Internet marketing for West African Responsible Tourism: the way forward?

I have just read an article about the importance of investing in Internet marketing for tourism initiatives in East Africa. I felt that it could also be relevant to the West African region, and in particular to those Responsible Tourism projects that are struggling to get coverage.

The e-tourism Africa website provides resources and advice to African based tourism projects to maximise their potential through internet marketing. They help tourism suppliers based in the eastern Africa countries to understand and put into motion the online opportunities they have organised Seminars and workshops. These focus on online tourism management and marketing.

Recent polls from EyeforTravel, a leading research company on internet, focused travel, suggest that 7 out of 10 travellers use the internet as their primary source of travel information. This reinforces the need to pay more attention to the “digital” tools available on the “information highway”.

Mr Damian Cook, the CEO of E Tourism Africa explains, “Online sales have been one of the few sectors to experience growth despite the global recession. Travel is now the number one selling commodity online and is generating over US $110 billion annually in sales. However, very little African tourism is sold online and finding and booking African destinations on the web can be a challenge. It is hoped that with more education and awareness, the tourism sector in the region will harness and implement online marketing tools”

With the ever increasing emphasis on WEB 2.0 (open source) and social networks such as twitter and facebook offering low-cost tools to market tourism projects more widely, it is essential these are taken advantage of. As well as being low-cost, they are also carbon neutral. The importance of tackling climate change and the reduction of carbon emissions, plus the changing trends of the world tourism market towards a more ethical approach to consumption, mean that these tools tick all the boxes.

Responsible Tourism ground tour operators in the destinations usually have a limited budget, and therefore Internet marketing seems like the way forward in a world where the World Wide Web is expanding exponentially every few months. Tourism businesses based in emerging regions of the world, offering Responsible Tourism destinations such as western Africa, can gain a wider access to the potential tourism market much more quickly and easily than previously possible.

I have asked e-tourism Africa whether seminars and workshops will be available to West African tourism suppliers, and await their reply. I will let you know their answer as soon as possible.

West Africa Discovery offers a means to market Responsible Tourism projects based in West Africa to the UK market. We use tools and marketing strategies which reflect the current trend of tourists using the internet as a way of gathering more information on destinations and holidays and a move towards more ethical consumerism found in the current tourism marketplace.

Responsible Tourism and “swine flu”, do measures need to be taken?

Over the past year, the swine flu virus has been at the forefront of our various media vehicles from front page newspaper articles to breaking news on the BBC news channel and everyone around the world has been taking ever increasing measures to reduce the effects of a “pandemic”. It has become apparent that the H1N1 virus is also affecting those populations in isolated areas of the world more than it is in the most populated areas.

According to a recent article on the National Geographic website, those living in isolated rural areas are suffering a H1N1 infection rate four to five times higher than that of the general population.

“The world's indigenous people—tribes and other groups who inhabit the lands where their cultures arose—are at greatest risk from the swine flu pandemic”, native-rights groups say.

If this is true, this raises questions for Responsible Tourism practitioners visiting native populations of the destination, sometimes in isolated regions of the world. Are there measures being taken by tour operators to prevent the spreading of the H1N1 virus? Should we be adding a Responsible Tourism policy which addresses this kind of issue? I have noticed that it has been a topic of debate at various Responsible Tourism conferences.

Send me your thoughts, I'd like to hear them.

To read the article which inspired this blog, click here.

Visit www.westafricadiscovery.com.

Contact me at Thomas@westafricadiscovery.co.uk

Deforestation in West Africa will affect rural communities

Deforestation is the result of an economy which thinks of the short term solution. The search for fossil fuels, more productive grazing lands for livestock, and land to grow crops in order to serve the needs of the money makers are a few of the reasons why forests are destroyed.

With the increasing debate on climate change and global warming, and the ever growing emphasis on the need for change, schemes are being put forward in order conserve these natural environments in order to curb the negative effects of the ruling societies’ short term goals. However it is impossible to do this on a global scale and there are stories popping up all over the place on how, unfortunately, deforestation is continuing to thrive.

West Africa is an example of this. Little news comes out of this region of Africa to the ears of the Western masses and therefore less attention is paid to the events taking place.

