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TRAVEL MONITOR
IMTIAZ MUQBIL
Non-governmental organisations in the travel and tourism industry took advantage of World Tourism Day recently to stress that current financial crises may be a short-term phenomenon, and that the industry would still have to deal with long-term issues.
NGOs in Asia and Europe used Sept 27, World Tourism Day, to issue calls for the industry to respect the environment, curb usage of water, observe the laws, especially those involving national parks and other fragile ecosystems, and respect human rights of migrant workers and indigenous peoples.
At an event titled "Another Tourism is Possible: For a Change of Climate in Tourism", the European NGO Tourism Watch, part of the German Church Development Service (EED), called on the industry and the UN World Tourism Organisation to ensure that growth plans and strategies do not come at the expense of environmental and social costs.
"We fear that the well-known tourism and human rights problems in tourist destinations will be exacerbated by the impacts of climate change," said Heinz Fuchs, director of Tourism Watch.
In Egypt, the revolt of the hungry earlier this year shook the country at a time when the government published new record figures for the tourism sector, Mr Fuchs said. By consuming large amounts of water, for example, tourism contributes to the factors that threaten food security in this arid country.
Travel and tourism companies must expand their concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ensure gender justice. They must protect children from exploitation and respect the land rights of farmers, he said.
Equations, a Bangalore NGO, issued a statement saying: "There is no ecosystem on our living planet that has not felt tourism's footprints. While the fact that tourism has negative impacts on the environment and on indigenous and local communities is widely acknowledged, practically nothing is being done to check these undesirable impacts.
"Current national policies and tourism policies of various states and union territories in India prioritise infrastructure-driven tourism, and rarely address issues of impacts, regulation, and management. Environmental regulation in tourism is weak, and even what exists is flouted with impunity, by both policymakers themselves and the tourism industry.
"The push to allow tourism infrastructure to be built in violation of coastal zoning regulations has received overt support from policymakers and planners at the state and centre, with regulations are seen as archaic and 'anti-development'."It called on India's governments to reclaim their regulatory role. It also called on the tourism and travel industry to "walk their talk on their commitment to the environment by respecting and complying with laws and regulations to ensure long term sustainable equitable and sensible tourism and not only pushing for short term rewards."
In another paper headlined, "Some Reflections from the South", Indian activist T.T. Sreekumar looked at questions of social justice in the context of climate change and tourism.
Mr Sreekumar highlighted the role of emerging economies as tourist-sending markets and the need for local communities and activists to strategically respond to this new phenomenon.
Fei Tevi, secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, said climate change had a life-and-death issue in the Pacific islands. The dramatic impacts of climate change on a "sinking tourism paradise" include rising sea levels, coastal erosion, salinated freshwater sources, dying coral reefs, and tropical storms.
In the Himalayas, melting glaciers have led to increased flooding along the rivers of the region, affecting large regions in South Asia.
Tour operators, too, are caught on the horns of a dilemma, according to German activist Andreas Zotz. "On the one hand, they recognize that climate change mitigation is essential; on the other hand, a net reduction of their emissions would cannibalise their core business in the short term, as it requires a fundamental reorganisation of contemporary business models," he said.
For tour operators to effectively reduce their product-related emissions, technological innovation has to be combined with other approaches, e.g. promoting changes in travel behaviour and environmentally friendly mobility management.
According to Mr Zotz, tour operators could lead to significant emissions reductions by incorporating climate protection as a guiding principle into existing business strategies, intelligent product design and carbon footprinting.
Imtiaz Muqbil is executive editor of Travel Impact Newswire, an e-mailed feature and analysis service focusing on the Asia-Pacific travel industry.
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