Topics

Tourism Policy

Even today, tourism policy very often is seen location policy. In too many cases it stops at the city or national border: wine regions in South Africa fiercely compete against each other for the attention of travellers and ministers of small countries in the Caribbean outbid each other in attracting tourism investments. read more

Culture and Religion

“Getting to know the country and its people” is a central motive especially when travelling to countries of the Global South – spiritual travel offers are booming all over the world. During their holidays, many travellers find the time and tranquillity to visit churches and temples or they visit isolated mountain villages, to learn unique weaving techniques of the indigenous craftswomen. read more

Environment and Climate

In many places of the world tourism actively contributes the protection of the environment: national parks in many places are financed by the income of tourists and biodiversity becomes an attractive selling point for destinations. Nevertheless: on a global scale, tourism consumes huge amounts of scarce natural resources - like water or energy - and produces mountains of rubbish from plastic bottles and food waste. read more

Economy

Tourism is one of the most dynamic and fastest growing economic sectors. Every eleventh job depends on tourism and within every third developing country tourism is the main source of foreign exchange. However, almost half of the people working in tourism work in the informal sector – without contracts of employment and social security – they might be taxi drivers, souvenir vendors or unregistered tour guides. read more

Human rights

“Tourism is people´s business” – this wisdom holds true since the emerge of travel and tourism. It is not only true for guests – but includes all the people all over the world, who ensure, that travellers get safely from A to B, provide good food and arrange interesting excursions. read more

Corporate Responsibility

Tourism is characterized by complex and internationally interwoven value chains. At the same time, tourism is a widely unregulated economic sector. In order to attract investors or travellers, destinations outpace each other with low environmental and social standards – at the expense of nature and people. read more

Service

In this section we give tips on events and literature around the topic of fair and socially responsible travel. read more

Infoservice