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Location: What is Sustainable Tourism?
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| WestAfricaDiscovery | Responsible Tourism conference at the WTM | 2 | Nov 13 2009, 2:33 PM EST by agricolus | ||||
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Thread started: Oct 8 2009, 3:30 PM EDT
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Nowadays, the words “responsible”, “green” and “sustainable” are finding their way in front of every type of activity that we find on the market. Even though these terms reflect a healthier and compassionate lifestyle, they
also attract a wide number of customers due to the social trend which has swung over to the ethical way of seeing things in everyday life. Now it is the turn of tourism to get the “ethical treatment”, and the term Responsible Tourism has been circulating in blogs, travel fairs (see WTM responsible tourism day) and other publications for the past few years, and it seems like there is an ever growing database of tourism orientated businesses which are adopting the “responsible” label. Why? Well because it attracts the tourist of course. Responsible tourism started off as a strategy to use tourism as a tool to alleviate poverty in impoverished areas of the world, as its criteria includes economic benefits for communities in the destination, respect towards nature and cultural values, valorisation of national heritages and the promotion of sustainable living (renewable energy, permaculture, recycling, etc.). The majority of travel businesses that started off the trend strived towards this and still do, however there is a danger that there will be an increasing trend for businesses to jump on the band wagon to win a quick buck without taking into consideration the real meaning of responsible tourism. Now there is a chance for businesses seeking profitability through the right use of responsible tourism (using the Cape Town declaration criteria) to learn how to grow their ventures whilst respecting the ideals and values on which the industry started off on. [...] To read more go to wadiscovery.blogspot.com
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| eccampbell | A sustainable tourism dilemma | 1 | Jan 4 2009, 7:40 AM EST by Gillenium | ||||
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Thread started: Jan 1 2009, 8:41 PM EST
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I had an opportunity several years back to talk with the Minister of Culture and Tourism -- if that's the correct title, I forget exactly -- of Papau New Guinea. What a delightful chap to meet.
He pointed out a difficult syndrome: a government policy that tourism dollars be shared with the people in the bush who were objects of view by outside visitors, instead of staying with tourism operators from the city. But when a local fellow who had all his life been poling his dugout canoe by hand (as had his ancestors) would come into money, it might easily make sense to spend it on an outboard motor. His interests in shortening his commute time back and forth to work could not be expected to coincide with those of the anthropologists and wealthy tourists who wanted to observe primitive ways, nor the tourist industry. It was not deemed fair to ask such people to sacrifice in the name of some vague national interest, don't mention tour operators who had previously been exploiting the situation and returning nothing to the natives. Yet the motorized canoe no longer served as such an interesting tourist draw, and sustainable tourism took a hit.
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| Editor/Admin | "Sustainable Tourism" vs "Responsible Travel" | 4 | Jan 4 2009, 7:31 AM EST by Gillenium | ||||
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Thread started: Dec 27 2008, 10:32 AM EST
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... and The "Good Tourism" Wiki ...
Would it be useful for the purposes of this forum to consider:- 1) "Sustainable travel/tourism" as a supply-side issue pertaining to the products, processes, and practices of the business and industry of travel and tourism; recognising that economic considerations and marketability are part of the triple (quadruple?) bottom line of sustainability; AND 2) "Responsible travel" as the choices made by individuals, groups, and organisations when consuming travel and tourism products, while recognising that these choices could just as easily be made at home? What do you think? D
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| mickdundee | Welcome to the Wiki | 1 | Jul 19 2008, 1:33 AM EDT by renton | ||||
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Thread started: Jun 19 2008, 9:12 PM EDT
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Dear PATA colleagues,
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to this new PATA initative. I hope that it will bring us all closer together and that it will prompt us to share our views, opinions,problems and concerns regarding the sustainability of tourism with each other. I see the wiki as an excellent forum for enterprises that want to do progress towards a more sustainable future of their businesses by becoming more environmentally sensitive but don't know how to go about it to get on-line advise from other wiki members. A few years ago I did some work for Conservation International in Cebu. We looked into the barriers that prevented hotels from implementing positive environmentgal changes and what we found was that: 1. It all starts at the top of the organisation - if the owner is convinced that environmental issues are important, than the organisation will head in that direction and 2. That many organsisations were willing to be more environmentally friendly but they did not know how to go about it. I hope that our wiki can help. Best regards Thomas Bauer, Chair PATA Sustainable Tourism Advisory Committee
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