Fiona Jeffery OBE, former World Travel Market chairman and founder of the international water aid charity Just a Drop, has been appointed a member of the UNWTO’s new World Committee on Tourism Ethics.
Jeffery, who will serve on the group until 2017, is known for her pioneering work on advancing sustainability and ethics in international tourism spanning 20 years.
The appointment by the UNWTO General Assembly at its meeting at Victoria Falls in Africa is in recognition of her worldwide ethical campaigning stance.
Jeffery has spoken widely on issues such as trafficking, gender equality, child protection and accessible tourism for the disabled. In addition she has helped to signal issues surrounding responsible tourism such as conservation, preservation of wildlife and fair trade, ensuring that poor communities are able to enjoy the benefits derived from the introduction of tourism to a region.
Under her leadership, Jeffery established WTM’s World Responsible Tourism Day and in 1998 she founded Just a Drop to encourage the international industry to ‘give back’. Supported by the goodwill and active involvement of the industry, the charity has provided clean water close to the homes of more than one and a half million people in over 30 countries.
