wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Tourism industry needs to assume its responsibility

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World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 22/09/2005

TOURISM INDUSTRY NEEDS TO ASSUME ITS SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RESPONSIBILITY,
SAYS KOBIA

"Tourism, while being a potent force for good, has sadly turned into an
activity that leaves in its trail massive numbers of victims", says World
Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Samuel Kobia in a message on
World Tourism Day, 27 September.

Although "tourism can contribute to peace and justice in the world", its
"benefits and burdens" are "very unequally shared", Kobia states in his
message. "The tourism industry is dominated by a small number of enterprises focusing on high returns" while "millions of women and children are
abused, cultures denigrated and exploited, and workers underpaid".

Since "issues of tourism are a matter of acute concern for churches around
the world", they are called to be "involved in questioning and resisting
the negative consequences of commercial tourism". Churches "have to pay
attention to how tourism happens and how the tourism industry maintains
and enhances the ecological balance and assumes its social and cultural
responsibility", Kobia says.

The full text of the message follows:

"Respect for people and nature"
Message from the World Council of Churches General secretary
on the World Tourism Day, September 27th

"Respect for people and nature" is the central message of the World
Council of Churches (WCC) for this year's World Tourism Day.

Every year on 27 September, the World Tourism Organization observes World
Tourism Day with special events organised by governments and civil society
groups around the world. Many church groups continue to mark the day with
activities which demonstrate their concerns about contemporary patterns of
tourism. They will point to the fact that the theme of the World Tourism
Day in 2005, "Travel and transport: from the imaginary of Jules Verne to
the reality of the 21st century", tends to hide the real impact of tourism
on people and nature in tourism destinations.

The WCC commends the pioneering and cutting edge work of the Ecumenical
Coalition on Tourism (ECOT) and outstanding church-related initiatives
located in every region of the world. Underlining the social and ecological dimensions of tourism, they observe that tourism, while being a potent
force for good, has sadly turned into an activity that leaves in its trail
massive numbers of victims.

Travel can genuinely enrich peoples' lives in encounters that safeguard
the dignity of every person, respect multiple cultural identities, protect
and promote the earth's integrity and thus make tourism a way forward for
global understanding, harmony among people and between people and nature.
Understood in such a way, tourism can contribute to peace and justice in
the world, help to overcome patterns of hatred and violence, and strengthen respect for the wonders of nature.

As an important economic activity, however, the benefits and burdens of
tourism are very unequally shared. In "receiving countries", mostly
situated in the developing world, patterns of tourism have shown that the
benefits of tourism bypass the local populations. Yet, it is also argued
that tourism can help to make poverty history. The everyday experience of
grinding poverty, however, is growing in the very destinations where
tourism is developing rapidly.

The tourism industry is dominated by a small number of enterprises
focusing on high returns. Compared to their profits, only very small
amounts of money stay in the local tourism destinations where even people
are often reduced to mere tools of the leisure-seeking rich. ECOT has
shared stories showing how millions of women and children are abused,
cultures denigrated and exploited, and workers underpaid.

ECOT deplores that nature and wild life are converted into commodities for
consumption. Seas and rivers are often the victims of mega-tourism
activities and enterprises that disregard the most elementary environmental standards while they callously throw wastes into the seas, dump garbage
from cruise ships, and leave coastal communities to fend for themselves
when all the damage has been done. In such forms mass tourism follows the
pattern of colonial and imperial domination and destruction.

For all these reasons, issues of tourism are a matter of acute concern for
churches around the world. It has been so since the 1960s. Yet, the
complex, multiple and wide-reaching social, economic, cultural and
environmental fall-out of tourism must compel churches to be even more
alert and responsive, and with a far greater sense of urgency and
intensity than ever before. Denial of human dignity, unjust distribution
of the benefits and disregard of environmental sustainability are sources
of violence and destruction.

We are midway through the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) and member
churches of the WCC have embraced the spirit and intent of this initiative. For all engaged in the DOV, it must be a strategic choice to recognise
the dehumanising and violent aspects of tourism, especially in relation to
women, children, marginalised communities, cultures, and the environment.
This, in turn, requires churches to be part of the ongoing processes and
wider movements which are involved in questioning and resisting the
negative consequences of commercial tourism.

Nine months after the tsunami, just when the tourism season starts in the
affected regions, there is another very serious issue at stake that needs
our attention. Despite the many tall claims about reconstruction, and the
millions of dollars being poured into tsunami aid, for too many people
little has changed. Tens of thousands of people see little hope in their
lives.

A lesson to be learned from the tsunami is that much of the impact of the
tsunami could have been averted if only the tourism industry along the
coastal belts of the affected countries had been environmentally responsible. The violence of tourism against nature, as can be witnessed in the
destruction of mangroves, sand dunes, coral reefs, and coconut plantations, are all factors that contributed to the death of tens of thousands and
the destruction of entire community resources.

Natural disasters reflect the imbalance in the relationship between people
and nature. Churches have now the obligation to monitor what the tourism
industry does in the post-tsunami reconstruction processes. This becomes
even more crucial in the wake of reports of the haste with which tourists
are lured back to these already fragile eco-systems without any corrective
ecological checks and balances being put in place.

Peace, Justice and the Care for Creation are central to the work of
churches everywhere. So are hospitality for the stranger and those who
travel - as in many traditional cultures and also other religions around
the world. Churches have to pay attention to how tourism happens and how
the tourism industry maintains and enhances the ecological balance and
assumes its social and cultural responsibility as expressions of the basic
care for the dignity of human life and the integrity of creation.

These are the values which guide the churches in their development
activities and advocacy. For us as Christians, there are lessons to be
learned. History will ask us if we were willing to learn them. The
criteria for the judgement of the nations according to the Gospel will be
"as much as you did to one of the least of these" (Matthew 25:40). Let us
take action - now.

Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia
WCC General Secretary

Additional information:

Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT):
www.ecotonline.org

Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV):
www.overcomingviolence.org

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.