If you'd like to know when new newsletters are published
please register here to receive notifications
The 2022 Responsible Tourism Charter points out that responsibility drives sustainability, lists the major issues which need to be addressed, and asserts the importance of transparent reporting as essential to demonstrating what is being achieved and avoiding greenwashing.
Responsible Tourism is about using tourism to make better places for people to live and better places for people to visit. How can we “do tourism better”?
The WTM Yearbook is available online
pp 104-105 Celebrating two decades of RT
pp 108-109 Responsible Tourism: making tourism better
pp 110- 117 The Evolution of Responsible Tourism
1. Responsible Tourism at WTM London November 7 & 8
This year’s WTM London theme is: You have the power to change travel. And travel has the power to change the world. There are several sub-themes, including, Responsible Tourism.
Frontiers in Responsible Tourism, there is a Responsible Tourism Conference on Tuesday afternoon with a celebration, networking opportunity and drinks reception at 17:0o. The full RT programme at WTM is online here
There is an article about the WTM programme by Harold Goodwin in the 2023 Responsible Tourism: making tourism better
If you are a travel writer, journalist, or broadcaster this may be of interest.
2. 7th November 17:00 - 18:00 Celebrating 21 Years of Responsible Tourism WTM Site Innovate Stage
When we take responsibility, we can make tourism better for our clients, local communities, their natural and cultural heritage and our businesses. The Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism in Destinations was launched at a side event of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. Last year the 2022 Charter on Responsible Tourism was signed on Magna Carta Island, consolidating twenty years of tried and tested ways of using tourism to “create better places for people to live in and for people to visit.” It’s our 21st birthday, and it is time to celebrate.
3.7th November 14:00 - 14:30 Why does Responsible Tourism make business sense? WTM Site Innovate Stage
There is no single business case for Responsible Tourism because there are many. The business cases are multiple. If you are sceptical about the value of Responsible Tourism to your business, come and hear about why RT makes business sense for them. If you are already using Responsible Tourism as part of your business – are there other elements that you could add? Are you making the most of Responsible Tourism?
Moderator: Harold Goodwin, WTM Responsible Tourism Adviser
Shannon Guihan, Chief Sustainability Officer & Head of TreadRight for The Travel Corporation,4. 7th November 14:30 - 15:10 Countering Green Washing, Positive-Impact Tourism WTM Site Innovate StageThere is increasing demand for experiential tourism and evidence that travellers and holidaymakers are concerned about their negative impacts. We need to accentuate the positive and communicate the good that tourism does for local communities and their natural and cultural heritage. Greenwashing undermines our sector in the eyes of travellers and destination communities. It damages all of us. How can tour operators, accommodation providers and the many small businesses which are the tourism industry communicate the good they do and honestly report their declining, negative impacts?
Moderator: Harold Goodwin, WTM Responsible Tourism Adviser
Julie Cheetham, Founding Member and Managing Director at Weeva
Shannon Guihan, Chief Sustainability Officer & Head of TreadRight for The Travel Corporation,
Inge Huijbrechts, Global Sustainability Security Senior Executive, Radisson Hotel Group
Rochelle Turner, Head of Sustainability at Exodus Travels
5. 7th November 15:10-15:45 Engaging Communities in the Business of Tourism WTM Site Innovate StageIn this panel, we shall contrast two different, but highly successful, ways of engaging local communities as partners in the business of tourism, creating shared value, diversifying local economies and raising living standards. In South Africa, communities were gifted lodges as part of land reparations post-apartheid. In Kerala, villages initially rebelled against tourism development but by developing producer cooperatives and Village Life Experiences the state has shown how tourism can bring sustainable development by adding an additional market opportunity for local producers, artists and performers.
Moderator: Harold Goodwin, WTM Responsible Tourism Adviser
Glynn O’Leary, Chief Executive, Transfrontier Parks Destinations
Hendrik Mathys from the Mier Community co-owners of !Xaus Lodge with the Khomani San Community, a director of the !Xaus Lodge Development Trust
Principal Traditional Leader Morena Montoeli Mota of Batlokoa ba Mota Traditional Community, owners of Witsieshoek Mountain Lodge.
Mrs V Vidyavathi, Secretary Tourism, Government of India
Biju K IAS , Secretary of Tourism, Government of Kerala
Sheo Shekhar Shukla IAS Secretary of Tourism, Government of Madhya Pradesh
6. 7th November 15:45 – 16:15 Managing Destinations: Overcoming Overtourism WTM Site Innovate Stage
We live in a finite world. Our world looks infinite on Earth as we look across the sea, a forest, or a rolling landscape. From space, we see the Blue Marble, our planet, first photographed fifty years ago. Destinations are not infinite. Over the last decade, concern about overtourism has grown, and communities, politicians and commentators in the media have highlighted the issue. How can destinations manage and reduce the negative impacts and enhance the positive?
