Sustainable Tourism
Global Codes of Ethics for Tourism
[Article
1] Tourism's
contribution to mutual understanding and respect between peoples
and societies
- The
understanding and promotion of the ethical values common to
humanity, with an attitude of tolerance and respect for the
diversity of religious, philosophical and moral beliefs, are
both the foundation and the consequence of responsible tourism;
stakeholders in tourism development and tourists themselves
should observe the social and cultural traditions and practices
of all peoples, including those of minorities and indigenous
peoples and to recognize their worth;
- Tourism
activities should be conducted in harmony with the attributes
and traditions of the host regions and countries and in respect
for their laws, practices and customs;
- The
host communities, on the one hand, and local professionals,
on the other, should acquaint themselves with and respect the
tourists who visit them and find out about their lifestyles,
tastes and expectations; the education and training imparted
to professionals contribute to a hospitable welcome;
-
It is the task of the public authorities to provide protection
for tourists and visitors and their belongings; they must pay
particular attention to the safety of foreign tourists owing
to the particular vulnerability they may have; they should facilitate
the introduction of specific means of information, prevention,
security, insurance and assistance consistent with their needs;
any attacks, assaults, kidnappings or threats against tourists
or workers in the tourism industry, as well as the wilful destruction
of tourism facilities or of elements of cultural or natural
heritage should be severely condemned and punished in accordance
with their respective national laws;
- When
travelling, tourists and visitors should not commit any criminal
act or any act considered criminal by the laws of the country
visited and abstain from any conduct felt to be offensive or
injurious by the local populations, or likely to damage the
local environment; they should refrain from all trafficking
in illicit drugs, arms, antiques, protected species and products
and substances that are dangerous or prohibited by national
regulations;
- Tourists
and visitors have the responsibility to acquaint themselves,
even before their departure, with the characteristics of the
countries they are preparing to visit; they must be aware of
the health and security risks inherent in any travel outside
their usual environment and behave in such a way as to minimize
those risks;
[Article
2]
Tourism
as a vehicle for individual and collective fulfilment
- Tourism,
the activity most frequently associated with rest and relaxation,
sport and access to culture and nature, should be planned and
practised as a privileged means of individual and collective
fulfilment; when practised with a sufficiently open mind, it
is an irreplaceable factor of self-education, mutual tolerance
and for learning about the legitimate differences between peoples
and cultures and their diversity;
- Tourism
activities should respect the equality of men and women; they
should promote human rights and, more particularly, the individual
rights of the most vulnerable groups, notably children, the
elderly, the handicapped, ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples;
- The
exploitation of human beings in any form, particularly sexual,
especially when applied to children, conflicts with the fundamental
aims of tourism and is the negation of tourism; as such, in
accordance with international law, it should be energetically
combatted with the cooperation of all the States concerned and
penalized without concession by the national legislation of
both the countries visited and the countries of the perpetrators
of these acts, even when they are carried out abroad;
-
Travel for purposes of religion, health, education and cultural
or linguistic exchanges are particularly beneficial forms of
tourism, which deserve encouragement;
- The
introduction into curricula of education about the value of
tourist exchanges, their economic, social and cultural benefits,
and also their risks, should be encouraged;
[Article
3] Tourism,
a factor of sustainable development
- All
the stakeholders in tourism development should safeguard the
natural environment with a view to achieving sound, continuous
and sustainable economic growth geared to satisfying equitably
the needs and aspirations of present and future generations;
- All
forms of tourism development that are conducive to saving rare
and precious resources, in particular water and energy, as well
as avoiding so far as possible waste production, should be given
priority and encouraged by national, regional and local public
authorities;
- The
staggering in time and space of tourist and visitor flows, particularly
those resulting from paid leave and school holidays, and a more
even distribution of holidays should be sought so as to reduce
the pressure of tourism activity on the environment and enhance
its beneficial impact on the tourism industry and the local
economy;
- Tourism
infrastructure should be designed and tourism activities programmed
in such a way as to protect the natural heritage composed of
ecosystems and biodiversity and to preserve endangered species
of wildlife; the stakeholders in tourism development, and especially
professionals, should agree to the imposition of limitations
or constraints on their activities when these are exercised
in particularly sensitive areas: desert, polar or high mountain
regions, coastal areas, tropical forests or wetlands, propitious
to the creation of nature reserves or protected areas;
-
Nature tourism and ecotourism are recognized as being particularly
conducive to enriching and enhancing the standing of tourism,
provided they respect the natural heritage and local populations
and are in keeping with the carrying capacity of the sites;
[Article
4] Tourism,
