CHANGING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN TOURISM THEME OF DISCUSSION IN COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

20 April 1999

Press Release
ENV/DEV/501

CHANGING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN TOURISM THEME OF DISCUSSION IN COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

19990420 Educating Tourists, New 'Model' for Tourism, World Tourism Organization's Code of Ethics among Issues Discussed

How to change consumer behaviour in tourism was the theme of the discussion in the Commission on Sustainable Development this morning, with participation from representatives from the private sector, the public sector, workers and non-governmental organizations.

Tourism is one of the Commission's four substantive themes for its seventh annual session. The other themes for the two-week session, which will last through 30 April, are: oceans and seas; consumption and production patterns; and implementation of the 1994 Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States. Those issues are taken up as part of the Commission's overall mission to monitor implementation of Agenda 21, the action plan adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) (Rio de Janeiro, 1992).

The Mayor of Calvia, Spain, speaking on behalf of local authorities, told the Commission that tourism focused too much on short-term economic factors. The present model, which focused only on increasing the number of tourists at any price, should be changed to reflect environmental, social and cultural needs for each locality. Also, growth should be limited in those areas that were already saturated and well-informed tourists, cognizant of the conditions required for sustainability, should be cultivated.

Similarly, a representative of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions called for changing individual behaviour and the entire model of tourism. Speaking for trade unions, she emphasized the key role that tourism workers and associations played in transforming the industry, since they influenced tourist behaviour, identified risks and raised awareness. But, all those efforts were limited without full cooperation from business, she added. Businesses often hampered the environmental efforts on which sustainable tourism was based.

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The economic issues involved in making tourism sustainable must be addressed in addition to environmental concerns, a representative of the International Hotel and Restaurant Association said, on behalf of industry. Commitment from governments at every level and partnership with trade unions were needed. Industry must view itself as a stakeholder in sustainable tourism, and increase its efforts to educate consumers, who often lacked information about the environmental concerns of the areas they were visiting.

A member of Voluntary Services Overseas, speaking for the non- governmental organization Tourism Caucus, said the Commission should invite governments and the tourism industry to work with local communities, so they were able to make informed choices. Also, it should initiate public awareness campaigns on the social, economic, cultural, gender and environmental impacts of tourism.

Representatives from Ireland and Egypt described ways their respective countries attempted to address the challenges of large numbers of tourists, ranging from green-labelling to public awareness campaigns.

During the dialogue segment of the meeting, the Commission opened the floor to speakers from all sectors. Many stressed the connection between consumer demand and market response. The role of the media was highlighted, as was the importance of inter-sectoral cooperation.

In the course of a wide-ranging discussion, speakers discussed such topics as: education; a code of ethics for tourism; and certifying eco-friendly tourism enterprises. Several concrete proposals were also made, such as developing in-flight videos to promote awareness about destinations. Information campaigns and the media were proposed as ways to teach consumers to be more respectful of environment and culture when they travelled. Tourists must be encouraged to be critical thinkers, rather than passive sponges, one speaker said.

The Commission's Chairman, Simon Upton (New Zealand), announced that the high-level meeting on tourism to be held tomorrow afternoon would begin at 2 p.m. rather than 3 p.m., due to the large number of speakers scheduled.

The Commission will meet again at 3 p.m. today to continue its dialogue between major groups on tourism, focusing on promoting broad-based sustainable development through tourism, while safeguarding the integrity of local cultures and protecting the environment.

Commission Work Programme

The Commission on Sustainable Development met this morning to continue its dialogue on the subject of sustainable tourism, focusing on the sub-theme of consumer behaviour. The segment is designed to generate dialogue between governments, representatives from industry, trade unions, local authorities, non-governmental organizations and other participating major groups, as well as international organizations. (For background information see Press Release ENV/DEV/500 of 19 April.)

Statements

KEN HINE, Chief Executive Officer, International Hotel and Restaurant Association, on behalf of industry, said there were 625 million people travelling internationally today -- and that accounted for only a small part of total tourism. The increase in tourist traffic created responsibilities for the industry. The tourism industry had been cooperating with the United Nations to create an environmental teaching guide for hotels to help them operate in a more sustainable manner. To make tourism more sustainable, however, there was a need to address not only environmental concerns, but also the economic issues involved. Action plans were needed to move the discussion from review to reality.

Consumers did not have an understanding of the environmental concerns of the places they visited, he continued. But, how much did the industry do to teach travellers their responsibilities in that regard? Industry needed to make more efforts to educate and, to do that, it needed the commitment of governments at every level and the partnership of trade unions. Industry must understand that it also was a stakeholder in sustainable tourism. It was beginning to accommodate a new generation of travellers that were better educated and more in touch with the world around them. All sectors must join hands to educate the tourists of the future.

