By Imtiaz Muqbil
Bangkok PostAugust 26, 2002
The historic clash between the tourism industry and non-governmental organisations is set to come to the fore at the World Summit for Sustainable Development due to start in Johannesburg today.
The World Tourism Organisation, the UN-affiliated global body which has mainly governments as members, is set to unveil a new project designed to position the travel and tourism industry as a poverty-alleviator, part of a series of initiatives to promote the widespread use of sustainable tourism as a development tool''.
However, UK-based NGO Tourism Concern says there is more to sustainable tourism development than just that. It wants the tourism industry to start focusing more on the amount of natural resources it consumes, whether the recent inclusion of services (which include tourism) as part of the World Trade Organisation agenda will truly provide for free and fair trade. Critically, it wants to raise the issue of foreign exchange leakage from developing countries.
There is no difference between the goals of the two sides: Both want to see an industry that meets the profitability concerns of the stakeholders, while providing a good balance of social, ecological and economic responsibilities. It is the approach that is different.
The World Tourism Organisation's poverty-alleviation initiative is being launched with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Called ST-EP (Sustainable Tourism _ Eliminating Poverty), it will seek new funds, research linkages between sustainable tourism and elimination of poverty and create an operating framework that provides incentives for businesses to use such programmes. It is designed to assist developing states and LDCs to radically enhance social change, trade participation and poverty alleviation through sustainable tourism''.
Most of the programme will focus on Africa, where poverty levels are assumed to be worse than those in Asia. As always, the right buzzwords, including the famous T'' word, are being used to attract the attention of those who will fund such initiatives.
Poverty is becoming recognised as the biggest global challenge. Elimination of poverty is a means to solve a wide variety of other problems including health, social equality, and even terrorism,'' said a WTO announcement that coincided with the launch of a WTO publication on the subject, a first in the travel and tourism industry.
Having seen many such initiatives since the last 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, the NGOs are sceptical.
Tourism Concern, which positions itself as campaigning for ethical and fairly traded tourism, has come out with its own briefing paper on sustainable tourism in which it asks: Will significant changes be enforced (at the Johannesburg summit) to make tourism more sustainable, or will the issues be skimmed over as many non-governmental organisations fear?''
Tourism Concern writers and researchers argue that the tourism industry has learnt the language of sustainable tourism but made few changes. Tourism, perhaps more than any other activity, depends on quality human and natural environment and resources. Yet in general, it is characterised by rapid, short-term development which more often than not damages the very assets it seeks to exploit and, having wreaked havoc, simply moves elsewhere.
International tourism has been analysed and romanticised, but there is no escape from one fact: it is a business transaction, a commodity for sale, traded on the world market. A life-changing experience in a tropical paradise for one tourist may mean hard cash for the providers of that experience, but in many cases it can mean loss of livelihood for a poor local in the way.''
The problem with tourism is similar to that of resource consumption in general, Tourism Concern says. A quarter of the world's people are living in the countries of the North (excluding developing countries) and consume 80% of total global resources, leaving the three quarters that live in the South to share out the remaining 20%. Growing tourism to developing nations means that one quarter of the world's people of the North is now travelling to the South and consuming the remaining 20% as well.''
Tourism Concern notes that tourism was not even discussed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. After a great deal of lobbying, tourism is on the agenda of the Johannesburg summit but gets only one paragraph in the draft implementation plan. This, says Tourism Concern, is not likely to reflect the fact that it is the world's largest industry''.
Along with other NGOs like the Third World Tourism European Network and Dante (German NGO Network for Sustainable Tourism Development), Tourism Concern also supports dropping the Gats (General Agreement on Trade in Services) agenda from the summit.
Gats introduces rules and obligations into liberalisation. On paper it is intended to ensure a transparent and anti-discriminatory level playing field. But in practice, the service industry is heavily dominated by multinationals based in rich northern countries. Corporations, which clearly stand to benefit from Gats, have been the driving force behind the agreement.''
Samuel Jesupatham, a trade activist from India argues: Many southern governments are not happy with these trading agreements, but they are shouted down and bullied by northern governments during the negotiations to agree. Even though northern countries are in the minority (70% of the 144 member countries are developing), they still hold great power over us by threatening to withdraw aid or loans if we dont agree to the new trade rules.''
One of Tourism Concerns key arguments is over the extent of foreign investment. Foreign investment in tourism is increasing, but at the same time, local control often decreases. Foreign exchange leakage because of foreign ownership of tourism and imports of food and infrastructure can mean that local industries, such as farming and other local suppliers, have minimal benefits.
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