5.2 Individual responsibility
Now we have considered responsibility, if we look back at KAFRED, it is easier to see how sustainability and responsibility are joined.
- Community wellbeing has been directly enhanced from tourism.
- The community makes its own decisions about tourism in its area and builds pride and confidence through doing this.
- Connections between tourists and the community are excellent because the local environment and culture is celebrated.
- Community members can decide what to do with the money raised and how the project should be developed.
- There are economic benefits for local people from tourism in terms of income from guiding, producing things to sell in the shop and food provision. This means local people have access to economic opportunities because of tourism.
- There is more incentive for growing food that tourists – and the local population – can eat to limit leakage. This focus on agriculture has resulted in regenerative agricultural projects and beekeeping, which also has a positive effect on the environment.
- Natural heritage is protected and preserved with issues such as poaching and reed harvesting tackled together and children being educated about the importance of the area as an ecosystem.
- Tours are accessible.
From this, we can see that tourism positively affects communities where it is both responsible and sustainable. The principles of responsible travel identified in the Cape Town Declaration also discussed individual responsibility. What does individual responsibility look like in tourism? You should try to answer the question below with your ideas.
How can we, as individuals, travel more responsibly? Think of one big and one small way tourists can change their practices.
Discussion
What did you find? One big way tourists might behave more responsibly would be to use tour companies in the country they are going to. Sometimes these are difficult to find but often guidebooks contain recommendations about local tours and travel. When a friend, Sally, went to Borneo she booked on a tour (including accommodation) with Borneo Adventures, which is based there. Borneo Adventures has also developed community tourism with the Iban tribe, which you can read about at Ulu Ai Project, Sarawak, Malaysia | Borneo Adventure. Sally says she was taken to places outside the usual tourist areas because Borneo Adventures know the area so well.
One small measure to help the environment might be to take a reusable bag when people travel rather than ask for one from a store. The UK government started to charge for plastic bags provided by shops in 2015. Certainly most people shopping in the UK seem to take their own bags with them. Tourists from the UK may find it normal to take reusable bags when they travel too. A number of countries have chosen to ban plastic bags from stores (such as Rwanda), or at least very much restrict their availability (such as Canada currently), so this seems that it might be an easy way of being just a little bit more responsible.
Another example of travelling responsibly, thinking about Unseen Tours, might be to find social enterprises local to the destination.
Can you find social enterprises near you and/or somewhere you will (or would like to) travel to?
Discussion
In one of my local parks in Nottinghamshire there is a café called ‘Rumbles’. This is one of three cafes set up ‘To train and educate young people and adults in the county of Nottinghamshire, who are disadvantaged whether by disability, social or economic circumstances’ (see https://www.rumblescatering.org.uk/about/). Their food is wonderful too! Another example overseas, in Kampala, Uganda, there is the Silent Café – a deaf-owned and operated social enterprise (https://www.silentcafe.org/index.html). You can learn Ugandan sign language while trying local coffee. This is somewhere quite unique that would appeal to visitors.
Being responsible is not just about doing things or staying in particular places. What we buy as souvenirs can also help marginalised and vulnerable people. We saw earlier that, in KAFRED, women were making peanut butter and crafts to sell in the visitor centre, for example. Do you think such souvenirs would be more meaningful to tourists because of the story behind them or the experiences they were reminded of?
In this section we have looked at aspects of corporate responsibility and personal responsibility in tourism and what it means. We have discussed social enterprises as providing responsible choices for tourism. But what challenges do destinations have when they are so popular that many, many tourists visit? And what does this say about the future of tourism? This is what we draw our attention to next.
OpenLearn - Can tourism be both responsible and sustainable?
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