Project Background
We believe the time is right for this initiative. We are a group of six women with considerable experience of working in the tourism industry, responsible tourism field, human rights advocacy, peace building, policy, academia, training and communications. We are passionate about influencing and bringing change to international tourism development.
We believe passionately that tourism can be a tool capable of bringing a better life for many and we have been involved in various roles campaigning for a sustainable industry for many years. It is only now we realise that, although we have been influential and have pushed the UK industry as well as the global industry forward so that responsible tourism is understood by many, real measurable progress has been elusive.
We want to create a vehicle that will be pivotal in achieving a shift in the way tourism listens to, considers the needs of, involves, embraces and treats women. We are seeking seed funding for our new initiative – a unique, non-profit, Network, Think Tank and Consultancy? to be called Equality in Tourism.
The Problem: Many of the world’s poorest countries develop tourism as their lead strategy to help pull themselves out of poverty. Too often, however, it continues to embed them in poverty, often denying the needs and human rights of local destination communities.
Our experience has shown us that tourism can sometimes have damaging negative impacts on local people, their human rights and their environments – particularly in poor regions. Low wages, lack of contracts and lack of training are staples in a large part of the industry at local level. Along with a greedy industry that often hogs the local water supply, displaces coastal peoples and can be careless of the environment, this can affect many communities. But it is women who are affected disproportionately.
Serious structural issues in large parts of the tourism industry have undermined its potential for becoming a major force for positive development. This includes the marginalisation of women in decision making processes, poor employment practices, disregard for local communities and families in the rush to develop tourism facilities. We believe that if gender equality was established, there would be opportunities to create systems for positive change.
Promoting and enabling gender equality and women’s empowerment in tourism matters -whether it is among hotel cleaners in London struggling on less than a living wage, women in rural areas trying to sell baskets to all-inclusive hotels or project managers at the heart of planning policies. All women deserve a fair future but are often denied this because they have little voice in allocating resources and decision- making processes in tourism.
Greater equality, according to the Tourism Organisation, brings stronger societies. Yet the tourist industry (the world’s largest service sector) has grown in a way that often pays scant attention to women, particularly those in poorer countries, and to the impact that tourism has on their lives and livelihoods. Evidence shows that the Millennium Development Goals which stressed gender equality have been virtually ignored in tourism development (Ferguson 2011).This is what Equality in Tourism seeks to redress. Gender equality and the empowerment of women are fundamental components of just societies.
The Way Forward: Equality in Tourism will be a pathfinder organisation dedicated to creating shifts in policy and practice that will contribute significantly towards equality for women in tourism policy and practice.
It will operate as an independent, non-profit Community Interest Company with a focus on both research and knowledge exchange and in providing training and evaluation for stakeholders at all levels in the tourist industry.
Millennium Development Goals and other global frameworks now exist which will back up our work at policy level. These include Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2012) and the new Women’s Empowerment Principles. Equality in Tourism believes that without a rigorous gender analysis in the thinking, development, practice and evaluation of tourism, many women, particularly the poorest, will continue to be exploited. In the same way as a human rights approach to business is now recognised as integral to sustainability so must a gender approach become part of that same agenda. Without a gender dimension and a reframing of policies any attempts to build genuinely sustainable tourism policies and business risk being severely hampered.
At present there is a lack of reliable evidence of good practice. Where we can point to that evidence it is clear that – even in an embryonic form – it can give women access to money, training and decision-making and lead to an increase in female leadership, self-esteem and negotiating power both in the home and in the public sphere.
What do we aim to do:
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- We believe that by challenging the status quo and working for change we can help transform many women’s lives.
- We will publish articles, blogs and innovative publications and maintain a dynamic, thought provoking website.
- We will encourage women from across the globe to become involved in the Equality in Tourism network.
- We will recruit associates internationally to enable Equality in Tourism to draw upon a pool of experts and professionals, with relevant competencies and experience in the fields of gender equality, tourism, tourism related development and sustainability.
- We will build knowledge exchange and partnership development,
- We will produce robust evidence of what works.
- We will provide gender specialist advice, capacity building and project innovation to destinations and communities
Through our international network of experts we will make an offer to the industry that includes
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- assessment, implementation, monitoring and evaluation;
- training and capacity building;
- assistance in formulating policy and strategic development.
The Case for Seed Funding:
It is difficult to source the seed funding we need. Tourism is outside of the thinking of most funders because it is not easily understood to be a development and human rights issue. We also think it is because, as holidaymakers, we naturally don’t like to think that we are contributing to any form of exploitation.
We are seeking a one-off £4,500 that will cover our start up communications costs and contribute to the project development costs.
Once properly operational we aim that all of our projects will be self-funding, costed to include overhead costs as well as running and delivery costs. We will apply for funding for projects and research and will work towards making Equality in Tourism self-sufficient as a social enterprise.
