THE travel industryneeds to become more forwardthinking if it is to survive the tests thrown at the future.With the industry predicted to explode in numbers as the Chinese and Indian markets emerge, the industry is advised to be better prepared to cope with the numbers and protect the destinations.Leo Hickman, journalist and author of 'The Final Call', which examined the trade's attitudes to responsible tourism and sustainability, who was on the hot seat for World Responsible Tourism Day for this year's WTM, the leading global event for the travel industry, gave the charge.According to him,'I can't emphasise enough how little evidence there is about what people are doing for the future. To me, that is indicative of an industry that totally lives in the present, it doesnt look to the future. It is incredibly short term thinking, to totally believe everything is going to be hunky dory'.He explained that to sustain that growth, travel companies all have their responsibilities, adding that there were going to be some big decisions needed to be made.'If the industry is to preserve itself, it has protect the people and the natural habitats in the destinations. The industry needs to be more honest with itself, there are some very potent examples of bad practice'.He stated that of all the industries that he had studied, tourism, he said, 'is the more guilty of green wash.He equally said journalists had a role to play in asking more difficult questions of the travel industry toensure it is doing everything it can to protect the very product it sells.However, Hickman admitted this will be difficult in practice due to the expense in sending reporters on trips which means they are mostly paid for by the travel industry and which compromises the journalist's objectivity.'If you pick up any of the travel supplements, newspapers or travel magazines, it is simply advertorial. Because it is such an expensive business, the industry has to be the gatekeeper. You have to end this practice, otherwise you are not going to be impartial'.In a related development, delegatesforwere told that governments need to do more to help the travel and tourism industry maximise its power to help the poorest people on the planet.Fiona Jeffery, Reed Travel Exhibitions Director World Travel Market, told the 500 senior travel executives that attended the event on the opening daythat travel and tourism, supported by governments, must strengthen their efforts; stressing that more need to actively get involved, not just pay lip service to something which is now deemed fashionable.But she also acknowledged that companies need to balance profit against the values and principles of prudent corporate social responsibility.According to her, malnutrition, poverty and a lack of clean drinking water form a vicious circle, in which children who survive their early years are denied the chance to educate themselves out of deprivation as a result of continued poverty and family needs.'The (travel and tourism) industry is perhaps better placed than most to make a vital contribution in the fight against these complex issues,' Jeffery said.The discussions scheduled for WTM's World Responsible Tourism Day's programme across three days would touched on 'painful stuff' and that there was 'no place for the niceties of life, for patting ourselves on the back.
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