I know all of these sites, having holidayed in both Delhi and Amsterdam and having visited ad-Dir’iyah, the capital of the first Saudi state, many times during the time I was based in Riyadh working alongside the Supreme Commission for Tourism (now the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities – SCTA).  The architecture of Jantar Mantar is certainly stunning – almost abstract in places and looking like a contemporary skatepark. The site was a lunar and celestial observatory and is testament to the scientific knowledge and spirit of inquiry of the time.  Amsterdam’s canals are an iconic aspect of the city’s urban form and reflect the ingenuity of the town’s inhabitants in terms of managing flood control as well as facilitating trade. 

At Turaif I am a little more bothered about.  The site itself is architecturally interesting although none of the original fabric remains – the authorities have invested considerably in restoration and rebuilding works in recent years. But the authenticity argument is only part of my concern.  For a cultural heritage site to be inscribed on the WH list it must meet a number of criteria that have been taken to reflect its global significance. 

The UNESCO press release issued on august 1^st and celebrating its inscription explains the significance of At Turaif thus: “This property was the first capital of the Saudi Dynasty, in the heart of the Arabian Penisula, north-west of Riyadh. Founded in the 15th century, it bears witness to the Najdi architectural style, which is specific to the centre of the Arabian peninsula. In the 18th and early 19th century, its political and religious role increased, and the citadel at at-Turaif became the centre of the temporal power of the House of Saud and the spread of the Wahhabi reform inside the Muslim religion. The property includes the remains of many palaces and an urban ensemble built on the edge of the ad-Dir’iyah oasis”.

Note the link to Wahhabi – the very conservative form of Sunni Islam based on the teachings of Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab, an 18th century scholar whose legacy, if one is to agree with the work of some scholars, includes the Taliban and Al-Qaeda (see for examples Charles Allen’s 2006 book God’s Terrorists). Whether or not one agrees with the beliefs of these organisations, it does appear that by according international status to a site directly linked with their progenitor, UNESCO could be seen to be legitimising this fundamentalist ethos. 

The reason that this particular issue struck such a chord with me is that in the same week that the World Heritage Committee was meeting in Brasilia, I was asked to review a fascinating new collection of essays edited by Sophia Labadi and Colin Long entitled ‘Heritage and Globalisation’ and published in the UK by Routledge.  One of the first chapters of the book, written by the Australian ethnographer Marc Askew, takes a very strong position on the way in which UNESCO, through the World Heritage List, is using what he terms a veneer of academic and specialist validation to support the work of nation-states in what he calls ‘projects of cultural reification and domination’.  In other words, UNESCO is complicit in allowing member states to pursue their own ideological agendas by according globally-endowed status to sites that are supposed to be of outstanding universal value, but which in reality can be highly political and indeed contentious. However, the involvement of the state party with the support of UNESCO allows a homogeonised view of the past to be celebrated – what Laurajane Smith refers to as AHD – the Authorised Heritage Discourse that reflects that state’s view, and not that of other stakeholders (existing and potential, domestic and international).

I retain a strong affection for my many Saudi Arabian friends and colleagues, and am delighted that in recent years they have engaged with the World Heritage Convention and that so much investment is being made in protecting, conserving and managing the wealth of heritage assets – pre and post-Islamic – across the Kingdom.  I just wonder, however, whether in the current global political climate, the nomination of At Turaif was a sensitive act?

Dr Simon Woodward, Senior Research Fellow, ICRT

This is the time of year to stock take and consider how you will best develop yourself to remain competitive. Our masters acts as a coaching process to develop knowledge, networks and opportunities in this industry. Half of our students work and live outside the UK, attending only some of the intensive weekend blocks and studying online while using our distance learning packs.

Email x.font@leedsmet.ac.uk for more details or call +44 113 8125609 on whether htis is the right course for you and how to spread the fees and workload.

Credit: BeeCraft

A Responsible Tourism product can be very responsible towards the environment and the local community but if it holds access barriers, People with Limited Mobility will be restrained from enjoying it. The Responsible Tourism Declaration of Cape Town  explicitly requires Responsible Tourism to be accessible for people with disabilities. The overlap between Responsible Tourism and Accessible Tourism is clear.

An accessible destination means accessibility for tourists but also for locals. Accessible tourism really has the capacity to produce “better places for people to live in and for people to visit”.

Subsequent to these discussions, examples are provided of how different hotels and hotel chains are responding to the challenges of climate change focusing at first on mitigation and then adaptation. A brief discussion of sustainable supply chain management is also provided given its importance in tackling the causes of climate change. The examples serve to illustrate the range of activities currently being undertaken in the sector. The publication resulted from Andreas’ role as moderator for a panel discussion at ITB this year on hospitality and climate change. If anyone has any examples of adaptation in the hospitality industry please email these to Andreas a.walmsley@leedsmet.ac.uk as he is keen to explore this issue further.

Lucy presented a paper on “Taking Responsibility for the Social Impacts of Tourism” and attended their training session on conducting Social Impact Assessments, alongside Yvette Evers who is currently studying with us at ICRT whilst living close to Geneva. Following this involvement Lucy has been invited by IAIA to develop their Key Citations on the “Social and Environmental Impacts of Tourism”. The purpose of the Key Citations series is to be a source of information about the different subfields of impact assessment – see http://www.iaia.org/resources-networking/key-citations.aspx  to check out the existing series. Each Key Citations listing is simply a selection of readily available publications that typify the particular subfield of impact assessment. Primarily, the listings are to provide a source of readily accessible information for people wanting to learn more about that subfield. They also might be regarded as establishing the core literature of the field that should be consulted for publications and academic theses on the topic. They should include a selection of the currently available books published by commercial publishers, a selection of journal articles over the last 10 years or so that provide an overview of the field, and key official documents.

