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Kerala declaration
on Responsible Tourism in Destinations:
1|2
(contd...)
Recommendations for actions:
Education and Learning:
Education is required at all levels, initial, secondary, community and
professional - continuing professional development education is more likely
to have an immediate impact on the sustainable management of tourism in
destinations.
Tourism and the ideas of Responsible Tourism should be included it the
primary curriculum to foster social inclusion, discourage dependency and
enable people to engage in the management of tourism impacts.
Use education to build the transferable technical capacity of all
stakeholders
Train guides as interpreters aware of their responsibilities to assist the
process of Responsible Tourism management and to maximise the positive
contribution and minimise negative impacts while enhancing the visitor
experience.
Encourage the development of new tourism experiences which facilitate
socially and economically positive host - guest encounters.
Undertake learning needs analysis and capacity building for communities,
NGOs, the private sector and government staff.
Educate tourists, the intermediaries in the transit route, and generating
markets on local socio-cultural, economic and environmental issues in the
market and the destination; likewise educating the communities on the
cultures of the visitors.
Research and resource materials need to be available in each country
pursuing Responsible Tourism.
Campaigning and awareness raising:
Businesses need to be encouraged to recognise that they can do well by doing
good
There is a business case to be made focussed on a number of issues:
Cost savings
Enlightened self interest in preserving the product
Staff motivation and retention
Responsibility to stakeholders – in particular to employees and communities
Changes in the investment climate which are moving to favour socially
responsible investments in part to ensure the maintenance of brand value.
License to operate
Product enhancement through opportunities for meaningful socio-cultural
engagement.
Customer expectation, there is increasing consumer demand for “richer”
engagement with destinations and the communities who live there and an
expectation that the industry will take responsibility for minimising its
negative, and maximising its positive impacts.
There is market advantage to be gained through referrals and repeat
business.
In destinations campaigning may be necessary to raise awareness amongst all
stakeholders and encourage change.
Media:
We urge the media to exercise more responsibility in the way in which
they portray tourism destinations, to avoid raising false expectations and
to provide balanced and fair reporting.
We urge the media to communicate the ideas of Responsible Tourism and the
enhanced visitor experiences it can provide and to promote Responsible
Tourism enterprises.
We ask that the media exercise independent critical judgment when reporting
on companies and destinations and address the Responsible Tourism agenda.
Empowerment:
Recognise the importance of strengthening the role of local communities
in decision making about tourism development through their existing civil
society structures and local governance processes.
Encourage local government scrutiny of joint ventures, co-operatives, and
public private sector partnerships, it may be appropriate for local
government to assist communities in maintaining some control over the forms
of tourism development in their area.
Recognise that communities are not homogenous and that equity, power and
gender issues need to be addressed.
Taking responsibility for sustainable local social and economic
development:
Responsible Tourism now has to focus on the economic participation of local
people as direct owners in the business of tourism not just as beneficiaries
of charity.
Tourism has to contribute to socio-economic development by supporting the
conservation of natural and cultural heritage.
Tourism has to provide opportunities for employment at the community level
Government and tourism enterprises can make a significant contribution by
changing their procurement practices and supporting local entrepreneurs to
develop the quality and quantity of their goods and services to meet market
demands.
Enclave tourism raises particular issues of market access and control which
need to be addressed.
Tourism needs to prove its link with poverty reduction rather than relying
on the concept of trickledown
Government and development agencies need to address the challenge of
spreading the benefits of tourism geographically and to the poor.
Market access for micro and small enterprises through the removal of
barriers can achieve immediate results through increasing the discretionary
spend by tourists to informal sector traders and micro-enterprises.
Access to viable markets is essential for local micro enterprises to
flourish, and workers rights need to be addressed.
Through their supply chain tourism businesses can increase their linkages to
the local economy and to economically poor producers.
Mentoring partnerships can assist in product development and marketing of
micro enterprise products.
