The UK Government's consultation on Air Passenger Duty closed last Friday. The Government wanted to refocus APD �on its core objectives of raising
revenues for the Exchequer in a simple, fair and efficient manner,
whilst recognising that the Government�s goals for limiting global
emissions from aviation are primarily to be delivered through
international mechanisms such as the EU emissions trading scheme�.

The Government is also considering extending the tax to private jets and helicopters, currently exempt.

The Government had already abandoned plans to charge APD on a per-plane basis, rather than per passenger. Read more  The consultation document can be downloaded at
cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/2011budget_airpassenger.pdf

There is full briefing on the ABTA website

There is particular concern that the government intends to continue to impose APD as a revenue tax alongside the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, arguably designed with green objectives. ABTA argues that this is double taxation and that

The aviation industry, airlines and airports, have not been able to come to a common position, the competing interests are too large for a consensus to emerge.

Keith Williams, the new CEO of BA, argues that aviation is the most overtaxed industry in Britain. He argues that

The Daily Telegraph on 22 June carried an article which conveys some of the range of views held by airlines and governments read more

A poll funded by ING Direct of 1,300 people in the UK has found that 39% of those surveyed will not be taking a holiday this year, 18 million will stay at home this year, 2.7 million more than in 2008 in the summer immediately following the banking crisis.

And 88% of those not taking a holiday over the last three years are those who would have holidayed in the UK.

This year 36% of Britons are planning to pay for their holiday from savings, up from 30% in 2010.
Consumer spending shrank 0.6% in Q1 accorjing to the ONS and over the same period, public confidence in spending power, income prospects
and job market outlook also fell, according to the latest data from the ING
Direct Consumer Savings Monitor.

The original report is available at
http://www.consumersavingsmonitor.co.uk/reports/CSM%20report%20designed.pdf

Read more at
http://www.totallymoney.com/news/index.php/2011/06/broke-brits-cant-afford-break/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/8585300/Debt-ridden-Brits-abandon-summer-holidays.html

This morning found me sat around a campfire nestling in the
Sussex Downs on an unseasonably damp and grey day as the solstice approaches. I
was a guest of ResponsibleTravel.com who are celebrating their 10^th
anniversary. The 20 staff who work at ResponsibleTravel.com comprise the
largest single group of people, anywhere in the world, who are working together
to realise Responsible Tourism.

When Justin and I founded ResponsibleTravel.com in 2001
there were very few companies which could put their holidays on the site. The
idea was to create a C21^st  Fish Street. A Responsible Travel Street, a
place where people wanting to buy a Responsible Travel holiday or travel
experience could go to make their choice. To sell in Responsible Travel Street
you had to be selling Responsible Travel, as with fish there is a wide choice
of different varieties and quality varies, the buyer needs to make their choice(s)
but all the travel experiences sold in Responsible Travel Street meet a minimum
set of criteria, they take some responsibility for making travel and tourism
more sustainable. Some of course are more responsible than others.

I was asked to join the celebration to share in it, and to
talk a little about the past, and give my view about ResponsibleTravel.com
might grow. To mark the first ten years, Justin had organised an away day in
the Downs, not far from Brighton, where Responsible Travel Street is. The
campsite, comprising a yurt and some smaller tents, feels remote and offers an
experience of the Downs, one which refreshes the soul. You can see photos of
the site, and find out more about it, at Safari Britain.  It is a good idea and a good experience, as I write this in the Premier Inn at
Manchester Airport, some of them, the hardier ones, will be sat beside the camp
fire enjoying the remoteness, their own company, and with luck wondering at the
stars, looking forward to a night under canvas.

