It's not just the British arms industry that's currently under ethical scrutiny. Think sunshine. Think floppy hats. Think relaxation - the spotlight is also on the 'industry' of tourism. With a global worth of $3,564 billion, tourism is a powerful economic force. But the thirst for profit, is, as ever, getting in the way of ethics.
Take Zanzibar. Several British companies, including the hotel group Forte Meridien, are lined up for a massive Dollars 4 billion tourism development on this brochure-perfect island. Planned for the Nungwi peninsular in northern Zanzibar, it will be East Africa's biggest holiday resort and is expected to include 14 luxury hotels, several hundred villas, a cruise- ship harbour, three championship golf courses and a world trade centre.
Complex plans by the British-owned East Africa Development Company state how the area will be improved. What they don't mention is that 20,000 people already live on the site. The plans seem to suggest that the area is uninhabited.
Many locals assume that the proposal is dead because so little has been heard about it in public debate. Other locals seem to be scared to speak. The ramifications of such a development are beyond the imagination. How will a luxury complex be developed in an area where water rationing is the norm, without jeopardising local needs and the environment? Where will those 20,000 residents go? Won't most of the jobs created be inappropriate for the largely fishing and farming communities? If the resorts follow normal practice and import most foodstuffs, how will the local farmers benefit (that is, if they still have any land)? And, most importantly, why haven't ordinary local people been consulted as part of the process?
Across the globe in the Philippines, 10,000 peasant farmers in Hacienda Looc, Batangas, are also battling for their livelihoods. Harbortown Golf and Country Club is being developed on land that had been awarded to these farmers under the country's agrarian reform programme. The complex is expected to include luxury beach resorts, two marinas and four golf courses designed by and named after Greg Norman, Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin and Fred Couples.
In an attempt to fight their corner, the farmers sent a representative to Europe looking for international solidarity. But beyond making sympathetic noises, there is not much anyone seems to be able to do. Developers, it seems, are answerable to nobody except host governments, many of which welcome them, whatever the circumstances, because of their desperation for foreign exchange.
Last month the farmers took a more direct approach and planted rice on one of the Philippine's prime golf courses in a symbolic protest. For the time being, construction work seems to have been halted. That such problems are being experienced in the name of tourism is something that has been raising eyebrows for some time. The UK pressure group Tourism Concern has recently highlighted these issues in a report, Tourism and Human Rights, which links tourism-related impacts with violations of UN Declarations.
Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for instance, maintains that: 'Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others; no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of that property.' Unfortunately, as the residents of Nungwi and Hacienda Looc are finding out, such declarations have no power to help those they seek to protect.
VSO is the latest development agency to join the fray. This week it launched its Worldwise campaign, calling for fairer tourism. They are asking both holidaymakers and the government to encourage the tourism industry to adopt community-focused policies.
Unfortunately, we seem to be at an impasse. Research shows that British tourism executives mainly feel it is the responsibility of governments, not companies, to take on environmental, and particularly social issues such as the eviction of people. If this is true, the tourism industry is virtually on its own. Even controversial companies in the oil and mining industries like Shell and Rio Tinto have adopted Amnesty International's human rights guidelines.
Surely the same should apply to British companies involved in tourism? That tourism will be the world's largest industry by the millennium (some say it is already), seems to have sneaked up on us. Travel is featured in every national paper and TV channel, the British made nearly 47 million trips abroad last year, and British-owned interests in tourism overseas are expected to bring in pounds 30 billion to the British economy this year.
Yet there is no minister responsible for outgoing tourism. The Department of Trade and Industry has no representative responsible for it, and although tourism is included in the brief of the department responsible for culture, media and sport, it only deals with incoming tourism.
As a trade issue, international tourism is mysteriously invisible. Incorporating ethical standards into an industry that is not held accountable by anybody could be a long battle.
VSO Worldwise tourism campaign hotline: 0181-780 7580. Tourism Concern: 0171-753 3330
