MoT, RTSOI and UNEP launch ‘Responsible Traveller Campaign’

On World Tourism Day, the Ministry of Tourism (MoT), UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Responsible Tourism Society of India (RTSOI) joined hands to sign a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate and promote the cause of sustainable and responsible travel in India as well as the launch of ‘The Responsible Traveller Campaign’.

While the historic MOU is the beginning of a new era of sustainable and responsible practices in the Indian Tourism Industry, speaking on the occasion, Rakesh Mathur, Founder Member and President of RTSOI elucidated the journey of RTSOI which started in 2008 as Ecotourism Society of India (ESOI) with the Tourism Ministry’s blessings.

Delivering a strong and passionate address, Mathur shared how RTSOI stands for the cause of sustainability and listed its achievements, which include establishing the Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI), in association with MOT, publishing environment handbooks, conducting workshops and many more. In an impassioned address, he gave a clarion call to the industry to join hands with RTSOI to make tourism a more inclusive and sustainable sector. Seeking support from all the stakeholders in the industry, Mathur said, “I seek unqualified support of the industry in achieving our mission. See this as CSR.”

Speaking on the occasion, Atul Bagai, Head, UNEP said, “UNEP will not only support the Responsible Traveller Campaign but will also support the cause of transforming tourism in India.” Bagai also elucidated on the UNEP’s program on reduction of usage of single-use plastics in all sectors, including tourism and also informed that UNEP has declared this decade as the decade of Ecosystem Restoration and that goes hand in hand with Sustainable Tourism.

The Secretary Tourism, Government of India, Arvind Singh formally launched the ‘Responsible Traveller Campaign’ after the historic signing of MOU between MOT, UNEP, and RTSOI. Adding his thoughts about the Responsible Traveller Campaign, he said, “It will be activated throughout the country with some part of it already active on social media. It is important that development through tourism is sustainable, responsible and inclusive. He hoped that this crisis shall be an opportunity to rethink the Tourism sector and its contribution to the sustainability of people and planet.”

In that sense, the ‘Responsible Traveller Campaign; is quite significant. While the tourism industry across the world has started understanding the significance of sustainable and responsible tourism and adopting the concepts into their business, the adoption is sporadic and not very systematic or universal.

The Secretary Tourism earlier had said that sustainable goals set by many industries can reflect positively on the tourism sector. But the sector has to find solutions to its own footprints in food and plastic waste on its own. These measures require coherence and cooperation among different segments of the travel and tourism ecosystem, he said. Singh had also spoken on the National Strategy and Road Map on Sustainable and Responsible Tourism and the various proposals contained in it to improve sustainability and responsible tourism. Overall, stakeholders need to acknowledge the gaps in the tourism ecosystem which make India lag behind the world in tourism.