Planeta Forum

[planeta]

What is 'ethical' travel? -- This question will be reviewed in the Ethical Travel Dialogue, June 13-July 21, 2006.
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/etd.html
http://forum.planeta.com/viewforum.php?f=79

REQUEST -- Please keep messages brief, preferably less than three paragraphs or 250 words. If you have a relevant URL, please mention it within hyphens or on a separate line.

Example: The City Parks Gallery -- http://www.flickr.com/groups/cityparks -- is open to anyone with a Flickr account and who wishes to share pictures of urban parks.

REFERENCE

Definitions
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/definitions.html

[valere]

Since the 1960’s tourism has boomed and now provides a living for over 10% of the world’s population. “Mass tourism” has also changed how we think, eat and act over the last 50-odd years, maybe it’s a catalyst for world peace too, who knows? At least, travel’s now cheap and available.

But Mass tourism has brought its problems. Destruction of host communities cultural assets, destruction of the host communities environments, global warming from airplanes, and minimal financial return or control for destinations are just a few. Developed tourism destination countries can take advantage of the situation and fight back, but poor countries just need the money however little it is.

The global tourism industry is controlled by 1st world travel organisations like WTO, IATA and WTTC. All the major travel organisations from Thomas Cook to Expedia are Western owned. This further weakens the power of poor countries in the marketplace. The fact is that tourism is a cut-throat industry - tourists will be taken where the best deal is available.

Given the above, you’ve got to be pretty thick-skinned to fly to a far-away poor country for your holiday and extra thick-skinned if you’re taken to a country like Burma (sorry Myanmar). But we are pretty thick skinned and we’re bolstered up by our own, very convenient, set of Western ethics developed over the last two hundred years of world domination.

Given our modern dependency on labels, we’ve developed Ecotourism, Volunteer Tourism, Sustainable Tourism, Green Tourism, Tourism for Poverty-reduction etc etc to mitigate the effects of tourism, to excuse our behaviour and maybe do a little good for the natives. That’s Ethical Travel for you, isn’t it? Western tourism plus the added mystery ingredient “ETHICS!”

Personally, I really do believe that it can change, that tourism can provide enormous benefits for many people, just as it did in the 1960’s to Spain and Italy. However, we really do have to truthfully recognise the situation and flatten the playing field a bit before this can take place.

The ownership of tourism needs to move, given the ownership of tourism's stock-in-trade (the destination), I don't think that this is an impossible task.

Valere

[Rosie]

Hi Valere and everyone,

The points that you make about where tourism has led us to are very valid to this debate. Over the last 60 years, we have had ample evidence of how tourism can have devastating impacts. More recently, we have seen a few examples of correct planning; best practice through the participation of all the stakeholders involved. I believe that tourism can be managed with the least impact possible on a destination. What is needed is that we have to look forward to how the industry can be managed in the future, learning from the mistakes currently being made.

Ethical tourism, I believe, needs to be defined through a set of moral rules and principles to govern the behaviour of groups and individuals.

We live in a global market place that is fast evolving laws and rules of money movements, trade agreements and international environmental laws (e.g. Gatts). I feel that there is a strong argument for international tourism laws. We already have this working in the field of sex tourism. At least 32 countries have extraterritorial laws that allow the prosecution of their citizens for child sex tourism crimes committed abroad, with prosecutions now taking place.

I have come across a working example in South Africa, where all the stakeholders were responsible for good ethical practice of tourism, through the cohesion of the hotel owner, tourists and the local population. An example of recently passed laws. This had the affect of making the tourist consider the wider issues and implications of their visit to the destination and the implications. The destination, in this case a wildlife park, could not be purely an escapist enclave, but the wider environmental and economic impacts had to be considered. In other words, the tourist was made to ‘see’ and understand the bigger picture.

The ethics of tourism needs to be given a higher profile in the public eye and the debate widened. As you say Valere global tourism is a first world activity and is responsible for billions of dollars being re-distributed around the globe.

[Guyonne]

Hi Rosie
Your comments raise some really interesting issues particularly with regard to defining what is “ethical”.

