The Hindu Business Line : ‘To stay in business, engage in responsible tourism’

Responsible tourism is in people’s minds. People are beginning to better understand the terminology. I don’t believe it is a core strategy in companies’ boardrooms yet. I think more knowledge is needed; the academics must get out into the marketplace to educate us better.

MS FIONA JEFFERY, CHAIRMAN, WORLD TRAVEL MARKET

Sankar Radhakrishnan

Arguably the world’s largest business-to-business event for the global travel and tourism industry, the World Travel Market is held in London across four days in November every year. And steering the event is Ms Fiona Jeffery, Chairman, World Travel Market.

Fourteen years ago, Ms Jeffery — who has been associated with the World Travel Market (WTM) for the past two decades — started the environment awareness day at the WTM. Last year, she launched the WTM World Responsible Tourism Day to spread the idea of responsible tourism, which is essentially about creating “better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit”. The WTM World Responsible Tourism Day 2007 had four sessions on issues such as carbon neutrality and “why a shortage of drinking water is seen as an industry issue”.

Ms Jeffery is also founder and currently Chairman of the global charity “Just a Drop”, that aims to provide clean water and sanitation across the world. Recently in Kochi for the second International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations, she spoke to Business Line on why the travel industry should adopt responsible tourism, and more.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

What are the key trends in the tourism industry today?

Tourism growth is obviously going to continue and with growth comes effective management. I do not think it is an issue we have totally come to grips with yet. I think some people in the industry, and destinations and governments, in particular, are in denial. You cannot have a major tourist attraction with hundreds of thousands of visitors and not be able to manage it efficiently. Managing the tourism industry is a critical issue.

I think the growth of the agenda on responsible tourism is another trend. And there are niche sectors that are evolving continually. I think, particularly in the UK, there is consolidation of the travel agency market and many more online bookings. So there is a growing trend of online bookings, but that is also leading to niche market travel agencies. Not everybody wants to book holidays online. So, they do their research online, but want to talk to a specialist organiser.

Clearly, the oil prices are having a huge impact on airlines, but I think there will be continued growth in terms of low-cost airlines. Low-cost is no longer going to be just short haul; there will be the impact of long haul low-cost. That will create a resurgence and growth in tourism again.

How did the WTM Responsible Tourism Day come about? Was it a natural progression from the Environmental Awareness Day held earlier?

About 14-15 years back I felt, the industry had to protect the very product it was seeking to promote. And there was not much awareness within large-scale companies which often have better resources than the smaller ones. So, when I first started off, it was very much an awareness building campaign. The environment was the agenda at that stage. As time moved on, the agenda changed from just environmental awareness to the issue of responsible tourism.

It’s really a day that is intended for the whole global travel and tourism industry. What I would like to see in time is that on that particular day — which should always take place during WTM so that we can get the message out more easily — events around the world that demonstrate what responsible tourism is and what companies and organisations and communities are doing to promote those issues and, fundamentally, create a better environment for everybody.

Is responsible tourism an idea whose time has come?

It is in people’s minds. People are beginning to better understand the terminology. I don’t believe it is a core strategy in companies’ boardrooms yet. I think more knowledge needs to come; the academics need to get out into the marketplace to educate us better.

So what is the business case for responsible tourism?

If you want to stay in business, you have to engage in responsible tourism with sustainable principles. I think consumers are going to demand more. When you look at destinations such as Kerala, which has been a beautiful destination for so long, it has captured people’s imagination in the last five years. Attracting more tourists brings in more economic benefit. But unless it is managed effectively by the government, private sector and local community, you are going to destroy the product you have.

What are you planning for this year’s Responsible Tourism Day?

Our programme has not been finalised yet. One of the intentions is to continue to promote certain agendas as we did last year, focussing again on the issue of water and carbon offsetting and what the industry needs to do.

I am also looking at a programme to impart specific guidance, direction and advice to hoteliers and tour operators on how to make their companies more responsible. I think there are two aspects to that — how they operate as a travel and tourism company delivering services and products; and about them as an organisation themselves. Increasingly, I think we have to look at responsibility for our planet and environments in both contexts.

The travel and tourism industry often talks about travel and tourism and services, and not about how they run their companies and organisations, resources management — whether it is energy, water or waste.

I think most companies and organisations internationally are not well-informed on these issues. We need people to be able to guide and assist us. So I’d like to create a programme at WTM which facilitates that better.

What are the other plans for WTM this year?

We will be shaping and changing our admission policy this year. Opening up the show to the trade for three days will give people more opportunity to come and do business at WTM.

We always focus on key industry issues. Some of our agenda will continue — the debate on climate change and the Millennium Development Goals. But we’ll also be looking at other market trends and at issues such as space tourism, health and wellness and the changes in that sector. We see WTM as an international, global business forum.

It is an exhibition, it is also a forum where we should be creating a platform for people to debate key issues, address industry trends and leave with a better insight.