Andy Law spoke about the importance of maintaining energy
within an organisation � of keeping focused on what you are doing and why,
about keeping going. There is a danger of the energy dissipating as more people
come and join. The passion has to be kept and renewed. As he pointed out �the
pioneers are the ones who have been shot in the back.� To be a pioneer you need
to take risks, maintain and expend energy and a little silliness can help,
although I am not so sure about the last bit. In some ways ResponsibleTravel.com
was and is a business founded on academic theory, its success demonstrates the power
of the thinking. ResponsibleTravel.com is the threat of the good example

The challenges for ResponsibleTravel.com are those of the
Movement as a whole. Responsible Tourism has caught on � people are using it.
If you put �ResponsibleTravel� into Google it gets 332,000 hits, �Responsible
Travel� gets 1,900,000. �Responsible Tourism� gets 1,740,000. The most common
usage is probably Responsible and Sustainable Tourism. That�s a dead give a way.

Responsible Tourism is not just a label. It is only
Responsible Tourism if you can articulate clearly what you are taking
responsibility for. You need to be able to say clearly what you are taking
responsibility for, to say what you are responding to, and why. AND you need to
be able to demonstrate that you are making a difference.

Certificates and labels alone don�t do that � they obscure.
They are part of the problem. When Justin and I set up ResponsibleTravel.com we
understood, as did Krippendorf, that Responsible Tourism could only work if the
product was superior � it needed to offer a better, a more real, a more
authentic experience. AND it needed to communicate and evidence its
responsibility � the traveller and holidaymaker needs to be able to experience
the difference.

So what of the priorities for the next ten years, I was
asked for my recommendations:

1. ResponsibleTravel.com
   needs to work in a focused way to create rich clusters of tourism
   experiences in particular destinations � accommodation, guides, transport,
   artists, crafters, restaurants, caf�s, bars, natural and cultural
   heritage sites. That�s the next phase of the development of Responsible
   Tourism � offering a rich Sm�rg�sbord of opportunities
   so that consumers can experience and taste the difference.

2. Responsible Tourism has
   been infectious, it is rampant. But now too many people and businesses are
   using the words and not taking responsibility, not acting, not making a difference.
   The tipping point came in 2006/7. The priority now is, to use Krippendorf�s
   phrase, to educate rebellious locals and rebellious tourists to hold the imposters
   to account. We need a campaign to raise awareness amongst consumers and to
   encourage them to complain. There is too much band waggon jumping, www.irresponsibletourism.info
   is the place to blow the whistle, complain to the management, write on
   Trip Advisor. One opportunity for ResponsibleTravel.com is to encourage members
   to transparently report their performance and progress on particular issues
   which are important to them and the places and people they work with. See
   for example the work which Jenifer Bobbin is doing on Responsible Tourism Reporting
   www.rtreporting.org We need to
   see more explicitness and more transparency.

3. Responsible Tourism needs to
   have texture and meaning, certificates do not produce that. There has to be
   a credible narrative. From the beginning ResponsibleTravel.com recognised
   the importance of marketing Responsible Tourism businesses; it is not
   tourism until it is sold. Authenticity and the idea of a real holiday, a real
   experience of the people and the place are at the core of what makes Responsible
   Tourism work. ResponsibleTravel.com has helped a lot of small businesses
   to thrive. More can be done and more could be done to talk about this on
   the site.

4. It is clear that Responsible
   Tourism is understood differently in different cultures and by different groups
   within a consuming culture �we need to see this consumer approach adopted
   in more countries.

5. There are a host of issues
   to be addressed � access for all, philanthropy, skiing, diving and
   wildlife viewing, above all consumers need to be educated and empowered to
   demand better holidays and to complain when they are not delivered.

I wish ResponsibleTravel.com a
Happy Birthday and, with a certain paternal interest, urge it to redouble its efforts
to promote Responsible Tourism holidays and experiences and to grow the market
to the benefit of thousands of smaller businesses and those making a difference.
ResponsibleTravel.com has taken responsibility but it can, and will, do more in
the next ten years.

There is a lot of  confusion about what student loans will mean to students from 2012.

www.moneysavingexpert.com has produced a detailed briefing – there are some surprises in it.

