In this Newsletter
PRESERVING TOURISM

Graffiti. Pollution. Vandalism. Litter. Just a few of the ongoing plagues that adversely affect many worldwide tourism sites—not just today, but for generations to come. How’s our preservation scorecard? Not great, in my opinion. So what more can we do to deal with this daunting issue?

“Please pack out your trash!” the public signs implore trekkers at major outdoor recreational areas worldwide. Yet noted destinations, from Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro to Japan’s Mt. Fuji, continue to be strewn with heaps of unsightly litter from the uncaring.

On the other side of the world in Peru’s Inca city of Machu Picchu and Mexico’s ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza, some have defiled these revered sites, using them as public bathrooms, and chiseling their initials deep into the precious stonework.

There’s also the recent tragic looting of rare antiquities in Iraq following the outbreak of war when treasured historic sites were left unprotected from vandalism and theft. This is truly an irretrievable loss for people everywhere.

While all of this is unacceptable, there’s much more environmental undoing now at work in a different, much more subtle way.

Consider this: An international travel writer from France was invited to visit one of America’s premier regions, the Amish country of the east, replete with a quaint, simpler way of life where visitors could step back to a time before electricity, autos and the like—just shoofly pie, horse and carriage travel and pastoral, picturesque scenery. Following the writer’s visit, and upon her return home, she received a call from the destination official. “How was it?”, the writer was asked. “It simply wasn’t there any more”, she sadly replied.

Where once had been a delightful and pristine environment, auto visitors soon began arriving. Then gas stations followed as did roadside motels, frozen custard stands and burger drive-ins, new tourist rides, other children entertainments, a wax museum and assorted other “attractions”.

I’m sure you can also conjure up numerous other examples where people in our industry have popularized destinations and, by so doing over time, have actually contributed to the slow demise of their inherent charm and resulting diminished popularity for future visitors.

Fortunately, many communities are now initiating new zoning and regulations to protect and preserve. Eco tourism and sustainable tourism programs are gaining more support by travelers.

Impacts on World Tourism

Unfortunately, the need is great and time may be running out for some destinations and sites.

Global economists are now forecasting continued international tourism growth in the three to six percent range annually, depending on the location. And this continuous growth is anticipated to place great stress on a number of sites that support mass tourism.

You’ve surely heard about the
“New Seven Wonders of the World,” announced in July following a global poll to decide a new list of human-made marvels. The winners were voted for by Internet and phone, American Idol style.

They included the 105-foot-tall "Christ the Redeemer" statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Coliseum in Rome, India's Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Jordan's ancient city of Petra, Machu Picchu and Chichén Itzá. The contest was organized by the New7Wonders Foundation—the brainchild of Swiss filmmaker and museum curator Bernard Weber—in order to "protect humankind's heritage across the globe." The foundation says the poll attracted almost a hundred million votes.

Yet the competition has proved controversial, drawing criticism from the United Nations' cultural organization UNESCO, which administers the World Heritage sites program. "This initiative cannot, in any significant and sustainable manner, contribute to the preservation of sites elected by [the] public," UNESCO said in a recent statement.

Perhaps not. But it will surely spark new levels of awareness for these spectacular wonders--and that’s a good thing generally, if preservation steps can assure that visitors will treat these treasures respectfully, which, as we’ve pointed out, isn’t always the case.
So what’s the long term answer? More focus on the traveler would be a good start.

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A Pledge for Travelers

In this regard, the International Institute for Peace Through Tourism now promotes the following “Credo of the Peaceful Traveler, that offers thoughts for visitors to keep in mind on their journeys:

Credo of the Peaceful Traveler
Grateful for the opportunity to travel and experience the world, and because peace begins with the individual, I affirm my personal responsibility and commitment to:

Journey with an open mind
and gentle heart

Accept with grace and gratitude the diversity I encounter

Revere and protect the natural environment which sustains all life

Appreciate all cultures I discover

Respect and thank my hosts
for their welcome

Offer my hand in friendship to
everyone I meet

Support travel services that share these views and act upon them and,

By my spirit, words and actions, encourage others to travel the
world in peace.

Although I’m unfamiliar with the work of the International Institute for Peace Through Tourism, this credo eloquently states what we should indeed require from travelers. It’s a thoughtful pledge, and one that should be endorsed and communicated by the tourism and travel industry organizations of the world.

Taking it a step farther, such a signed pledge could also be adopted as a prerequisite for visitation to many environmentally critical sites.

Action is needed now

But the need for stabilizing and assuring environmental integrity throughout the tourism industry requires more than just pledges. It demands action.

“The real inherent issue is that the world's population is growing so fast that we are using the earth's resources faster that they can be replenished, warns” John Boatright, distinguished Chairman Emeritus of the Association of Travel Marketing Executives.

“The opportunity for the world’s tourism industry is to collectively raise a big banner and carry it high and proud…to make our industry an agent for awareness and change”, Boatright urges, “and this needs to happen before we are accused of being the problem--or at least part of it”.

Are rising seas our industry’s own personal “Inconvenient Truth”?

Finally, we come to the most disturbing concern: Rising seas from global warming, which experts say will alter our world in this century.

These waters, aided by sinking land, threaten to submerge Bangkok, Thailand’s capital of more than 10 million people--and this is just one of a number of large cities at risk of being swamped as sea levels continue to rise in coming decades, according to warnings at the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change held there.

The loss of Bangkok would destroy the country’s economic engine and a major hub for regional tourism, experts warned.

The Public Appears Skeptical

What’s appalling to me is that the public doesn’t seem to believe these forecasts about ominous impacts of global warming.

In a recent AOL internet poll of about 30,000 participants, only 38% said they trusted these long term forecasts, while another 38% said they believed them “just a little” and the remaining 24% said they believed them “not at all”. And when asked: are you concerned about how climate changes will affect the area in which you live, fully 40% of respondents said “no”.

I suspect that an additional survey of just those people who said they believed these concerns would also confirm that many of them are complacent—thinking that the human race is simply incapable of doing anything about this future plight.

What will be our Tourism Industry’s Response?

Isn’t it time for the tourism industry--as John Boatright urges--to publicly respond and be apart of a new dialogue on this critical subject? I believe that time has come.

For this reason, I have recommended that the World Tourism Organization take a giant step forward: developing a pro-active Action Plan that 1) includes a critical assessment of this issue by quantifying the potentially destructive consequences to the world’s tourism industry and those it serves, and 2) provides a pragmatic, inclusionary Plan that tourism industry officials and business partners everywhere can embrace and participate in to preserve our visitor resources and amenities for new generations to come.

Tourism belongs to everybody. But just saying it won’t make it so. Perhaps we can find common ground for consensus action, because we certainly need it, don’t we?

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