Chinese walker

The village of Yushi is in the autonomous township of Lanping, in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan. The villagers all belong to the Pumi ethnic group, although many locals simply refer to them as “natives”.

Yushi is proud of its cultural traditions, which emphasise the protection of the local environment, over 90% of which is covered by forest. The residents know that if they were connected to the road network, their forests could be felled and their fragile culture could be threatened under the strain of powerful external influences. For many years they have chosen to remain isolated, hoping to build a strong and healthy community before opening to the outside world.

Government support is vital in building a strong community, but Yushi has seen no official projects or poverty alleviation work. Some of the villagers tried to set up sustainable development programmes, but to no effect. Currently, the best hope is the rural credit cooperative`s micro-credit scheme. However, if the villagers apply for a loan of 2000 yuan (US$253), 400 yuan (US$51) in interest is deducted in advance and they receive only 1600 yuan (US$202). To repay the loan they then need to make twelve monthly payments of 180 yuan (US$23). Villagers regard the loans as of little use in starting their own businesses.

Some in the village advocate a combination of planting profitable medicinal crops and long-term micro-credit loans as the solution to the village`s financial problems, and calculate that raising funds of 400,000 yuan (US$50,602) would allow the village to become economically self-sustaining in five years. But there could be an alternative: eco-tourism.

However, the village does not yet have the facilities that tourists expect, such as clean toilets, washing facilities or internet access. Tourism experts have visited and were impressed by the unique local culture and environment. But if Yushi wants to benefit from eco-tourism, then the village and its households must change to meet the demanding standards of today’s tourists.

Tourism is a kind of technology that adds value to raw materials. Take a regular chicken, cook it in the local style and put it in front of a hungry tourist – and watch its value rocket. Similarly, Yushi`s mountains, which were previously seen as barriers to transport and thus economic development, would become priceless if the villagers could attract the eco-tourists.

Many places in Yunnan are looking for ways to protect the environment and traditional culture while also raising income – and that almost always means eco-tourism is the only option. But if conditions in the villages are not improved, many tourists will simply not come, since most city-dwelling Chinese attitudes to rural living border on outright fear. A lack of cleanliness and orderliness, mosquitoes, dubious toilets and unclear pricing mean that many areas ideal for eco-tourism cannot attract visitors.

Yunnan’s first officially-recognised organic farm lies on the outskirts of the provincial capital Kunming. It has been making a loss for years, since consumers fail to differentiate its products from those of farms which use chemicals and genetically-modified plants. Similarly, tourists rarely consider the quality of their destinations; they simply look for ease of access and impressive scenery. For many, tourism is simply sightseeing – it’s not about improving your life in any meaningful way.

The vast majority of Chinese people are not interested in watching nature, much less in paying for the privilege of doing so. Some are forced to in the course of government-funded research, but when the funding dries up very few continue. Enjoyment of the untamed environment is not something that comes naturally to Chinese people. We prefer to look at paintings of nature, rather than nature itself; to appreciate a wooden carving of the Buddha rather than the forest the wood grew in; and to let our children be educated about the wild in the classroom, rather than take them to experience it first-hand.

This attitude among tourists is responsible for the unusually slow growth of China’s eco-tourism sector. Faced with consumers unwilling to get too close to nature, the tourist industry ignores areas like Yushi. Since only a tiny minority of Chinese people are willing to appreciate the beauty of Yushi, people often turn to high-spending foreign tourists – but this is also a hope too far. Discerning foreign tourists are also on the decline, while the number of tourists who travel simply to indulge themselves is increasing. Travellers who go abroad to learn and share experiences are being replaced by narrow-minded tourists who are only interested in consumption.

Tourists are choosing the holiday that involves the least effort, and China’s eco-tourism sector is suffering as a result. Sichuan’s Wanglang Nature Reserve is a haven for giant pandas. Since 1996, Peking University professor and panda expert, Lu Zhi, has been promoting eco-tourism to the area. But the lack of dramatic scenery and the need to spend time outdoors in order to see the pandas mean that Wanglang still lacks the number of visitors it deserves. The same could be the case in Yunnan.

