ETHICAL TRAVELLER:SOMETIMES people take the proverbial when I talk about responsible tourism as a "worldwide movement". I try and make the point that it is not just for hippies and ecowarriors, or about solar panels and changing towels, but that the very core of tourism is changing.
This change has been led not only by switched-on businesses, but also by growing numbers of tourists who realise that their impacts on local economies, resources, cultures and communities can be hugely detrimental. There are times when I lose the faith, however, when profit-before-people tourism seems to be taking over. There are too many examples of senseless destruction to list – from Donald Trump’s highly questionable plans to build a golf course on one of Scotland’s most stunning coastlines in Aberdeenshire (check out youvebeentrumped.com about the superb film which questions the ethics of this project) to the blatant abuse of human rights in the name of tourism.
Then suddenly I see the movement lashing into the mainstream again, and my faith is restored. The last two weeks saw two incidences of this. First, in the southeast of England, where nine Protected Landscapes have united on one website called our-land.co.uk, to promote their sustainable tourism businesses. More than a third of England’s southeast is officially classified as Protected Landscape and employment in tourism in these areas is about double the national average at almost 20 per cent and in some cases is much higher, such as on the Isle of Wight, where it accounts for 41 per cent.
The Protected Landscapes consist of two National Parks and seven Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty: the Chilterns, Cotswolds, High Weald, Isle of Wight, Kent Downs, New Forest, North Wessex Downs, South Downs and the Surrey Hills, some of these less than an hour from London. Funded by a £1 million grant from the Rural Development Programme for England to be spent over the next two and a half years, it is intended the model will prosper commercially after that and be available as a template for other protected landscapes across the country.
Our-land.co.uk is a fine website, where sustainable BBs, self-catering properties, small hotels and activity providers can list for free and gain advice on how to put landscape and conservation at the heart of their businesses. The only condition is that they must offer something more than just a “place to stay”, but “provide visitors with a real connection with the people, the landscape, the culture and the environment”.
A very different website also launched 10 days ago – a blog called Conscious Travel (conscioustourism.wordpress.com) – was created by Anna Pollock, one of the most inspiring speakers on “creating change in tourism” I have ever heard. She has worked with tourism boards around the world to advise on climate change and tourism, sustainability and responsibility. It has developed out of the Conscious Capitalism philosophy, which believes that “a more complex form of capitalism is emerging, that holds the potential for enhancing corporate performance while simultaneously continuing to advance the quality of life for billions of people” (consciouscapitalism.org).
Similarly in tourism, Pollock believes there is a worldwide group of “conscious travellers” who, post-recession, are seeking a consumerism which is “mindful, collaborative, participative and co-creative”. At the same time, there are “conscious hosts awake, alert and aware” to changing consumer needs, whose business decisions are values-based, and about collaborating together as communities.
Pollock has spent years assimilating this philosophy and is definitely one to watch and be inspired by. These websites are fine examples of not only how much the responsible tourism movement has travelled, but how, at this rate, it will be whacking the outmoded Trump-like models of tourism straight into the rough.
- Follow Catherine Mack on her blog ethicaltraveller.net and twitter.com/catherinemack