Tourism Concern in the UK ran a campaign for many years reminding us that we take “Our Holidays in Their Homes”. This is obvious. The definition of tourism is spending at least one night away from one’s normal place of residence in someone else’s place.
Whilst this may be obvious, it is the very essence of what tourism, for good and bad, and we rarely think about it. Valene L Smith in Hosts and Guests (1977 & 1989) explored the cultural impacts of tourists and the tourism industry on communities in destinations. The Responsible Tourism movement, from the outset in the 2002 Cape Town Declaration, asserted that it is “culturally sensitive, engender[ing] respect between tourists and hosts, and builds local pride and confidence.” This demand was repeated in the 2022 Responsible Tourism Charter.
The aspiration is for a respectful host-guest encounter between visitors and locals, that the guests, visitors, and tourists would be treated as, and behave as, temporary residents. Ludlow, on England’s border with Wales, publicly seeks to realise this ambition – and it is a great place to visit. I know of no other place so explicit in what it offers and expects of its visitors. I have written here about how tourists arrive too often with an attitude of entitlement. Way back in 1994, at the British Airways (BA) Travel for Tomorrow Awards launch, Sir Colin Marshall, then chair of BA, let the cat out of the bag when he said that “travel and tourism is the renting out for short term lets of other people’s environments.” As I wrote back in August, after a visit to Florence, “We don’t charge guests invited to dinner or to stay for the weekend; as a guest in a hotel, we expect to pay. In the streets and piazzas, we forget that we have not paid for and do not own the space and that we are a part of the problem of overtourism.”
The Responsible Tourism movement asserts that the community should be heard directly and through local government. The local community is not homogenous; there will be a variety of views, but they need to be heard. Two of the most successful Responsible Tourism destinations, Barcelona and Kerala in India, have been successful in large part because the voices of the community have been heard through village panchayats and local councils.
The Place Brand Observer has just published “expert advice” on an “Ethical Framework for Place Branding” having posed the issues of “transparency and assured benefits to the local communities.” Their conclusion is that “ Stakeholder engagement should ensure a fair representation of diverse voices and should be treated equally and transparently” and that “Diversity, equity, and inclusion are important aspects of social sustainability of any development.”
These ethics accord very well with the principles of Responsible Tourism asserting that “Place branders should respect the authenticity and identities of local communities and not use them as marketing tricks.” The Place Brand Observer suggests that “A code of conduct should be based on the shared beliefs and values of a community, with a focus on doing what is right for the socioeconomic good of the place.”
One of the key questions to ask is whether a place, the community that lives there, its lived and built cultural heritage and its natural heritage are going to be used by the tourism industry and tourists. Or whether the people who live in, created and create the place are going to use tourism. The proverb often heard in the East captures this graphically. “Tourism is like a fire; you can cook your food on it, or it can burn your house down.”
Too often, local communities are excluded from national parks or relocated out of them when they were gazetted. They bear the opportunity cost of exclusion and never get to see the wildlife and landscapes enjoyed by the tourists. Responsible Travel has enabled 5,000 disadvantaged children and young people to have an inspirational day trip experience through their Trip for a Trip programme.
“When the wise meet the wise, magic is born. That is why our Ndlopfu Programme takes grandmothers from rural communities into the private game reserves, to reconnect them with their heritage, to meet the elephants they share resemblance with, and to give them a chance to pass on their conservation mindset to the generations of the future.”
As their guide explains in the video: “Taking them to see these animals, I can’t really explain how it makes me feel some of them sign in as Ndlopfu Gogos [Elephant Grandmother] but they haven’t seen one the majority of the community have not seen elephants in real life except on televisions.”
