Fair Trade Tourism
Certification, Business and Market Development Support
Fair Trade Tourism (FTT) operates the world’s first and still only Fair Trade Tourism certification program. The program was developed 10 years ago and became the first tourism certification program in Africa to be recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council in December 2011.Tourism businesses that adhere to the FTT standard use the FTT label as a way of signifying their commitment to fair and responsible tourism. The process of moving internal and external business procedures toward certification serves as management tool to improve businesses practices and makes them both more successful and more responsible. For its clients FTT offers free on demand Business Development Services (BDS) through its BDS Manager, along with free workshops and training, free online resources and toolkits. Once on our system, our Sales and Marketing Team actively links our clients to markets and advises them on how to use the brand association with FTT as a competitive benefit that signifies a commitment to fair and responsible tourism. FTT provides platforms to promote FTT-certified businesses. Tour operators commit to provide preferential exposure to FTT-certified businesses, or to promote Fair Trade holidays.
For a tourism product to be FTT-certified:
• It must show clear potential to basic internal capacity to be assessed against the tourism product compliance criteria, which are derived from the Tourism Product Certification Standard
The compliance criteria for tourism products fall under the following categories and Business Development is provided by FTT for each individual business, to enable it to meet 200 sustainability criteria under the following 4 main pillars:
• Business practice, HR
• Community resources
• Cultural heritage
• Environmental practice
Surveys amongst travellers have shown that the environmental, social and cultural impacts of tourism businesses are a particular concern to visitors; thus Fair Trade Tourism has strengthened the criteria in the certification relating to interlinkages between environmental and social aspects in particular. Lessons learned by tourism businesses have revealed that Fair Trade Tourism certification not only assures to travelers that their holiday benefits local communities and economies, and that the business is operated ethically and in a socially and environmentally responsible manner, but they will also be able to offer a more fulfilling holiday experience.