Tourism Concern hosts international meeting of tourism NGOs

Group to travel to Bali next week to put the TEN member and ECOT concerns to UNWTO.

At a three day meeting in London last week, groups committed to fair trade tourism reconfirmed their commitment to fighting human rights abuses in the tourism industry.

Several members of the European group, known as TEN are also lobbying the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) to address human rights issues and to fulfil its responsibilities as a UN agency by opening up to civil society participation.

TEN is comprised of campaigning groups, development agencies and other organisations seeking to promote fairly traded forms of tourism that respects and upholds human rights. It was formed as a solidarity network to the Thailand-based Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT) in support of communities in the global South who fall victim to the harmful impacts of tourism development.

Tourism Concern is traveling to Bali to lobby the UNWTO on the need to address human rights abuses perpetrated by, or directly linked to, global tourism development (as outlined in the Tourism Concern report, ‘Putting Tourism to Rights’.

This follows a meeting with the UNWTO Secretary General and Tourism Concern and Tourism Watch (Germany) on behalf of the European Tourism Network (TEN) and the Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT) last October. This meeting was initiated following a joint sign-on letter from the two NGO networks, which raised their shared concerns around: (i) the urgent need to address the human rights impacts of tourism development and; (ii) the need for the UNWTO to facilitate increased civil society participation in its processes.

Says Tourism Concern “Under its mandate as a UN organisation, the UNWTO is required to be transparent and accountable to all tourism stakeholders.  However, its current levels of civil society engagement are insufficient and unrepresentative of the multi-stakeholder approaches commonly practiced by the majority of UN agencies.”

“Meaningful civil society engagement, including with organisations challenging unsustainable tourism development practices and associated human rights violations, is essential for eradicating exploitation within the global tourism industry and for promoting a more ethical industry, as espoused in the UNWTO’s own Global Code of Ethics.”

“Tourism Concern and other TEN members and ECOT believe it is incumbent upon UNWTO and its members to allocate the requisite resources to further research develop and implement mechanisms for sustained, enhanced civil society engagement, based on a clear policy and strategy, and devised in an inclusive, participative manner.”

TEN members aim to:

• Raise consciousness and awareness of the effects of tourism on people in the receiving countries of the global South.
• Support behaviour and attitudes which avoid "touristic consumption" of other peoples, countries and cultures, and which help to create equal relations among peoples of different countries.
• Encourage practices, means and activities which increase the positive aspects of tourism and challenge its negative aspects. This means measuring tourism according to its contribution to building just, participatory and sustainable societies.
• Seek out cooperation with the tourism industry and with partners at all levels within the receiving countries.

Current TEN members are: akte – Arbeitskreis für Tourismus und Entwicklung (Switzerland); Karavaan (Belgium); Informatie VerreReizen (Netherlands); Naturfreunde Internationale / Respect (Austria); Schyst Resande (Sweden); Studienkreis für Tourismus und Entwicklung (Germany); Stichting Retour Foundation (Netherlands); Tourism Concern (UK); Tourism Watch/EED (Germany)

Valere Tjolle
Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite – special offers HERE