Indian Ethos Principles

and Practices Followed by

Tourism Industry
Introduction:
Tourism is one of the world's fastest growing industries as well as the major source of foreign
exchange earnings and employment for many developing countries.

World tourism demand continues to exceed expectations, showing resilience against extraneous
factors. According to the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, released (November 2006):

In the first eight months of 2006 international tourist arrivals totaled 578 million worldwide
(+4.5%), up from 553 million in the same period of 2005, a year which saw an all-time record of
806 million people traveling internationally.
Growth is expected to continue in 2007 at a pace of around 4% worldwide.

Tourism is vital to the well being of many countries, because of the income generated by the
consumption of goods and services by tourists, the taxes levied on businesses in the tourism
industry and the opportunity for employment and economic advancement by working in the
industry.

Tourism principles :
Tourism principles are a group of instructions, which are designed to be taken as a guide to the
correct manner of conducting tourism operations and activities.
Positive and voluntary ways are the best to ensure long-term commitment and the development
of tourism, because the tourism industry is made up of a large number of small and medium-
sized enterprises. The success of the tourism industry depends on not compromising on the
natural, environmental or cultural aspects of the community.
Codes of Conduct on tourism behavior were issued for both inbound and outbound tourists and
tourism service providers in several languages and were distributed to all target groups of the
project. Since the emergence of the idea of issuing these codes in 1426 (2005), the project sought
the experience of World Tourism Organization (WTO) in order to take advantage of the Global
codes of conduct of tourism.
A committee was then formed of various agencies specializing in this area. The codes were
reviewed, examined and produced commensurate to the Islamic religion, including customs and
traditions, without compromising on the fundamentals of the goals of codes. After the adoption
of the Code (of Conduct) in 1427 H (2006), it was printed in Arabic language, indexed and
recorded in the King Fahad Library for inbound and outbound tourists.
In 1429 H (2008), the codes of conduct were re-introduced after some amendments, and they
were translated into English and French, in addition, a booklet was annexed to it on the rules of
conduct for tourism service providers. In 1430 (2009), after disbursing all the issued quantities of
1429 H (2008), some modifications were made in line with the requirements of the tourism
industry and the designs of Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH).

Principles and practices followed by Tourism:

According to Song (2000), a is ‘a set of rules of behavior formulated as either a gentleman’s
agreement, a social norm, or a rule of law sanctioned by enforcement authorities’. Thus, it acts as
a set of guidelines or rules that related participants have to be compliant with. However, this is a
general definition of code of conduct. But in tourism context, particularly in ecotourism, Weaver
(2001) classified codes of conduct as one of the subsets in the quality control, besides
accreditation and quality system, and the definition of codes of conduct is relatively vague,
because it is based on an assumption of self-regulation, lack of any concrete time lines or
commitments and absence of any penalties for non-adherence. Consequently, the code of
conduct is roughly defined as codes of practice acted as an ‘industry-general guide to behavior
and no requirement for participation by individual/organization’. Thus, it is more about moral
commitment and voluntary adherence. If the industry cannot manage this on its own, then the
government should intervene as a regulatory agent (Weaver, 2001).

Besides the promotion of responsible and sustainable tourism, in the first International Congress
on Ethics and Tourism recently in Madrid (2011), the Code of Conduct for the Protection of
Children Exploitation in Travel and Tourism was recognized and signed by business sectors. The
aim is to protect children, eliminating of child prostitution, child pornography and the trafficking
of children for sexual purposes. The Code is founded by ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child
Pornography, Child Sex Tourism and Trafficking in Children for sexual purpose), funded by
United Nations Children Funds (UNICEF) and supported by UNWTO (UNWTO, 2011).
In a tourism context, especially tourists who have different value systems in terms of their
backgrounds (social environment, cultural identity and way of live) such as people from Western
countries travelling to Asian countries, they may cause conflicts with local customs and the
natural environment in the process of encounters and interaction. Therefore, codes of conduct
have been produced for tourists to educate them about societies they visit, and how to behave
without causing offence (Cole, 2007). This means that the codes of conduct have been used as a
visitor management tool and its aims are to prevent or minimize potential negative impacts of
tourists on the destination they visit. To do this, a wide variety of codes of conduct have been
produced aiming at the different stakeholder groups such as tour operators, travel agents, specific
activity participants, host communities and tourists (Dubois, 2000, cited in Cole, 2007).

