Fair Trade Tourism (FTT), a non-profit organisation that promotes responsible tourism in southern Africa and beyond, has recently launched the FTT Tourism Service Provider Register. The Register will contain the names of those tourism service providers that have demonstrated compliance with FTT criteria in the areas of sustainable company management and fair working environment. The Register is open to “wheels” (car rental agencies, tour bus companies, etc.), tour guides and guides associations, professional conference organisers and carbon offsetting schemes. (Other potential tourism service providers will be evaluated on a case by case basis.)
Inclusion on the FTT Register not only signals to the market that the tourism business is committed to fair and responsible tourism, which includes fair wages and working conditions, fair purchasing and operations, equitable distribution of benefits and respect for human rights, culture and the environment, but also makes it possible for the tourism business to be included in a Fair Trade Holiday. A Fair Trade Holiday is a unique product that assesses the entire supply chain and is comprised of FTT-certified or mutually recognised tourism products as well as tourism service providers from the FTT Register.
To learn more about the FTT Tourism Service Provider Register simply go to the FTT website or contact the FTT Sales Manager, Emilie Hagedoorn, at [email protected].
More and more travellers are looking for fair and responsible options when they plan their holiday. FTT offers a possibility of extending ethical purchasing decisions beyond everyday products such as coffee, tea and fruit to also include holidays that guarantee a better life for people in southern Africa and beyond.
According to FTT’s General Manager, Kathy Bergs, “Tourism service providers have been looking for a way to signal their ethical business practices to the traveller – and the FTT Tourism Service Provider Register now provides the perfect opportunity”!