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04/03/2005: "Tsunami Crisis: 'Tourism Has A Vital Role To Play'"

Event: Travel Foundation Meeting
Location: Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London
Speech Date: 17/01/05
Speaker: Bill Rammell

Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen, may I welcome you here this evening and thank you for giving so much of your time to today's important discussions. I hope that you will join me in remembering all those who lost their lives - including colleagues and friends - in the Indian Ocean tsunami and their families who endure the agony of grief and must now rebuild their own lives.

It seems inappropriate and almost insensitive to talk about tourism when so many people still await news of their loved ones. Yet tourism will have a vital role to play in helping to rebuild those shattered communities and to give hope and a future to those who have been left destitute.

May I take this opportunity to pay tribute to those in the travel industry who are giving their time, energy and expertise to help local communities who depended on tourism for their livelihood. They need your support more than ever.

Today you have come together to discuss how a united travel industry can make a difference. We will support your efforts, in whatever way we can.

The British Government has so far pledged or spent around £200 million, including the suspension of debt servicing, for the relief effort.

We cannot conquer the destructive power of nature but we can mitigate its worst effects by ensuring that we have effective early warning mechanisms and that we build strong defences and solid infrastructure while preserving the natural beauty of the environment. That is why the international community has agreed that a warning system is needed for the Indian Ocean region. The World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Japan later this month will consider how to take this forward. And why the Prime Minister has asked the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir David King, to advise him on the mechanisms which could and should be established for the detection and early warning of global natural hazards.

People travel great distances to admire and enjoy the wonders of nature. But we must protect the natural environment if it is to endure and remain a motor for development and growth as well as a source of pleasure and enjoyment for millions. When you look at the figures they are quite staggering. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism generates over 10% of global GDP and employs 200 million people. It has become the main money earner for a third of developing nations and the primary source of foreign exchange earnings for most of the 49 least developed countries. There are over 700 million international travellers a year, including 19 million from the UK. That figure is expected to double by 2020.

Sustainable tourism is a key part of our commitment to ensuring sustainable development world-wide. It is central to the developing world's own efforts to expand economic activity and help alleviate poverty through sustainable development. That is why the Prime Minister launched the Sustainable Tourism Initiative in preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. And why we actively and fully support the partnership between government, industry and the non-governmental sector which is the Travel Foundation. I'd like to take the opportunity to congratulate the Foundation on the important contribution is has already made to sustainable tourism in the first year of its existence.

Supporting the partnership approach

FCO funding for the Sustainable Tourism Initiative ended in December 2004. I am delighted that the Travel Foundation is now largely self-financing, with the majority of funding coming from travellers who make voluntary contributions when they book a holiday.

I would like to take the opportunity to commend tour operators First Choice, Thomas Cook, Sunvil, the Adventure Company, Hidden Greece and Frantic Tours, who are successfully piloting this consumer donation scheme. Their target for 2005 is £600,000. May I thank also Thomson-TUI (pronounced Tooey) and Virgin Holidays for their generous corporate donations to the Foundation in 2004. I hope that they will continue to support the Foundation in 2005.

Working in partnership, as The Travel Foundation is doing, is vital and fundamental if we are to succeed. So I am encouraged that so many organisations with interests in the tourism industry are here today. I hope that you will give your support to the work of the Foundation in whatever way you can.

Key achievements in 2004

As I said earlier, the Foundation is already achieving results.

In 2003 projects were launched in Cyprus to encourage holiday makers to visit villages inland, away from the coast and, in the Gambia, to create dialogue between tour operators and the local tourist industry to improve the quality and standard of tourist facilities. In 2004 a video explaining the importance of protecting Tobago's coastal environment, including coral reefs and wildlife, was shown to visitors on arrival.

The Foundation has also developed information and training programmes to encourage travel companies and tour operators to work with local communities so that they can make the most of the natural environment and local traditions and culture for the benefit of tourists and residents alike.

Role of the FCO

The FCO's Global Opportunities Fund is supporting a number of projects to promote sustainable tourism as part of a wider sustainable development programme in priority countries. Our Embassies overseas are genuinely keen to work with the Travel Foundation and the industry as a whole on these initiatives - many of which go beyond the current scope of the Foundation's work.

Cross Government working

A new Cross-Whitehall Sustainable Tourism Working Group will help to spread best practice and information on sustainable tourism and co-ordinate initiatives, both at home and abroad. These include studying the impact of climate change on the UK tourist industry, managing a 'Promoting Sustainable Tourism' awards scheme for local authorities and working with the industry to encourage Corporate Social Responsibility.

In all these areas we need to work together: national and local government, the travel and tourism industry and local communities. In conclusion we must help each other. As we are doing in the countries affected by the tsunami.

Talking to Jack Straw following his recent visit to the region, he was astonished by the pace of clean-up and reconstruction that is already taking place in Thailand. The Thai authorities are confident that they will get the tourist industry on its feet very rapidly. But in Sri Lanka and the Maldives they need our money to help rebuild tourism. And our encouragement to holidaymakers to keep visiting. Through the Foundation the British public and the travel industry can make a real contribution to their long-term reconstruction.

The FCO, for its part, will continue to ensure that we get the right balance in our travel advice so that British nationals get the information they need and developing countries are able to build up their economies through tourism. That means helping those countries develop a secure environment for their own citizens and for visitors. That is what sustainable development is about - creating the conditions which allow stability and prosperity to grow.

That is one of the government's key objectives in 2005. And, for the sake of the 700 million international travellers, the industry which supports them and the millions whose lives depend on their business, we will keep at it until we succeed. But we can't do it alone, we need to work with you - the industry - your support is vital.

The original article can be found on the Foreign Office website, here.

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