a user of the cultural heritage of mankind and contributor to its
enhancement
- Tourism
resources belong to the common heritage of mankind; the communities
in whose territories they are situated have particular rights
and obligations to them;
- Tourism
policies and activities should be conducted with respect for
the artistic, archaeological and cultural heritage, which they
should protect and pass on to future generations; particular
care should be devoted to preserving and upgrading monuments,
shrines and museums as well as archaeological and historic sites
which must be widely open to tourist visits; encouragement should
be given to public access to privately-owned cultural property
and monuments, with respect for the rights of their owners,
as well as to religious buildings, without prejudice to normal
needs of worship;
-
Financial resources derived from visits to cultural sites and
monuments should, at least in part, be used for the upkeep,
safeguard, development and embellishment of this heritage;
- Tourism
activity should be planned in such a way as to allow traditional
cultural products, crafts and folklore to survive and flourish,
rather than causing them to degenerate and become standardized;
[Article
5] Tourism,
a beneficial activity for host countries and communities
- Local
populations should be associated with tourism activities and
share equitably in the economic, social and cultural benefits
they generate, and particularly in the creation of direct and
indirect jobs resulting from them;
- Tourism
policies should be applied in such a way as to help to raise
the standard of living of the populations of the regions visited
and meet their needs; the planning and architectural approach
to and operation of tourism resorts and accommodation should
aim to integrate them, to the extent possible, in the local
economic and social fabric; where skills are equal, priority
should be given to local manpower;
- Special
attention should be paid to the specific problems of coastal
areas and island territories and to vulnerable rural or mountain
regions, for which tourism often represents a rare opportunity
for development in the face of the decline of traditional economic
activities;
- Tourism
professionals, particularly investors, governed by the regulations
laid down by the public authorities, should carry out studies
of the impact of their development projects on the environment
and natural surroundings; they should also deliver, with the
greatest transparency and objectivity, information on their
future programmes and their foreseeable repercussions and foster
dialogue on their contents with the populations concerned;
[Article
6] Obligations
of stakeholders in tourism development
- Tourism
professionals have an obligation to provide tourists with objective
and honest information on their places of destination and on
the conditions of travel, hospitality and stays; they should
ensure that the contractual clauses proposed to their customers
are readily understandable as to the nature, price and quality
of the services they commit themselves to providing and the
financial compensation payable by them in the event of a unilateral
breach of contract on their part;
- Tourism
professionals, insofar as it depends on them, should show concern,
in co-operation with the public authorities, for the security
and safety, accident prevention, health protection and food
safety of those who seek their services; likewise, they should
ensure the existence of suitable systems of insurance and assistance;
they should accept the reporting obligations prescribed by national
regulations and pay fair compensation in the event of failure
to observe their contractual obligations
- Tourism
professionals, so far as this depends on them, should contribute
to the cultural and spiritual fulfilment of tourists and allow
them, during their travels, to practise their religions;
- The
public authorities of the generating States and the host countries,
in cooperation with the professionals concerned and their associations,
should ensure that the necessary mechanisms are in place for
the repatriation of tourists in the event of the bankruptcy
of the enterprise that organized their travel;
- Governments
have the right – and the duty - especially in a crisis,
to inform their nationals of the difficult circumstances, or
even the dangers they may encounter during their travels abroad;
it is their responsibility however to issue such information
without prejudicing in an unjustified or exaggerated manner
the tourism industry of the host countries and the interests
of their own operators; the contents of travel advisories should
therefore be discussed beforehand with the authorities of the
host countries and the professionals concerned; recommendations
formulated should be strictly proportionate to the gravity of
the situations encountered and confined to the geographical
areas where the insecurity has arisen; such advisories should
be qualified or cancelled as soon as a return to normality permits;
- The
press, and particularly the specialized travel press and the
other media, including modern means of electronic communication,
should issue honest and balanced information on events and situations
that could influence the flow of tourists; they should also
provide accurate and reliable information to the consumers of
tourism services; the new communication and electronic commerce
technologies should also be developed and used for this purpose;
as is the case for the media, they should not in any way promote
sex tourism;
[Article
7] Right
to tourism
- The
prospect of direct and personal access to the discovery and
enjoyment of the planet’s resources constitutes a right
equally open to all the world’s inhabitants; the increasingly
extensive participation in national and international tourism
should be regarded as one of the best possible expressions of
the sustained growth of free time, and obstacles should not
be placed in its way;
- The
