Transcript Promoting Fair Travel in Finland - Best practices in Promoting

Promoting Fair Travel in
Finland
Mari Mero
founder and former president,
Association for Fair Travel, Finland
General Manager, Travel Agency Avara Maailma
Presentation
Background and the beginning
 Target groups and aims
 Activities
 Media response
 Challenges and success stories
 The future?

Background
Travels in Africa, Asia, Latin America in
1989-2001
 Studies in environment conservation (MSc
2001)
 Setting up Travel Agency Avara Maailma
in 2002:

– Responsible adventure tourism into Third
World Countries
’Fair Travel’
Travel Fair MATKA
January 2003
 Interview in Helsingin
sanomat
 Immediate response
from the media,
travelling public and
tourism sector

Association for Fair Travel
public debate on issues concerning
tourism impacts in March 2003
 establishing the association in response to
the feedback

– 3 founding members, all tourism professionals
– in 2010, almost 300 members
 mostly former tourism students and tourism
lecturers
 less than 10 active members
Aims
to raise discussion and encourage debate
on tourism impacts
 to highlight and question existing
practices, structures and methods
 to develop, publish and promote priciples
of Fair Travel
 to ENCOURAGE and give POSITIVE
examples of responsible practices

Target Groups
1)
2)
3)
The travelling public
Tourism professionals, especially
students
The travel industry
Activities
Media work
 Talks and presentations
 Sustainable Travel Days
 Theme evenings
 Travel Fairs
 Travel Photography Contests

Fair Traveller’s Instructions
Autumn 2003
 response to media pressure
 working group of 6-8 people from varying
backgrounds

– technical support from tourism students:
literature survey of existing sets of advice
– summary and modification

NOTE: meant for ALL travel
Talks and presentations
Travel Fairs
 Trade Shows
 Tourism Vocational Schools, Colleges,
Polytechnics
 Conferences in Finland and abroad

Sustainable Travel Days
2004: A get-together for Tourism
Teachers and Education Planners
 2006: Tourism and Climate Change

– adaptation AND mitigation

2008: Cultural Impacts of Tourism
– students and teachers
Theme evenings
Travel Photography
 Tourism and Climate
Change
 Cultural Impacts of
Tourism

Travel Fair MATKA 2009
”Our World – Our Common Responsibility”
 over 80.000 visitors
 Partnering with Finnexpo

– 40 volunteers promoting Fair Travel
– talks, presentations
– motivational video
– testimonials from celebrities
Travel Photography Contests
Encounters on a
journey – cultural
impacts of tourism
(2007)
 Tourism preserving
and modifiying culture
(2010)

Media response
overwhelmingly positive
 over 100 stories, interviews and
appearances in TV, Radio, Newspapers
and Lifestyle Magazines
 mostly focusing on Fair Traveller’s
Instructions

Success stories
media response
feedback from tourism students and educational
institutions
 growing demand for lectures and presentations
 incorporation and promotion of Fair Travel
principles in published policies of tourism sector
businesses
 requests for comments on CSR drafts and
Sustainable Travel Charters (Helsinki
Declaration)


Challenges
Funding
 Number of committed activists, speakers
and actors
 Proper (or any) wages for speakers and
writers on responsible travel
 Real changes in actions, not just policies
 The Public: from awareness to action?

The Future
Changes in the Board: new blood, new
ideas
 Collaboration with Businesses, Educational
institutions and Tourism Boards
 Training more speakers: the Ambassadors
of Sustainable Travel (2011)

THANK YOU!
[email protected]