Provide opportunities for tourists to support communities in a meaningful
and dignified way, with responsible and transparent mechanisms for handling
donations of finance and resources
Governance:
Governance is a major challenge often central to engaging all the
stakeholders to achieve change.
Local government has overall responsibility to bring together the efforts of
destination stakeholders through dialogue in multi-stakeholder forums to
establish responsible destinations rather than pockets of responsibility in
destinations.
“Joined-up government”, a “whole of government approach”, going “beyond the
silo” are expressions used in different societies to make the point that the
management of tourism cannot be achieved by the tourism department working
alone.
Planning control, highways, environmental management, police and a host of
other government agencies at the national and local government need to be
encouraged to play their role in managing tourism. All relevant departments
in national and local government need to exercise their responsibility for
ensuring the formulation and implementation of regulations.
Government plays a key role in facilitating the balance of competition and
co-operation: businesses need to co-operate to attract tourists to the
destination and compete for their bookings and business.
Government should support and facilitate the community to engage in tourism
services, integrating equity and environmental concerns.
Governments in originating countries have a responsibility to issue well
founded travel advisories and not unnecessarily to damage local tourism
industries.
Care needs to be taken to avoid regulation causing corruption or excluding
small businesses and communities.
National and local governments should implement public health policy
programmes in view of the impacts which communicable diseases may have on
local communities and tourism. .
Multi-Stakeholder processes:
Co-operation and competition between different groups in the informal
sector and between the informal and formal sectors is required.
Multi-stakeholder processes and co-operation within a shared undertaking to
take and exercise responsibility can achieve rapid and significant change.
Avoid fragmentation and parallel initiatives, manage and balance
co-operation and competition
Ensure that all stakeholders are engaged
Recognise that different stakeholders have particular but interdependent
needs and responsibilities.
It is a sign of responsibility that you engage with those who question you.
Agree implementation plans - short lists, success in implementation breeds
success.
The processes of change and management need to be systematised.
Partnerships:
Responsible Tourism can only be achieved by government, local
communities and businesses cooperating on practical initiatives in
destinations through stable local level partnerships.
Partnerships need to be based on transparency, mutual respect and shared
risk taking, ensure clarity about roles and expectations.
Build long term partnerships with clear, fair and realistic expectations on
all sides.
Patience and persistence are required, proceed with wisdom and hope
Community based Tourism:
In considering proposals for community-based tourism development there
needs to be more focus on business planning and administration, consumer
orientated product development, quality, co-operation with the commercial
sector, communication, sales channels, marketing and the management of the
interaction between tourists and local people..
Robust and transparent financial management systems are needed to empower
the community to ensure that earnings are distributed equitably within the
community.
Communities and individuals need to be empowered to realise a fair price for
their goods and services and to have a say in determining how tourism is
developed in their community.
Markets:
There is advantage in developing those market segments which are likely
to be resilient and where long term and repeat visiting is likely to result.
The experiential trend favours those destinations which are able to
facilitate engagement between holiday makers and local communities able to
provide the cultural richness
There are increasing opportunities to choose to work with outbound
operators, who have a responsible approach
Consider focusing marketing efforts to attract specific groups of tourists
predisposed to engage in those activities and pattern of spending which
maximise local economic benefit and minimise negative social and
environmental impacts.
New online travel agencies in destinations and originating markets are
providing opportunities for direct sales to travellers and holidaymakers
predisposed to purchase experiences with Responsible Tourism characteristics
and with the client feedback mechanisms which can assist in driving
referrals.
The private sector and government should consider providing marketing
support to micro and small enterprises
Disability and inclusion:
Ensure access to built and natural environments and provide information
about facilities and access
Provide information and interpretation in ways accessible to those with
physical or cognitive disabilities
Create opportunities for employment by those with disabilities in the
tourism industry
Commercial Sustainability:
The private sector needs to be actively engaged in developing and sustaining
Responsible Tourism in destinations
Institutionalisation and systematisation are essential to sustainability;
many projects do not survive the cessation of external financial and
technical support.
