(Bonn, 07.02.2012) Chinesische Regierung verbietet Fluggesellschaften die Teilnahme am europäischen Emissionshandelsystem - EU Kommission will nicht nachgeben
Tourism Policy
(Bonn, 02.02.2012) As every year, Tourism Watch will participate in the International Tourism Convention in Berlin from March, 7th - 11th 2012.
Therefore, we already would like to announce our event during the ITB and would like to invite you: On Wednesday, 7th of March at 4pm, we will organise...
At an "International Forum on Alternative Tourism" held in November in Cambodia, the Asiaand Pacific Alliance of YMCAs (APAY) discussed current challenges in tourism and formulated strategic directions on alternative tourism. As Heinz Fuchs reports, the acronym "CHANGE" used by the YMCA stands...
Violence is still common in Timor-Leste (East Timor), years after independence from the Indonesian oppressors in 2002. It also affects small tourism businesses, as Christian Wollnik reports. The country has coral reefs with a high biodiversity. The National Directorate of Tourism focuses on water...
At a side event organised in Durban on the occasion of the recent climate negotiations, representatives of civil society, the tourism industry, government and the World Tourism Organization discussed the nexus of tourism and climate justice. Sabine Minninger reports on the discussion which...
On the front wall, there are posters promoting adventure and fair trade in tourism. At the back of the small briefing room, there are posters explaining the fatal impact of drug use. "Stormsriver Adventures" is active on different fronts. The South African company in Stormsriver has gained a...
Ella Mahlulo (40) is one out of many. She is one out of very many people in South Africawho have suffered in the past. But she is one out of not so many who have faith in the future and have taken the initiative to make a difference in their community. Together with Penny Mainwaring, Ella runs "...
Tourism Concern, together with six NGOs, under them EED Tourism Watch and Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT) have renewed calls for the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) to enable poor communities negatively affected by tourism to have a voice in UNWTO processes. This is vital if human...
By Christina Kamp. All actors in tourism have to honour their obligations under the international human rights framework. With reference to our study on human rights and tourism, published by the German Church Development Service (EED) earlier this year*, we asked Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General...
According to a draft CRZ Notification 2010, issued by the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests in April 2010, the current protection mechanisms for fragile coastal ecosystems are to be further diluted. Since the introduction of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification in 1991, there...
Tourism is one of the few income opportunities for coastal communities in the Dominican Republic. In an extensive field research, Yolanda León has investigated people's perspectives with regard to tourism. She found that most of the people in rural coastal areas consider tourism as an important...
After the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, Cuba experienced a major economic, social and political crisis. As Enrique Navarro Jurado reports, international tourism was seen as part of the solution. This included opening the sector to foreign investment, in the form of joint-ventures and the...
Tourism has often been praised as a tool for poverty reduction. However, the example of the Dominican Republic shows the limited benefit of the tourism sector for the improvement of people's quality of life, especially in places where it is particularly prominent. The analysis by Pável Isa...
By Christina Kamp
Tourism in Central America has fast become an important economic factor and has contributed to a significant structural change. We asked Ernest Cañada to highlight the social conflicts emerging from this new setting, as well as civil society responses. Ernest Cañada is...
Socially responsible and environmentally sustainable tourism has not yet become an integral part of tourism training. Travel agents are often at a loss if customers happen to ask for sustainable products. As Randy Haubner reports, the Information Centre on Human Rights and Development in Bremen...
By Sumesh Mangalassery
The guns have fallen silent in Sri Lanka's bloody civil war, but the deep wounds of conflict have not even begun to heal. The re-election of President Mahindra Rajapakse seems unlikely to move Sri Lanka to long term peace. His post war policies are deepening the division...
By Rina M. Alluri
The tourism industry is extremely susceptible to violent conflicts. However, the tourism sector's corporate engagement in peace promotion remains mostly indirect. The results of a study carried out jointly by Swisspeace and the Cologne Business School* show that tourism has an...