ESTAFANIA BLOUNT, of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), on behalf of trade unions, said tourist workers played an essential role in promoting sustainable tourism and orienting consumers. In many countries, unions provided education and campaigned for sensitization. That had been particularly true in the hotel industry regarding health and environmental issues. While workers could identify risks and contribute to improvements, those efforts were limited without the full cooperation from business. All partners must participate if the tourism industry was to become a sustainable undertaking. To create a sustainable tourism industry, changes were needed in the entire model of tourism.

Tourist workers had the potential to transform the industry, she continued. Trade union associations could exercise direct influence on the behaviour of tourists. Workers in the industry had an important responsibility in the transition to sustainable tourism, since their

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environment, health and employment were at stake. The overall attitude of business presented an obstacle to the environmental efforts on which sustainable tourism was based. Sustainable tourism meant a commitment to preserving natural and cultural heritages. It was a comprehensive and coherent concept.

SHARON JAMES, of the non-governmental organization Tourism Caucus, said that there were a number of factors to consider when discussing consumer behaviour. All sections of local communities and indigenous groups should participate in promoting appropriate tourist behaviour and building capacity for consumer advocacy. Education -- both formal and informal -- and targeted programmes for public awareness were key to influencing consumer behaviour. Governments of countries that sent and received tourists must take responsibility for promoting appropriate behaviour and preventing exploitation. To successfully influence consumer behaviour, inter-agency cooperation was needed at all levels. Non-governmental organizations could play an important supporting role by sharing expertise and assisting in capacity-building, education and advocacy.

Turning then to possible outcomes from the Commission's session, she said the Commission could initiate a review of the global code of ethics, which was currently being developed by the World Tourism Organization, and promote multi-stakeholder participation in its development, implementation and monitoring. It could initiate an inter-agency effort with stakeholders, led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and drawing on media expertise where appropriate to; examine activities to influence consumer behaviour and empower consumer advocacy; consider how best to enhance those activities; evaluate the impact of price mechanisms, such as taxes, and legislation on consumer behaviour; and report to the Commission on those findings in 2002.

The Commission should invite governments and the tourism industry to: work with local communities so they were able to make informed choices; initiate public awareness campaigns on the social, economic, cultural, gender and environmental impacts of tourism; and address the health issues associated with tourism. Governments could also be invited to provide a legislative structure to promote appropriate consumer behaviour and prevent exploitative forms of tourism. The tourism industry could be invited to make the education of tourists a key criterion in any certification schemes.

MARGARITA NAJERA ARANZABAL, Mayor of Calvia, Spain, on behalf of local authorities, said her municipality had 50,000 inhabitants and 1.5 million tourists each year. Her experience had shown that there was a need to replace the present tourism model, which was concentrated only on getting more and more tourists at any price. The new model should be adapted to the environmental, social and cultural needs for each locality. There was also a need to limit growth in those areas that were already saturated, as well as to have a well-informed tourist that understood the necessary conditions for

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sustainable tourism. Understanding the behaviour of tourists and their decision-making processes -- where to go and what to do -- was crucial to sustainable policies.

Tourism was focused too much on short-term economic logic and local authorities themselves had a short-term profit outlook, she said. Travel and sustainable tourism policies needed to consider transportation considerations, as well. Much of airline travel was tourist-related and airlines must reduce emissions and other atmospheric contamination. The destruction of natural resources had been seen in her own city, which was now without sufficient water resources for its citizens and tourists. Unsustainable tourism also brought about a crisis of identity and social cohesion.

ADEL RADY (Egypt) said that Egypt's tourism policies had been focused, in part, on a number of different factors in order to change the behaviour of tourists and make them more conscious of environmental needs. It had tried to introduce a new kind of tourism that respected the surroundings. In that regard, there were programmes for training and seminars to teach ecotourism. There were public awareness campaigns to preserve the coral reef in the Red Sea area and "eco-friendly" behaviour was being taught in schools. Resource consumption, especially water consumption, was a major concern in his country and greater information was needed to change consumer behaviour in that regard.

He added that establishing tourist centres at the destinations was a positive development. They provided awareness and historical context about the tourist area. Such centres were now in place in the Red Sea area. There was also a need for a tourist area management system that could change tourist behaviour. There was also a need to think, not just about the quantity of tourists, but the quality of the tourism experience. Such steps were important in changing consumer behaviour.