Read more at www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/student-loans-tuition-fees-changes

The three year Italian Government funded initiative in Croatia �Adriatic Small Entrepreneurship and local development� has held its final international workshop with presentations from Harold Goodwin (download)on Responsible Tourism and  Maurizio Davolio, Presidente of the Associazione Italiana Tourismo Responsabile AITR

Desa is a Croatian NGO based in Dubrovnik born in the war to maintain Croatia�s independence they are now seeking to shape tourism in ways which ensure that it benefits the people of Dubrovnik and not only a few.  The conference was used to explore the concept of Responsible Tourism and to see whether there is potential to use the concept to focus efforts to use tourism to make better places for people to live in and better place for people to visit. It is a challenge.

Tourism has grown from nothing in 1992 at the end of the war to just short of 11 million in 2010, of which 9.4 million were international, staying an average of 5.5 nights.  Germany was the major source market (22.5%), followed by Slovenia (11.5%), Italy (9.3%), Austria (8.7%) Czech Republic (8.2%), Poland (5.7%) and the Netherlands (4.4%). While I was in Dubrovnik I saw more Japanese than British.

In 1992 the population of the old town of Dubrovnik was perhaps 5,000, today it is less than 2,000, much of the old town is now a hostelry, many of the streets all but impassable for the tables � parts of the old town look like a themed restaurant, although if you are with a local you might some quiet corners.

It was a disappointing experience, my expectations were high. Dubrovnik was an important centre for centuries, it had a legal framework for insurance 300 years before Lloyds of London. I avoided going into the old town before 16:00, when it is packed with day trippers off the cruise lines, the landing fee is, I understand, �10. Most of them will use a toilet and maybe buy an ice-cream or cheap souvenir. There are still people living in the old town but not enough to give life to it. To visit Dubrovnik is to visit a museum without even a few enactors; and the museum is crowded, it is hard to appreciate the exhibits. There is a fashion now for trying to step on to a gargoyle�s head and stand on it � for the sake of a cheap gimmick a bit of the old town is being worn down by tourists.

The management of the public space of old Dubrovnik is sadly lacking, its World Heritage status is not sufficient to protect it. Ironically in the Rector�s Palace in the heart of the old city, is the advice Obliti Privatorum Publica Curate: Forget private interests. Take care of the public good. If only.

As one of the delegates at the conference made clear the case for better destination management needs to be carried to the Mayor and the political authorities. I hope that it will be. If no effective destination management is put in place the operators and the cruise lines will move on from a degraded destination.

Download the PowerPoint Presentation

I arrived in Kerala on the 31st and the monsoon arrived. A day early, the monsoon is expected with the opening of the school year on the 1st June. If you live in Britain you are not accustomed to such regularity in the weather, such reliability.
Kerala is reliable and it is not just the weather. I am at the Mascot Hotel in the centre of Thiruvananthapuram and to be honest I have no recollection of staying here before � but one of the hotel managers recognises me and is able, almost instantly, to tell me which room I stayed In back in 2007 when I was working with Dr Venu, the Secretary Tourism, in the Kerala State Government. It was Dr Venu�s enthusiasm to host the 2nd International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations which resulted in the conferences becoming annual events.

I was in The Gambia last week a country attractive to many visitors because of the friendliness of the people, Kerala too has the local people, their daily lives, and their living culture is at the heart of the Kerala experience. The people do not disappoint, they create the charm which is Kerala. Tourism was only recognised as an industry in Kerala in 1986, it now has 6.5 million domestic tourists and 0.5 million international arrivals.

Kerala is reliably different. Power transfers regularly between the two opposing parties, the LDF and UDF, and in a fiercely democratic state ministers talk directly with the local self-government organisations, the panchayat � and more importantly they listen. This is a state with a unique history and a tranquil beauty which has brought large numbers of domestic and international visitors. They come  to a state with a tourism sector dominated by local small enterprises. Kerala�s tourism is large but it is on a small scale, the visitors experiencing daily life in one, according to National Geographic Traveller, of the world�s ten paradises.

