Beyond Greening - Tourism Watch

Beyond Greening: Reflections on Tourism in the Rio-Process | Positioningpapercan play a meaningful role in alleviating poverty. The poorest of the poor hardly ever benefitfrom tourism.Rio+10 – World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg (2002)At the Rio+10 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) 2002 in Johannesburg,heads of state were far from reviewing progress achieved, as suggested in the programme ofwork adopted by the UNCSD in 1999. The few paragraphs on tourism which came out ofRio+10 contained nothing new and nothing remotely tangible. The perspective was reduced toeco-tourism as a niche segment. The decision of the World Summit7 has a much stronger biasto economic aspects than the UNCSD programme of work, which had demanded the activeparticipation of all major groups, especially local and indigenous communities. On theoccasion of the Rio+10 summit, NGOs from Germany, Austria and Switzerland published a"Red Card For Tourism", formulating 10 key challenges and calling for "fair play" in tourism(AKTE/Fernweh, 2002).As a side event preceding the WSSD, a Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinationswas organised in Cape Town by the Responsible Tourism Partnership and Western CapeTourism. It passed the "Cape Town Declaration".8 Following the Conference, theInternational Centre for Responsible Tourism9 started to promote the concept of "responsibletourism", focussing on the responsibility of individuals, organisations and businesses for theiractions and the impacts of their actions.World Social Forum, Mumbai (2004), Porto Alegre (2005, 2009)The World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai inJanuary 2004 was the first one where tourismgroups and NGOs from different parts of theworld made use of this global civil societyplatform in order to raise their concerns andto network with grassroots groups and NGOsworking on related issues. It showed thediversity of approaches and perspectives –from denouncing neo-liberal tradeliberalisation to the support of small, sociallyresponsible tourism initiatives. The discussionwas continued at the World Social Forum2005 in Porto Alegre. WSF 2005 was under theshock of the devastating tsunami in the IndianOcean. Tourism NGOs called for solidarity with the affected population and for a cautiousapproach in the reconstruction of tourism infrastructure (GTIF, 2005).In 2009 again, tourism was among the issues raised at the World Social Forum. WSF 2009took place in Belém, Brazil, where members of the Global Tourism Interventions Forum(GTIF) passed the "Declaration of Belém"10, denouncing hegemonic tourism policies.7 Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/WSSD_POI_PD/English/POIChapter4.htm8International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations (2002) The Cape Town Declaration, Cape Town.www.responsibletourismpartnership.org/CapeTown.html9www.icrtourism.org/10GTIF Declaration of Belém, World Social Forum, Belém do Pará – Brazil, 28 January to 1 February 2009. www.tourism-watch.de/node/123416