CONTENTS SHOW HIGHLIGHTS PARTNERS SHOW REGIONS ABU DHABI PARTICIPATING EXHIBITORS SOUTH AFRICA I SUB-SAHARA AFRICA I INTERNATIONAL I TRAVEL TECH SHOW I AROUND THE SHOW & RESPOSIBLE TOURISM
WTM Africa has again partnered with Fair Trade Tourism. Find out more about Fair Trade holidays and The Tourism Child Protection Code of Conduct (The Code).
FAIR TRADE TOURISM Fair Trade Tourism is a leading southern African non-profit company registered in South Africa that works broadly in the field of regional sustainable tourism development. Through multi-stakeholder approaches, Fair Trade Tourism is engaged in awareness raising, capacity building, research and advocacy. In addition, Fair Trade Tourism operates
a ground-breaking responsible tourism certification scheme that supports tourism enterprises to meet required national and international standards in relation to business compliance and sustainable operations as well as to optimise the environmental, social and economic impacts of tourism and facilitates improved access to domestic and international tourism markets. With defined standards and principles for operational practices that support disadvantaged tourism products and staff along the whole supply chain, paying a fair price and investing in skills development, decent work and sustainable job creation in destinations in southern Africa, Fair Trade
FIND OUT MORE:
Attend our media event sponsored by WTM Africa on 7 April 2016 where we will officially launch our new awareness raising video (
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Dud6bAszINY) and profiling private sector initiatives on implementing The Code in South African tourism.
For more information on the event or how to get involved visit:
http://www.fairtrade.travel/thecode or contact us at:
thecode@fairtrade.travel
wtmafrica.com
Tourism introduces a promising framework for fair and ethical development in tourism. Fair Trade Tourism also encourages mainstream and specialist tour operators to package and sell Fair Trade Holidays which include Fair Trade Tourism certified businesses in South Africa, Madagascar and Mozambique. In addition, Fair Trade Tourism has signed mutual recognition agreements with the Seychelles Sustainable Tourism Label and Responsible Tourism Tanzania, allowing products in the Seychelles and Tanzania to be marketed under the Fair Trade Holiday brand. Fair Trade Holidays are packages put together by Fair Trade Tourism approved tour operators in which at least 50% of the bed nights are spent at Fair Trade Tourism certified or mutually recognised businesses. This allows both tour operators and travellers the opportunity to make responsible travel decisions that both feel good and directly benefit everyone involved in them, making a meaningful contribution to the destinations they visit and the people who work there. To learn more visit:
www.fairtrade.travel CLICK TO VIEW AD.
THE TOURISM CHILD PROTECTION CODE OF CONDUCT (THE CODE) While Tourism is not responsible for crimes against children, there is a clear connection between the tourism industry and the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) around the world. South Africa is not immune. All manifestations of CSEC are occurring in South African travel and tourism: child prostitution, child sex trafficking, child pornography and child sex tourism, and tourism infrastructure can often play an inadvertent or intentional role in these crimes against children. It is used as both the mechanism for gaining access to children and the venues in which sex crimes are perpetrated. Offenders use all forms of tourism services, including accommodation, transport, entertainment, travel agency and tour services to facilitate these deplorable sexual crimes against children. While magnitude is unclear, international experiences have demonstrated that the risks of CSEC escalate as tourism continues to grow. Protecting children should be tourism imperative. But, as tourism continues to grow, the risks to children deepen. It is necessary to understand how CSEC occurs in the tourism sector in order to effectively combat these crimes against children. Equipping tourism professionals with awareness of CSEC is the first step. The Tourism Child Protection Code of Conduct is an international industry- driven initiative with a mission to provide awareness, tools and support to the tourism industry to prevent CSEC. The goal of The Code is to work with travel and tourism companies to combat CSEC in the sector.
As southern Africa’s leading responsible tourism NGO and the official Local Code Representative for South Africa, Fair Trade Tourism has been mandated by local and international stakeholders to drive implementation of The Code in South Africa. To this end, Fair Trade Tourism has been working in close co-operation with the industry’s leading public and private sectors and stakeholders to raise awareness of CSEC and help eradicate it.
CLICK TO VIEW AD.
CONTACT THE TEAM
6-8 April 2016 Cape Town
Responsible Tourism
Responsible Tourism is pivotal to the travel and tourism industry throughout Africa and is an integral part of the agenda at WTM Africa 2016. Several key seminar and conference sessions address the issue of responsible tourism and once again, the African Responsible Tourism Awards take place at WTM Africa.
AFRICAN RESPONSIBLE TOURISM AWARDS Sixty responsible tourism companies from South Africa and the wider continent made the list in the African Responsible Tourism Awards. It’s been a difficult decision for the judges as the list includes tourism businesses, organisations and initiatives from 13 countries, including nominees from Morocco, the Gambia, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Ethiopia, South Africa and many more.
There are eight categories in the awards, including wildlife conservation, poverty reduction, best responsible tourism marketing campaign and best operator for people with disabilities. The award winners will be announced at WTM Africa on Thursday, April 7.
Once again, WTM Africa is supporting Just a Drop, the charity set up in 1988 to provide
clean water projects around the world. Since then, clean, safe water has been provided to some of the poorest communities in over 30 countries worldwide and projects have also included constructing wells, boreholes, hand pumps and latrines and establishing sanitation and hygiene education. Find out more at
justadrop.org
Make a difference Q: How important is responsible tourism to South Africa and the wider travel industry? A: It’s only the foundation of South Africa’s tourism policy and destination strategy, but it is recognised by industry associations as critical to the competitiveness and future success of destinations and individual tourism products. Many tourism businesses in Africa have carved a market niche by showcasing the way their businesses take care of local people and environments.
Q: How has awareness about responsible tourism changed? A: More consumers are buying green and ethical products; more tourists care about the impact of their holidays and expect accommodation, tour operators and destinations to help reduce that impact. More tourism businesses talk openly about what they do to reduce water and energy consumption, buy local products and invest in local communities.
Q: Is responsible tourism now part of the mainstream? A: It’s no longer seen as for tree huggers only, but we’re a long way from it being part of the DNA of the tourism sector. We need tourism organisations to preferentially market responsible tourism
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products and destinations; more tourists to choose responsible products over others; tourism business owners to take small steps to change the way they do business and governments to provide financial and other incentives to help the industry to make the shift.
Q: How can travellers help change mindsets? A: It is quite simple. Check out what tourism businesses say they do in relation to these issues; choose the ones that have clear ethical positions and actions to back these up; promote the ones that dare to do business differently, shun the ones that don’t and tell other travellers to do the same. Traveller’s choices can make a tremendous difference.
Q&A with Heidi van der Watt, founder of African Responsible Tourism Awards and director of Better Tourism Africa
Q&A
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