DONAL GUILFOYLE (Ireland) said that during the 1990s, the average annual increase of tourist arrivals to his country had been almost double that achieved by world tourism. To address the impact of 5.5 million tourists arriving on his small island country, a comprehensive programme of sustainable tourism development was required. Tourist behaviour could be influenced by controlling societal values in the originating country. Another method involved marketing to influence decisions about destinations, accommodation types, modes of transport, holiday activities, holiday purchases and host community interaction.

He said visitors could be encouraged to steer clear of sensitive sites by means that included pricing orientation and omitting sensitive sites from guidebooks. Market orientation towards sustainable accommodation, transportation, activities and purchases -- by branding through "green labels" or the equivalent -- was another core technique. Further, tourist awareness

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could be raised through education, incentives and promotion and dissemination of sustainable tourism brochures and pre-arrival literature.

Globalization was a powerful phenomenon, with an increasingly severe impact on culture, he said. The continuing challenge to Irish tourism would be to maintain cultural distinctiveness in the face of global standardization. By emphasizing the distinctiveness of Ireland's socio-cultural and natural resources, the country's tourist board was raising tourist awareness.

Dialogue on Tourism and Consumer Behaviour

Taking up the topic of education and sustainable tourism, a representative of local authorities said that educating consumers did not mean that tourist destinations were off the hook in promoting sustainable practices. Those destinations still had responsibilities in that regard, and institutional mechanisms should be put in place to help them achieve sustainable tourism.

A speaker from trade unions said that education and training for workers in the tourism industry was very successful. In Japan, efforts were being made to implement simple, low-cost recommendations that promoted water and energy conservation. A representative of industry agreed with that statement and added that there should be more efforts to educate employees, who could not take two or three days off for training seminars. Such training could be done in the workplace itself.

A representative of industry introduced an education programme for children called the "Dodo" campaign -- with the now-extinct Dodo bird as the campaign's symbol. It consisted of 68 cartoons for children with sustainable tourism messages. Those cartoons were placed in airplanes, hotels and cruise ships to help teach children eco-friendly behaviour.

A speaker from non-governmental organizations said she supported education efforts, but there was a need to monitor advertising as a form of education, because corporate advertising often misrepresented issues. A representative of national authorities said that businesses should be encouraged to sponsor more public awareness campaigns to teach sustainable tourism.

Local authorities must offer sustainable activities, a representative of that group stressed. Instead of moving around, tourists should intensify their visits to particular sites. That required making people aware of local and regional activities. Traditional and regional food should be offered, rather than "global food", which required enormous amounts of energy and transportation.

A trade union representative drew attention to the range of job conditions. Workers must be paid a basic wage and given a degree of job

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security, as well as a means of criticizing management. It was not just in developing countries that exploitation was pervasive. Conditions in the United States were often unacceptable. The industry had a high profit margin; it was reasonable to expect better conditions.

The numerous types of certification and eco-labelling programmes caused confusion to the consumer, a speaker said. Many were based on different principles, ranging from independent auditing to voluntary commitments. The Commission should consider establishing guidelines on certification, examining the scope of private and public programmes, such as those of Australia and Costa Rica, which were model programmes involving national subsidies and certification.

Without a consistent approach to consumer education, the environment would continue to be degraded, an industry representative said. Governments, non-governmental organizations, trade unions and industry must sit down and discuss what message should be generated, and how.

It was not always the consumer that needed to be educated, another industry representative pointed out. In fact, consumers frequently influenced business. The demand for better environmental stewardship had come from consumers. Intermediaries who interacted with those going on holidays and the tourism industry could be enlisted to transfer messages. Tourist information services could be used to promote green tourism and sustainable development, another speaker said.

A non-governmental organization representative said that consumer behaviour often adversely affected a location, yet those effects were not reflected in prices. Price mechanisms, such as taxes, could be used. They should not be so severe as to deter tourism, but not so weak that destinations became overloaded. Also, the revenue generated should go to appropriate groups and sectors, including women and indigenous groups.

A local authority representative said that, in informal discussions, groups had come up with an idea: stakeholders should develop short educational videos to be shown on arriving flights. That should be a formalized practice, and the World Tourism Organization should endorse and support the initiative.

On the topic of conservation, a speaker from trade unions said that workers in catering kitchens on airlines and food services at hotels could help to reduce waste and conserve the environment. Kitchens could help the environment by reducing packaging and excess food service.

On the topic of in-flight videos to promote sustainable tourism, a non-governmental organization representative said that the Gambia had created such a video, but had very little cooperation from airlines in showing the video to passengers. Such videos also promoted local cooperation and

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increased money flowing into the local economy. A representative of industry said there were discussions with several airlines on showing an in-flight video. Some airlines had agreed to such videos on certain routes, including a video on the spread of HIV/AIDS. Airlines would probably agree to show other types of tourist information.

