Is eco-tourism a green-wash?
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
Mohammad Shahidul Islam
THE journalists who cover tourism- and travelling-related subjects have no recognised union to publicise their interests and fight on their behalf. The travel industry is however, is defended and supported by a variety of organisations, including ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents), WTO (World Tourism Organisation) and WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council). Noticeably, the travel industry intends to protect the world's natural and cultural resources, which are at the heart of its business activities. But it has other concerns as well, some of which run counter to the tenets of sound eco-tourism. These travel associations follow, for instance, self regulation, work for expanded tourism markets and supportlowering of trade barriers. For almost two decades, industry associations responded to the needs for development of environmental concerns and the rise of eco-tourism by instituting certain transformations that, when inspected directly, often amount to promoting minor, cost-saving environmental reforms -- ecotourism rather than critically fighting the codes and practices of eco-tourism.
ASTA's Commandments:
l Respect the frailty of the earth. Realise that unless all are willing to help in its preservation, unique and beautiful destinations may not be here for future generations to enjoy.
l Leave only footprints. Take only photographs. No graffiti! No litter! Do not take away souvenirs from historical sites and natural areas.
l To make your travels more meaningful, educate yourself about the geography, customs, manners and cultures of the region you visit. Take time to listen to the people. Encourage local conservation efforts.
l Respect the privacy and dignity of others. Inquire before photographing people.
l Do not buy products made from endangered plants or animals, such as ivory, tortoise shell, animal skins, and feathers. Read Know Before You Go, the U. S. Customs list of products which cannot be imported.
l Always follow designated trails. Do not disturb animals, plants or their natural habitats.
l Learn about and support conservation-oriented programmes and organisations working to preserve the environment.
l Whenever possible, walk or use environmentally-sound methods of transportation. Encourage drivers of public vehicles to stop engines when parked.
l Patronise those (hotels, airlines, resorts, cruise lines, tour operators and suppliers) who promote the causes of energy and environmental conservation, water and air quality, recycling, safe management of waste and toxic materials, noise abatement and community involvement, and which provide experienced, well-trained staff dedicated to strong principles of conservation.
l Encourage organisations to subscribe to environmental guidelines. ASTA urges organisations to adopt their own environmental codes to cover special sties and ecosystems.
Tourism is a passport of peace. This is an innate right of people. Tourism promotes peace and brotherhood round the globe. It enjoins many responsibilities upon the travellers to perform. ASTA has declared crusade for peaceful tourism and environmentally responsible travel.
ASTA vs WTTC: The afore-mentioned commandments are among a growing number of voluntary codes of conduct written by various organisations. Widely distributed to travel agents and the travelling public, the "Commandments" are printed on green paper and designed to slip into an airline ticket folder. Directed at sensitising travelers and not at the travel agents who belong to ASTA, they include such platitudes as stated above. Although they urge travelers to "Patronize those...dedicated to strong principals of conservation," they do not specifically encourage travelers to patronise locally owned or community-based ecotourism ventures. Without further education of both travel agents and the public, ASTA's "Commandments" are not enough for encouraging good eco-tourism.
Codes such as those have no teeth but allow an organisation to claim great sensitivity and responsibility. There are few industry efforts to demonstrate this more clearly other than the WTTC's Green Globe logo programme that was, endorsed by the Earth Council. This Council was set up to oversee implementation of the 1992 Earth Summit's Agenda 21:
l Planning and management of land resources
l Combating deforestation
l Combating desertification and drought
l Sustainable mountain development
l Sustainable agriculture and rural development
l Conservation of biological diversity The WTTC's president, Geoffrey Lipman, unveiled the Green Globe programme at a 1994 Montreal conference titled "Building a Sustainable World through Tourism". Lipman told the delegates: "The Green Globe symbol means that a company is committed to environmental improvement. It does not mean that a company has achieved it.
"It can be described as a diagnostic and self-fitness programme, not an accreditation programme. It offers business benefits; it offers cost saving and commercial positioning. This seems as if it were putting a green glove on Adam Smith's hidden hand of the market place".
Under this scheme, for as little as $200, travel and tourism companies can purchase the right to use the Green Globe logo in all their publicity and thereby give the impression that they are "going green".