I totally agree that there needs to be legislation to prevent tourism that results in massive exploitation of environments, communities and economies. (I do wonder, though, how much of that legislation already exists and is simply not applied. We saw this a lot when Tourism Concern was looking into labour rights. The legislation is there but ignored)

The thing that occurs to me is the issue of whose ethics underpins any legislation and who defines “ethical”. I bet if we were to try and set out within this dialogue what we understand by ethical tourism we wouldn’t be finished by Christmas!

If we leave it to international bodies to define ethical tourism, the result will inevitably be influenced by those with the power. You only have to look at the UNWTO Global Code of Ethics, which talks a lot about the rights of tourists and precious little about the rights of people in destinations, (while clearly stating its adherence to the free market agenda) to see how this works.


I would be really interested to know how other people understand ethical tourism and whether it is possible, or even useful, to try and define it!

[valere]

Thanks for that Rosie. The ownership of the word and its implied meaning, to me, is key to the whole issue of development politics.

Leisure tourism itself is a developed country concept. In countries where tourism means nothing except playing host to a bunch of rich people for money, the addition of the word ETHICAL often just means another hurdle to jump before the dosh is doled out.

That, after all, is what tourism is about. At heart it's simply a commercial activity in which some participants win more than others.

In our quest for fairness, I think we're concerned that the weaker partners in the tourism enterprise are not bullied into accepting less than their fair share. To do that we need to find methods of ceding control and the moral, the linguistic, the commercial and the marketing power. Is 'Empowerment' the word?

[Mary Finn]

Rosie wrote
“Ethical tourism, I believe, needs to be defined through a set of moral rules and principles to govern the behaviour of groups and individuals.“

First I want to say that I agree wholeheartedly with Rosie, Valere and others on this.

But I`ve found in practice, through my experiences with community ecotourism projects, that getting agreement on a common, universal set of moral standards is much harder than it sounds. Here are just a sample of the kinds of behavior I´ve seen justified in the name of what you could call ´moral relativism´ based on culture, gender or age (e.g. “in our culture, we men have the right to…” or “that’s how young people are,” or “that’s how we do things here and we don’t let ‘outsiders’ tell us what to do,” etc.)

• Open promiscuity, infidelity, and what behavior that one could euphemistically call I suppose being ‘gigolos’ (purposefully pursuing and seducing women for material gain), especially between local men and women ecotourists or volunteers
• Broken marriages and mistreatment including physical, emotional and psychological abuse of women and other less powerful community members
• Emphasis on pursuing individual advantage and personal gain over community benefit (permitting or even encouraging acceptance of personal gifts of money, trips, etc. in place of donations to general funds for communal benefit)
• A concentration of power and material gains in the hands of a few most powerful community members, and disempowerment/ desenfranchisment of the less powerful.

Some of these things continue to happen with impunity because there is no effective means or system in place to find out what’s actually happening ‘ on the ground’ , to monitor and ensure compliance with behavioral standards, especially in remote, third world communities. One community that I’m aware of where all of the above is commonplace has been ‘certified’ and received more than one award or ‘ honorable mention’ for being an example of ‘ responsible tourism’, from various international ecotourism certifiers – none of whom have ever visited the locale. Such awards seem to be based mainly on ‘ self reporting’, or worse, on ‘ popularity votes’ , which in effect appears to encourage (or at least permit) ‘ green washing.’

Even more disturbing is that in receiving these ‘awards’, those who participate in the kind of behavior described above feel even more justified in continuing (one ‘community leader’ even wrote me that ‘ no one cares what we [else] do as long as we conserve our natural resources.’ So in this sense, certifications and awards that ignore social issues, and /or are based on self-reporting with no real monitoring or accountability, can actually have negative impacts on community moral standards.

I think Valere makes a key point that needs to be further explored:
“I think we're concerned that the weaker partners in the tourism enterprise are not bullied into accepting less than their fair share. To do that we need to find methods of ceding control and the moral, the linguistic, the commercial and the marketing power. Is 'Empowerment' the word?”

I agree wholeheartedly, and I think it’s important to discuss further this idea of empowering the weaker partners, recognizing that in doing so, we cannot treat ‘ communities’ as a black box, or single entity; we must also hold ‘community leaders’ accountable for ensuring that all segments within that community are treated justly.