universal right to tourism must be regarded as the corollary
of the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation
of working hours and periodic holidays with pay, guaranteed
by Article 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
Article 7.d of the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights;
- Social
tourism, and in particular associative tourism, which facilitates
widespread access to leisure, travel and holidays, should be
developed with the support of the public authorities;
- Family,
youth, student and senior tourism and tourism for people with
disabilities, should be encouraged and facilitated;
[Article
8] Liberty
of tourist movements
- Tourists
and visitors should benefit, in compliance with international
law and national legislation, from the liberty to move within
their countries and from one State to another, in accordance
with Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
they should have access to places of transit and stay and to
tourism and cultural sites without being subject to excessive
formalities or discrimination;
- Tourists
and visitors should have access to all available forms of communication,
internal or external; they should benefit from prompt and easy
access to local administrative, legal and health services; they
should be free to contact the consular representatives of their
countries of origin in compliance with the diplomatic conventions
in force;
-
Tourists and visitors should benefit from the same rights as
the citizens of the country visited concerning the confidentiality
of the personal data and information concerning them, especially
when these are stored electronically;
- Administrative
procedures relating to border crossings whether they fall within
the competence of States or result from international agreements,
such as visas or health and customs formalities, should be adapted,
so far as possible, so as to facilitate to the maximum freedom
of travel and widespread access to international tourism; agreements
between groups of countries to harmonize and simplify these
procedures should be encouraged; specific taxes and levies penalizing
the tourism industry and undermining its competitiveness should
be gradually phased out or corrected;
- So
far as the economic situation of the countries from which they
come permits, travellers should have access to allowances of
convertible currencies needed for their travels;
[Article
9] Rights
of the workers and entrepreneurs in the tourism industry
- The
fundamental rights of salaried and self-employed workers in
the tourism industry and related activities, should be guaranteed
under the supervision of the national and local administrations,
both of their States of origin and of the host countries with
particular care, given the specific constraints linked in particular
to the seasonality of their activity, the global dimension of
their industry and the flexibility often required of them by
the nature of their work;
- Salaried
and self-employed workers in the tourism industry and related
activities have the right and the duty to acquire appropriate
initial and continuous training; they should be given adequate
social protection; job insecurity should be limited so far as
possible; and a specific status, with particular regard to their
social welfare, should be offered to seasonal workers in the
sector;
- Any
natural or legal person, provided he, she or it has the necessary
abilities and skills, should be entitled to develop a professional
activity in the field of tourism under existing national laws;
entrepreneurs and investors - especially in the area of small
and medium-sized enterprises - should be entitled to free access
to the tourism sector with a minimum of legal or administrative
restrictions;
- Exchanges
of experience offered to executives and workers, whether salaried
or not, from different countries, contributes to foster the
development of the world tourism industry; these movements should
be facilitated so far as possible in compliance with the applicable
national laws and international conventions;
- As
an irreplaceable factor of solidarity in the development and
dynamic growth of international exchanges, multinational enterprises
of the tourism industry should not exploit the dominant positions
they sometimes occupy; they should avoid becoming the vehicles
of cultural and social models artificially imposed on the host
communities; in exchange for their freedom to invest and trade
which should be fully recognized, they should involve themselves
in local development, avoiding, by the excessive repatriation
of their profits or their induced imports, a reduction of their
contribution to the economies in which they are established;
- Partnership
and the establishment of balanced relations between enterprises
of generating and receiving countries contribute to the sustainable
development of tourism and an equitable distribution of the
benefits of its growth;
[Article
10] Implementation
of the principles of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism
- The
public and private stakeholders in tourism development should
cooperate in the implementation of these principles and monitor
their effective application;
- The
stakeholders in tourism development should recognize the role
of international institutions, among which the World Tourism
Organization ranks first, and non-governmental organizations
with competence in the field of tourism promotion and development,
the protection of human rights, the environment or health, with
due respect for the general principles of international law;
- The
same stakeholders should demonstrate their intention to refer
any disputes concerning the application or interpretation of
the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism for conciliation to an
impartial third body known as the World Committee on Tourism
Ethics.
Source: World Tourism Organization, 1999
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