Not only Israel, but Palestine, too, is home to various tourist attractions. However, the major share of tourist arrivals and tourism income goes to the Israeli tourism industry. If tourism is to have positive effects in conflict regions, there is a need for conflict-sensitive corporate social...
The wildlife reserves of Kenya and Tanzania have become an integral part of the tourism product. While most of the visitors only use their cameras to "hunt" animals, a few wealthy trophy hunters pay huge amounts of money to shoot a buffalo, elephant or lion. As Ulrich Delius reports, the land...
The war is over. The twenty six year war, or rather the civil war, in Sri Lanka was officially declared over when the Tamil separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed by Sri Lankan military on May 19, 2009. In the island, no one talks of terrorism...
They carry more than the permitted maximum luggage, don't wear proper clothes, and in case of health problems, medical care is not guaranteed. The situation of porters at Mount Kilimanjaro in East Africa, as described by Andrea Schirmer-Müller, leaves much to be desired. While the wages are not...
T. Ravindran stays in a dilapidated single room thatched hut with his four member family, right on the sea shore. He is a traditional fisherman of Pozhikara, adjacent to Veli Tourist village in Kerala. When I asked him about the new walkway constructed for tourists, four feet high right in front...
‘Tourism - celebrating diversity' - the theme chosen by the UN World Tourism Organisation for the 2009 World Tourism Day - raises many questions, says the Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT) in a statement issued on the occasion. Tourism enables visitors to be exposed to the riches of this...
By Christina Kamp
Tourism has not been playing a major role in climate reports and negotiations. At the international symposium "Travel & Tourism in the Age of Climate Change" in July 2009 in Eastbourne (UK), the tourism-climate change nexus took centre stage. The British University of...
On Friday, 13th of March EED-Tourism Watch realized a presentation on Corporate Social Responsiblity in Practise under the title: "Sun, Sand and Sustainable Tourism".
Jennifer Seif (Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa) and Rosemary Viswanath (Equations, India) presented together with ECPAT...
In their critique of the National Tourism Plan of Brazil, Christina Rodrigues de Melo Orpheo and Morrow Gaines Campbell III point out the lack of emphasis on community-based initiatives as an alternative model of tourism development in the country.
While the Brazilian National Tourism Policy...
In her article on the Brazilian network "Turisol", Cecilia Zanotti shows that community-based tourism development helps to distribute the benefits of tourism among local communities. The Brazilian Network on Solidarity and community-based tourism (Rede Brasileira de Turismo Solidário e...
Tourism was among the issues raised at the World Social Forum (WSF) 2009, which took place from 27th January to 1st February in Belém, Brazil. Members of the Global Tourism Interventions Forum (GTIF) passed the "Declaration of Belém" in which they denounce hegemonic tourism policies. With regard...
The Second International Conference on Sustainable Tourism which took place in Fortaleza, Brazil, in May 2008 brought together more than 500 participants from Brazil, other parts of Latin America, and Europe. In plenaries and workshops, they not only discussed tourism concepts and experiences, but...
This year, the Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. In this issue of TourismWatch (incidentally our "No. 50” – and another reason to celebrate!), we therefore take the opportunity to congratulate ECOT, one of our main partners, on...
In the South Indian state of Kerala, civil society groups and movements protested against the “Second International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations” which was held by Kerala Tourism and the “International Centre for Responsible Tourism, India“ in Kochi, Kerala, in March 2008. At a...
The Peruvian government has recently announced the enactment of new laws which are designed to facilitate investors' access to land and resources for tourism and other purposes. The rights and interests of the Peruvian population and especially local communities are being disregarded and the...
The Human Development Report 2007/2008, published byUNDP in November 2007, tackles the global challenges of climate change. It looks at the impact of climate change on the world's most vulnerableregions and the world's poorest people. Christina Kamp summarises some of the HDR's findings on both...
