Who is Responsible for Responsible Traveling?

Titelbild
Foto: NTDTV
Epoch Times15. Februar 2011

In recent years Egypt has become a very popular holiday destination for Swedish Tourists. About 200,000 Scandinavians visit Egypt every year. More and more travel companies in Sweden say that they are environmentally aware and care about being socially responsible.

Even though the whole world now knows that the Egyptian people want their human rights back, Swedish travel organizers are not willing to inform travelers about the human rights situation they might encounter at their destinations. They don’t consider it their responsibility.

Magdalena Öhrn is the Information Department head at the biggest charter company in Sweden. They organize trips to Egypt, China and Cuba.

[Magdalena Öhrn, Ving Travels]:
“Since we do not take political stands, we do not want to do that, so it would also be very strange if we went in and said what is right or wrong. We don’t have that knowledge. What we know about is organizing trips.”

Amnesty International in Sweden notes that if a company invests or is present in a country where there are widespread violations of human rights, there is always a risk that the company will be involved.

[Elisabeth Löfgren, Press Secretary, Amnesty International, Sweden]:
“I think it is a bit naive to say that we only care about some of the history, nice white beaches and nature and so on.”

Jeppe Klockareson is a business consultant and founder of Fair Travel in Sweden. He thinks people’s travel preferences will not change much after what has happened in Egypt because people tend to forget things easily. He cites the Tsunami in Thailand as an example. He says that travel companies can improve in the long term by involving local people more.

[Jeppe Klockareson, Founder of Fair Travel, Sweden]:
„Anchor the things locally much more, make sure that the supply chain is local, the employees are local and such, and involve the people around that destination where people go, therefore you can also change the mind of the consumers.“

He also says it’s a matter of everybody taking responsibility.

[Jeppe Klockareson, Founder of Fair Travel, Sweden]:
„In the end it all comes down to the consumer, they are the ones who make the decision.“‚

NTD News, Stockholm, Sweden

Foto: NTDTV


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