Way back in 2002, in the Cape Town Declaration that kick-started the Responsible Tourism movement, we recognised the importance of minimising the ‘negative economic, environmental, and social impacts’ of tourism and that “limited progress has been made in harnessing tourism for local economic development, for the benefit of communities and indigenous peoples, and in managing the social impacts of tourism.” The Declaration also recognised that “to protect the cultural, social and environmental integrity of destinations, limits to tourism development are sometimes necessary.”
The most often quoted part of the definition on Responsible Tourism in the Cape Town Declaration is its commitment “to take responsibility for achieving sustainable tourism, and to create better places for people to live in and for people to visit.” Creating better places to live in and better places to visit has become something of a meme, phrased in various ways, including great places to live are great places to visit. Revealingly, some fail the litmus text and reverse the order, placing the visitor before the resident.
The Cape Town Declaration’s characterisation of Responsible Tourism has as its second point, after the minimisation of negative impacts, “generates greater economic benefits for local people and enhances the well-being of host communities, improves working conditions and access to the industry”. In the 2022 Responsible Tourism Charter, this was developed further, declaring that Responsible Tourism:
Generates greater economic benefits for local people and enhances the well-being of host communities by providing better employment conditions, developing shared value with local businesses to create more and better livelihoods and addressing the economic needs of the economically poor and marginalised.
Increasingly, in the Responsible Tourism Awards, we see examples of businesses which are working hard to upskill and employ people from local communities, improve working conditions, and benefit local people by growing the local content in their supply chain as well as encouraging tourists to buy local art and craft and use local services. This year, we had a strong field of entries in all the regional awards in the increasing local sourcing and the employing and upskilling local communities categories. The Gold winners in each of the six categories in the 2024 awards, now finalists in the Global Awards, can be found here. The employment and local sourcing categories entries show what tourism can do when businesses address the social dimension of their impacts.
There has been an understandable focus on greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, and biodiversity extinction, but there are links between the UN SDGs’ environmental, social and economic dimensions. For example, the Sukau Rainforest Lodge in Malaysia and CREES in Peru both won Gold in the regional awards in the Nature Positive category. Both address the conservation agenda by improving the livelihoods of those living with biodiversity so that communities see biodiversity as an asset that benefits them rather than as an asset, for hunting and foraging, from which they are excluded. The socio-economic agenda is critical to sustainability. Regrettably, it is often overlooked and ignored. Too often, tourism does not contribute to a thriving local economy, and it has a reputation for poor quality, low-paid work. The sector could do much more to demonstrate its positive impacts and the quality of employment available in tourism and hospitality.
It is a matter of regret that the hospitality industry, in particular, does not have research to demonstrate its contribution to upskilling. The industry has a reputation for high staff turnover, partly due to staff gaining social and service skills and then moving on to better-paid employment in other sectors. The tourism and hospitality sector remains remarkably open to people who progress from entry-level to senior management and sometimes board positions.
New report calls for fair tourism benefits across local communities. “Key recommendations emerging from the report include the principle that destination management should always prioritise “local needs first and foremost”. Specifically, the report calls out the idea that spreading tourism, creating jobs, or bringing in high-spenders are always good things. This is a fallacy and “won’t automatically or necessarily make it fairer – and may even make it worse,” say the authors.
Last year, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and the IUF joined together in the Tourism Workers’ Alliance to commission a report, ‘Why The ‘S’ In ESG Matters: Social Sustainability and Labour and Human Rights in Travel And Tourism’, which outlines critical social risks and presents a clear business case for tackling labour and human rights issues head-on, alongside seven actionable steps for improving conditions across the sector.
IUF General Secretary Sue Longley stated, “Too many tourism companies hide behind certification schemes and fake claims to be protecting the environment when what are really doing is cutting costs and making work ever more precarious. This report confirms that they need to engage with trade unions, global and national, and together we can turn corporate claims into tangible improvements in the daily lives of travel and tourism workers.”
As the report makes clear, the business case for addressing the socio-economic agenda in the UN SDGs and the ESGs is strong. It is surely time to “close the gap between good intentions and on-the-ground actions to improve labour and human rights in travel and tourism.”
Three of the UN Sustainable Development Goals explicitly relate to the socioeconomic issues
The full report is available here.
As the lead author of the report, Dr Anke Winchenbah, from the Surrey Business School has commented:
“Sadly, the travel and tourism sector continues to be plagued by poor pay, unsafe working conditions, and, in some cases, modern slavery. Enforcement is often weak or absent, even where laws exist to protect workers.
With ESG reporting increasingly becoming mandatory, businesses and governments that ignore social risks will not only face legal compliance issues but also lose out on attracting talent and business and investment opportunities in the future.
With customers becoming more socially conscious, it is both a moral obligation and a smart business move for the sector to tackle these deep-rooted issues before it’s too late.”
The Tourism Workers’ Alliance report lists the reasons why this makes business sense:
- Attracting and retaining talent
- Creating equal opportunities
- Leveraging social dialogue
- Mitigating supply chain risks
- Creating access to financial investments
- Renewed social license to operate
- Managing reputational risks
- Responding to customer expectations
- Improving strategic decision making
- Managing compliance and regulatory risks
