Fair Trade in Tourism

Eco-Tourism… Responsible Tourism… Sustainable Tourism… Green Tourism… Fair Trade Tourism… So many terms, so much confusion. What does it mean and where do we stand?

What is Responsible Tourism?

Responsible Tourism is the most common over-arching term and the essence of what it means was enshrined right here in the Cape Town Declaration (2002). You can read more about that here, but the essential principles are i) minimising negative impact in destinations; ii) ensuring local economic benefits from tourism; iii) the empowerment of local people through tourism; and iv) engendering cultural sensitivity and respect between tourists and hosts.

What does this mean for us?

Well, these are the things that make Face Africa travel unique and special: -

We prefer to book clients into smaller locally-owned owner-managed guest houses and hotels, which meet best practice Fair-Trade guidelines. Those of you who like a bit of comfort will be pleased to know that we have several five-star Fair-Trade accredited properties on our books!
In our more far-flung destinations, we partner with a carefully selected local company to provide the travel logistics for our travellers. This means that we benefit from the experience and wisdom of their local guides and relationships, plus contribute directly to the local economy.
We continually research and incorporate fabulous and fun local experiences into our itineraries. These are often the most memorable part of a traveller’s trip as they are the moment when a personal connection is made between traveller and local. Many friendships start this way.
We work with a number of local community-based organisations to facilitate interaction with and benefit from the tourism industry in their locality.

Our style of travel therefore means that most of what we offer is naturally “Responsible Tourism”.

What does this mean for you?

We get two kinds of traveller. The first is the explorer type. They travel for fulfilment, discovery, adventure and to learn. They tend to scour our website for the more off-the-beaten-track adventures and are keen to work in a good deal of local community involvement, even volunteering their time at one of our linked community-based organisations. We call these the “Active” responsible travellers, and they naturally ensure the above principles are adhered to.

Our second traveller is the “passive” responsible traveller. They travel for similar reasons, but have a different focus in their travels. They may be limited on time, looking for a relaxing beach holiday or seeking a tranquil self-drive route through the Cape Winelands. They would prefer that their holiday had a positive impact (and certainly wish to avoid negative impacts) but do not have the same time and inclination to get as involved as an ‘active’ traveller. With our passive travellers, our Fair Trade in Tourism policy becomes even more important. Without compromising the quality of the holiday (and we like to think this would enhance it) we ensure that as much of the travel spend as possible is channelled to Fair-Trade accredited tourism products, or where this isn’t possible to products which meet as many of the Fair-Trade principles as possible.

Why Fair Trade in Tourism?

When Fair Trade principles are effectively applied to tourism, we are on the way to getting it right. All of the principles covered above are interwoven and in addition we are able to look at destination-specific issues (such as HIV-AIDS) and rate the tourism products we sell in this regard as well.

What about Carbon Offsets?

Environmental impacts are an important part of Responsible Tourism. As a long-haul destination, there is inevitably an impact from the carbon released by the air travel involved to Africa. Our response to this is not to offset that Carbon through the purchase of a guilt-tax, nor to encourage people not to fly (the negative impact of a collapsed tourism industry would be far more devastating). We would rather make two suggestions. Firstly take fewer longer holidays to reduce your air travel – this will also allow you to enjoy the destination more. Secondly, engage with one of the local community projects that Face Africa can connect you with and use this as an opportunity to address pertinent issues in the destination that you can have a real impact on.

Should you so wish, we recommend that you "offset" your carbon emissions by contributing to one of the following excellent and worthwhile local community projects that are close to our hearts: -