In return, the company pledges to work toward more environmentally sound corporate practices as outlined in the United Nation's Agenda 21. To test Litman's description, Worldwide Television News (WTN) in London set up a phony business called "Greenman Travel" and sent an application and $200 to Green Globe. In return, Greenman Travel received a certificate stating, "In recognition of commitment to environmental improvement". The WTTC did not verify Greenman Travel's authenticity or ask why it wanted to join Green Globe. Thus, Green Globe is, in essence, little more than a marketing ploy.
Green Debate: Much of what is marketed as eco-tourism is simply conventional mass tourism wrapped in a thin veneer of green. Eco-tourism is propelled by travel agents, tour operators, airlines and cruise lines, large hotels and resort chains, and international tourism organisations, which promote quick, superficially "green" visits within conventional packages. A lot of travel companies used it to call attention to anything they were selling.
Perchance more than any other big player in the tourism industry, the Walt Disney Company has tried to cash in on the travelling public's desire to "go green" with an eco-tourism theme park, Animal Kingdom. Disney spent $800 million dollars to transform 500 acres of central Florida cow pasture into an African savanna, with fake wide-trunk Baobab Trees, a Zulu village and some one thousand real imported animals. This largest Disney theme park is designed to let the American public "go on safari" without leaving the shores of the United States. Although it has won praise from zoo-industry officials, Animal Kingdom was opened in mid-1988 amidst protests from animal rights groups and an investigation by the US Department of Agriculture into the deaths of some dozen animals, including representatives of endangered species. Two West African Crowned Cranes were run over by tour vehicles.
A substantial segment of the traveling public wants this type of tourism. In recent years, there has been a gradual trend for many eco-tourists to be less intellectually curious, socially responsible, environmentally concerned and politically aware than in the past. Increasing numbers of older, wealthier and "softer" travellers have begun opting for comfort over conservation.
Ecotourism travelers are, as David Western puts it, "entertained by nature, but not unduly concerned with its preservation". Biologist guides on the Galapagos Islands say that tourists these days, though far greater in number, are overall less interested in the details of the islands' unique ecosystem than they were in the past and want simply a quick historical and ecological overview of the islands. Several naturalist guides are contemplating quitting because they no longer get much professional satisfaction.
These trends reflect the watering down of the true meaning of eco-tourism -- a movement from real eco-tourism toward eco-tourism awareness. The ultimate goal of eco-tourism should be to infuse the entire travel industry with its principals and practices and thereby transform tourism into an environmentally and culturally sensitive activity that contributes to sustainable growth in developing countries. Clearly there is some movement in that direction on the part of many travelers and the mass market. But the movement towards eco-tourism, towards industry "green hoaxing" through advertising images and cosmetic changes, is stronger.
Once some of the world's oldest and most prized nature destinations, including the Galapagos Islands, Nepal and even Monteverde were visited by only the most physically rugged and intellectually curious. Now, however, with improved air and ground transportation, better accommodations and extensive publicity, these destinations are being marketed to a mass audience. When poorly planned, unregulated and over-hyped, eco-tourism, like mass tourism or even traditional nature tourism, can bring only marginal financial benefits but serious environmental and social consequences. Nowadays, some visitors reach mountain summits via what is marketed as "ecotourism of the future" -- and their only step upward is into a helicopter. "Helicopter treks" fly visitors to high mountain peaks, where they get out, stretch their legs, take photographs and then fly back. Such tours clearly do little to educate the traveler and do nothing for conservation or local economic development.
Conclusion: The travel industry's efforts to water down eco-tourism, to sell it in exchange for short-term profits, have led some travel experts to drop the word eco-tourism and dismiss the concept as simply a fad. As world famous eco photographer and expert Bob Harvey puts it, "the word ecotourism became a buzz-word in the early 1990's, but so many people used it in so many different ways that it has become virtually meaningless". This is, however, a classic case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. As a concept, eco-tourism as a set of principles and practices is still in its infancy. In identifying what is eco-tourism enlightenment and determining where it is being practised today genuine eco-tourism is being practised today, we need also to discover ways in which authentic ecotourism can move from being simply a niche market in the category of nature tourism to becoming a broad set of principles and practices that transform the way we travel and the way the tourism industry functions.