In relation to that topic, a local authority representative said that, in south Florida there were concerns about the welfare of the manatee, which is an endangered species. Many manatees were injured or killed by boat propellers and the state had introduced a number of signs in waterways to warn boaters of the problem. Awareness of that issue could be introduced in in-flight videos, which should be used for the protection of endangered species and the environment in general.

On shaping existing regulations to change consumer behaviour, an industry representative said there needed to be some standardization in applying regulations. While some followed regulations, others did not and that created confusion. An example of that was in national parks, where there were regulations on how close one could get to wildlife. But those rules were abused and that often damaged a very fragile ecosystem.

On the topic of creating a code of ethics for tourism, a speaker for non-governmental organizations said there should be more information of the World Tourism Organization's progress in forming the code of ethics and the process could be more inclusive. The code should also be promoted and incorporated in the Commission's work, so those ethics could be included in its decisions. A representative of the World Tourism Organization said the draft code of ethics could be circulated, but the code had to be approved by the General Assembly, which planned to take action on it in September.

The dialogue then moved to the use of media to educate consumers. Several non-governmental organization representatives stressed the powerful impact that consumer demand could have on industry behaviour. One speaker expressed concern about the way media covered tourist destinations. Educating consumers on issues such as gender and environment was generally not a priority for media professionals.

Passive consumers perpetuated negative practices, while educated and motivated consumers could exert a tremendously positive influence, a speaker said. Industry, non-governmental organizations and unions could together create a demand for responsible tourism. That, in turn, would lead to rewarding positive tourism industry elements. The market system should be used to create sustainable tourism.

Tourists must be encouraged to be critical thinkers, rather than passive sponges, another representative said. As emerging consumers, youth should be empowered and educated. Alternative media created by youth for youth to

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promote sustainable tourism was a proactive tool that should be integrated into formal education systems.

The media's responsible participation must be facilitated, a country representative said, as the media sometimes undermined the efforts of other stakeholders. For example, consumers or operators who did not favour regulations often went to the media to make public negative factors about certain destinations.

Media should be seen in the widest possible terms, several speakers said. Industry should be treated as a form of media, as it reached consumers. That was not a role for government regulation, but rather for government support.

An industry representative invited non-governmental organizations and other partners to join the "Dodo education campaign". A non-governmental organization representative said her sector would love to be involved, but that other organizations must be addressed too. Local authorities wanted to work with the Dodo programme and similar educational programmes, a representative of that group said.

In terms of specific suggestions for the document to result from the dialogue, the CHAIRMAN said that speakers should consider something more focused than a general encouragement to work together. A speaker said that the document should stress the need for inter-agency partnerships in tourism development and also mention specific budgetary provisions to ensure investment in tourism. Another speaker said that the phrase "changing consumer behaviour" should be changed to "generating positive consumer behaviour".

On the certification of eco-friendly tourism operations, an industry speaker said that certification could be very important in informing consumers about products, although such certification schemes must be reliable. In that regard, the Commission could set minimum standards for certification schemes, so they could be global.

A number of non-governmental organization representatives said there was a link between good health policies and sustainable tourism. Local authorities and industry should take into account any environmental measures they have taken that could have an effect on health -- such as the use of toxic chemicals to control mosquitoes.

A government representative said it would be very useful to promote multi-stakeholder participation in the creation of any guidelines for sustainable tourism -- including a global code of ethics.

During the summary comments from the stakeholder groups, a speaker from industry said he would like to see the expansion of information on workplace

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safety. There should also be an expansion of programmes to teach environmental responsibilities in hotel management schools. He also stressed the further development and implementation of organized environmental rating programmes.

A speaker for non-governmental organizations emphasized the importance of stakeholder participation and said that he was sceptical of how far other parties would go in that regard. There was a need to make sure that there was wide participation in the creation of guidelines for sustainable tourism. He added that further discussion was needed in the areas of health and in gender equality in tourism.

A representative of local authorities said efforts were needed to increase the opportunities for all economic backgrounds to engage in local tourism. There should also be efforts to develop local economic instruments to encourage sustainable practices. It was also important to provide consumers with sustainable behaviour options, such as sensitivity towards wildlife. Such information should be applied globally.

A speaker for trade unions said that both management and workers were important in influencing the behaviour of people when they travel. Also, if consumers were going to act more responsibly, they needed to see the same behaviour in tourism workers. Workers, therefore, were the key and should be included in education programmes.

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