Challenges for the future

Here you will find the three main challenges that social tourism will have to face, as Norberto Tonini, former president of ISTO, identified them in a conference in Montreal in 2007.  
 
The sociality challenge
 
One of the first questions we can raise is whether it is still up to date and useful to defend the right to holidays, leisure and tourism for the greatest number.
 
More than 70 years after paid holidays were granted and after the great expansion of travels which allowed the tourism industry to become what it is today – more than 842 million international travels in 2006 with almost 700 billion euro revenues (according to UNWTO) – we can ask the question whether sociality is still needed in the tourism world.
 
The answer is obviously yes. 
 
Although reality has changed a lot and substantial progress has been made in this field, one has to admit that the issue of “tourism for all” is still relevant today. 
 
A recent EU survey shows that, even in the most developed economies in Europe, about 40% of the population does not go on holidays, mainly for financial reasons.
 
This data concerns any population age group, but more especially numerous young people and students who have a limited purchasing power, families with a modest income who cannot manage to set aside a consequent enough holiday budget, and also a great proportion of the elderly who have a lot of time, but whose financial resources are sometimes very limited as well.
 
In that context, taking into account the social dimension raises a question: is the current tourism phenomenon, which brings 800 million travellers per year to different places, really a kind of tourism that is favouring “social cohesion”?
 
The sustainability challenge
 
The sustainable development of tourism has become a central dimension in any serious tourism development project.
 
Mass tourism, which emerged from the wide expansion of travels, unfortunately caused a lot of prejudices, with subsequent environmental, sociocultural and economic damage.  
 
Nowadays, even if there are numerous initiatives to avoid past errors and make sure that the natural resources and the cultural, artistic and historical heritage of local communities are protected for future generations, the equilibrium is still very fragile.
 
A fundamental way to favour stability and duration of structures is to consider responsibly respect for the current and future environment, contrary to an attitude based on speed and mass movements.
 
We are therefore proud to emphasize that even before International Organizations advocated the objective of “sustainable development”, Social Tourism had already taken it as a guideline, so as to:
 
- Conciliate tourism development, environment protection and respect of the local populations identity;
- Bring new resources to regions often neglected;
- Lay out sites with the intention not to squander its resources;
- Generate economic, social and cultural benefits for local populations.
 
The solidarity challenge
 
Solidarity is a challenge which, on a national level, requires us to allow people in economic, family or physical distress, to be able to exercise concretely their right to holidays and tourism.
 
Although Social Tourism is not limited to tourism for the poor and the disabled, it must be clear that, thanks to our roots and our human vision of tourism, we are not indifferent to the less protected and the most underprivileged social layers.
 
This solidarity principle is mainly applied, although not exclusively, on an international scale, in a context of North/South tourist flows.
 
The developing countries, especially in Africa, but also in Latin America and Asia, have to face serious problems and several of them are betting on the development of the tourist activities to improve on their situation.
 
In this context, “fair tourism” can offer alternatives to ensure that the host communities from those countries can make real benefits from international tourism.
 
In that field, there are a lot of good practice examples, either in Africa, Latin America or Asia. In Mexico, there is an interesting supply of alternative trips organized for small groups of around ten people where people can be accommodated in host families, get to know local development projects, visit craftsmen workshops and also archeological sites and colonial cities. Those packages include the host communities in the preparation and accomplishment of activities, they encourage contact between visitors and hosts and ensure maximum spillovers for those communities through the support of development projects.