The writer is a freelance travel writer, and a Faculty member of National Hotel and Tourism Training Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He may be reached at e-mail: mohd-s-islam@myway.com
THE journalists who cover tourism- and travelling-related subjects have no recognised union to publicise their interests and fight on their behalf. The travel industry is however, is defended and supported by a variety of organisations, including ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents), WTO (World Tourism Organisation) and WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council). Noticeably, the travel industry intends to protect the world's natural and cultural resources, which are at the heart of its business activities. But it has other concerns as well, some of which run counter to the tenets of sound eco-tourism. These travel associations follow, for instance, self regulation, work for expanded tourism markets and supportlowering of trade barriers. For almost two decades, industry associations responded to the needs for development of environmental concerns and the rise of eco-tourism by instituting certain transformations that, when inspected directly, often amount to promoting minor, cost-saving environmental reforms -- ecotourism rather than critically fighting the codes and practices of eco-tourism.
ASTA's Commandments:
l Respect the frailty of the earth. Realise that unless all are willing to help in its preservation, unique and beautiful destinations may not be here for future generations to enjoy.
l Leave only footprints. Take only photographs. No graffiti! No litter! Do not take away souvenirs from historical sites and natural areas.
l To make your travels more meaningful, educate yourself about the geography, customs, manners and cultures of the region you visit. Take time to listen to the people. Encourage local conservation efforts.
l Respect the privacy and dignity of others. Inquire before photographing people.
l Do not buy products made from endangered plants or animals, such as ivory, tortoise shell, animal skins, and feathers. Read Know Before You Go, the U. S. Customs list of products which cannot be imported.
l Always follow designated trails. Do not disturb animals, plants or their natural habitats.
l Learn about and support conservation-oriented programmes and organisations working to preserve the environment.
l Whenever possible, walk or use environmentally-sound methods of transportation. Encourage drivers of public vehicles to stop engines when parked.
l Patronise those (hotels, airlines, resorts, cruise lines, tour operators and suppliers) who promote the causes of energy and environmental conservation, water and air quality, recycling, safe management of waste and toxic materials, noise abatement and community involvement, and which provide experienced, well-trained staff dedicated to strong principles of conservation.
l Encourage organisations to subscribe to environmental guidelines. ASTA urges organisations to adopt their own environmental codes to cover special sties and ecosystems.
Tourism is a passport of peace. This is an innate right of people. Tourism promotes peace and brotherhood round the globe. It enjoins many responsibilities upon the travellers to perform. ASTA has declared crusade for peaceful tourism and environmentally responsible travel.
ASTA vs WTTC: The afore-mentioned commandments are among a growing number of voluntary codes of conduct written by various organisations. Widely distributed to travel agents and the travelling public, the "Commandments" are printed on green paper and designed to slip into an airline ticket folder. Directed at sensitising travelers and not at the travel agents who belong to ASTA, they include such platitudes as stated above. Although they urge travelers to "Patronize those...dedicated to strong principals of conservation," they do not specifically encourage travelers to patronise locally owned or community-based ecotourism ventures. Without further education of both travel agents and the public, ASTA's "Commandments" are not enough for encouraging good eco-tourism.
Codes such as those have no teeth but allow an organisation to claim great sensitivity and responsibility. There are few industry efforts to demonstrate this more clearly other than the WTTC's Green Globe logo programme that was, endorsed by the Earth Council. This Council was set up to oversee implementation of the 1992 Earth Summit's Agenda 21:
l Planning and management of land resources
l Combating deforestation
l Combating desertification and drought
l Sustainable mountain development
l Sustainable agriculture and rural development
l Conservation of biological diversity The WTTC's president, Geoffrey Lipman, unveiled the Green Globe programme at a 1994 Montreal conference titled "Building a Sustainable World through Tourism". Lipman told the delegates: "The Green Globe symbol means that a company is committed to environmental improvement. It does not mean that a company has achieved it.
"It can be described as a diagnostic and self-fitness programme, not an accreditation programme. It offers business benefits; it offers cost saving and commercial positioning. This seems as if it were putting a green glove on Adam Smith's hidden hand of the market place".
Under this scheme, for as little as $200, travel and tourism companies can purchase the right to use the Green Globe logo in all their publicity and thereby give the impression that they are "going green".