In addition, the codes of conduct, such as DO’s and DON’T’s, are able to act as a form of
persuasive communication giving guidance to raise awareness of tourist of their impacts on host
societies in terms of social, cultural, natural and environmental impacts.
The International ecotourism society (TIES) imposed code of the conduct on their ecotourism as
a principle guideline for those participate in the activities to follow the following ecotourism
principles:
▪ Minimize impact
▪ Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect
▪ Provide positive experience for both visitors and hosts
▪ Provide financial benefits and empowerment for local people
▪ Raise sensitivity to host countries’ political, environmental, and social climate
(TIES,2010).
Another good example of a voluntary code of conduct is in the case of ecotourism provided by
the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO, 2000a, cited in Weaver,
2001) which includes a list of procedure expected to be followed by organizers and tour
operators before, during and after their trip to Antarctica. The code of conduct includes elements
such as;

1) Comply with all requirements of the Antarctic Treaty system, and relevant national laws,
and ensure that visitors are aware of requirements that are relevant to them.
2) Reconfirm arrangements to visit stations 24-72 hours before their arrival and ensure that
visitors are aware of any conditions or restrictions established by the station.
3) Ensure that visitors are supervised by a sufficient number of guides who have adequate
experience and training in Antarctic conditions and knowledge of the Antarctic Treaty
system requirements.
4) Monitor environmental impacts of their activities, if appropriate, and advise the
competent national authorities of the appropriate Party or Parties of any adverse or
cumulative impacts resulting from an activity, which were not foreseen by their
environmental impact assessment.
5) Operate ships, yachts, small boats, aircraft, hovercraft, and all other means of transport
safely and according to appropriate procedures, including those set out in the Antarctic
Flight Information Manual (AFIM).
6) Dispose of waste materials in accordance with Annex III and IV of the Protocol. These
annexes prohibit, among other things, the discharge of plastics, oil and noxious
substances into the Antarctic Treaty Area; regulate the discharge of sewage and food
waste; and require the removal of most wastes from the area.
7) Cooperate fully with observers designated by Consultative Parties to conduct inspections
of stations, ships, aircraft and equipment under Article VII of the Antarctic Treaty, and
those to be designated under Article 14 of the Environmental Protocol.
8) Cooperate in monitoring programs undertaken in accordance with Article 3(2)(d) of the
Protocol.
9) Maintain a careful and complete record of the activities conducted.
The code has been claimed to be successful in changing the behavior of operators and tourists
(abstracted from Weaver, 2001, p 157). This is because the code of conduct provides very useful
information needed to know by tourists and tourism-related sectors prior to conducting tourism
activities in the areas, hence raising awareness among the participants is enhanced as well as
negative impacts are minimized.

Conclusion:
All in all, the principles and practices can be a useful tool on modifying tourists’ behavior in a
more responsible way on their visiting to a tourist destination as it can provide necessary
information for tourists on how to behavior in accordance with local rules in order to prevent
other negative impacts on both environment and host society. But yet regarding to its
effectiveness, it is very difficult to measure, because it depends on individual voluntary and the
legal framework of the code of conduct itself which is issued and enforced by an organization or
a government. The major aim of code of conduct is relatively indifferent from the principles of
sustainable tourism; it is to minimize negative impacts of tourists on environment and host
community of a tourist destination while maximize the positive ones. Thus, it is related to each
other or it can say that the code of conduct is a subset of the tools created for the purpose of
implementing sustainable tourism development.