The democratic processes in Kerala are built on a culture of questioning and debate and one in which transparency is valued. This cultural context in part explains the consistency of support for Responsible Tourism since the approach was adopted in February 2007 with the State level Consultative meeting Better Together. The new Minister of Tourism,  A P Anil Kumar, inaugurating the International Symposium on Tourism and Livelihoods, said that �Responsible Tourism has great relevance for the State and we have to go forward with greater purpose.� He acknowledged that there �might have been failures but we have a successful model in Kumarakom�. The Minister said that Responsible Tourism should be insulated from the change of government.

Anil Kumar went on to say
�The RT Model we set up should not be a victim of political vagaries. RT should be made instability-proof. Only then can it be sustainable. I would also like more people to be brought into the experiment.�

There were two Ministers present for the inauguration of the symposium. The Minister for Panchayats Dr M K Muneer also pledged his full support to the Responsible Tourism movement. Dr V Venu, the Secretary for Tourism, widely regarded as the driving force behind Responsible Tourism in Kerala praised local tourism entrepreneurs as the �unsung heroes of the Responsible Tourism movement.�

During the two day symposium seven of the 100 odd initiatives in Kerala were discussed in some detail, the intention being to learn from the experience in the four laboratories of Responsible Tourism in Kerala: Kumarakom, Kovalam, Kumily and Wayanad. For more on Responsible Tourism in Kerala see www.keralatourism.org/rt-index.php

The Responsible Tourism laboratories in Kerala have been established with a degree of transparent monitoring and reporting which is sadly rare � as I said at the inauguration the evolving effective working relationship between the ministries and local government �is a rare phenomenon and should serve as a beacon for other counties.�

There is much more about the symposium on the KITTS website www.keralatourism.org/symposium/outputs.php

As I leave Kerala the annual Jack Fruit Festival in Kanakakunnu is underway. This most versatile of fruits is important to food security and an opportunity for employment. It can be served as a biryani in soups and deserts and fermented into wine. Take a look  www.jackfruitfest.org and www.bamboocluster.org

There was a considerable amount of media coverage including this
�Goodwin, a professor of Responsible Tourism at Leeds Metropolitan University, is a person who cannot be easily missed. He is a stocky teddy-bearish man with a square ruddy face adorned by a salt and pepper beard and fitted with twinkling blue eyes. Yet, he managed to remain nearly invisible right through the two-day symposium, intervening only at critical moments. ''I was here to listen to what you had to say and spread the word to the rest of the world,'' he says.�
Read more

Dr Venu explains the background to their work on Responsible Tourism in Kerala view

'Responsible Tourism claims should be validated'

As readers of this blog will know I am very critical of proposals for global certification schemes, the most recent presentation I have made about this, a PowerPoint with sound, can be downloaded here).

In Kerala I argued that we need to see tourism businesses reporting on their performance against their policy commitments – the claims made by the businesses as much a part of the contract with the consumer as claims about the view  or the food.

Mere claims of being responsible is just not enough. Hotels should make specific measurable
claims about what they are doing. Only then will it be possible for
consumers to blow the whistle, call the hotel's bluff, as they do on other elements of the hotel's claims.

Local government and tourism businesses need to define the priorities, the issues which matter in the destination. Cape Town is pursuing this strategy (read more) Then, work out the
figures: electricity consumed per bed night or water used per bed night
or total local employment generated.There should not be a central
body reporting on performance and checking it veracity – this will empower consumer to choose operators and accommodation which are delivering their claims. The consumer is empowered to choose between the hotels and opt for the one with the best energy performance
or which purchases the larger part part of it goods and services locally. The
consumer will also find it easy to find out if the claims were untrue,''

We need to see a focus on performance and delivery rather than on processes and effort. It is surprising how little we know about the actual savings in water, waste or carbon emissions from certified hotels – let alone the economic impacts and employment practices.

Read more about the Symposium in India

Read more at Responsible Tourism Reporting