So when we complain about eco-tourism operators failing to attract visitors, perhaps we should take some time to consider the visitors themselves – because if a tourist is unwilling to become an eco-tourist, then any amount of careful planning and good intentions will be wasted.

The author: Yongfeng Feng is an award-winning journalist with Guangming Daily.

Homepage photo by Engtat

As domestic and international tourism spreads unchecked across China, it is all too easy for the industry to damage the cultural and natural heritage upon which it ultimately depends. Group travel, which shepherds huge numbers of tourists towards specific hot-spots, can be especially damaging.

One of the challenges, therefore, is to ensure that while harnessing the potential of tourism for economic development, adequate steps are taken to ensure that tourism contributes to the sustainable development of the country – economic development that improves local livelihoods as well as conserving cultural and biological diversity.

Until recently eco-tourism, which takes people to fragile and beautiful areas, has been the only alternative on offer to consumers in search of low impact adventure. But the eco-tourism tag comes with limitations – it is a relatively small niche market, which seeks to create motivation for local communities to conserve their wildlife and natural heritage by generating economic benefits from tourism.

But the arrival of “responsible tourism” offers scope for growth. Responsible tourism matches the idea of maintaining the natural and cultural heritage of the destination with inclusive principles that make no judgement on the ecological importance of the destination. It is something which can be adopted by all forms of tourism enterprises, it can be practised in all destinations and it is being taken up as an approach to travel by increasing numbers of tourists and tour operators, particularly from the established tourist-originating countries.

The concept of responsible tourism originated in the work of the late Jost Krippendorf. His observation of tourism on the environment and communities of the alpine plateaus of Switzerland, led to the call for a more holistic form of tourism “which will bring the greatest possible benefit to all the participants – travellers, the host population and the tourist business, without causing intolerable ecological and social damage.”

In the 1990`s responsible tourism was used in the South African national tourism policy and in campaigning work by Voluntary Service Overseas. But it was not until the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, that the tourism industry moved away from a narrow green agenda and signed up to the Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism in Destinations: a set of principles that adopt broad principles of development. In particular, these include poverty reduction and a belief that responsible tourism is about “making better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit.”

And the broader appeal of the new agenda – which extends to governments and airlines as much as hoteliers and tour operators – has proven infectious. The concept is now used by the World Tourism Organization and ABTA. In the UK, the large outbound operators in the Federation of Tour Operators are making commitments to change and making progress towards sustainable tourism objectives.

Choosier travellers in many western markets including the USA, UK, Germany and the Netherlands have also played their part in the growth of the industry. To them, responsible tourism has become a way of travelling that offers a sense of guilt-free indulgence and a richer experience of the destination, paving the way for a new wave of holidays that are not only environmentally, economically and socially sound, but also economically lucrative. Operators that have tuned in to the new consumer demand have experienced spectacular growth. The travel industry is increasingly positioning its products and services as “responsible.”

But it is collective transparency and accountability that are at the heart of the success of responsible tourism, coupled with social, economic and environmental justice.

Responsible tourism has found a range of backers across the world. For instance, in South Africa the emphasis is on Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and securing economic benefits for historically disadvantaged individuals and communities. In Gambia, the focus is on using marketing to remove barriers between tourists and local entrepreneurs. And in Bhutan, one of the primary areas of concern is the impact of tourism on the traditional culture.

In China, Elizabeth Morrell of Benmo, a company that provides ground arrangements for visitors from Europe and the UK, identifies a number of initiatives already taking place. For example, one bilingual blog encourages tourists to bring a kilo of inexpensive educational materials to schools, where they are encouraged to take time to talk with teachers and pupils. Beijing`s Hutong Tour provides incomes for local people and helps to preserve the city`s cultural heritage. And for the tourists it is a very satisfying experience too, giving a glimpse of the daily lives of ordinary people in Beijing at close quarters, rather than from the windows of a tourist coach. In Xi’an, a Zen Buddhist master has set up a charitable foundation and temple on the edge of a small village, where he is opening a vegetarian restaurant that uses local produce.

Cultural and political challenges do nevertheless remain. In particular, the ethic of responsibility imposes some constraints on the exploitation of China`s cultural and natural heritage. Krippendorf emphasised that individual responsibility, rather than authoritarianism, is key in the transition to responsible tourism. “Orders and prohibitions,” he argued, “will not do the job%26hellip;..it is not a bad conscience that we need to make progress, but positive experience.” But, if overcome, responsible tourism opens up many new business development opportunities.

