How to decide on a tourism company

There are a number of guides available on the web and in print that list tour companies that consider aspects of responsible tourism in their operation.  It is important to look at what measures these listings use, some are a lot more stringent than others.  You can use the information in this website and the resources below to guide your choice.  

One guide that is available from the Global Focus Aotearoa library is:

The Ethical Travel Guide: your passport to exciting alternative holidays.

Pattullo, Polly and Minelli, Orely. London: Earthscan, 2006.

The successor to the good alternative travel guide this book provides information on, and contact details of, community initiated projects in developing countries that are environmentally friendly and offer sustainable alternative incomes for communities living in threatened ecosystems.

To help you quickly find the key resources on tourism held by Global Focus Aotearoa, we have produced a Where to Start Guide on Tourism. 

Download the Where to Start on Tourism

Web resources

Global Focus Aotearoa Weblinks is a database of free to access electronic resources on global issues. Weblinks includes a section featuring the latest reports, articles, toolkits and organisations in Tourism.

Visit the Tourism Section of Weblinks

Email updates

Global Focus Aotearoa compiles fortnightly email updates of all the latest resources to be added to our Weblinks database. You can tailor the email to receive the latest Weblinks additions on tourism straight to your inbox.

Register to receive the Development Issues Email update

Print resources

The following resources on tourism are available through the Global Focus Aotearoa library. Available to anyone living in Aotearoa NZ, it's free to join and borrow material from the library and you can join online, via fax, in person or by mail.

Search the Global Focus Aotearoa Library

Tourism and the Majority World

Dev-Zone Onepager. Number 3, May 2008.

This onepager gives you an overview of the problems associated with tourism in the majority world and a guide to some of the solutions.

Kicking the goals or offside: Is tourism development in the Pacific helping progress towards the MDGs 

Cheer, Joseph M. Pacific Economic Bulletin vol.25:1 2010.

Published by the Third World Network, this edition looks at tourism, offering different perspectives on the role of tourism in development.

Putting tourism to rights: A challenge to human rights abuses in the tourism industry 

Eriksson, Jenny; Noble, Rachel; Pattullo, Polly; Barnett, Tricia. Tourism Concern: London 

This book exposes the many violations of human rights that occur as a direct result of tourism. It challenges the UK Government and industry to recognise that human rights are a fundamental element of any sustainable approach to development – including tourism development, and calls for action to ensure their protection. 

Just Change - The Tourism Issue. [PDF 642KB] Dec, 2004.

The first issue of Dev-Zone's new magazine, focusing on responsible tourism.

         

Tourism Development and the Environment: Beyond Sustainability.

Sharpley, Richard. London: Earthscan Publications, 2009. 

This book reviews the sustainable tourism concept, its policy developments and processes and its limitations to prevailing political-economic, socio-cultural and environmental contexts. 

Tourism and Responsibility: Perspectives from Latin America and the Caribbean.  Mowforth, Martin Charlton and Munt, Ian Clive.  London: Routledge, 2007.

This book provides a critical perspective on existing and new forms of tourism looking at the relationship between tourism, responsibility, power and development.

Tourism and Climate Change: Risks and Opportunities.  Becken, Suzanne and Hay, John.  Clevedon: Channel View Publications, 2007.

This book discusses the latest knowledge in the field of tourism and climate change. It looks closely at tourism management and climate change mitigation, adaptation and policy. 

Tourism for development: empowering communities. Scheyvens, Regina. New York: Prentice Hall, 2002.

This book provides a contemporary analysis of the potential for tourism to work as a strategy for development in developing countries.  

 

DVDs/Videos

These videos can be borrowed by any member of the Global Focus Aotearoa library. It is free to join and borrow (limited to those living in Aotearoa New Zealand).

Join the Global Focus Aotearoa Library

La Caminata
Harriman, NY: New Day Films. 15 mins.

Fed up with the mass migration of their community, the small Mexican town of Alberto creates a one-of-a-kind tourist attraction they call La Caminata, a simulated night time border crossing, complete with fake border patrol chasing balaclava-clad coyotes. This film details the story of this unlikely attempt to save a small community, offering a powerful look at the effect of migration in home communities, and opening a view to the immigration debate on the other side.

From dust - the untold story of life after the tsunami

Dubai: Film-Real. 56 mins.

This film visits the survivors of the 2004 Tsunami two years on. Finding many still living in tents, it asks what role has tourism played in preventing the survivors from rebuilding.

Changing lives: Tourism that makes a world of difference to destinations, customers and business

Bristol: The Travel Foundation, 2007. 6 mins

This DVD is aimed at the tourism industry and how they can make their practice more sustainable. Three key areas are highlighted; local supply of produce, protecting national resources and developing sustainable excursions.

Play your part: A guide for tour operators

Bristol: The Travel Foundation, 2007. 33 mins

This guide covers a wide range of sustainability issues and is directed at tourism staff and operators and what they can do to improve sustainability and change customer behaviour.

The struggle for sustainable tourism: An Ecuadorian case study

Bromley, Kent: TV Choice, 2005. 26 mins

This film tells how the people of Santa Lucia in Ecuador set out to make their living through ecotourism. Forced to abandon farming because of a law passed to protect the cloud forest, they set out to build and eco-lodge for tourists. But can they turn eco-tourism into real business?

 

Your place or mine?
Tourism Concern/VSO, 2001. 13 mins.

Targeted at young people, presenter Andy Jones follows the advice of responsible travel experts as he explores the world.

Pacific: paradise - paradox
Christchurch: 1988. 23 mins.

Pacific Islanders speak about the effects of tourism on their families, economy and development in general, including agriculture, aid programmes, industrialisation, health and the influence of Western civilisation.

 

Please contact us with any recommended links or information.