Mary

[Rosie]

Hi everyone,

Guyonne asks whether it is possible, or even useful, to try to define ethical? This is a good question.

I feel that ethical tourism can be defined and it is useful to try to do so. I am also am aware that ethics within the tourism industry are about many issues. Such as the ethics of travel with the knowledge of environmental damage, behavioural ethics, moral/cultural values and the politics of ethical practice by tour operators. (Just to name a few).

It remains a fact that tourism is a huge profit making global business and will continue to be so. One aspect of good ethical practice may be inherent with the problems of wealth redistribution.

Some keys words brought up so far are jumping out at me:

Empowerment
Ethical
Ownership
Accountability

In order for the social/economic affects of tourism to be identified within an ethical set of principles, it is necessary to understand the ethics and motives of planners, politicians and developers. It is rightly argued by Valere that it is simply to make money. However, along with the basic and obvious need to make money the politics of sustainability has progressed. This has now become a big political topic, whether or not in practice the concept is working on the ground (or in the air). The fact that governments are aware of the problems of tourist related behaviour means that the framework for further legislation is in place. This is a beginning and needs to be endorsed at local level. As Mary points out this needs to monitored on the ground. There needs to be greater accountability of both local politicians and tourists.

Empowerment should be at local community level, being accountable as Mary points out. I have seen several good examples of local empowerment through tourism income. A percentage of tourist earnings/profits are given in trust to local community leaders to be spent within the local community. The important issue here is that the community decided how they wanted the money spent. In this example, it was elected to spend the money on an ambulance, youth centre and coffee co-operative amongst other things. Equally, if a local community feels that they can be empowered by building a casino, for example, for use by the tourists to raise revenue, then this has to be accepted as a local democratic decision too. Ethical practice should be defined by a set of ethical values based on how a local community prioritises those values.

It may be the case that many examples of unethical tourism practice is a result of the local community not having a just share in the revenue raised from tourism. Ownership of many communities now seems to be in the hands of big business and it is only through regulation with ethical guidance that socially sustainable/ethical tourism can be brought about.

Social sustainability could therefore mean that local people are able to seize control over their lives as their culture is often negatively influenced by first world tourism, monitory power and our ethical values.

As Valere says, “at the heart it’s simply a commercial activity in which some participants win more than others”. Empowerment of local communities is a valid and ethical means to re-distribute wealth. This system is working in some places and could be improved upon.

[planeta]

When we were setting up the dialogue, it was important to address the topic of definitions as many labels are interpreted differently around the globe. As a Usian in Mexico, I get the impression that 'ethical travel' might be a more popular and accepted label in the UK than in the Americas where we might call the concept 'responsible travel.'

Guyonne says that if we leave it to international bodies to define ethical tourism, the result will inevitably be influenced by those with the power. My suggestion is that we should be conducting a review of said international bodies to see how they carry ethics forward in their own operations.

At national and international levels, tourism development and promotion is rarely run as a meritocracy. Do we allow these leaders to define ethical travel?

Valere's review of mass tourism is enlightening and one that should be explored in depth. I recently attended an ecotourism conference in Huatulco where a large group of UK tourists on a two-week vacation were bored two days into their visit, mostly because they were being treated as mass tourists. How many times does a traveler want to see a lip-synched floor show or eat canned vegetables from the buffet?

I'm making notes for myself to review the comments made by H. Peter Jorgensen -- http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/weaving/hpeterjorgsensen.html -- that even the masses which to be treated as independent travelers.

I would encourage Rosie to write more about the example in South Africa that makes travelers consider the wider issues and implications of their visit. Does this really work? Sorry to be skeptical, but there are many good "case examples" that do not work longer than 18 months. I would love to read (or publish!) an article about this community.

Mary's review of moral relativism also deserves an article which I would be happy to publish on Planeta.com. That awards and certification can be used to justify social abuses within communities is alarming.