Where the responsible tourism elements contribute to a superior travel experience it will attract consumers predisposed to purchase. The responsible tourism product has one particular advantage over many other ethical products %26mdash; the consumer will often experience the difference. A cup of fairly traded coffee or tea will not taste significantly different from other teas and coffees %26mdash; it can taste as good, but not better.

The author: Dr. Harold Goodwin is director of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism, chair of the Academic Advisory Panel of the International Tourism Partnership and chair of the Judging Panel for the First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards.

Homepage photo by automaton

As often happens when he travels outside his native Greenland, the Inuit politician Aqqaluk Lynge recently found himself clearing up a few misconceptions. For a start, the word “Eskimo” is generally considered offensive. Coats with fur-trimmed hoods are not de rigueur either, unless you’re hunting seal. Then there’s the igloo thing, and the nose-rubbing … “I think some people have a kind of cartoon in their minds,” the silver-haired 59-year-old Greenlander said with a twinkly smile.

And the hundred different words for snow? “No.” He laughed. “Sorry.”

Despite his efforts to dispel myths about his culture, Lynge was always going to come off as a slightly exotic outsider, if only because of the sheer mundane Britishness of the setting. He was appearing on July 27 as a star witness at the public inquiry into the proposed expansion of Stansted Airport, in a low-ceilinged office building not far from the terminal building, and his sealskin waistcoat stood out against the sober suits of lawyers representing airport owner BAA.

So did his argument — which, coming after weeks of technical discussion on planning law, went to the heart of the issue. If thousands more flights were allowed to take off from Stansted – London`s third airport — each year, he told the inquiry, their impact would be felt in his homeland, in the form of thinning ice, lost hunting grounds and eroded shorelines which are already threatening many Inuit settlements in Alaska, Canada, Russia and Greenland.

It is the first time an airport planning forum in Britain has taken into account the global impact of aviation on the climate, and Stop Stansted Expansion, the campaign group that invited Lynge to testify, could hardly have hoped to create a more vivid moment. As he spoke of the damage to the Arctic environment, planes bearing the liveries of Ryanair and easyJet were taking off immediately behind him, the vast majority of their passengers on short-haul holiday trips.

“What happens in the world happens first in the Arctic,” said Lynge, a former minister in Greenland’s home-rule government and a vice-president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), a organization promoting Inuit rights, development and culture. The Inuit — “the people who live farther north than anyone else” — were “the canary in the global coal mine”, he said. Climate change was “not just a theory to us … It is a stark and dangerous reality.” Some Inuit villages have already lost homes as the sea moves 300 metres inland in places, while thinning ice makes hunting increasingly difficult, even dangerous. “We don’t hunt for sport or recreation,” Lynge said. “Hunters put food on the table. You go to the supermarket. We go on the sea ice.”

BAA is seeking to remove the cap that limits the number of passengers taking off from Stansted to 25 million a year. Opponents say that could see flights increase from 192,000 to 264,000 a year, raising the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from 5 million to 7 million tonnes. The inquiry’s lead inspector, Alan Boyland, will make a recommendation after the process concludes in October, and a government announcement is expected next spring. Stop Stansted Expansion says it will be “the litmus test of the seriousness of the government’s commitment to properly tackling the climate change issue”.

As spectators’ applause for Lynge’s speech died down, BAA’s lawyers did not seek to question his account of changes in the Arctic. Their argument is that a local planning inquiry is no place to challenge the government’s overall policy on climate change, since allowing more flights from Stansted could be consistent with the overall aim of reducing carbon emissions provided sufficient reductions are made elsewhere. Flying Matters, a group backed by the airline industry, says Lynge’s claims are part of “an apocalyptic campaign of green spin”.

Surely, said Michael Humphries, legal counsel for BAA, Lynge agreed that it was “not for the Inuit Circumpolar Conference to tell the UK government how it should deliver its greenhouse gas totals?”

Lynge proposed a deal: “I’m not here to meddle in UK policies, if you don’t meddle in my environment.”

Homepage photo by Ti.mo