The mem­ber states of the United Nations World Tour­ism Organ­iz­a­tion (UNWTO) have approved the UNWTO Frame­work Con­ven­tion on Tour­ism Eth­ics. This is based on the Glob­al Code of Eth­ics for Tour­ism (PDF 787 KB) and is, accord­ing to a UNWTO press release upon which this post is based, the first inter­na­tion­al con­ven­tion ini­ti­ated by the UNWTO.

The Con­ven­tion cov­ers the respons­ib­il­it­ies of all stake­hold­ers in the devel­op­ment of sus­tain­able tour­ism, provid­ing a frame­work that recom­mends an eth­ic­al and sus­tain­able mod­us operandi, includ­ing the right to tour­ism, the free­dom of move­ment for tour­ists, and the rights of employ­ees and pro­fes­sion­als.

Chair­man of the World Com­mit­tee on Tour­ism Eth­ics (WCTE) Pas­cal Lamy said: “In an inter­con­nec­ted world where the busi­ness volume of tour­ism equals or even sur­passes that of oil exports, ‎food products or auto­mo­biles, it is import­ant to set out a leg­al frame­work to ensure that growth is dealt with respons­ibly and that it can be sus­tained over time. Tour­ism is a power that must be har­nessed for the bene­fit of all.”

Lamy was appoin­ted chair of the WTCE in 2013. The WTCE presen­ted the Con­ven­tion on Tour­ism Eth­ics to the 22nd UNWTO Gen­er­al Assembly, where it was approved yes­ter­day (Septem­ber 15, 2017).

The ori­gin­al Glob­al Code of Eth­ics for Tour­ism was adop­ted in 1999. In 2015, the WCTE sub­mit­ted to the Gen­er­al Assembly of the UNWTO a pro­pos­al to con­vert the Glob­al Code of Eth­ics for Tour­ism into an inter­na­tion­al con­ven­tion in order to “rein­force its effect­ive­ness”.

Con­sequently, the UNWTO Sec­ret­ary-Gen­er­al estab­lished a “spe­cial Work­ing Group to exam­ine the pro­ced­ures and implic­a­tions of adopt­ing such a Con­ven­tion in cooper­a­tion with the [WCTE]”.

The Work­ing Group, com­posed of rep­res­ent­at­ives of 36 UNWTO Mem­ber States, examined the ori­gin­al draft text of the Con­ven­tion and agreed not to make sub­stan­tial changes to “nine core prin­ciples” of the Glob­al Code of Eth­ics for Tour­ism “as these were already accep­ted by the UNWTO Gen­er­al Assembly in 1999 and are widely known by the inter­na­tion­al Tour­ism com­munity”.

These nine art­icles are repro­duced in the Draft Con­ven­tion on Tour­ism Eth­ics under the sec­tion “Eth­ic­al Prin­ciples in Tour­ism” and con­sti­tute the back­bone of the Con­ven­tion.

The ori­gin­al Code has ten art­icles, which are:

Tour­is­m’s con­tri­bu­tion to mutu­al under­stand­ing and respect between peoples and soci­et­ies Tour­ism as a vehicle for indi­vidu­al and col­lect­ive ful­fill­ment Tour­ism as a factor of sus­tain­able devel­op­ment Tour­ism as a user of the cul­tur­al her­it­age of man­kind and con­trib­ut­or to its enhance­ment Tour­ism as a bene­fi­cial activ­ity for host coun­tries and com­munit­ies Oblig­a­tions of stake­hold­ers in tour­ism devel­op­ment Right to tour­ism Liberty of tour­ist move­ments Rights of the work­ers and entre­pren­eurs in the tour­ism industry Imple­ment­a­tion of the prin­ciples of the Glob­al Code of Eth­ics for Tour­ism

The UNWTO Exec­ut­ive Coun­cil endorsed the approach of avoid­ing any unne­ces­sary changes to nine core prin­ciples in order to final­ise a draft text of the Con­ven­tion for the con­sid­er­a­tion of the 22nd UNWTO Gen­er­al Assembly. This happened yes­ter­day (Septem­ber 15, 2017).

Now that the Code is a “prop­er Con­ven­tion”, it “rep­res­ents a sig­ni­fic­ant step towards ensur­ing that tour­ism devel­op­ment is done with full respect for sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, social issues, loc­al com­munity devel­op­ment, improves under­stand­ing between cul­tures and addresses labour issues”, accord­ing to UNWTO.

“This is an his­tor­ic­al moment for UNWTO”, said out­go­ing Sec­ret­ary Gen­er­al Taleb Rifai. “The approv­al of the Con­ven­tion is a strong leg­acy of the Inter­na­tion­al Year of Sus­tain­able Tour­ism for Devel­op­ment that we cel­eb­rate this year. It is also a strong sign that coun­tries are com­mit­ted to make tour­ism a force for a bet­ter future for all. It rein­forces UNWTO insti­tu­tion­al out­reach in the UN sys­tem.”

On Septem­ber 14, 2017, Zurab Polo­likashvili, the Ambas­sad­or of Geor­gia to Spain, Morocco, Alger­ia and Andorra, was appoin­ted Sec­ret­ary Gen­er­al of UNWTO for the peri­od 2018 – 2021.

Download

UNW­TO’s Glob­al Code of Eth­ics for Tour­ism (PDF 787 KB). Oth­er formats and lan­guages are avail­able here.