Responsible Tourism

Le Mat Italy is an active member of AITR – Italian Association of Responsible Tourism www.aitr.org.

The leisure and tourism industry is one of the leading global economic activities, a multi-billion-dollar industry with 664 million vacationers around the world. In 20 years, the number of tourists will nearly triple to 1.6 billion. But today the negative social and environmental impact of this mass tourism is being assessed, and a growing number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are calling on the tourism industry leadership - and vacationers as well - to adopt a more responsible attitude.

But there's more than that. Tourism also generates jobs, and lots of them. According to another body which studies tourism, the World Tourism and Travel Council, the travel industry provided work for some 200 million people around the world in 1999. But increasingly, this activity is seriously transforming the economies of many countries, and is having a social impact which is far from totally positive. Locally, tourism workers and managers are often "imported" by the large international hotel and leisure chains (six of the seven leading multinationals of the sector are North American), which pick up the major part of the profits. By contrast, local populations benefit only from semi-skilled, poorly paid jobs (cooks, maintenance workers, chambermaids, barmen, gardeners, bus drivers, etc.).

According to a report recently submitted to a tripartite meeting of the International Labour Organization, this sector is known for low pay, difficult working conditions, and many clandestine jobs. It has also been established that in many countries, especially in the South, tourism contributes to the exploitation of child labour.

Finally, the arrival of visitors with pockets full of dollars, and the relaxed atmosphere generally attributed to exotic destinations, encourages the development of the sex trade, and adult women are not its only victims; the coalition ECPAT (Coalition on Child Prostitution and Tourism), based in Bangkok, has shown that tourism is a factor in the accelerating sexual exploitation of minors. It is estimated that two million children in the world are victims of sexual exploitation for profit, and that tourism is partly responsible for this.

By speeding up the abandonment of traditional patterns of production, tourism also leads to the abandonment of activities guaranteeing autonomy. New activities stimulate activities that promote dependence. Tourist complexes generate tons of rubbish (a single cruise ship produces 70,000 tons of trash every year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme).Tourism also has disastrous effects on the natural environment, especially when natural resources are already insufficient. Showers, swimming pools and watering of lawns can destroy water reserves, and often tourists ignore the fact that the local populations lack water for their personal use and for irrigation. Also, the chaotic invasion of hotel construction has often modified the balance of nature, and the erosion of the coastline has become critical in a number of countries.

Yet, there are signs of change. A growing number of NGOs are campaigning for a tourism "ethic".In 1995, a "Charter of Sustainable Tourism" was also published in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain, primarily at the initiative of the World Tourism Organization and international organizations.

Le Mat is based on a more responsible way to act in the field of Tourism that’s why be try to contribute in setting up a worldwide chain of responsible hostels and hotels and local responsible tourism systems.

Look for more information on:
www.responsibletourismpartnership.org
www.world-tourism.org