WRTD 2011: Tourism can help reduce poverty

Harriet Lamb during the WRTD 2011 opening ceremony at the WTM.

© Marcela Torres

By Marcela Torres

 “We have the means and the responsibility to help the local communities of the places that we visit and empower them to overcome poverty,” said Fiona Jeffrey, Chairman of the WTM. She also dedicated some words to the many and often unknown industry champions, highlighting that there’s a growing number of people who are working day to day to protect our culture, defend our destinations, conserving biological diversity and contributing to secure the sustainability of our home, Earth.

The official opening speech for this fifth version of the WRTD was presented by Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation. Lamb remembered that “twenty years ago, when I started talking about paying fair prices to small farmers for their coffee many people laughed at me saying nobody would be willing to pay more to help people sustain their livelihoods. Well, they’re not laughing now!”

Actually the fair-trade movement has expanded throughout the world and more and more consumers are demanding products with a fair-trade certification. And it’s not just about coffee farmers. The concept applies to all kinds of products and trade areas. Lamb said that 50% of consumers in the United Kingdom, for example, are willing to pay more for a product that is certified as fair-trade.

“And the good thing is that it also makes sense for the businesses,” Lamb said. “Think about it. A large supermarket chain that sold some excellent chocolate actually made the connection while talking to us and they realized that if they did not pay their cocoa farmers well enough, those people would run out of business and they wouldn’t have farmers to supply them cocoa beans to produce their chocolate bars. No beans, no bars. It’s that simple!”

That commercial advantage has also been understood by several tourism companies who are not only paying fairly to their suppliers but also –in many cases- have gone a step further and set up foundations to support education, conservation and even tap water community projects throughout the world.

There is much to be achieved still, however, and Fiona Jeffrey made a call to the entire tourism industry to hop on to the responsible tourism wagon: “This is not just a cultish craze or the latest in-vogue trend to be replaced with something else in a year or two. Increasing numbers of consumers are recognizing that the world –or the industry for that matter- cannot go on in the way it has since mass tourism first came into being.” With more than 300 delegates from all over the world, the World Responsible Tourism Day 2011 was celebrated yesterday at the World Travel Market (WTM) in London, stressing the unique opportunity the tourism industry has in helping reduce poverty throughout the planet.

This entry was originally posted by the author on November 10, 2011.

Economic Impacts of Tourism

Stores in the town of San Pedro de Atacama, in northern Chile.
© Marcela Torres

by Marcela Torres

Tourism is usually considered a good way to generate economic growth for destinations and many places in the world indeed depend on it as a source of income.

Most literature focuses on tourism’s benefits through both the direct expenditures of visitors and the associated employment opportunities it creates. It is commonly argued that a higher level of visitation to a place brings with it the appearance of related services, such as hotels, restaurants, car rental agencies, tour companies, service stations, and souvenir shops.

Tourists usually expect that some of the money they spend will directly benefit the local population, but this is not always the case. One of the greatest dangers in tourism is that of financial leakages, which occur when financial resources 'leak away' from the destination country to another country. This happens, for example, when the tourism company is based abroad and when tourism-related goods and services are being imported to the destination country.

Another risk along the same line is the fact that sometimes employment goes to persons residing outside of the area which directly experiences the impacts of tourism. The usual explanation for this is the lack of an existing local capacity.

Responsible tourism is meant to contribute to economic and social development. Purchasing local handicrafts and products to support the local economy using the principles of fair trade is a good way to achieve this. It’s also important to work with the local communities to build their capacity in order to increase their participation of the economic benefits of tourism.

This entry was originally posted by the author on June 30, 2011.