MANIFESTO NFI 2007 MANIFESTO FOR A NEW EUROPE - ΜΑΝΙΦΕΣΤΟ ΓΙ | Page 12

Manifesto for a New Europe
Tourism – for social, economic and
ecological sustainability
OUR GOAL
The tourism sector must not be surrendered to big business
groups and their profit aspirations. The development of tourism
should first of all benefit the regions visited, without prejudice
to social and ecological compatibility.
WE KNOW
Among the most significant social achievements of western
democracies is the universal right to leisure time and travel.
The 20th century was characterised by the reduction of weekly
working hours and the entitlement to ever longer holidays, in
other words by an increase in disposable time for the working
population. Apart from growing material affluence it was the
extra leisure time that accounted for the enormous upswing of
tourism or, to put it differently, for the transformation of tour-
ism from a luxury of the rich into a mass phenomenon.
Tourism has become one of the most important, globalised
service sectors. Every ninth job, worldwide, depends directly
or indirectly on tourism, with a couple of globally operating
travel organisations dominating the tourism business, provid-
ing hundreds of thousands of beds and running hotel chains
and airlines. Currently, the annual number of international
tourists recorded by the World Tourism Organisation, WTO,
exceeds 760 million, a figure that will rise to 1.6 billion an-
nually by 2020. Moreover, holidaymakers tend to travel over
ever longer distances: Even now, every fourth tourist leaves
his/her continent when going on holiday; within twenty years
it will be every third. As the frequency of long-haul journeys
increases, the competitive pressure on tourism in Europe is
mounting. Europe’s share in the world market (currently 55%)
is declining. Depending on the definition, the tourism value
added for the European Union currently amounts to between
4 and 11% of GDP. Data on the number of people employed
fluctuate between 8 and 21 million, which equals 4 – 12% of
total employment. Forecasts of the development of tourism in
Europe vary considerably according to region.
Problems in this leisure-time sector multiply along with
the economic importance of tourism and with the volume of
travel. Generally speaking, modern mass tourism is in danger
of undermining its very foundations, namely pristine nature
and regional authenticity. Particularly problematic is the vol-
ume of tourism traffic. Private cars are the preferred means of
travel for the great majority of EU citizens; flights take second
rank. As a result the resident population of holiday destina-
tions suffers grievously from the traffic load. The same applies
to transit routes along which tourism traffic has a major share
in CO 2 emissions. Overall, tourism activities are characterised
by enormous space consumption, a fact corroborated by the
example of skiing. As a result, the ‘natural areas’ of Europe’s
tourism centres show, even now, unmistakable signs of ca-
pacity overload. What we observe at the global level is the
homogenisation of tourism products by travel enterprises and
hotel chains so that beach and adventure holidays as well as
12 International Friends of Nature
the options on offer at various destinations become increas-
ingly interchangeable. It is evident that the economic benefits
generated by organised tourism for the southern regions and
their populations are relatively small. The major part of revenues
remain with the travel agencies or the transport companies,
whose headquarters are not located in the destination but in
the source countries. The bargain prices of journeys to develop-
ing countries are not least due to multinational travel agencies
beating down prices at the expense of the environment and
of the people employed in the tourism sector.
The liberalisation of services under the GATS agreements
increases the likelihood of small, local and regional tourism
agencies being ultimately crowded out of the market. Hence,
the benefits to those visited and the local value added are at
risk of being replaced by an externally controlled misappropria-
tion of tourism by ‘global players’.
WE DEMAND
We argue for a stronger focus on the local and regional levels
of global tourism, for something called ‘glocalisation’. On the
road from a Europe of the regions to a world of the regions,
the development of tourism must be principally guided by lo-
cal and regional needs and requirements. Second in line are
the motives of travellers and only third the profit aspirations
of international business groups. We hold that a bigger profit
share for local service providers is conditional on support to
small and medium-sized enterprises. Further, we demand bet-
ter working conditions in the tourism business, in other words
fair wages and social security for local employees, especially
in southern countries. Even in Europe, tourism is one of the
low-wage sectors with poor social security standards, a high
number of atypical and precarious jobs and enormous work-
loads. However, women and children employed in tourism in
poorer countries stand in special need of protection from ex-
ploitation and human-rights infringements. Generally speak-
ing, the volume of tourism must not impair the quality of life
of those visited.
We stand for a socially, economically and ecologically sus-
tainable tourism. What tourism requires is an intact and healthy
natural environment, a vibrant culture and a fair partnership
between visitors and visited. Tourism needs to boost the quality
of life of the visited and to generate adequate economic ben-
efits for them. Key elements of a pertinent sustainability policy
are self-determination of tourism regions, generation of local
value added, respect for distinctive cultural and religious traits
as well as frugal use of natural resources. With this in mind,
gentle mobility provided by public transport needs to be sup-
ported just as environmentally sensitive tourism projects, such
as ‘Alpine pearls’ or ‘Mobil alp’. In Europe and at the global
level national states need to support small tourism enterprises
and to protect people working in the tourism sector by passing
pertinent labour law regulations. Moreover, conservation ef-
forts need to be stepped up. For the countries in the southern
hemisphere we demand a code of conduct governing travel
agencies as well as the hotel and catering business that guar-
antees fair working conditions and the observance of human
rights, for instance in the context of child sex tourism.
Global criteria and indicators need to be generated for
sustainable tourism and systematic surveys and publications