In return, the company pledges to work toward more environmentally sound corporate practices as outlined in the United Nation's Agenda 21. To test Litman's description, Worldwide Television News (WTN) in London set up a phony business called "Greenman Travel" and sent an application and $200 to Green Globe. In return, Greenman Travel received a certificate stating, "In recognition of commitment to environmental improvement". The WTTC did not verify Greenman Travel's authenticity or ask why it wanted to join Green Globe. Thus, Green Globe is, in essence, little more than a marketing ploy.
Green Debate: Much of what is marketed as eco-tourism is simply conventional mass tourism wrapped in a thin veneer of green. Eco-tourism is propelled by travel agents, tour operators, airlines and cruise lines, large hotels and resort chains, and international tourism organisations, which promote quick, superficially "green" visits within conventional packages. A lot of travel companies used it to call attention to anything they were selling.
Perchance more than any other big player in the tourism industry, the Walt Disney Company has tried to cash in on the travelling public's desire to "go green" with an eco-tourism theme park, Animal Kingdom. Disney spent $800 million dollars to transform 500 acres of central Florida cow pasture into an African savanna, with fake wide-trunk Baobab Trees, a Zulu village and some one thousand real imported animals. This largest Disney theme park is designed to let the American public "go on safari" without leaving the shores of the United States. Although it has won praise from zoo-industry officials, Animal Kingdom was opened in mid-1988 amidst protests from animal rights groups and an investigation by the US Department of Agriculture into the deaths of some dozen animals, including representatives of endangered species. Two West African Crowned Cranes were run over by tour vehicles.
A substantial segment of the traveling public wants this type of tourism. In recent years, there has been a gradual trend for many eco-tourists to be less intellectually curious, socially responsible, environmentally concerned and politically aware than in the past. Increasing numbers of older, wealthier and "softer" travellers have begun opting for comfort over conservation.
Ecotourism travelers are, as David Western puts it, "entertained by nature, but not unduly concerned with its preservation". Biologist guides on the Galapagos Islands say that tourists these days, though far greater in number, are overall less interested in the details of the islands' unique ecosystem than they were in the past and want simply a quick historical and ecological overview of the islands. Several naturalist guides are contemplating quitting because they no longer get much professional satisfaction.
These trends reflect the watering down of the true meaning of eco-tourism -- a movement from real eco-tourism toward eco-tourism awareness. The ultimate goal of eco-tourism should be to infuse the entire travel industry with its principals and practices and thereby transform tourism into an environmentally and culturally sensitive activity that contributes to sustainable growth in developing countries. Clearly there is some movement in that direction on the part of many travelers and the mass market. But the movement towards eco-tourism, towards industry "green hoaxing" through advertising images and cosmetic changes, is stronger.
Once some of the world's oldest and most prized nature destinations, including the Galapagos Islands, Nepal and even Monteverde were visited by only the most physically rugged and intellectually curious. Now, however, with improved air and ground transportation, better accommodations and extensive publicity, these destinations are being marketed to a mass audience. When poorly planned, unregulated and over-hyped, eco-tourism, like mass tourism or even traditional nature tourism, can bring only marginal financial benefits but serious environmental and social consequences. Nowadays, some visitors reach mountain summits via what is marketed as "ecotourism of the future" -- and their only step upward is into a helicopter. "Helicopter treks" fly visitors to high mountain peaks, where they get out, stretch their legs, take photographs and then fly back. Such tours clearly do little to educate the traveler and do nothing for conservation or local economic development.
Conclusion: The travel industry's efforts to water down eco-tourism, to sell it in exchange for short-term profits, have led some travel experts to drop the word eco-tourism and dismiss the concept as simply a fad. As world famous eco photographer and expert Bob Harvey puts it, "the word ecotourism became a buzz-word in the early 1990's, but so many people used it in so many different ways that it has become virtually meaningless". This is, however, a classic case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. As a concept, eco-tourism as a set of principles and practices is still in its infancy. In identifying what is eco-tourism enlightenment and determining where it is being practised today genuine eco-tourism is being practised today, we need also to discover ways in which authentic ecotourism can move from being simply a niche market in the category of nature tourism to becoming a broad set of principles and practices that transform the way we travel and the way the tourism industry functions.
The writer is a freelance travel writer, and a Faculty member of National Hotel and Tourism Training Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He may be reached at e-mail: mohd-s-islam@myway.com