Initiatives need to be mainstreamed and connected to the industry
Responsible Tourism is about changing the way that business is done,
recognising that the businesses operate in a competitive market where not
all businesses are investing time and other resources in responsible
practices.
Responsible Tourism businesses can contribute nothing if they are not
commercially viable and sustainable.
Care should be taken to ensure that communities do not suffer a
disproportionate risk given their vulnerability
Environmental Sustainability:
Investors in tourism at all levels must build and operate in an ecologically
and environmentally sustainable manner
Promote conservation and biodiversity during planning, development and
operation of tourism.
Adopt a strategic approach to identifying, managing and harvesting natural
resources in tourism destinations.
Tourism should recognise how tourism contributes to climate change and
should minimise its carbon footprint.
Tourism enterprises should adopt environmental management systems
Monitoring, Measurement and Reporting:
Monitoring, verification and reporting on key local social, economic and
environmental issues through locally agreed indicators is central to the
management of tourism impacts - measure, verify and report.
Transparent and auditable reporting is essential to the integrity and
credibility of our work and to establishing benchmarks and targets which
enable individual consumers and businesses to make informed choices.
In determining who are the responsible tourists and what are the responsible
forms of tourism we need to rely more on the measurement of impacts rather
than the self-declared motivations of the travellers or the companies
concerned.
Measurement enables the identification of the specific activities,
businesses and tourists who deliver impacts which fulfill the locally
defined Responsible Tourism priorities recognising that the tourists who
have the lowest environmental impacts may also have low economic yield -
choices will need to be made within the framework of local sustainable
development priorities.
Credible and robust measuring of local impacts assists in ensuring that an
holistic assessment is made of the contribution of tourism to sustainable
communities and assists in engaging colleagues in local and national
government to contribute their expertise and resources to the management of
tourism.
Local government should establish with all stakeholders to create the
systems and processes to document and report the collective impacts of
stakeholder action at local destination level.
Awards:
Responsible Tourism Awards assist in identifying and rewarding best practise,
it is desirable that there should be a variety of awards relevant to all
stakeholders
Create media interest
Raise awareness and drive consumer knowledge and expectation
Local awards based on local priorities are as important as national and
global awards but avoid too much fragmentation with competing schemes in one
destination.
In conclusion:
Aware that there is a danger that Responsible Tourism will be undermined
by businesses, communities or governments which use the rhetoric but cannot
substantiate the claims. We call upon those committed to the aspirations of
Responsible Tourism to challenge those who pay only lip service to the cause
and we call on those who are making a difference to report their
contribution in a transparent, honest and robust way so that Responsible
Tourism can be identified by the consumer and expectations can be raised to
the benefit of those who practise Responsible Tourism and to the detriment
of those who do not.
Five and a half years on from Cape Town we recognise that there has not been
as much progress as we would have hoped, nor as much progress as is needed
if the travel and tourism industry is to contribute its share of the action
required to achieve sustainable development.
We call upon those involved in the movement for Responsible Tourism to share
their experiences of what works and what doesn’t, to redouble their efforts
to use tourism to make better places for people to live in and for people to
visit and to engage with people, in industry, in communities and across
government to achieve Responsible Tourism in destinations.
If you share the aspiration to use tourism to make better places to live in,
and better places for people to visit we invite you to join us and to share
your experience - together through making many changes we can change for the
better the way tourism works in our shrinking world.
We commit ourselves to work with others to take responsibility for achieving
the economic, social and environmental components of responsible and
sustainable tourism.
This declaration was agreed in Kochi, Kerala 24 March 2008 and is signed by
the co-chairs on behalf of the conference.
Dr Harold Goodwin
Dr Venu V
ICRT and the Responsible Tourism Partnership
Secretary, Kerala Tourism
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