Cape Town Tourism Responsibility and Sustainability

Following up from last week's post: During the 2011 Responsible Tourism Week a contribution from City of Cape Town Director: Tourism Department Nombulelo Mkefa and Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold sets out many of the advances towards responsible and sustainable tourism in the city.

A year ago, the City of Cape Town adopted its Responsible Tourism Policy, to achieve sustainability in managing tourism in Cape Town which links with the City's overall strategic direction. However in the same contribution to the debate there is also the following warning -

“There is a real danger of complacency, convincing ourselves that we are doing fine and that everything that defines Cape Town as one of the most beautiful places on earth will be here forever. It is a precarious balance between people and the environment and we must become much more proactive and vigilant in terms of responsible tourism and leadership.”

This places us right into the realm of this blog: “a precarious balance between people and the environment” with a huge number of stakeholders in the complex system of Cape Town as a place to live in and a place to visit.

That some are trying to counteract this complacency is visibly confirmed with the active Cape Town participation during the global 2011 Responsible Tourism Week – take a look on the twitter hashtag #rtweek2011 how often the city is mentioned and have a look at a variety of case studies and stories - see the entries dated 14 to 17 February in responsiblecapetown.co.za/blog/

One final thought from my own contribution there: The international tourism market is full of uncertainties, so Cape Town, don't forget our domestic tourists and their needs. And Capetonians, do visit what our own city has to offer, at a slow pace.

Responsible Tourism in Cape Town and the world

Guest-blogger, Gerhard Buttner, on responsible tourism in his original home city and web 2.0:

After the rapid massive rise of international tourism in the 1990's, Cape Town is successfully positioning itself as a leader for “Responsible Tourism in Cities” in the 21st century. More on the website: http://www.responsiblecapetown.co.za/

As born Capetonian (though presently living away from my home city) I am very pleased to see Cape Town take this role seriously by focusing on economic, social and environmental aspects of responsible and sustainable tourism. Appropriately Cape Town was the host of the Responsible Tourism in Destinations Conference in 2002 which led to the Cape Town Declaration on sustainable and responsible tourism striving towards creating “better places for people to live in and for people to visit” and a lot has happened since then.

Cape Town will again be in the responsible tourism limelight 14 to 18 February at the 3^rd Responsible Tourism Week organized by planeta.com (the global journal of practical ecotourism ) with worldwide participation - including Capetonians - on web 2.0: #rtweek2011.

Capetonian responsible tourism pioneers, leading thinkers and innovators are also specifically invited to share their stories.

Follow the action at the above links and also watch this blog for follow-up posts.