TOWARDS RESPONSIBLE TOURISM


By Bruno Leunen – Destination Unlimited

Global Compact
In 1999, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, challenged business leaders to join an international initiative – the Global Compact – that would bring companies together with UN agencies, labour and civil society to support universal environmental and social principles.
Global Compact was launched at UN Headquarters in 2000. Today, thousands of companies from all regions of the world, international labour and civil society organizations are engaged in the Global Compact, working to advance ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption.
Through the power of collective action, the Global Compact seeks to promote responsible corporate citizenship (or Corporate Social Responsibility) so that the private sector can be part of the solution to the challenges of globalisation and help realize a more sustainable and inclusive global economy.
The Global Compact is a purely voluntary initiative with the objective to mainstream the ten principles in business activities around the world and to catalyse actions in support of UN goals.
In Belgium, Addeco, Dexia, Ethias, Fortis, InBev, KBC, amongst others have already joined this initative.

For more information, please visit www.globalcompact.com

Back in 1994 Sir Colin Marshall, CEO of British Airways, gave an interesting definition of the Tourism and Travel Industry: " It is essentially the renting out, for short-term lets, of other people's environments, whether that is a coastline, a city, a mountain range or a forest. These products must be kept fresh and unsullied, not just for the next day, but for every tomorrow." Very true words they were and definitely, way ahead of their time.

At Destination Unlimited we started with Responsible Tourism over 20 years ago when we took a group of people over to Morocco to plant olive trees for the local community. The meetings with the local people, the positive interaction and the feeling of satisfaction at the end of a job well done opened up a whole new way of looking at the incentive business.
Incentives can be so much more than a week in a 5-star hotel on a beach in an idyllique location. Of course those incentives have their place in the market and they definitely will continue being in demand, but times are changing, people are increasingly aware of the need to have not only respect for our planet but even more for the people who inhabit our planet.
Companies look for ways of taking people away from their cosy daily lives and confront them in a positive way with the needs in other parts of the world.
When properly briefed these trips can be not just personally rewarding for the individual participants but also for their company as special bonds are forged which can only contribute to a better understanding on the work floor.

We have many examples to illustrate the success of these trips, and they do not necessarily need to be in faraway 3rd world countries. Recently Deutsche Bank and their 300 guests went to Spain and helped a small village by repainting the entire main square, followed by a village celebration. The project involved the town officials and the entire population.

Further afield we undertook several projects in Thailand after the Tsunami disaster where our groups helped re-build schools and provide books and learning materials. In Myanmar groups of different sizes helped by building new classrooms, providing learning materials and even by participating in the "Adopt A Child" project based on individual participants sponsoring a child from a poor family. 

We have worked with several projects in Africa and South Africa. In Tanzania whilst building schools, donating school materials and interacting with the local Masai population, it was great to see one of the basic principles of Responsible Tourism taken that one step further by a local DMC.  Not only does he provide tented camps for the visitors with trained local workers – not one foreign manager to be seen! – but he has made it possible for the safari jeep drivers to obtain ownership of their jeeps, definitely a win-win situation !

Another African Experience was the Delta Lloyd Project in Burkina Faso. In this project the company in collaboration with a Belgian NGO, sponsored a Micro-dam and well for a local community. The group got very involved with the local community and shared in the village life. This is an illustration of the new trend where companies go all the way with very positive results especially also for the individual participants as they participated in the actual building.

Definitely a fun assignment was “The Train Ride to the Future “in Ecuador. The most difficult part of the assignment was ...to find something to do! Then we stumbled upon THE project: reviving of an old steam train line in the east of Guayaquil. Everybody got involved in the work: our DMC, the local government, the Indian community, the villages along the way, and the locals who eventually participated in the big Fiesta. Partly financed by the client the train got knocked back into shape, the railroad was restored and the whole project was rounded of with a big party for the villagers and the participants. An added benefit for the beautiful old steam train was that it became a major tourist attraction in an area where previously there was nothing! The result: a sustainable investment for the future of the local area.

There are of course many more examples and I can only recommend you look at the pictures to see not only the joy on the faces of the local people, but in our case as importantly, the deep satisfaction on the faces of all our participants.

Responsible tourism is not about hardship in basic accommodation, but it is about visiting people in their own country, city, village and having a positive exchange with them whilst helping to make their lives better. And who said that we cannot add a few days of relaxation in a great resort on to this sort of trip?

We are definitely moving towards a new kind of incentive.
It is important to brief the client thoroughly before departure on Responsible Tourism. By educating our clients we reap the rewards of working differently, the participants also are rewarded and we all contribute to a better world.
The work of the DMC must show a lot of creativity, they need to work together with different partners,( villagers, NGO’s, etc), they help in educating the local communities and governments. They also have the unique feeling of doing something special and making a positive change.

Responsible Tourism, the ‘new’ incentive, is concentrating on projects with long term benefits and works together with NGO’s and local communities.

The bottom line: we can ALL make a difference, for ourselves, for our clients but also for the children of the world…our future world!