Fair trade tourism and travelife sign pact
Mutual recognition agreement to stimulate co-operation
South Africa’s Fair Trade Tourism (FTT), a non-profit organisation based in South Africa that operates a ground-breaking certification scheme supporting tourism enterprises to optimise their environmental, social and economic impacts, and Dutch-based Travelife for Tour Operators (Travelife), have signed a Mutual Recognition Agreement.
The idea is to stimulate cooperation within the sustainable tourism standards and certification environment, and expand the reach and awareness of sustainable tourism certification within the tourism industry.
Say the pair "Mutual Recognition will allow any tour operator certified by Travelife to receive the full number of possible points when using an FTT-certified tourism business as a supplier, and thus the requirement to conduct an individual check of this supplier will be waived by Travelife"
Mutual Recognition also means that FTT will automatically recognise tour operators and travel agencies certified by Travelife as being "pre-approved" to sell Fair Trade Holidays, an innovative concept developed for the international trade in tourism services, subject to related marketing efforts and sales transactions being periodically audited by an independent certification body appointed by FTT.
After operating for 10 years in South Africa, thanks to the support of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), FTT is now scaling up its certification programme in the southern African region so that Fair Trade Holidays will be able to include a regional element. Part of the strategy to scale up includes the development of Mutual Recognition Agreements with key organisations in Europe and southern Africa.
FTT’s Kathy Bergs said, "Mutual Recognition is a strategy of collaboration rather than competition with sister sustainable tourism certification schemes and is welcomed by an industry facing ‘label fatigue’". Travelife’s Naut Kusters adds, "For the first time we can now guarantee the sustainability of the full tourism product, including accommodation, excursions, fair contracting and the sustainability of the tour operator".
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