5 Responsibility

The Cambridge Dictionary gives a definition of responsibility that fits well here; ‘good judgement and the ability to act correctly’. This could be defined as personal or corporate (business) responsibility. Looking at this a little more critically, there is an evident problem in that everyone has slightly different ideas of what ‘good judgement’ is and how to ‘act correctly’. The UN understood this, which is why it convened the first responsible tourism conference in Cape Town in 2002 (Frey and George, 2010).

The Declaration, which followed the meeting, detailed the characteristics of responsible tourism in that it:

• ‘minimises negative economic, environmental and social impacts’
• ‘generates greater economic benefits for local people and enhances the well-being of host communities, improves working conditions and access to the industry’
• ‘involves local people in decisions that affect their lives and life change’
• ‘makes positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage, to the maintenance of the world’s diversity’
• ‘provides more enjoyable experiences for tourists through more meaningful connections with local people, and a greater understanding of local cultural, social and environmental issues’
• ‘provides access for people with disabilities and the disadvantaged’
• ‘is culturally sensitive, engenders respect between tourists and hosts, and builds local pride and confidence’.

The end of the Declaration called for all tourism strategies, whether they were local, national or international, ‘determined to make tourism more sustainable, and accepting that it is the responsibility of all stakeholders in tourism to achieve more sustainable forms of tourism’.

It is important to note that responsibility is a day-to-day and stay-by-stay aim rather than the long-term aim of sustainability. It also suggests inclusivity as a guiding principle. The Declaration put responsibility into the hands of everyone involved in tourism – government, planner, tourist or business owner – each had responsibilities to exercise that ‘good judgement’ highlighted by the dictionary definition. Because of this, we can say responsible tourism is more about behaviours and actions by everyone from governments, the hospitality industry, local people or tourists rather than a long-term ambition.

We can map responsibility onto the SEE of sustainable tourism that we considered earlier. The responsibility characteristics, and where they differ from SEE, are added in emboldened text:

This mapping exercise shows that responsibility is more than sustainability. This is why academics suggest that both sustainability and responsibility fit together (or should fit together) to maximise the effectiveness of tourism for the greater benefit. This is because if you have responsible travel it should become sustainable travel.

One tour company trying to be responsible is Unseen Tours in London.