Ethical tourism: Fair trade cities

By Chiranjeewa P. Atapattu

Over the decades, tourism has experienced continued growth and deepening diversification to become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. According to the World Tourism Organisation, Tourism represents five percent of Global GDP while creating 235 million jobs worldwide jobs and makes up approximately 30 percent of world services export.

The rationale

In Sri Lanka, with the end of terrorism in May 2009, there has been an exponential growth in tourist arrivals. Sri Lanka has seen tourists from the US, Canada, Germany, Australia and Japan increase considerably in 2012, while the UK and India remained the top markets.

Sri Lanka's global image has to be improved to attract more tourists. Of the over 175 million travellers to Asia (and nine million to South Asia), Sri Lanka only shares a disappointing six percent of the market while the government targets to achieve 2.0 million tourist arrivals by 2016.

Clearly, Sri Lanka is a prime location for international holiday makers. Within just 65,610 square kilometres, there are eight UNESCO world heritage sites, 1,330 kilometres of coastline, and 15 national parks supporting a plethora of dazzling flora and fauna.

There are nearly 500,000 acres of tea, 350 waterfalls, over 25,000 water bodies with high bio diversity and diverse culture that stretches back over 2,500 years of history.

However, Sri Lanka is not alone in many of these aspects, as it faces stiff competition from the Asian region in an ever competitive market due to the global financial crisis.

Therefore, Sri Lanka needs to modernise its global theme for sustainability and international appeal, as it is no longer enough to purport slogans such as 'Land like no other' which has transformed to other names in recent times.

"I recently participated in the 'Fair-trade Supporter Conference 2013' in London, which chiefly focused on transforming trade for developing country producers and UK brands alike."

For example, Scotland has become a Fair Trade Nation after achieving its target of having all six cities and 18 of its 32 councils garnering fair trade status. The Fair-trade Foundation's new CEO, Michael Gidney said, "Fair-trade sales continue to confound expectations in the midst of the present tough economic climate.

The UK public have developed a lasting appetite for food and goods traded on fairer terms with producers".

Estimated retail sales of fair-trade products in 2012 reached £1.57 billion, a 19 percent increase on sales in 2011. Fair-trade cocoa, sugar and bananas have all seen significant growth of 21 percent, 35 percent and 15 percent in 2011.

Furthermore, 78 percent of people in the UK say that they recognise the fair-trade mark (source: TNS 2012), showing an increased awareness of the brand. The fair-trade mark is also the world's most recognised ethical label, according Globe Scan Research in 2011.

Support

With this new insight, the implication to Sri Lanka is that in the key markets of UK, we need a sturdy fair-trade communication model which will in time; transform all tourist cities into fair trade cities. Fair-trade Town status for Sri Lanka's tourist based cities will bring together neighbours, social and cultural groups, local authorities and businesses towards a shared achievement.

A Fair-trade Town is a town, city, village, or region that has made a commitment to support fair-trade and use products with the fair-trade mark.

The international Fair-trade Labelling Organisation (FLO) plays a role in setting standards, making policies and supporting producer developments.

To begin with, we can brand Hikkaduwa, Sigiriya, Nilaweli and similar settlements as totally fair traded establishments.

The new look represents ethical business-practice: a people-centric tourism brand that aims to be approachable, while remaining professional and trustworthy to the western world.

The future sketch of a Sri Lanka that is a global player in fair-trade, along with ethical tourism, will require it to distance itself from other Asian popular destinations such as Malaysia, Thailand or Singapore.

Sri Lanka needs its own unique brand to beat the competition from other South-Asian countries. This can possibly be achieved with the proposition of 'Fair Traded Sri Lankan Cities'.

The author works for an international hotel chain in London and previously worked in Sri Lanka as a senior market researcher and has completed his Masters in Leadership and Management at a reputed university in the UK.