“I am a traveler, you are a visitor, they are tourists …”

The 2006 UNWTO World Tourism Barometer placed the number of international tourists at a staggering 842 million. This number is projected to reach over 1.56 billion by the year 2020. While 80% of international tourists still come from only 20 countries (17 European, USA, Canada, and Japan), domestic tourism is rising and usually accounts for 4-5 times the number of international tourists. Again, it varies for each country. In India the number of domestic tourists is ten times that of international tourists, and the totals for both are on the rise. It’s no wonder there are concerns about the effects of tourism with this many people traveling.

The notion of responsible tourism is that the continued growth of tourism requires all stake holders (tourists, those in the travel industry, governments, communities, etc.) to take responsibility to manage tourism so that the positive effects are increased and the negative effects diminished. The second part of this idea is that mass tourism can change to be more beneficial. The ultimate goal is to make tourism more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. It’s fair to question whether this goal can be achieved, or even what additional harmful effects are caused by good hearted efforts to change tourism.

(An advertisement run by www.responsibletourism.com in The London Evening Standard)