REFERENCES

Responsible Travel Handbook - Transitions Abroad
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/travel/responsible/responsible_travel_handbook.pdf

Writers Guidelines - Transitions Abroad
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/information/writers/writers.shtml

Writers Guidelines - Planeta.com
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/search/guide.html

[balamku]

Unethical practices in tourism are here in Mahahual, Costa Maya, Mexico. Since the arrival of the cruise ships, operators have been offering high impact activities such as speed boats and 4 x 4 vehicles in an area zoned, by the government, as low impact. The accountability for ethical tourism lies in many hands: the operators, the government, the tourists and the community. Our Case and petition action can be viewed on http://impactexcursions.blogspot.com
We would welcome comments and suggestions .

[Mary Finn]

Some background first: I have participated in a number of conferences on Planeta, was one of the co-authors of Strengthening Ecotourism In Ecuador: Seven Recommendations --
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/south/ecuador/7.html

My background includes a Masters in Sustainable Development, and more to the point, that I lived within a small rural community in Ecuador for a number of years, and I got to know all of the community members and their families very well, and I observed and participated in many community activities and meetings.

And I have always championed community-based ecotourism in these forums.

I absolutely agree with all who support (as I think we all do), the empowerment of local communities in ecotourism. But I want to suggest that achieving ´genuine empowerment´ is complicated but not insurmountable if we appreciate the complexity for what it is. I have a few observations from these experiences that I think are pertinent to a discussion defining ethical travel.

First, it is not certain that 'community decisions' are based on truly participatory and egalitarian processes.

It is all too easy for outsiders and dominant factions within a community to dictate meeting agendas, define the available choices and also control how those choices are presented, in order to ensure that the´participatory community decisions´ come out as desired. This may not even be due to ´bad intentions´, but sometimes due to pressures of time or money (or even inexperience), which give powerful incentives to avoid the sometimes messy and always time-consuming process of truly democratic communal decision-making.

Secondly, even if community decisions are reached through democratic voting, that still can often mean that a less powerful or visible minority(particularly women, children, elders) may not have their interests protected.

For this reason, I think it is dangerous to argue that anything at all that a community decides to pursue, even casinos (to use Rosie´s example), or ´male privilege´ and sanctioned promiscuity with visitors looking for´vacation flings´ (to use another real- life example), should be accepted without question. Both of these activities can have important negative social impacts, so a community that ´democratically decides´ to allow them should raise a red flag (or two) that triggers a closer look at the decision process.

I used to hold the same position of staunchly defending ´community sovereignty´ above all. But having seen some of the problems that can come from a too idealized view of the community , I have come to feel that we cannot afford to put up a ´firewall´ at the community boundary, and blindly accept without question whatever decision emerges from within. I now feel that ethics demand that we do our ´due diligence´, and ask several key questions of communities and their representatives, holding them to the same standards of accountability and transparency that one should the NGOs and businesses that work with them in ecotourism.

These should include questions of who within and outside the community really benefits, what potential problems are anticipated, and how these might be eliminated or minimized. I would also ask how communities guarantee that decision-making processes are as democratic and participatory as they can be, and what they do to protect the interests of even the most marginalized members, and how they ensure an equal voice for all.

Further, it seems to me that any community that wishes to participate as a partner in a sustainable ecotourism operation should also accept the same basic set of fundamental, universal moral principles (conservation, social equity, transparency, responsibility, etc.) that other ecotourism partners accept, and not be too easily allowed to use ´local cultural norms´ as an excuse to by-pass these principles.

I look forward to your comments.

Mary

[xfont]

What will we do once we have a definition? For ten years we have tried to operationalise sustainability definitions into criteria, indicators, then standards, then processes to certify them... I think we have learned a lot as an industry in that period about what sustainability is through this process, including many of the gaps we have left behind in trying to reach further. We keep looking at the definition from a resource based, not market led approach. What would a tourist think is ethical travel? would they even use that word? Once we got to sustainability certification from a resource based, not market led approach we found that the marketplace was not interested. So we reinvented another word, responsible tourism. Now ethical tourism. Shouldn't we take a market-based approach, and start not by where we can get funds from to do something we want to do, but what is a realistic business proposition of a mechanism to market ethical tourism, and then get the definitions from what the market wants? Of course that is going to also have gaps, but aren't they more acceptable?

[valere]

Thank you very much for that practical post Xavier. Of course the market dictates what it buys, the vast majority of tourists live in a market economy.

