FOXTROTS
Fox – sly. Trots – left-leaning (Trotsky) plus its more insalubrious meaning.
Foxtrots – leading the industry in a dance.
2009 March 19
World Tourism Organization. Seven Steps to Heaven.
Eddie Cochrane sang of ‘Three Steps To Heaven’. The World Tourism Organisation has made it Seven*. Its ‘Roadmap for Recovery’ seems that is the way to go.
Unfortunately I am one of the non-believers. Following are the WTO’s Seven along with my critical comments.
Step 1. ‘Be Realistic – shore up collective defences to weather the storm and emerge stronger.’ (Earlier versions hoped for no more than to emerge ‘intact’.) This might be nice poetry (although I might challenge that), but rather than being realistic itself, this is simply meaningless. For instance, what are ‘collective defences’?
Step 2. ‘Embrace change in markets, demand and operating dynamics.’ (Earlier, it was ‘operations’ not ‘operating dynamics’, although I cannot think what could be ODs.) But isn’t this sort-of self-evident, and something that many do already, and have always done. Yet also why is ‘change’ in this sense in every case assumed to be good?
Step 3. ‘Harness the power of technology, modern communications and the internet.’ Well yes. And as a phone is also a piece of modern communications, the WTO is suggesting we use that rather than shout?
Step 4. ‘Boost public/private partnership to promote growth & slash waste.’ (Earlier, PPP was to help ‘navigate through the turbulence and beyond’.) Again, this is sort-of meaningless. Why is it that PPP should be used to promote growth and slash waste rather than public or private? Why are PPPs better to promote growth, or is this self-serving comment because most WTO members are in the public sector?
Step 5. ‘Remind the world that “Travel means Jobs, Infrastructure, Trade and Development”.’ This may not be a clincher. After all, making shoes and bottling Coca Cola bring jobs etc. Again, a meaningless platitude.
Step 6. ‘Help the poorest grow tourism, fight climate change and advance development.’ (Earlier, all ‘poor’ not just the poorest.) I think this is three things (not, for instance, to help the poorest fight climate change). But overall, few can argue against this – apart from the fact that ‘advance development’ is kind-of redundant.
Step 7. ‘Put Tourism and Travel at the core of Stimulus Packages and the Green New Deal.’ In earlier steps, the WTO noted ‘travel’ or ‘tourism’ and here T&T. I don’t know the difference (although to me ‘travel’ includes everything including aviation, internet, hotels, etc, and ‘tourism’ is the leisure sector). WTO speaks sometimes as though T&T are the same, sometimes as different, but does not clarify. This Step seems to be little more than asking governments for money. I don’t know what the GND is (it may be a WTO slogan), but what, honestly, is meant by proposing that travel be the essential part (core) of environmental efforts?
The WTO says to help follow this roadmap, it will provide ‘Leadership and Service’. Earlier, it was ‘Leadership and Support’, which makes more sense. The L&S will be:
-‘For industry collaboration and public/private exchange
-For trusted Market Intelligence
-For policy formulation via its Tourism Resilience Committee
-For promoting tourism in the UN family and the international community.’ Earlier it was for WTO to be the ‘central voice’.
I note all this because I look to the WTO for leadership and not, as noted above, meaningless platitudes. Break down this apparently-comprehensive action plan, and there is essentially nothing.
*In some communiqués there are only six and in others they are slightly different from these seven and/or some are merged.
The Fox