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Sabre is now sponsoring the Global Responsible Tourism Awards™ There are six categories in 2024: (1) Making Travel Inclusive (2) Championing Cultural Diversity (3) Nature Positive (4) What are you doing about Climate Change? (5) Increasing local sourcing- Creating shared value (6) Employing and Upskilling Local Communities. Gold winners in each regional awards programme automatically enter the Global Awards.
The Rest of the World Awards are open until August 31st enter
There is further information about the 2024 Awards here
30 May Undertourism is a problem too
21 May Consequences of overtourism in the Canaries
16 May The Canary Choking in the Canaries – action required
10 May Scottish Crannog Centre: Is this Scotland’s most responsible attraction?
01 May The problem with third-party certification
The 2022 Responsible Tourism Charter points out that responsibility drives sustainability, lists the most significant issues that need to be addressed, and asserts the importance of transparent reporting to demonstrate what is being achieved and avoid greenwashing.
Responsible Tourism is about using tourism to make better places for people to live and visit. How can we “do tourism better”?
International Conference on Responsible Tourism and Hospitality (ICRTH) 6-11 August 2024 Kuching, Sarawak Details
1. Regulating Tourist Behaviour
Tourist behaviour is one reason that host communities feel overtouristed. More and more destinations are attempting to regulate tourist behaviour and reduce negative impacts. Prague is considering banning bachelor party costumes to reduce “chronic noise,” and "one city dweller has recently undertaken a 10-day hunger strike to protest the noise pollution in the old town." Milan is planning to ban drink, ice cream and pizza sales after midnight “to seek a balance between sociability and entertainment and the peace and health of residents.” In Costa Rica, SINAC has detected the entry of 558 people through unofficial sites in national parks and other protected wildlife areas - the actual number is thought to be much greater, illegal entry exposes people to "hazards such as precipices, problems of hypothermia, ash fall, acid rain, ballistic impacts, and mudflows,."
In Spain, holidaymakers in Llucmajor, Palma, Calvia (Magaluf) in Majorca and Sant Antoni in Ibiza are subject to a range of new regulations, including being unable to buy alcohol from shops between 9.30pm and 8am. The new regulations are backed by a budget of £14m for security, inspections and advertising, In 2019, officials in Mallorca warned tourists they faced fines of up to €3,000 for antisocial behaviour or “causing a public nuisance”. The 2020 law imposed by the Balearic Islands banned bar crawls, defined as “excursions promoting excessive consumption of alcohol”. Thomas Cook warned holidaymakers in 2022 that “all-inclusive” no longer means “unlimited drinks” with local laws in the Balearic Islands determining people can have a maximum of six alcoholic drinks a day. The behaviour which has resulted in these new regulations was documented on British TV in three episodes of What Happens in Kavos or search online. Balearics now has a new Decree for Responsible Tourism and the Improvement of Tourist Areas.
BBC Travel has a long article on The world's revolt against 'bad tourists'
2. Encouraging Responsible Travellers
The Guardian has published extensive advice: Be a better tourist! 28 ways to have a fantastic holiday – without infuriating the locals. In the US, Visit Oceanside has launched Love O'Side to encourage more responsible traveller behaviours. And encouraging walkers to go and return by rail. ‘You can walk virtually everywhere in England by using the train’: the man connecting rail-based walks railwalks.co.uk
The World Travel & Tourism Council and IC Bellagio have partnered to launch a new consumer campaign focusing on Community Conscious Travel, raising awareness on how responsible tourism can positively impact the communities travelers visit each year. Cornish Stuff is promoting seven crucial tips for tourists aiming to travel sustainably in Cornwall.
Destinations and businesses are putting more effort into attracting particular market segments. Data Appeal analyses consumer perceptions of destinations. It has published its LGBTQ+ Index for Belgium (67), Brussels (77) and Ghent, which scores 88. Data Appeal can also measure the impact of changes in policy and management, for example, through tourism pressure and LGBTQ+ indexes.
Chinese Luxury Travellers: "Chinese luxury travelers now crave authentic, immersive cultural experiences that forge deep emotional connections.... A focus on genuine, transformative experiences shows that travellers are drawn to destinations that offer both relaxation and a chance to explore the cultural and ecological heritage of the area." Jing Daily’s new Chinese luxury travel report
3. Overtourism
Spain: On the last weekend in May there were 10,000 marchers on the streets of Palma in Majorca, protesting that tourism was making their lives difficult, "Everywhere you look everyone is foreign.” On Ibiza locals are living in cars as rents soar. On 2023 the IGC, a representative body of the Civil Guard police force, said that "three or four" of its officers were living in vehicles on the island. Campaign group Prou Eivissa (Enough Ibiza) says key workers such as nurses, doctors, police officers and teachers have been priced out of the housing market ..., forcing some to live in their cars or caravans, or even move to mainland Spain and fly in for work.... essential medical care such as cancer surgery is being delayed due to a shortage of doctors to perform operations." In Barcelona, hundreds gathered to block entry to Park Güell, where the French fashion brand was unveiling its latest collection, over what they say is overtourism in the area. On Menorca, Binibeca Vell’s population introduced “visiting hours” last year. They asked visitors to arrive after 11 am and leave by 8 pm to allow residents “to have breakfast peacefully on our terraces and sleep peacefully without noise,” said Monge. The website also pleads with visitors to “avoid uncivic attitudes” including entering homes, taking items, sitting on furniture uninvited and climbing on balconies.