In the food area a significant percentage of consumers have bought organic, fair trade and free range. OK it's not massive, but these market sectors are increasing. In particular free range eggs and chicken to the extent that, in the EU that's all you'll be able to buy soon.

I'm sure that we can make it all possible in tourism too. But you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, it's the market we need to look at first, then the product.

Too many years ago to remember, I was taught it's not the features that count - it's the benefits. We all need to know what precise benefits Ethical (or whatever other term) Tourism will deliver to the consumer.

I guess we all know what they are. Maybe it's worth thinking about and getting personal lists up on this forum next week before it closes?

[chinacontact]

Hi, sorry I have not been active on the forum before - juggling a new business, relocation and baby does not leave much free time unfortunately.

The dialogue on what is ethical travel seems to be following a certain logic that the consumers want to receive information in terms they can relate to. The terms ethical or sustainable or eco relate to a very small niche in the market, people that pursue these types of traevl activities are likely to find what they want through self research and independent travel. But increasing the access to the market for destinations, products and activities that genuinely give back to the community and minimize negative impacts on environment/culture etc can be done if we draw larger and larger circles around the potential customers.

My background is very much in sales and marketing of large scale tourism, having worked before for a large international tour operator. I was dealing with the independent travel market. In Europe at least, independent travel is becoming more concerned with impacts on destination. In the UK, Fair Trade has become very successful in determining the direction that supermarkets now take in food sourcing and delivery. It is not the norm yet but it is a proven economic success for small producers of fairly and ethicaly traded goods.

I truly think this model can apply to tourism and that Fair Trade as a label is better for the consumers than ethical, sustainable etc. Tourism Concern has been doing great work on research into utilising this lable in tourism and I hope this work will continue. In meantime, maybe individual operators can beging to discuss their services and products in terms of fairly traded holidays?

[Rosie]

I have read with great interest all the comments made over the last week.

I refer to Valere’s opening statement about tourists being ‘pretty thick skinned’. With this in mind I continue.

In answer to Mary’s very apt political points. All that you write about democracy and the lack of it at local level is very relevant. In the developed world, this principle does not always stand up either. It has always been the case that decisions are made by the few with the power and without proper public consultation. Usually the decision makers are elected males (although less so now in some developed nations) making decisions on behalf of us all based on local cultural norms.

Perhaps new ethical tourism principles can at least change that within tourism destinations in the developing world. The model that Mary set outs with reference to ‘due diligence’ is excellent. Something or this kind might be incorporated into Fair Trade standards in tourism.

However, I disagree with Xfont’s market based approach. By leaving it up to the market place, we will continue to see mass exploitation. The market place has yet to educate their customers from the first world about ethical tourism because they continue to sell holidays on the illusion of happy smiling people, being as cost effective as possible. The market place overall excludes local communities and is dominated mainly by large globalised companies. People in the developed world have spent hundreds of years fighting to gain rights and have had to learn how to stand up against big business. The market place is extremely regularised in the developed world because it has needed to be. Now though we are beginning to see ethical regulations becoming a global issue thanks to initiatives brought about mainly through the voice of NGO’s, responsible tourism operators, and local communities.

As tourists and the market place are thick skinned, (thanks again Valere), then it is through local empowerment, being as fair and egalitarian as possible, that tourism can be made to be more ethical. Also the need is there to educate the tourist and regulate the tour operators in regard to Fair Trade in tourism.

[valere]

Thank you very much indeed for that, Rosie. I assume that we all agree that what 'wholesome' tourism (sorry I'm getting a bit worried about 'ethical' as I assume that the West owns the concept behind the word) needs and provides empowered local communities.

My personal view is that it simply can't be sustainable unless it's market-led. Legislation can only take place in the destinations and, let's face it - they need the money, it would be a suicidally-brave local politician who would propose legislation to take the few tourist crumbs out of poor people's mouths.

Our job, I think, is to make the case, in the same sort of way that the case has been made for fair trade products and services - books like 'No Logo', press reports, word of mouth, campaigns etc.

There is also another method that we haven't talked about - Value Chains, a great deal of work has been done on these in other industries assisting locals to understand how the may better empower themselves. I think that there may be an application in tourism too.