Is fair trade tourism the answer

The tale of the merchant and the harlot and the all-inclusives

This week all the talk has been fair. Fair trade tourism, fair trade voluntourism, fair prices, fair deals, fair tourism . Fair makes your heart warm as you wonder where the money is coming from, doesn’t it?

Harriet Lamb of the astonishingly successful Fair Trade Foundation was the keynote speaker at the Virgin Responsible Tourism Awards and presented the case extremely well as usual. Tricia Barnet of Tourism Concern asked if tourism would rise to the human rights challenge, Fair trade volunteering was launched, and a fair trade package was revealed by Kuoni.

But, of course, tourism is a different industry, and even in other sectors, fair trade is not always as fair as it might seem.

For instance in coffee-growing countries (often big time tourism destinations and where fair trade began its rise to prominence) the fair trade benefits are not always what they may seem.

Here is a rule of thumb: in a small farm a family may produce a ton of coffee or more a year, they may get paid say $700 for this ton of coffee by the local coffee buyer who will then transport the coffee to a major market in New York or wherever where it will be sold for say  $2200. By the time the ton of coffee is roasted, packaged and delivered to a store its selling price increases to about $20,000. Add some hot water and sell it in a cup, you’re getting $100,000 plus.

OK there are a great many other costs involved, but what the customer wants is coffee and the quality and authenticity of the coffee is key to the transaction.

So what does fair trade add to this clearly inequitable situation? Clearly fair trade agreements assist the producers, providing not only a higher price but also a guaranteed price. And the producer gets other assistance in many instances, education, medicines etc

Clearly the fair trade premium helps make life much less painful and dangerous for those who deliver the goods for comparatively rich consumers to buy.

But play around with these figures as you will, and you will see that the producer is getting not much more than a gesture. Ultimately the customer is paying the coffee shop more than 100 times what the coffee cost – that’s 10,000% premium.

Admittedly fair trade makes things better and changes many lives, but let’s not believe that it’s anything more than a first step.

The problem is that there are thousands of potential suppliers and the people with the cheque books have the real power because of their access to the rich marketplaces, so it’s deal with them on their terms or starve.

And it’s the same in tourism: the powerful organizations with the money (big tour operators, global distribution systems, big cruise companies, hotel management groups) have access to the marketplace and the cheque books. The rest of the tourism industry (destinations) has access to the product.

The product may be stunningly wonderful but without access to the marketplace no-one will know about it and the gatekeepers keep the keys tightly in their hands.

It’s the same in any industry when the product is produced in a poor place and sold in a rich one.

Which brings me on to the harlot – which you have to be if you want to sell your wares to someone much more powerful than you. And the merchant – which you have to be if you want to get yourself into a powerful position – whether you’re buying OR selling.

So, when we talk about the contentious faces of tourism such as all-inclusives, cruises etc and consider the opportunity for all these to be fair traded…

We need to consider if it is possible for a tourism trade between someone who is inherently weak and someone who is inherently strong can ever be inherently fair?

The answer may lie in destinations who know precisely what they want and precisely how they want to get it. They may look like harlotsnow, but they are just biding their time and soon we’ll see that they are merchants at heart!

Valere Tjolle
Valere is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2011 Get your copy at a special offer price: HERE