UK In Cotswolds villages, irresponsible parking by coach drivers is an issue.
On Hawaii, plans for a new resort on a black sandy beach at Punaluu " the planning application uses an outdated environmental impact assessment, locals say and does not sufficiently consider problems such as overtourism, or the fact the land is sacred to some islanders, as the site of an ancestral burial ground."
Italy: In Venice , the city earned €1 million in the first 11 days of the entry fee. Hundreds of residents protested, " Claiming the ticket system turns the historic city into a museum or a theme park, and armed with sarcastic catchphrases like “Welcome to Veniceland”, between 300 and 1,000 protesters descended upon Piazzale Roma, the city’s road entry-point. A spokesperson for anti-cruise ship campaign group No Grandi Navi, told CNN, “We rose up against the mayor’s idea of a closed city, a museum city.” He went on: “A ticket does nothing. It doesn’t stop the monoculture of tourism. It doesn’t ease the pressure on Venice. It’s a medieval tax and it’s against freedom of movement."
Nepal: There are new regulations for Everest climbers in 2024, the size of climbing groups will be limited to 15 people and all climbers will be required to carry emergency tracking devices, use the dedicated shared toilet tents, "and anyone proceeding higher than Everest Base Camp will be required to transport their bodily waste down the mountain in a poo bag and carry out at least eight kilograms (almost 18lb) of rubbish at the end of their expedition."
Japan In Fujikawaguchiko, a black barrier fence has been erected for Mount Fuji snappers; there are now fees for climbing Mount Fuji, and tourists have been banned from the Gion entertainment area where tourists were harassing Geishas.
The New York Times ran a piece Why You’ll Pay More and Behave Better When You Travel This Summer
Podcasts BBC Radio 4 (2024) a series of three programmes on overtourism: The Tourist Trap and the BBC World Service
4. The Canaries
In 2023 13.9 million people visited the islands, which have a population of 2.2 million. Figures from Spain’s National Statistics Institute show that 33.8% of people in the Canaries are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the highest proportion for any region except Andalucía. The housing situation and water shortages in many parts of the archipelago are also dire because of high prices, low wages, a lack of public housing and the continuing cost of living crisis. The eleven people on hunger strike lasted 20 days from April 11. The protests have involved tens of thousands of people. “Canarias tiene un límite” – The Canaries have a limit. Víctor Martín, a spokesperson for the collective Canarias se Agota – The Canaries Have Had Enough, explains, “I realised we’d reached the limit when I saw people who were working as hotel maids or waiters were living in shacks. As filmmaker Felipe Ravina has pointed out "“Ironically, it is tourism itself which is destroying the very same product which it is selling. ”
Generally, tourists and the majority of residents have different, often very different, standards of living – tourists have both leisure and money to travel with. Tourists are concerned about potable water only if their holiday accommodation is without it, and there are reports that tourists may have to pay more than locals for water. Tourists and locals compete in the same housing market. Short-term holiday renters and second homeowners raise property prices and force up the cost of housing for locals. In destinations, local governments can act through property taxes and regulations to redress the balance, but only if national legislation provides them with the power to do so.
5. Climate Change
A BBC analysis finds that, fuelled by climate change, the world's oceans have broken temperature records every day over the past year. The super-heated oceans have hit marine life hard and driven a new wave of coral bleaching. For many years, the oceans have absorbed around a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans produce; they also soak up around 90% of the excess heat. Warmer seas give tropical storms extra energy, and this could help to fuel a potentially damaging hurricane season. A Switzerland-size hole opened in Antarctica's sea ice in 2016-17. It was caused by a combination of wind, ocean currents and underwater geography that created the perfect salty conditions to melt the sea ice.
Adaptation is expensive: in the UK, Network Rail has budgeted £2.8bn over the next five years simply to bolster Britain’s tracks against the changing climate—and its leaders have warned that it may never be enough to save all the routes that exist today.
In the USA, four states are considering “climate superfunds,” the idea is simple: the state would calculate the damage caused by climate change and charge companies according to the share of emissions they produce. Attribution science enables scientists to determine which disasters can be linked to climate change. The drought in the Amazon rainforest last year was fueled by climate change, but the wildfires in Chile weren’t.
The Guardian asked 380 leading climate experts for their forecasts: 77% of respondents believe global temperatures will reach at least 2.5C above preindustrial levels; 42% – think it will be more than 3C; only 6% think the 1.5C limit will be achieved..
“The good news is the worst-case scenario is avoidable,” said Michael Meredith, at the British Antarctic Survey. “We still have it in our hands to build a future that is much more benign climatically than the one we are currently on track for.” But he also expects “our societies will be forced to change and the suffering and damage to lives and livelihoods will be severe”.
“I believe in social tipping points,” where small changes in society trigger large-scale climate action, said Elena López-Gunn, at the research company Icatalist in Spain. “Unfortunately, I also believe in physical climate tipping points.”
