Sustainable Tourism - A War With Words
‘Choose your battles’ is always good advice and the war of words that we have seen evolve over the last twenty years around sustainable tourism is definitely one that I like to stay clear of. I did my Masters in Responsible Tourism in London in 2006 and, at the time, I remember feeling self-conscious about the term when people asked me what that was about. It felt a bit waffly, non-academic. I recall one person even saying, mockingly, ‘Is that a Masters in learning how to pick your litter up in the rainforest as you go?’ I paused for thought and then chose, on this occasion, to enter into battle and defend my cause.
This Masters Degree appealed to me because it seemed to turn the world of travel upside down and inside out. I loved, love (will love again) to travel, but I had never really picked it apart to analyze the positive and negative impacts of this thing I just thought of as a vacation. The course leaders had chosen the word ‘responsible’ because it was one that could, and should be applied to every person involved in tourism. From tourism ministers to hotel managers, safari or ski guides, guests or hosts, we are all responsible for looking after the places the industry calls destinations and residents call home.
As I went on to write about this specialist area in the press and in online content, I often found myself ensconced in terminology tiffs, more often than not at travel conferences and seminars. At first, I enjoyed the challenge of getting to grips with the semantics behind sustainability, green, eco, conscious, transformative, regenerative, responsible and so on.
However, I quickly realised that the definition debate was being used as a way for some of the big players in tourism to avoid taking action. They could keep turning a blind eye to the fact that they had five swimming pools but the villagers just a mile away had no drinking water. Or that all their management was male, white and brought in from abroad. They didn’t need to address the fact that no food was being sourced locally or that they were in contravention of basic human rights if they could just say, “we haven’t decided if we need to have a responsible, sustainable or transformative tourism strategy moving forward. We need to gain a greater understanding of which term works for us before we act.” Tick, tock went the terminology clock, and meanwhile no action was taken.
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This article has been reposted with permission from GLP Films, a content marketing agency for the travel industry, strategic storyteller, and a valued PATA International Member. PATA proudly supports discussions around sustainability through the SDGs Matter guest post initiative. Please note that the views and opinions expressed in the article may not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or views of PATA or any of its employees.
