in the tourism industry here in the first world, than on the ground in developing countries. How can we, In the first world dictate to the small lodge owner in Swaziland how to run his business in a sustainable manner? What is a sustainable manner anyway? Nobody has even figured that out yet. Is sustainable tourism about saving fauna and flora? Is it about preserving cultures? Or maybe it’s about paying fair wages, or reasonable working hours? Maybe protecting citizens from tourists in cases like prostitution? Once again it is probably all of the above and whole lot more.

So if its everybody’s duty to solve (or avoid) all of these problems who is going to plan and coordinate all of it? There are hundreds of initiatives, organizations, community projects, think tanks. Indeed many good examples. The problem I see is that everyone is speaking with their own voice. The ones with the financial ability to have a bigger voice are generally the ones who are using the buzz to make themselves look good, but in essence are not. I am not saying that all successful companies are bad, but some are certainly pulling the wool over our eyes. How does the tourist tell the difference?

I don’t claim to know the answers to these questions. In fact I think there are many more questions we still need to ask. I do think it is time though that these issues are brought out into the open on a large scale by involving all stakeholders in a single forum. We, as an industry, both first and third world, need to decide on what is the best way to proceed in what looks like an ever growing market, without ruining it in the process. Only once that has been achieved can the “one voice” can start with the arduous task of educating the tourist.

I want to see Africa benefit greatly from tourism and I want to feel good about my encouraging tourists to visit the continent I love so much. I bet you do too.