If anyone would like to suggest any literature to be included in these Key Citations please contact Lucy McCombes on l.mccombes@leedsmet.ac.uk

Articles from the new ministers in tourism and transport, the chairman of the all party parliamentary group on tourism, MPs and a former MEP, come together with the viewpoints of ABTA, Thomas Cook and TUI- and our very own Prof. Harold Goodwin.

The House is more than another magazine, its importance goes beyond who is featured- it informs the viewpoints of politicians, it’s contents speaks of signs of the things to come.

The event was useful in showing much more clearly how companies are less shy about using their RT work to engage customers, develop new products, design more sophisticated communication tools and channels. The outcome? Leaders have already moved from greenwashing to greenhushing (i.e. not talking about it) and now are starting to be more comfortable with integrating sustainability into their day to day business- including marketing.

The role of sustainability in tourism consumer behaviour

Dr Graham Miller, Director of International Studies, University of Surrey

Responsible product development and commercialisation at TUI

Liz Hawkins, Sustainable Development Manager for the Activity Sector, TUI Travel PLC

Public relations of Corporate Social Responsibility

Paul Thomas, Senior Consultant CSR, Sustainability & Not-for-profit Grayling

Communicating Environmental Stewardship within the Cruise Industry

Jamie Sweeting, Vice President, Environmental Stewardship and Global Chief Environmental Officer for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Responsible tourism marketing for small companies

Dr Xavier Font, Director of Studies, International Centre for Responsible Tourism

Crafting a Responsible Tourism Positioning: from Environmental Campaigning to the “Good Life”

Chris Warren, Owner, Crystal Creek Meadows, Australia

Qantas Award for Excellence in Sustainable Tourism

Creativity, confidence and bags of fun- my recipe for marketing sustainability

Sue Prince, Beechenhill Farm B&B and cottages, Peak District.

Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards Highly commended Best small accommodation

Winner Gold award for the excellence in England- best tourism website

ICRT’s role is to transfer expertise in sustainable tourism certification and to conduct an European wide survey on the competitive advantage gained by small businesses from operating and marketing sustainably, over the next 18 months.

The European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas Charter is a practical management tool aimed at developing and promoting sustainable tourism practices in protected areas. The Charter is promoted by the EUROPARC Federation, and it is not a typical quality or eco-label but a processoriented methodology that can be used and applied by all kinds of protected areas. Its focus is on initiating and assisting a participatory process of sustainable tourism planning which will lead to sustainable development step by step. It does this through the creation and actions of public-private networks of local stakeholders – the “Charter  Forums”. Through these forums, every “Charter Area” engages in a close working relationship with local businesses –- their “Charter Partners” – aiming at implementing sustainable practices and achieving mutual benefits for all parties involved, i.e. promoting the conservation of the parks’ natural values and the sustainability and competitiveness of their business partners. 

There are presently 58 Protected Areas in 7 European countries implementing the Charter (and 27 more as candidates), with already 200 businesses certified as Charter Partners in Spain, France and the UK and more than 500 working in close cooperation with their related Charter Area and aiming at future certification. Although sharing common basic features, different countries and parks have been following different approaches for their work with business partners, supporting their work in different existing certification initiatives for sustainability. Therefore, the overall and specific objectives of this project are:

Overall objective:
To promote and strengthen the cooperation between the different experiences and certification initiatives for small and micro tourism enterprises working with (Charter) protected areas (PAs), through the sharing, levelling and enhancement of their sustainability practices and criteria, and strengthen their competitiveness through the development of working partnerships between these initiatives and specialized research and support centres for tourism sustainability.

Specific objectives:
- Sharing of experiences and comparison of sustainability standards being used or developed with businesses partners of (Charter) PAs, and promoting the harmonization of working and sustainability criteria across Europe.
- Development of a sustainability learning network between Charter Areas, their business partners and tourism research centres for demonstration of links between promotion of sustainable practices, increased competitiveness and growth in conservation awareness and support.
- Development and piloting of a set of research tools for the identification of key trends and determinant factors in sustainable tourism on Charter protected areas, visitors’ values and perceptions, market trends, and local businesses’ financial and strategic gains from implementing sustainable management approaches and partnering with protected areas.
- Promoting capacity building of business owners and protected areas’ managers on sustainable tourism approaches, criteria and evaluation.
- Disseminate best practices at multi-scales, from business networks at protected area level to regional, national and European networks of businesses, parks and public-private Charter forums working with the Charter.
- Create permanent online networking platform including sustainable tourism best practices and research tools for European protected areas, available to parks, small and micro businesses, specialist tour operators and other interested parties.

www.visitengland.com/keepitreal

ICRT runs one day courses to train groups of small firms on responsible tourism marketing- Cornwall, Brecon Beacons and Powys courses in April/May were well received and we look forward to work with further national park authorities and regional tourism boards in the UK and internationally to run similar courses. A typical one day programme costs £700 plus expenses for up to 20 participants, and the programme can be found below

Marketing your green tourism business one day course