Progress Sustainable Tourism

Progress in Sustainable Tourism Volume 1(1) November 2011 Editors: Harold Goodwin and Xavier Font Published by Goodfellow Publishers Limited, (G) Woodeaton, Oxford, OX3 9TJ http://www.goodfellowpublishers.com Copyright © Goodfellow Publishers 2012 All rights reserved. The text of this publication, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher or under licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Further details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited, of Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Design and typesetting by P.K. McBride, www.macbride.org.uk 2 Progress in Sustainable Tourism: Issue 1, December 2011 Contents Editorial 3 Reasons to be hopeful 6 John de Vial Carbon Understanding carbon budgets and the safe climate space for responsible tourism 11 John Broderick and Kevin Anderson Responsible Aviation: Setting the Agenda 15 Andreas Walmsley and Harold Goodwin Hotel companies and carbon footprints – consensus for clarity 25 Francesca Leadlay Supply Chains and Employment Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Research Framework 29 Karen Cripps and Xavier Font, Selling Culture to Package Tourists 44 Janet Thorne The Gambia: A Responsible Tourism Update 57 Adama Bah “When I Was a Child I Had a Dream – I Wanted to Become a Chef” 61 Nicole Häusler Large Companies TUI Sustainable Tourism - Ten Years on… 76 Ashton Jane Thomas Cook’s Journey to Sustainability 78 Ruth Holroyd and Jo Baddeley, Developing Responsible Tourism at Virgin Holidays 85 Rachel McCaffery Volunteering and Orphanages ‘Working with Children’ – Our Mistake! 91 Sallie Grayson A little responsible tourism is a dangerous thing… 94 Michael Horton International Centre for Responsible Tourism The 2011 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 102 Harold Goodwin ICRT Canada 131 Laura McGowan Afterword 134 Harold Goodwin Progress in Sustainable Tourism: Issue 1, December 2011 3 Editorial Progress in Responsible Tourism launches as the biannual publication of the Interna- tional Centre for Responsible Tourism, with the objective of providing a record of how a wide range of stakeholders are taking responsibility for sustainable development. The emphasis here is not on describing unsustainable situations, but rather on reporting how different stakeholders are taking responsibility, and contributing to making tourism more sustainable. The need to document progress arises from the gap in the literature. Progress in Responsible Tourism will document in an accessible and timely way what a wide range of organisations, businesses, governments and non-governmental organisations are doing to raise issues, acknowledge impacts and make tourism more sustainable across the triple bottom line. The practitioner voice has not been heard often enough; in traditional journals there is relatively little about the current initiatives being taken to make tourism more sustainable, and to create change. Our ambition is that through Progress in Responsible Tourism this gap will be addressed so that academics will have access to the latest developments in industry; access which will also benefit their students and generate greater dialogue between academics, businesses and government. We expect that industry will find the contributions from academics interesting and useful. Much of what is written about sustainability assumes implicitly that large scale developments are bad, while small scale business is good. It is simplistic to say that cruises pollute and visiting poor people helps them out of poverty. The truth is that both forms of tourism will continue to exist, and both need to be done more sustainably. All forms of tourism can be more responsible. Some of the papers you are about to read were selected to show that it is not this simple; how there are positive actions taken in large hotels and tour operators, while some of the experiences around visiting small commu- nities and in this case, visiting or volunteering in children orphanages, can cause con- siderable harm. There is also a piece describing how one volunteering organisation has sought to adapt its processes to address these issues. All too often we see reports of what public sector and donor funding are starting to develop, and yet rarely do we get the opportunity to reflect back on projects that have been operational for a number of years, or that have been initiated by the private sector. In the spirit of providing alternative voices, we have papers ranging from Sri Lanka to the Gambia, from outbound tour operators to hotels, which show the private sector is adopting approaches that do not depend on the short term priorities of donors. When the private sector changes the way it does its business long-term, benefits result and local people benefit. More emphasis needs to be placed on learning from interventions and projects, and this requires transparent reporting. 4 Progress in Sustainable Tourism: Issue 1, December 2011 Several ‘notes from the field’ are also included because of the importance of understanding how companies develop sustainability action lists and strategies. Because most large companies feel more threatened from sticking their head above the parapet than from not being seen to engage in sustainability, we suffer from greenhushing, the result of keeping quiet about sustainability actions. Presenting some of the stories, albeit brief, behind some initiatives such as those in Thomas Cook and Virgin Holidays, gives a sense of how the sustainability journey is far more complex, and almost always relies on the conviction of a few individuals. It is for this reason that we asked John de Vial to provide a personal account of his own journey and his viewpoint of where the industry is going. The Tyndall Centre has provided a paper on carbon budgets and why they matter. Carbon accounting and management are central to how the tourism industry needs to respond to climate change. While most academic papers today speak of the magnitude of the challenge, it is encouraging to see the short paper from the International Tourism Partnership which shows an industry wide approach to this issue. Reaching industry- level solutions is complex and requires not only a joint acknowledgement and effort, but also a sense of putting the whole ahead of the individual firm. The paper on responsible aviation demonstrates what can be achieved now with known technology to reduce carbon pollution. Whilst many talk of solutions in the future, as Broderick and Ander- son’s paper argues, far more, far far more, needs to be done now. Not to act is irrespon- sible; there is plenty that can be done, and will make a difference. The underlying theme of several papers in this first issue is sustainable supply chain management, primarily from the tour operator perspective, and the main academic paper aims to provide a framework for this. The importance of taking responsibility, of doing due diligence, in the form of getting your house in order, is underestimated. Accepting that the impacts of your suppliers are your responsibility is central to manag- ing your own products. After all, you want to take credit for the quality of their goods, so why not acknowledge the externalities they have caused? This may not seem so radical today but the ICRT has been working with tour operators for years to gain rec- ognition of the importance of this approach and to develop methods to tackle this mam- moth task. Travelife may well have tackled hotel supplier sustainability auditing and reporting, but there is far more to it. The example of ‘Gambia is Good’ tells us about tour operators and food suppliers working in partnership to create a substantial difference to a destination, while the same tour operators are also looking at motivations and barriers to promoting more authentic and beneficial excursions to tourists.As Justin Francis has pointed out, you should be able to taste the difference when you provide a responsible, more authentic, product. Progress in Sustainable Tourism: Issue 1, December 2011 5 The issue is not simple, for as we see with the experience from Virgin, the main work has to be behind the scenes in good governance and supply chains, and yet what moti- vates both staff and consumers are the charitable donations, the do-your-bit element. The simplicity of outsourcing the amelioration of your guilt is very appealing, giving back is clean and provides quick self-satisfaction, and it is tempting to see how the opportunity of making a difference with volunteering holidays or other forms of charitable behaviour is often the most visible outcome of a Corporate Social Responsibility policy. We end with an account of our annual Responsible Tourism in Destinations conference for 2011, which took place in Canada. Earlier conferences in Oman (2010), Belize (2009) India (2008) and Cape Town (2002) have provided networking opportunities, challeng- ing issues have been raised, alternative viewpoints put forward and international dec- larations, all of which aim to be vehicles for reflection and change. We look forward to you joining us in our future events. On World Responsible Tourism Day at World Travel Market each November there are a series of panels and discussions about Responsible Tourism. It where the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards are

Load more