Moderator: Harold Goodwin, WTM Responsible Tourism Adviser
Emanuele Moggia, Mayor of Monterosso and VP Cinque Terre National Park
Silvia Moggia, Data Storyteller & Strategist, The Data Appeal Company
Miquel Rodriguez Planas, Manager of the Economic Promotion Area. Barcelona City Council
Vincent Nijs, Chief Strategist, Visit Flanders
7. 7th November 16:15 – 16:50 Decarbonising Aviation - Is hydrogen part of the Solution? WTM Site Innovate Stage
The problem is not flying; the problem is the greenhouse gas emitted from burning fossil fuels. There are many destinations with no prospect of domestic tourism and few if any, alternative ways of earning foreign exchange. They are aviation-dependent. The aviation industry forecasts rapid growth and promotes SAF from waste, biofuels and power-to-liquid, but what part will hydrogen play? A clip of John Coplin, FRAE, RB211 aero-engine Chief Designer, expressing his optimism for hydrogen, speaking with evident enthusiasm.
Moderator: Harold Goodwin, WTM Responsible Tourism Adviser
Jane Ashton, Sustainability Director, easyJet PLC
James Cox, Public Affairs Lead, Bristol Airport
Jenny Kavanagh, Chief Strategy Officer, Cranfield Aerospace Solutions Ltd
Jessica Kennedy Project Executive Hydrogen Demonstrator at Rolls-Royce
Solange Baena-Zambrana, UK Lead and National Representative, Airbus Aviation Environmental Roadmap (AAER)
8. 7th November 16:50 - 17:00 Technology for Responsible Tourism WTM Site Innovate Stage
This session dives into the importance of technology in Responsible Tourism and enables businesses and destinations to make better-informed decisions to promote sustainability and minimise negative impacts on the environment. Harold Goodwin will unveil the launch of a new website designed to provide curated and reliable advice on traditional and advanced technologies that minimise negative impacts and maximise social, economic and environmental ones.
Moderator: Harold Goodwin, WTM Responsible Tourism Adviser
Glenn Mandziuk, CEO, Sustainable Hospitality Alliance
9. 8th November 11:05-11:45 Breaking barriers: Travellers are demanding better, more sustainable holidays, how do we deliver?
On the Elevate Stage WTM Site
In a world where travellers demand holidays and experiences that do not compromise our planet, sustainability remains a must. Join our sustainable trailblazers as they delve into the heart of this matter, exploring how education, socio-economic empowerment, and strategic funding can be catalysts for monumental shifts toward sustainable and responsible tourism. The mainstream media often highlights tourism's negative impacts, ranging from greenhouse gas emissions to second homes and holiday lets displacing local people from affordable housing and overtourism. But amongst the challenges lies opportunity - How do we successfully counter the negative coverage and remind people about the positive benefits of tourism?
Moderator: Harold Goodwin, WTM Responsible Tourism Adviser
Martin Brackenbury, formerly President of the International Federation of Tour Operators and Advisor to UNWTO
Sacha Dench, CEO & Ambassador for the UN’s Convention on Migratory Species
Nombulelo Guliwe, Acting CEO, South African Tourism
Vincent Nijs, Chief Strategist, Visit Flanders
Ruth Wright Euronews Travel Managing Editor, Euronews Travel
01 November Why hospitality should give back more than it takes
31 October Frontiers in Responsible Tourism
19 October Why travel matters and why we need to do it better
13 Ocotber There are limits to growth in tourism
05 Ocotber Copernicus, blue-algae bloom, Windermere and overtourism
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
Responsible Tourism News is a newsletter of record carrying the 10 most important Responsible Tourism stories of the month. 5,000 people subscribe to receive it every month. Please forward this to those you think may be interested – you can subscribe using the box on the right if you wish to contribute a story email harold@haroldgoodwin.info
You are receiving this email because you have been receiving RT News for some years or have recently subscribed online. Your name and email address is kept securely by our agent and used only to send you a copy of RT News. We will never sell or give your mailing address to any other organisation. Every edition of RT News sent by email comes with an unsubscribe function so if at any time you wish to cease receiving RT News, please unsubscribe. Our mailing list contains only your name and email address.
If you have any queries, please email harold@haroldgoodwin.info
