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Responsible Tourism News is a newsletter of record carrying the 10 most important Responsible Tourism stories of the month. Please forward to those you think may be interested – you can subscribe here. If you wish to contribute a story email harold@haroldgoodwin.info or post it on our RTNews Facebook page.
Time to Act! Nominations for the World Responsible Tourism Awards presented at World Travel Market close on April 20th. Nominate here
The Irish Responsible Tourism Awards are part of the family of Awards which use the same criteria and judging processes as those used in the World Responsible Tourism Awards, this year’s Gold and Silver award winners demonstrated the quality of the Irish experience. Results
The Africa Responsible Tourism Awards long list published here.
Garry Wilson, Mainstream Product & Purchasing Director at TUI Group, explains why responsible tourism matters to TUI and tourism development in Calvia, Mallorca. Video
Councillor Roxanne Hoorn, Mayor of Cape Town will open the 11th International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations at the Cape Town International Conference Centre on 14th April - international speakers include Matthias Leisenger VP Corporate Responsibility, Kuoni; Tim Williamson of responsibletravel.com; Adama Bah ICRT West Africa. The conference over two days is co-located with WTM Africa and is focused on how producers can best implement Responsible Tourism practices and benefit local communities.
Garry Wilson, Mainstream Product & Purchasing Director, for the TUI Group argues in an interview specially recorded, for Cape Town and Africa, that Responsible Tourism is now core, mainstream business for TUI. Video
The theme of RTD9, the 9th International Conference on Responsible in Dublin was achieving change, which was explored through themes based around communities, destinations, transport, business and Responsible Tourism in practice. There were some excellent presentations and some great examples of RT in practise. Videos of the presentations are on line here.
Rupesh Kumar of the Kerala Institute of Tourism and Travel Studies has provided some data on the Village Life Experiences which have been developed as part of Kerala's RT strategy. Details
Potential future Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson said to the Evening Standard: “I think it is madness that we have big corporations that pay chief executes huge sums of money, and their lowest paid workers are subsidised by the tax payer. These companies can afford to pay the living wage.” The election in the UK has brought the issue of zero hours contracts and the casualization of work to the fore, with particular concerns about asymmetrical zero hours contracts where the workers are unable to take other work, but the employer is not required to find them 35 hours. The employer gains a flexible labour supply, the workers get a low and unstable wage and is subsidised through the welfare system by taxpayers. The taxpayer is again subsidising the employer. This will increasingly challenge some employers in the tourism sector' Read more
Latest edition contains articles on the 2013 World Responsible Tourism Awards, child protection and orphanages, township tourism and a range of views on the England's WiseGrowth strategy.
Progress in Responsible Tourism in published open source
There is growing resentment in Berlin about the hordes of partying tourists, noisy and some of them lewd. From May Berlin will be using pantomime artists to roam the streets of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg acting out a call for common courtesy and consideration, accompanied by trained mediators on hand to explain - if need be - what it’s all about and why the people who live in areas popular with tourists deserve to be shown some respect. more
12 million tourists visited Berlin in 2014, it is estimated that there are 18,000 vacation rentals the Division of Misappropriated Apartments in the city council is enforcing the ban on unregistered vacation rentals, a ban introduced to tackle gentrification and to maintain a housing stock for local people. read more
In the UK Cumbria, the New Forest, the Lake District and Cornwall are encouraging tourism businesses to join "a revolution in ethical direct bookings." Fairbooking UK has been founded by the New Forest Destination Partnership, Cumbria Tourism & Visit Cornwall. They are a co-operative partnership of UK visitor destinations. The aim of the partnership is to create the best possible range of local visitor experiences at the best possible price direct to consumers, and that all of the financial benefits go towards supporting local economies, their environments, residents and businesses.
There are several sessions on RT at the 24th Nordic Symposium of Tourism and Hospitality Research to be held in Iceland in October. The deadline for for submitting paper abstracts is May 1st 2015.
