Responsible Tourism Kicks off in Oslo Norway

Junior Chamber International (JCI) Oslo invited several speakers and interested audiences to the first ever Responsible Tourism Conference in Norway.

The aim was to inspire and engage the audience to adapt responsible tourism policies and guidelines and to put the topic on their agenda. More than 100 participants had signed up to learn more. Writes Linda Verasdaal

The day was officially opened by the State Secretary of the Departement of Foreign Affairs, Ingrid Fiskaa who gave an insight to fair trade industry and talking warmly about responsible tourism. Lars-Kåre Legernes from Oslo Chamber, who were hosting the conference, also had a few opening words.

Georg Kamfjord from the Norwegian School of Business Management (BI) was the first speaker and started by telling about his first meeting with responsible tourism which happened in The Gambia through a trip organised by www.ethicaltravelportal.com. From there he gave an academic overview of responsible tourism. Erlend Lappegard from Inspiratour (www.inspiratour.com) was talking about the tourist – and where do the tourist fit in?

“It was fantastic to meet so many inspired people gathered to learn more about responsible tourism. It certainly gives us encouragement to do what we are doing even better” says Raj Gyawali from Socialtours (www.socialtours.com) who was invited from Nepal to speak at the conference about his company’s experiences on how “Responsibility makes (business) sense”.

From The Gambia, Daouda Niang was invited. The General Manager of Association of Small Scale Enterprises in Tourism (ASSET) in The Gambia (www.asset-gambia.com) gave an insight to the work ASSET is doing and how to improve local economic benefits of tourism through responsible tourism practises in The Gambia.

The conference also heard from the mass tourism operator, Star Tour, represented by Lena Petersson, Communication Director and CSR. She stressed that the travellers need to be educated and that the travel industry should take their responsibility for the future travellers. Arild Molstad, Journalist and Advisor talked about tourism as a tool for poverty reduction and protecting the environment.

The Panel debate was supplied by Ole Bernt Frøshaug and Dickson Ole Kaelho from Basecamp Explorer (www.basecampexplorer.com) and Vigdis Jordal a social entrepreneur from Hjertebanken (www.hjertebanken.no).  Camilla Karstensen from The Body Shop had the last talk at the conference highlighting their campaign against human trafficking in partnership with EPCAT.

The conference created awareness and inspired travel companies, NGOs, academia, media and industry in general.  It was good networking opportunities and many new partnerships were created and a continuing process after this event was agreed on.

Linda Veråsdal
Photo©Fredrik Pettersen

Edited by Valere Tjolle

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Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suitewww.travelmole.com/stories/1143624.php