Responsible Travel and Cultural Exchange

We used to go on holiday, this is now called tourism. Then there was mass tourism and independent travel. Now we have eco-tourism, community based tourism,responsible tourism, sustainable tourism, ethical tourism, volun-tourism, pro-poor tourism and doubtless many more types of tourism be it travelling independently or otherwise. It is a muddle with tour operators eagerly try to differentiate their holidays from each other. In some cases organisations have grabbed the terms for their own benefit to market themselves as being responsible when in reality they might not be as responsible as they claim. We all assume that we know what the terms mean and what others mean by them and as long as we have a nice time on our holidays we don't really pursue it. But I suspect there is a huge difference between what we think a responsible holiday is;what they think it is; and what it really is, but because there are no legally binding definitions the interpretations are left open ended. Of course the Holy Grail of tourism is to be deemed to be "Sustainable Tourism" with everything being a subgroup of that.  So what is Sustainable Tourism?

The concept of sustainable development originated from the Brundland Report of 1987 and subsequent Earth Summits applied sustainability to tourism through Agenda 21. Sustainable tourism is not a product but a method of operation. The term "sustainable"refers to being able to meet the present needs without damaging the ability of future generations to meet their needs in the same way. In reality this means managing resources in such a fashion as to be economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. To achieve a fully sustainable destination would be wildly expensive and, in such a price driven industry as this, would be unlikely to generate the type of financial reward investors seek. So you tend to find only small venues are able to contemplate being sustainable. To compensate for this the industry developed the concept of Responsible Tourism. So what is responsible tourism?

Essentially Responsible Tourism seeks to maximise positive impacts and to minimise negative ones. But it is not that straight forward. The Responsible Tourism Partnership held a conference in South Africa and created a standard which is referred to as the Cape Town declaration which tries to establish all the criteria that one needs to consider is one is to be responsible. The guide lines include establish a Corporate Social Responsibility programme that deals, in practical terms, with such issues as reducing social and economic inequalities at the host venue, reducing poverty;totally inclusive participation in the development process whilst recognising and being respectful, understanding and tolerant of cultural differences and approaches; open governance and a need to protect the local culture and environment.

With these factors in mind, those seeking to provide Responsible Tourism must seek to minimise negative economic, environmental and social impacts of their work; they must generate economic benefits for local people and enhancing the well-being of host communities, improving their working conditions and provide the community with access to the market; they must involve the local people in decisions that affect their lives and life chances; they must make positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage; whilst providing enjoyable experiences for all tourists through more meaningful connections with local people generating a greater understanding, sensitivity and respect of local cultural, social and environmental issues in order that barrier can be broken down between peoples and a relationship of equals can be established.

These are fancy words and to ensurethat they are meaningful organisations are asked to make available copies of the economic, social and environmental impact assessments. They must provide data to prove that they are maximising local economic benefits by monitoring and assessing the value chain to ensure that at all stage of their operations they are taking all reasonable efforts to achieve their CSR policies. 

Many of us want to be Responsible but find the burden difficult to manage, establishing good practices is very different from being able to prove they are working as well as they could. We have to ask ourselves if that is what we are doing are we being responsible.

When we talk about cultural exchange we first need to understand what we mean by culture. Culture is a result of a wide variety of influences that culminate in the way we lead our lives. These influences will include such factors as wealth, education, environment and relationship with it, history, food, medicine, transportation, religion, beliefs and values, laws, family dynamics, access to power, access to and use of technology. Each one of these influences can be seen as a crossroads that can separate one culture from another. Our culture will be shown in our relationship with our families and society, our architecture, dances, art, music, our leaders, our lifestyle and the way we interact with our environment.

On a superficial level a cultural exchange is about seeing how other people live their lives, seeing the relevance of different priorities that people have chosen or have been forced to choose. For example the availability of water is a major environmental impact. Those who are able to take water for granted have been able to grow food without worry and focus on other factors. Those for whom water is a scarcity,most of their lives will be governed by the search for water. Scarcity of water will eventually lead to conflict over access to it. Abundance of water will lead to abundance of crops which may lead to other causes of conflict. 

A cultural exchange of any value will start to look underneath the day to day issues of life to find the factors that determine our cultural differences until we can find areas of commonality. The cultural exchange is a process of self examination to look at the factors that have determined our makeup and our personality and to assess whether we have made the right choices. To witness other people's lifestyles and to make comparisons with our own we may find there is a lot to learn from each other.

No one culture is better than another as no one individual is better than other. The differences in culture ought to be recognised understood and celebrated.

Like a culture in a Petri Dish in a science lab, culture is always evolving, always changing. A strong culture will be able maintain their core beliefs and weaker ones will inevitability fall away. This does not mean the stronger cultures are better, just that the external influences on them are stronger and harder to resist. 

The question that may people ask me is "Are we, by our very presence, altering their culture?" I am sure that the answer is yes, but there are two issues of greater importance to discuss here. One is the arrogance that the impact is only one way and the second is the arrogance that another culture is not strong enough or willing to cherry pick what they will allow to influence their culture. How much influence does a two week holiday to Crete have on your culture? Sure you might fancy the idea of buying a fishing boat and fishing on the blue waters of the Mediterranean forever and a day and forgetting about your worries at home, but 3 days after your return you are back in your groove. Young people travelling the world in gap years are open to experiencing new concepts and the influence on them could be huge. The host will see you for 3 days and you are gone. Yes they will see a lot of people for 3 days, but how much of your culture is on show?

This is what we mean by cultural exchange, a two way process, a process of education, evaluation, reflection, understanding and learning. How long do you need in order to achieve this?  I would suggest you need more than a 3-5 day trip. But a 3-5 day trip is a good start. But before the trip the tourist needs to understand what culture is, what factors, and with what weight, contribute to your make up. This level of self examination is a great start to be able to exchange on a more meaningful basis. 

So what is cultural tourism? Cultural Tourism is a stage in the process of exchange. It is the first opportunity for one culture to see another culture in their natural environment. Only when the visitor becomes the host is the exchange really happening. But because that is unlikely to happen, it is the best we can offer. The visitor sees the environment, the food, art, music and dance, sees the lifestyle, the hurdles and challenges that create the culture. With a good tour guide the visitor will get to know about the history, the religion, belief and values and how they have influenced culture. If fortunate the visitors might witness some of the festivities and celebrations of the host community.

So what is responsible tourism and cultural exchange? It is social, economic and environmental respect in big terms. Put yourself in their shoes and consider how you would want tourism to impact on you and then just work backwards to achieve that.