First Choice all inclusives: Is it profit over people?

Jane Ashton TUI

All hell breaks loose as First Choice appears to go cold on sustainable tourism in search of market share

TUI UK has hit back at suggestions that its new policy for First Choice to sell only all-inclusive holidays is against its sustainable tourism ethos.

First Choice announced on Friday that from summer 2012 it would dedicate itself to all-inclusive packages in response to an ever more budget conscious British public to a wave of approbation from ethical tourism campaigners.

Said Tourism Concern: “We are dismayed by the news that First Choice is making all their holidays all inclusive from 2012 and this really highlights how, despite all the tourism industry talk of becoming more sustainable, it still has a very long way to go.”

“All inclusive resorts generally provide extremely limited benefits to local economies, beyond poorly paid jobs. Meanwhile, land prices and the cost of living for local people increases, and access to precious natural resources, such as water, can become compromised due to heavy consumption by resorts. Even the food is usually imported rather than sourced locally, while tourists are discouraged from leaving the resort apart from on specially organised excursions.”

“We’d encourage any tourists going on all inclusive holidays to venture beyond the hotel walls, sample some local cuisine, try the local markets and engage with the local people and culture. That way their holiday is likely to have a more positive impact on local communities and they will certainly find it’s more fun and interesting too.”

Jane Ashton TUI’s newly-appointed director of Sustainable Development  said this evening:

"TUI UK & Ireland & TUI Travel PLC remain as committed now, as ever, to making our holiday operations more sustainable.  TUI UK has demonstrated this through its leading, wide-ranging and challenging three year Holidays Forever commitments (www.holidaysforever.co.uk), which will measurably improve the impact of our holidays across both Thomson and First Choice brands.  TUI UK aims for 90 percent of their hotels to reach Travelife award status by 2014.  Backed by ABTA, Travelife supports destination economies by encouraging hotels to work with local suppliers and employ local people."

"Further to the recent re-positioning of the First Choice brand, we acknowledge the debate around the economic impact of all inclusive.  We will continue to work with experts to understand how we can increase benefits of all inclusive holidays to local communities and adjust practices to support this."

Said Tricia Barnet of whistleblower Tourism Concern : “I was told by the hotels association in a busy Turkish resort that UK operators had bullied hoteliers into reluctantly turning themselves into all-inclusives.  For this they were being paid the princely sum of €20 per night per person for the whole package.”

“It doesn’t take much thinking to realise what this does both to the local economy, the hospitality for which Turkey is famous  and the consequent end result for the holidaymaker.  The TUI group are supposed to be leading the pack in terms of responsible and sustainable tourism, so how do they justify this?”

Clearly TUI are now taking a rather more narrow definition of sustainability as their current standard whilst ‘working on” all inclusive tourism benefits for local communities.

As Simon Calder said: “From every point of view, except perhaps holiday company shareholders, all-inclusive resorts are the devil’s work.”

Given the importance of this issue and the power of TUI in the global marketplace, Vision on Sustainable Tourism and TotemTourism are to hold a masterclass in London on 10 May to discuss this specific subject and its relevance to sustainable tourism.

See details of the masterclass at: www.travelmole.com/stories/1147228.php

Executives of TUI and other major tour operators have been invited to attend.

details from [email protected]

Valere Tjolle

Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite

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