Tangible ways forward
To contribute positively to the building of just and inclusive societies that can provide equal access to justice and that are based on respect for human rights (including the right to development), on effective rule of law and good governance at all levels and on transparent, effective and accountable institutions, travel and tourism require structural reform, crucially in the relationships between large and medium businesses, local and national political, legal and planning processes and citizens in ‘host’ communities and regions.
How can travel and tourism contribute much more to just and inclusive societies and the fulfilment of the SDGs?
Reforming the relationship between business stakeholders and local decision-making
Citizens and workers in the host communities have the biggest stake in ensuring a form of tourism that protects their cultural and natural environments and that contributes to fulfilling their social and economic rights.
Many of today’s challenges can be addressed if working relationships are built between communities and local large, medium and small tourist operators, working through local and national participatory and accountable decision making, planning and monitoring processes, rooted in more inclusive democracies. This is a complex, challenging, but essential process (Mason, 2016).
Integrated participatory planning
Approaches to sustainable development must be coordinated nationally and locally. There are some examples of this type of planning within tourism. They show that it is possible to promote diversified forms of tourism to ease concentration and allow for alternative ways to encourage more socially just and environmentally respectful activities. How- ever, to be viable and sustainable they all depend on citizen/community/public control and participation.
Guidelines for Sustainable Tourism
Local planners, local and national government officers and representatives of trade unions, tourist operators, travel agents, and ‘host’ communities and regions must be equipped with guidelines and ‘best practices’ for sustainable tourism in practice. Such guidelines must aim to bridge the large gap between rhetoric and reality. These guidelines must be generated through a network of “Partnerships for Sustainable Tourism”.
One step forward is to put in place regulations and local and national legislation that effectively protects local citizens and communities from harmful tourism as well as mechanisms that require travel and tourism businesses to compensate for losses and to clean up the damage they have created, especially if an operator ends their activities in an area.
Clear, transparent, accessible mechanisms of accountability
Accountability mechanisms are needed to empower people(s) to monitor and hold governments, financial institutions, development agencies and the private sector engaging in tourism accountable for their actions.
At the transnational level, as with other industries that involve transnational corporations and business activities, an international legally binding instrument on transnational corporations, a binding treaty, with respect to human rights is essential. This should contain clear and strong provisions that prohibit the interference of corporations in the process of forming and implementing laws and policies, as well as administering justice, at all national and international levels. (Treaty Alliance, Transnational Institute, 2015)
Local communities and indigenous peoples must have a central position in the new models of sustainable tourism, understanding this activity in every instance as a means of enhancing the quality of life and wellbeing of local populations, including mainstreaming gender considerations in sustainable development.
There are a growing number of community-based initiatives that are enabling host communities to have a clearer and stronger voice in how travel and tourism is developed and monitored. Many are associations and not-for profits and build on participatory develop- ment approaches to community development. Each provides some key contributions to ways forward to more sustainable and just travel and tourism.
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