Tourism and Poverty Reduction - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 127

appropriate use of tourism for poverty reduction...it is only through a
better understanding of poor people's experiences of poverty, that tour-
ism can be used more meaningfully as a strategy for its alleviation.
Examples of PPT-related Initiatives Which
Have Emerged
With a wide range of stakeholders involved in PPT, from governments to
donors, the private sector, NGOs and community members, it is not surpris-
ing that a diverse range of initiatives has emerged under the guise of ensuring
that the poor benefit from tourism. Due to space constraints, this section
will explore just four of these: FTT (Fair Trade in Tourism), CSR (corporate
social responsibility) in tourism, the ST-EP (Sustainable Tourism -
Eliminating Poverty) initiative, and the efforts of NGOs to support poverty
alleviation through tourism. The different emphases of various organisations
is clear: some focus more on tourism as a fairly traded activity, stressing both
awareness of consumers and a fair deal for tourist service providers; others
see it as a means to overcome exclusion of disadvantaged groups; and others
again seem to emphasise combining development opportunities for the poor
with environmental and business sustainability.
Fair Trade in Tourism
In recent years, there has been growing interest from tourists in ethical
tourism products (see Chapter 12). The Fair Trade in Tourism movement
offers an opportunity for tourism enterprises to be accredited for ethical
business practices which deliver genuine benefits to the poor. This is not just
an economic movement; rather, it is based upon recognition of the uneven
economic playing field on which developing countries must try to compete,
and the need to overcome political and social factors which often lead to
exploitation of poorer players in the tourism equation. This approach holds
much promise. It is multi-dimensional, considering social and cultural ben-
efits as well as economic ones, and is different from other approaches in that
it seeks to change the awareness and practices of Western consumers:
Fair trade tourism policies seek to create social, cultural and economic
benefits for local people at the destination end and minimize leakages.
Such policies adhere to national laws, establish strong First World and
Third World consultation structures, are transparent, involve open trad-
ing operations (such as social accounting), are ecologically sustainable,
and respect human rights. The key focus is on changing consumption
patterns in the First World. (Mowforth & Munt, 2009: 99)