Current trends in sustainable tourism certification and opportunities for africa

Global leadership for fair, participatory & sustainable

tourism

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Current trends in sustainable tourism certification and opportunities for Africa

Presentation by Jennifer Seif, Executive Director:Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA)

International Tourism Fair Madagascar 2 June 2012

Global leadership for fair, participatory & sustainable tourism

2Global leadership for fair, participatory & sustainable tourism

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FTTSA Snapshot

• South Africa’s leading responsible tourism NGO• Established in 2001 as a project of IUCN-South Africa• Independent non profit company since 2004 • Main activities:

– Awareness raising, advocacy, research – Capacity building – Owner and operator of tourism Fair Trade standard and

voluntary certification programmme • 8 permanent staff + interns/volunteers • Supported by international, national and multi-lateral donors • Well networked in South Africa, in Africa and internationally • Winner of numerous awards and accolades


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• Reduce environmental footprint of goods & services

• Product life cycle • Supply chain management –

sustainable sourcing• Fair labour standards• Human rights• CSD (1992), WSSD, Rio+20

Sustainable Consumption and Production

Wide range of sustainability standards and labels across sectors:• Organic• Forestry products• Seafood - SASSI• Green building• Fairtrade• etc



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International standards for coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, wine. . .

Worldwide trading partnership •24 member organisations (FLO)•50 markets•827 producer organisations•62 countries in the Global South

Recognition of Fairtrade mark90% in UK, 85% in Netherlands72% in Germany, 87% in Switzerland63% in USA and 60% in Canada. . .

What can tourism learn from Fairtrade?


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• Structural inequalities – North/South, rich/poor, men/women• Weak labour standards• Value chains can be long (and complex)• High resource consumption • Human rights challenges

– Treatment of workers and communities– Competition over land, water and other natural resources– Child labour – Commercial sexual exploitation

• Economic leakage can be high (up to 75c on the Euro)• Green/eco on the rise, despite high social costs

Tourism – a Fairtrade problem


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• FTT part of the Sustainable Tourism lexicon (eco tourism, pro-poor tourism, responsible tourism.• Conceptual work dates to late 1990s (Academic, led from North)• World’s first tourism Fair Trade label – South Africa 2003 (product certification)• FLO-Fairtrade feasibility study 2006-2009 (mainstream + niche, lack private sector involvement, largely theoretical)• Pilot-test labelling of holiday packages to South Africa, 2009-2011 (led from the South, trade standard + product certification, real holidays sold by tour operators, “premium”).

Fair Trade Tourism – status quo



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• 144+ sustainable tourism standards/certificates globally, all with similar objectives (to promote sustainability practices and link products to markets) and same problems:

– Low volumes and awareness, lack of business case– Compete with another, no one is financially

sustainable– Industry fatigue, consumer confusion– Low levels of development and market impact

ST certification supply – a changing environment



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• Tourism lags behind other sectors wrt professionalization and following internationally accepted rules for what = a credible and competent certifier (ISO65).

– Avoid mixing certification with any other activities. – Int’l/regional/national accreditation of tourism

certificates is imminent – will separate “men from the boys”

– Accredited schemes will cooperate, non accredited will fall away.

– FTTSA one of 10 standards to attain GSTC endorsement

ST certification supply – a changing environment


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Market opportunity• Demand for Fairtrade / Fair Trade is on the rise • Demand for experiential travel, autheniticy on the rise• Fairtrade mark very well known in Europe, North America,

Australia/New Zealand – starting in South Africa• Labelling of holidays –

– Potential umbrella for sustainable tourism initiatives– Offers private sector opportunities to differentiate services

• Currently FTTSA can‘t meet tour operator demand to create FTT value chains – need to scale up supply.

Market Opportunity


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Create an integrated regional FTT system based on cooperation with peers in neighbouring countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania)

Attract FTT arrivals to South/southern Africa (France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa).

Test/evaluate exportability of system to other types of destinations

Secure support for tourism as a Fairtrade product

FTTSA-led project, 2012-2016


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• GO TO Madagascar – industry led association (75 members)

• GO TO focus on sustainable tourism, history of working with FTTSA

• Enable GO TO members to enter FTT value chains:– Develop minimum criteria for GO TO members– Support hotels, lodges, eco-adventure activities to

comply with minimum FTT criteria (certification)– Support tour operators to develop Fair Trade

holiday packages using certified products – Launch first holidays at Indaba 2013

FTT in Madagascar


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FTT beneficiaries & stakeholders

Current trends in sustainable tourism certification and opportunities for africa

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