Back in Mexico, Cerezo-Mota remains at a loss: “I really don’t know what needs to happen for the people that have all the power and all the money to make the change. But then I see the younger generations fighting and I get a bit of hope again.”
"The greenhouse effect had been discovered. We have known the consequences of our pollution of our atmosphere but failed to take necessary action to stop this form of pollution. We are still failing to act quickly enough, lazily preferring business as usual. We are balancing on a ‘doom loop’ pursuing business as usual, dismissing the effects of climate change as normal weather variability." More
VisitScotland has teamed up with The Travel Corporation (TTC) and the Travel Foundation to reduce carbon emissions in the tourism supply chain. They have published a “Climate Action Planning” guide.
6. Decarbonising Transport
Eurostar trains to be 100% run on renewables by 2030
Airlines brace for higher costs amid growing pressure to switch to greener fuels. The cost of a return trip to New York is on track to rise by £40 as a result of incoming net zero regulations, according to figures from Virgin Atlantic.
Airbus has launched Cryoprop. The new demonstrator will integrate and mature a two-megawatt-class superconducting electric propulsion system cooled by liquid hydrogen via a helium recirculation loop.
IATA claims that the German air passenger tax increase introduced in May 1st threatens the economy and decarbonisation. Germany is fast-tracking green hydrogen production.
The technology is virtually already in place for hydrogen combustion engines, and their driving ranges and refilling times are similar to those of traditional gasoline-powered combustion engines. Like a conventional engine, the engine burns hydrogen to produce power through combustion.
7. Avoiding Greenwashing
WTTC's "Hotel Sustainability Basics" is now being used by 3,400 verified properties verified by Green Key & SGS
Booking.com claims that "Third-party certifications signify the highest standard of recognition of commitment to sustainability". They have announced that "Only properties which have invested in a third-party certification scheme will be showcased. Booking.com are explicit about this: “On our platform, we showcase properties that have achieved independent third-party certification by adding a clear label and the ability to filter by certified properties, so they can be easily spotted by guests looking to reduce their negative impact when travelling.” There are problems with third-party certification As Justin Francis writes on LinkedIn: Booking.com made a pretty basic mistake with how they described their ‘sustainability’ program - and regulators predictably pulled them up for it. Now they’ve made a bigger mistake by replacing it with third-party certification labels."
8. Tourism, Sewage & Pollution
A report funded by the UK Space Agency suggests a link between peak tourist periods and algal blooming at Windermere in the Lake District. The link is sewage. More on the Love Windermere Partnership
9.Overtourism - Japan
Akari Saunders-Wyndham has written an analysis of overtourism in Japan: Japan's Overtourism: The Downside of Tourism High correlating increasing concern about overtures with rapidly rising visitor numbers pre- and post-Covid. Akari points to the strains on infrastructure, cultural erosion and authenticity. In Kyoto, bans have been imposed on photography in the back streets of Gion, and now a ban on all tourists from entering Gion, the geisha district, to protect geisha and maiko from potential harassment. Tourists seeking selfies have harassed sacred deer in Nara and Miyajima, causing injuries and, in some tragic instances, death due to ingested plastic waste.
A mesh net 8 feet high and 65 feet long is to be built at a popular Mount Fuji photo spot. "The juxtaposition of the convenience store and Mount Fuji has made it a favourite tourist spot to snap photos."
10. Miscellaneous
ATTA has launched ATTA for Action to create a collaborative platform that brings together key stakeholders in the tourism sector, non-profit organizations, and local communities. Our goal is to create a Pan Africa network of connected projects that support social and environmental sustainability, ensuring that the benefits of tourism extend to local economies, cultures, and the natural environment.
Visiting the Amish: Gerard Gilbert writes in the Daily Telegraph about an Amish Safari in Pennsylvania; it is a perceptive and critical piece.
Responsible Travel no longer banks with Barclays ""Divesting from banks and energy suppliers that invest in fossil fuels are two impactful ways we can help cut carbon and support nature,"
A Europe link by rail to Africa? A new 17-mile underwater tunnel could link Europe’s high-speed rail network to North Africa by 2030 – if a €6bn proposal goes ahead.
Airbnb: CEO Brian Chesky, who co-launched the market disrupter in 2008, says Airbnb was founded with the tagline ‘a cheap, affordable alternative to a hotel.’ But recent research has shown that hotels generally beat Airbnb rentalson pricing, something backed up by user reviews complaining that Airbnb is not always competitive and that its pricing structures, which can include service add-ons or cleaning fees, are not transparent enough.
India tourists to Germany - up 32.6% year on year
Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia: " ... it is not anytime soon before a practical type of sustainable tourism can be found that brings harmony to the tourism industry i..... Instead of a complete overhaul which could take forever, it would be better to introduce incremental steps and make steady progress.
The URL www.rtp.education takes you directly to the RT Hub, which provides easy links to the RT Partnership.
Other Responsible Tourism Newsletters
GreenAir
The Sustainabilist UAE
Responsible Cape Town
Climate Change in 7 chartsResponsible Traveller, South Africa
Encounter Africa
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