BACK TO CONTENTS WTM RESPONSIBLE TOURISM HIGHLIGHTS
This year’s responsible tourism programme focused on five key issues facing not just the travel and tourism industry but businesses and countries globally: water scarcity, child protection, climate change, accessible tourism and volunteering.
Child Protection WTM’s Responsible Tourism Programme has drawn attention to internal trafficking and orphanage tourism over recent years, with last year’s focus assessing the scale of the problem. This year’s WTM saw an expert panel, chaired by Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive of ABTA, explain what their organisations are doing to tackle these problems.
Dutch tour operator, TUI Nederland, overall winner of the World Responsible Tourism Awards, was commended for its ground- breaking work in child protection. Sustainable Development Manager, Elise Allart, collected the award on behalf of TUI, calling for support from the industry as a whole: “Child sex tourism is a huge problem and we need huge partners to solve it.”
Climate Change
The travel and tourism industry is responsible for around 5% of global C02
emissions, with aviation contributing around 2% of the
overall footprint. Current predictions estimate that this environmental impact is set to increase as the industry grows and aviation demands rise. This year’s programme looked at the responsibility for cutting target emissions and considered the issues surrounding the decarbonisation of flight.
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Accessible Tourism This year’s panel looked at what could be done by the industry to take responsibility for providing a welcoming and accessible service for people with disabilities and offered practical solutions for businesses. Marina Diotallevi, Programme Manager of Ethics & Social Dimensions of Tourism at UNWTO, drew attention to the UNWTO Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, which states that tourism should be equally enjoyed by all segments of society.
Water
Is the tourism industry doing enough to reduce its water consumption? Following the United Nations’ declaration of 2013 as the International Year of Water Co-operation, WTM brought together a panel to consider whether the industry is achieving appropriate reductions in water consumption without government intervention. Professor Harold Goodwin, WTM’s Responsible Tourism Advisor, chaired the debate with contributions from key industry leaders.
Volunteering Volunteer experience was at the core of this year’s debate, with speakers addressing responsibility for ensuring that their work makes a positive contribution to the communities they are working with.
WTM World Responsible Tourism Day This is the biggest responsible tourism initiative in the world, bringing together key industry figures to discuss and debate responsible tourism, to share best practise and identify solutions to the key challenges facing the industry. A full round-up can be found on pages 33-34.
For more information, please visit
www.wtmresponsibletourism.com
You can watch full coverage of the WTM Responsible Tourism programme here
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