The United Nations Environment Programme has stepped in to urge tourism companies to improve their social and environmental performance, amid signs of growing frustration at the sector’s slow progress on corporate social responsibility.
Unep has told the travel and tourism industry to ‘apply the principles of sustainability to all aspects of its business operations’ after a study it commissioned found companies were doing little on CSR.
Its intervention follows a series of criticisms of the sector’s ethical performance, notably from Tourism Concern, an industry body that has tourism companies among its members, and the overseas aid charity Tearfund (EP3, issue 1).
At a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, to discuss the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development, Unep assistant executive director Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel said a series of Unep-commissioned studies had identified tourism as one of the least progressive industry sectors.
The studies of 22 business sectors found that tourism was one of the worst performers in terms of its progress towards sustainable development since the Rio Earth Summit ten years ago.
The report on travel and tourism, produced in conjunction with the World Travel and Tourism Council, the International Federation of Tour Operators, the International Hotel and Restaurant Association, and the International Council of Cruise Lines, found the main barrier to improving the sector’s performance in this area was ‘the inherent fragmentation of the tourism industry’, which is dominated by small and medium-sized firms.
Aloisi de Larderel said the report suggested that travel and tourism firms needed to develop and implement ethical codes of conduct, increase the amount of social reporting in the sector, adopt eco-labelling of travel packages and carry out environmental impact assessments of all new projects.
She added that tourism advertising campaigns should focus much more on ‘shaping the expectations of tourists’ to make them aware of the industry’s environmental and social impact.
Travel and tourism account for almost 11 per cent ($3.3trillion, £2.2tn) of the total value of goods and services produced in the world and employs eight per cent of all workers (207 million), according to Unep.