International Forum 2002 – Fair Trade in Tourism
The Gambia 24-28 May 2002
Briefing Paper
Welcome to the third annual forum of the international Network on
Fair Trade in Tourism.
For the first time in the three years of its existence the forum is not taking place in London, but in a
destination country, where Fair Trade in Tourism matters most. This is an exciting opportunity for us all to
really tackle the nitty-gritty issues of Fair Trade in Tourism for local people at ground level, to exchange
practical experience and information with colleagues from other African countries working on similar projects,
and to get out of the meeting rooms to meet local people and experience fair trade tourism at first hand.
The purpose of this paper is to inform you briefly about the background to the meeting, what we hope to get
out of it, the subjects for discussion and where we might take the positive energy, hopefully created in the
discussions, to bring some tangible changes.
Background to the meeting:
The International Network on Fair Trade in Tourism
Some of you might know that the international Network on Fair Trade in Tourism was set up by Tourism Concern
in 1999 with 3 year funding from the European Commission and the Department of International Development of
the UK government.
Its purpose is:
? To exchange information and experience on tourism and its impacts and to provide a southern perspective on
the criteria or more equitable tourism development, provide support to groups and organizations with emerging
equitable tourism practices, and to influence policy makers at national and international level in
governments, industry and non governmental organizations to make the trade in tourism in southern countries
more beneficial for local people.
The Network now has about 150 members globally, NGOs, tour operators, community organizations, community based
tourism enterprises, and academics.
Fair Trade
Fair Trade was established as a movement in the industrialized North in response to the historic inequality
between developed and developing countries in international trade. This inequality forces developing countries
to build up trade deficits and debts when importing expensive products and not getting enough income from
their own exports, including tourism. In addition, the current trend of globalization and liberalization can
also threaten the competitive strength of domestic production and the amount of local control over social and
economic development.
The Fair Trade Movement world-wide has created a Fair Trade label or ‘trademark’, fair trade partnerships and
ethical trading initiatives, which are designed to provide producers in developing countries with a fair share
of the returns from the sale of their products and workers with fair wages and working conditions.
The ‘Fair Trade’ label is based on a number of criteria including a fair price and a premium that is added to
the basic price paid by the consumer. Producers can use this premium to develop community infrastructure,
such as schools, hospitals, or training programmes to improve skills.
Tourism Concern believes that this provides a useful model for improving the returns from tourism for local
and indigenous people in tourism destinations, particularly in developing countries.
From the consultation of members within the Network a set of criteria for Fair Trade in Tourism has emerged.
This was accepted at the last meeting in 2000 as a working document. The outcomes of the consultation
processes have also been formulated into policy recommendations in action guides for NGOs and most recently
for tour operators in the context of ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’, published by Tourism Concern.
Product or Process?
However, Network members from the South have strongly emphasized from the beginning that the issues of poverty
and the impacts of tourism, particularly mass tourism, are so complex in their countries that it is too early
and too difficult at present to establish a fair trade product with a fair trade label in tourism.
One of the main challenges of the Fair Trade label is the expensive and complicated, time-consuming and
resource intensive nature of monitoring, measuring and independently verifying that standards and criteria are
adhered to. Yet, this needs to happen to provide a guarantee and ensure clarity, trust, and credibility with
consumers. Otherwise there is a danger of ‘green’ or ‘social wash’, whereby the label is only used as a
marketing ploy and a public relations exercise for the industry, cashing in on fashionable trends, without
providing real and substantial improvements to local people.
It was therefore agreed within the Network that, for the time being, Fair Trade in Tourism should be seen as a
process for structural change, which would happen on five important levels concurrently, internationally,
nationally and locally, effected by an ever growing international network of like-minded people (see
‘Principles and Main Criteria’).
Suggested question for the meeting:
? Does the concept of ‘Fair Trade in Tourism’ as outlined in the ‘Principles and Criteria’ meet the
requirements of local and indigenous people in improving their living conditions and enabling them to gain
access to the international markets through trade?