According to the Ghana News Agency, “the continuing erosion of forests in West Africa has been identified as putting pressure on the region's biodiversity, which is home to more than a quarter of Africa's mammals and 1,800 endemic species of plants “.

M. Michael Jenkins, President of the The Katoomba Group, an international forestry conservation oriented non-governmental organisation, called for the development of the needed technical expertise in the region to combat the problem;
“It is pathetic to also note that only 17 per cent of the region's forests are technically under some form of protection, while only three per cent of is conserved for biodiversity purposes"

We hear about the effect that deforestation has on the biodiversity of a region almost on a weekly basis in the news. However we must also realise that the communities living in these regions are also affected. Rural communities live on the resources that their surrounding environment provides , and a lack of these resources will push them either to search for these further afield, or, in extreme cases will prompt these communities to migrate to towns where they can make the money to be able to buy the items they need to survive This can split communities and threaten their cultural and social heritage.

Responsible Tourism can be used as a tool to combat this situation by suggesting a form of rural community economy boosting and at the same time put an emphasis on the Natural, Cultural and Social (NCS) heritages of the destination. Furthermore, Responsible Tourism works hand in hand with sustainable development and suggests ways in which sustainable living practices can be implemented into day to day community life.

I am not saying that Responsible Tourism can solely help to stop deforestation; however it can help increase awareness towards these kinds of issues to tourists who can raise these concerns in their own societies. It can also be a tool to boost community projects and provide a sustainable economy to these communities affected by deforestation.

To view the article which prompted me to write this, click here.

To visit the West Africa Discovery website, click here.

Email me at Thomas@westafricadiscovery.co.uk

Responsible tourism business conference - 12.11.09

Nowadays, the words “responsible”, “green” and “sustainable” are finding their way in front of every type of activity that we find on the market. Even though these terms reflect a healthier and compassionate lifestyle, they also attract

a wide number of customers due to the social trend which has swung over to the ethical way of seeing things in everyday life.

Now it is the turn of tourism to get the “ethical treatment”, and the term Responsible Tourism has been circulating in blogs, travel fairs (see WTM responsible tourism day) and other publications for the past few years, and it seems like there is an ever growing database of tourism orientated businesses which are adopting the “responsible” label. Why? Well because it attracts the tourist of course.

Responsible tourism started off as a strategy to use tourism as a tool to alleviate poverty in impoverished areas of the world, as its criteria includes economic benefits for communities in the destination, respect towards nature and cultural values, valorisation of national heritages and the promotion of sustainable living (renewable energy, permaculture, recycling, etc.). The majority of travel businesses that started off the trend strived towards this and still do, however there is a danger that there will be an increasing trend for businesses to jump on the band wagon to win a quick buck without taking into consideration the real meaning of responsible tourism.

Now there is a chance for businesses seeking profitability through the right use of responsible tourism (using the Cape Town declaration criteria) to learn how to grow their ventures whilst respecting the ideals and values on which the industry started off on. A conference regrouping speakers specialised in the field of responsible tourism and business titled “The Business Case for Responsible Tourism” will be held at the WTM travel fair at EXCEL London on the 12^th November 2009.

“This conference tackles responsible tourism in quite a different manner,” said Fiona Jeffery, World Travel Market’s chairman and a pioneer of responsible tourism over the past 16 years. “Its remit is particularly relevant in these challenging economic times.”

On hand to speak and present at the conference are a number of leaders in the responsible travel market, including:

• Justin Francis, managing director and co-founder of responsibletravel.com, will be demonstrating how ethical travel businesses can also be profitable.
• Catherine Mack, national journalist on responsible tourism, is planning a talk on how a sustainability reputation adds value to brands and attracts growing media interest.
• Gregg Anderson, Tourism New Zealand’s regional manager for UK and Europe, will outline how the role of sustainable tourism.
• Dr. Xavier Font, director of studies at the International Center for Responsible Tourism, Leeds Metropolitan University UK, will be speaking on about web marketing.

For more information, click here.

Visit www.westafricadiscovery.co.uk for Responsible Tourism trips in West Africa & Information on the West African region.

Email me at thomas@westafricadiscovery.co.uk