Working together towards responsible tourism in a local area

Heidi van der WattInternational Centre for Responsible Tourism – South Africa

“Better places to live in, and better places to visit”

Working together towards RT in a local area

Cape Town’s Responsible Tourism Journey

Sustainable Tourism Partnership Programme Workshop

Knysna, 26 March 2013

2007

2004Sustainable tourism embedded in City’s Tourism Development Framework, created in partnership with industry, citizens and government

Multi-stakeholder process to create Responsible Tourism policy starts

EDU

Business

Government

Education

Civil society

Labour

2009Responsible Tourism Policy & Action Plan adopted by City Council

2009

Energy consumptio

n Solid Waste

Water consumptio

n

Enterprise developmen

tPreferential procuremen

t

Skills developmen

t

Seven agreed-to destination priorities......

and making a contribution to those in need …

Social development

Priority issues are founded in critical issues for local government and aligned to the Tourism Sector Codes

PROCESS

[International frame design]

[components –frame & beading – different artists]

[multi coloured beads]

[Colour combination – SA Flag – unique to the place]

Diverse stakeholder priorities

Reflects locality’s specific priorities

Alignment with international,

national, regional and local

policies

[Team supervisor]

City of Cape Town (Tourism Department) co-ordination and leadership

[Quality assurance]

Approval at highest

political level

Multitude of stakeholders with different capacities

[Packaging & marketing]

Industry & consumer

awareness and information

Awareness & training

Data-collection

Supporting collateral

Monitoring & evaluation

Communication campaign

Reporting at destination

level on performance

against priorities

2009 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards: Best Destination Cape Town

Responsible Tourism Action

TeamLaunch Concept

www.responsiblecapetown.co.za

DVD

Sharing Cape Town’s experience

RT in Cities Conference:

2011Association policy statements & Action Plans developed

Gridlock on data collection

Mostly business “as usual” not a priority know-how resources

incentives

Responsible Tourism Action Team problem-solving

Crossing the Chasm

RT becomes the norm in

the destination

Adoption and implementation of Responsible Tourism

The RT Pilot

Launch Sept 2011

2012/2013

Working with “community of Responsible Tourism practitioners”

23 operators recruited by associations

Cross-section – type & size

“Leading lights”

Gathering performance data against priority indicators

Identifying barriers

Developing solutions

Documenting experience

Destination RT barometer for aggregated reporting at destination level

What have we learnt along

the way?

LESSONS

[various frame designs tested before final

selection ]

[different skills of various

artists]

[different material qualities of beads and wire]

Harnessing collective

energy creates amazing results

Recognise and work with

stakeholder capacity

Results are not immediately

obvious

Some stakeholders

may need ‘nudging’ along

Vision has to be backed by unwavering commitment

[individual beading designs]Different

stakeholders will have different

solutions

[continuous design innovation]Responsible Tourism is

a process of continuous improvement[collective caring]

Next steps?

THANK YOUDANKIEENKOSI

PHOTOS: Heidi van der Watt, Bruce Sutherland

Heidi van der Watt

heidi.vdwatt@mweb.co.za

+2783 2632269