City Pioneers Cape Town Responsible Tourism Charter

Working together towards making Cape Town a leading responsible tourism destination

The City of Cape Town is dedicated to making Cape Town the best possible destination for tourists and is taking every measure to make sure we live up to our nomination as the second best travel destination in the world.

A large part of this goal relies on the responsible management of our natural resources and as a result, the City of Cape Town is putting policy in place to ensure that the legacy of Cape Town remains for generations to come.

On Monday 29 September 2009 the Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Alderman Dan Plato, along with major tourism associations, signed the Cape Town Responsible Tourism Charter committing the City of Cape Town and the industry to responsible tourism practices.

Associations that signed the Charter with the City are the Federation of Hotel Associations of South Africa (FEDHASA), the Southern African Tourism Services Association (SATSA), which represents the private sector of the region's incoming tourism industry, the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI) which represents the interests of conference organisers and venue owners and Cape Town Tourism.

The Charter is based on the Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism which was signed when Cape Town hosted the first International Conference on Responsible Tourism in 2002.

The responsible tourism initiative aims to maximise the economic, social and environmental benefits of tourism while minimising costs to destinations. Simply put, Responsible Tourism is tourism 'that creates better places for people to live in, and better places to visit.'

The Charter places responsibility on those in the industry to achieve the sustainability objectives put forth. The Charter also establishes the basis for sustainable tourism that will contribute to poverty alleviation and economic empowerment; protect the value of the local lifestyles and heritage and minimise the impact on the environment by reducing resource consumption.

Mayor Plato said, "Responsible Tourism makes sound business sense. A significant and growing number of tourists are looking for a "different" travel experience and a higher quality product. They want to get closer to the people in the country they visit and experience its real natural and cultural heritage, but they wish to do so in good conscience and in the knowledge that they are doing so in a responsible way and without having any adverse effect on the countries that they visit and the destinations they frequent.

Cape Town has recently won major international tourism awards, including Africa's Leading Destination Award two years in a row, and this can to some extent be attributed to the efforts already made in making Cape Town a leading responsible tourism destination."

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