Reply to Make Travel Fair article

Hello Stephen, Thanks for the note and support for the event on 11th NOV at Abacus. If I had a chance I would have responded earlier, but was travelling and just managed to see your note.

As I had explained in the facebook group as well as in our newsletter, the reason for the networking event was to make sure that small tour operators, grass-root organisations also get a chance to interact and discuss their experience with like-minded people and stake holders from originating markets including the Media, and the Trade buyers. Both the 13th Nov 2007 meeting as well as the 11th Nov 2008 meeting was a proof that there was indeed a demand for this.

However, I have difference of opinion in the way you have presented WTM WRTD of last two years. This was certainly an amazing initiative of ICRT and WTM which was endorsed by UNWTO by becoming a partner. The last two years event has certainly brought in attention of the world into Responsible Tourism and a bigger chunk of the industry is now taking initiative to move towards that way. The efforts need to be enough , but my personal interaction with many big players in the last 2-3 years is that there are certainly positive initiatives that are happening which are measurable.

This was proven beyond doubt after attending the 'Business Case for Responsible Tourism" (as a paid delegate), hearing from representatives of FTO, Intrepid and Tui, on what they are doing and the agenda they have for the coming years to make Responsible Tourism as a way forward to sustain the travel and trade industry they are engaged with.

Yes, we could certainly debate on the fee charged for the seminar. One reason I would support this seminar was for the reason that at least 1/3 of the delegates where not familiar faces of RT,but new players and even mainstream conventional companies. This I think is a positive age as until now, we used to get a feeling that we were always "preaching to the converts". This once again points to my reason for organising the networking which got labelled as a "Fringe" event.

WTM is a larger / bigger platform and I don't think there is nothing wrong in WTM keeping their focus on the bigger players and the industry as a whole. Actually, I think that is the way to do it because they have better out-reach and influences and convincing power to show the RT path for companies like Tui, and FTO whose stake holders literally run the travel industry in the originating market. But at the same time, this should not constrain any small players to show case their work and provide opportunities for big players to source RT 'products' from them. This was what TBY was doing by bringing together the market and service providers at the 11th evening.

The kind of engagement WTM RTD has taken on its shoulder is not a scale that The Blue Yonder or any other small companies can replicate. So while supporting the bigger initiatives of WTM, we also take our initiatives to engage with them rather than boycotting. If I have a difference of opinion with WTM, or any other events and if I have doubts about the sincerity of initiatives, I will not stay away from it. Instead I will be engaging them. Its important that we all take a pro-active role and make changes.

I don't own ICRT nor responsibletravel.com nor WTM. But I guess we have a role now to explain our stand on all these initiatives as we work closely with all these organisations because of our belief in Responsible Tourism as the way forward for travel industry.

As you might already know, it was The Blue Yonder that took the initiative to set up ICRT in India. I am the co-founder and Managing trustee of ICRT India and I wouldn't be in this this role if I don't believe in the objectives of ICRT. We set up ICRT in India exactly similar to the reasons of starting the RT evenings at WTM. An year into setting up TBY, we realised that the scope for making changes in local lives and the travel industry in India is quite big and for a small company it will take more time and will need lots of resources to engage it in its full potential. So we decided to launch ICRT India, in association with the ICRT in the UK, so that we can work much more efficiently. Please check http://icrtindia.org to see the initiatives so far.

As for the role of ICRT in association with WTM< I don't see the point of RTD as a monopoly of ICRT and its affiliates. Though there are many initiatives on Responsible Tourism in different parts of the world, it was certainly ICRT that brought together many people together and even engage WTM on Responsible Tourism. When an organisation happens to be a pioneer and immensely successful at out-reach it is only natural to see familiar faces around. Growth of ICRT to other countries should be found as a positive growth towards Responsible Tourism. ICRTs in different countries have the mandate to function on its own but since our common objectives are together we work closely together to make a better place in the world.

The Blue Yonder like many other operators across the world, promote our holidays on Responsibletravel.com. From few holidays now rt.com has grown into selling hundreds of holidays in different parts of the world. We do have some reservations on the kind of holidays that are sold on the website, especially from many big companies( not because they are big). This was earlier discussed in a Tim Robbins article "Are you being green-washed"? . Except for some of these cases, we think that Responsibletravel.com is doing a fantastic job. From my personal experience itself, I can tell that this online company has influenced the way people choose to travel and how travel companies decide to run their holidays. This is highly commendable. Being hugely successful doesn't have to be looked upon as 'becoming a monster', instead I would engage them with proof if I think they are no longer ethical. We have always raised our concerns to Justin and team whenever we had doubts and we will continue doing it. Boycotting responsibletravel.com will not be our solution.

Hope I am clear on my stand. The reason for TBY to initiate and sponsor the 11th Nov Fringe was because we were taking our responsibility to engage all the stake holders and making sure that World Travel Market is a platform for responsible tourism stakeholders to network in an informal way. As one of the attendees mentioned, "if not for this event, none of us would have met and known the work they were involved in." This will continue and we will be organising an even bigger event in 2009. We will need all support from you! Cheers, G

Better Together

Bangalore
So relieved now that the workshop on RT is over in Trivandrum. Back in Bangalore and back in office. Just the load of work that needs to be attended is mind boggling. Flying out on the 26th to Europe only to be back by mid March doesn't make life any easier. But well, occupational hazards and I am not complaining :)

What happened in Trivandrum?
More than hundred and fifty people turned up from the Industry, NGOs, Civil Societies, Panchayats, Government, Media and Academicians. Industry participants were probably the lowest of all. Various reasons were pointed to this poor turn out from the industry

1) Last minute invitation
2) Most of the invitees being from the medium segment of the business, they were busy with their guests and couldn't move out. For e.g Raheems Residency and Philipkutty's farm
3) Lack of clarity regarding the role of Equations along with the Kerala Tourism Department. Not many were clear about why Kerala tourism decided to rope in Equations especially after the campaign against the department when Kerala was nominated for the Destinations for Tomorrow awards from WTTC, London

What impressed me the most?t
1) To see the active and enthusiastic participation of the Panchayat members.
2) Demands from the Panchayats to have more tourism projects in their area
3) Industry members unanimously suggesting that they will work together with the Panchayats, Self Help Groups of women (similar to Kudumbashree units) and local community members.
4) Industry suggesting that if the quality of the products and services can be assured, they will be keen on procuring materials and skills locally which will definitely increase the positive economic linkages.

Did we lose focus on the first day?
The way the event was organised and structured, we didn't give enough time for all the sectoral subgroups to raise their concerns, discuss it and address it. Especially since it was after long time any sort of consultation with various stake holders were happening, most of the participants used this as an opportunity to raise their concerns about many things that were out of the focus of the workshop (defining responsibility of stake holders in tourism!).

I think it would have more successful if we had kept exclusive days for various stake holders. Even on the second day, the industry group sounded very cautious in terms of their participation. I guess with members from the media and even from NGOs that constantly criticise them being present there, not many of the industry felt comfortable enough to talk.

The way forward?
A committee of around 40 members from various stake holding groups have been identified to function as a working group. Once the documentation and transcription is done, the working group will be meeting together to work on the action plan.

Being part of this workshop was the most emotionally draining experience in recent times for me for various reasons. Intellectually, it was not that stimulating; but the challenge was to work with various kinds of people with that many different agenda in their mind!

Well, I hope I will be responsible (or brave?) enough to write about those experiences in the coming days!

© GP 2007