Certification
At the same time, there are many international initiatives currently taking place which promote certification
and ‘eco-labeling’ in tourism as a way of demonstrating and measuring progress on sustainable tourism,
particularly hotels, ecotourism operations, environmental management systems, or destinations.
The Rain forest Alliance, a global organization working in environmental certification, has been hosting a
feasibility project in 2002 on a proposed global accreditation body called the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship
Council (STSC). This body would set international standards and accredit eco and sustainable tourism
certification organizations.
The proposal is supported by many organizations including the World Tourism Organization, the United Nations
Environment programme, WWF, the International Ecotourism Society, and a wide range of sustainable tourism
stockholders and regional certification programmes.
Reporting and Corporate Public Accountability
The international Tour Operators Initiative (TOI) is currently tackling the issue of performance measurement
through reporting, by linking up with the ‘Global Reporting Initiative’ (GRI) and developing core
environmental, social and economic indicators that could lead the way to a better understanding and
implementation of social responsibility in destinations. This is also an important part of the concept of
‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ which includes the involvement and consultation of local communities as
stockholders in the policy development of large corporations.
Some suggested questions for the meeting:
? Should the international Network on ‘Fair Trade in Tourism’ continue to engage in a process of structural
change within the tourism industry and government policy or would locally owned tourism enterprises benefit
from a certified fair trade tourism product and label?
? If tourism companies commit themselves to implement ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’, i.e. consultation of
local destination stockholders, setting performance targets based on social, environmental and economic
indicators and public reporting on the achievement of those targets, will benefits from tourism be increased
for local communities?
International Trade Agreements
Discussions on Fair Trade in Tourism must take into account the global economic context which, it could be
argued, is moving in the opposite direction for small scale and local people’s businesses. Although the GATS
is hailed as introducing fairer trading practices between nations which should give developing countries free
market access to developed countries, the practical reality does not always bear this out. Developing
countries have criticized the rich industrial nations for exploiting international trade agreements to satisfy
the big Corporations. GATS encourages foreign investment supported by generous government incentives, whereas
developing economies are denied similar advantages for investment in developed countries because most
transnationals are based in the North and restrictive trade and immigration policies, expensive set up costs
and uncompetitive business practices impede southern nations from gaining mutual advantages.
Tourism is included in the GATS. This can mean that big European transnationals have free market access to
all signatory countries and use their power to buy up or obtain large equities in domestic businesses. It will
be a great challenge for micro, small and medium sized businesses and those in the informal sector to compete
with the power and efficiency of northern companies. Governments will find it difficult to impose conditions
on them, which would not be interpreted by investors as ‘trade restrictive’ under the GATS rules. Companies
on the other hand have no obligations on them to abide by national and international rules. Voluntary
initiatives, such as certification and public reporting as part of CSR, are currently the only methods for
companies to act responsibly.
Some suggested questions for the meeting:
? How can small scale tourism enterprises compete in a free market?
? What changes need to be made to the GATS or the World Trade organization to enable Fair Trade in Tourism?
? How can the Gambian government and tourism industry ensure that international trade rules help them to
increase domestic productive capacity in a diversified economy?
These questions are obviously not easy to answer. The meeting might also raise different questions, more
relevant to African priorities. However, we hope that in the small group discussions we can have a good
debate and exchange of ideas on these issues. We also intend to work towards a number of statements from the
meeting on each of these issues which can be put forward to relevant policy makers.
An African Network on Fair Trade in Tourism?
One of the main aims of the meeting in The Gambia is to explore some common ground among the different tourism
projects that will be represented (The Gambia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia,
Nigeria, Senegal) and the feasibility of collaboration by setting up an African Network on Fair Trade Tourism.
The meeting will explore whether and how this needs to be done, who would be involved, what would be the main
strategy and action points, what funding would be necessary and how this could be obtained.
I hope you will find this event an inspiring and stimulating experience and we look forward to meeting you.
Angela Kalisch Adama Bah Geri Mitchell
Tourism Concern UK Gambia Tourism Concern ASSET Executive Committee
07 May 2002
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