Session 70 summary
In India, according to Jean’s observation, people don’t usually talk about indigenous tourism but more about city and rural tourism. There are many different tools that can be used by the indigenous people to activate their rights through tourism.
Jean is linked with different organizations, specifically WINTA (World Indigenous Tourism Alliance), ITAC (Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada) which seems like the most developed indigenous tourism organization. They have an incredible governance linked with provincial and territorial organizations. He also works for the French consultancy Oréade – Brèche developing in France, the Travolution Foundation (office in Colombia), and CED is the centre for excellence for destination which is linked to UNWTL. WINTA- the organization was founded in 2012. WINTA is founded by many shareholders and it is an indigenous organization, there are only two people who are not indigenous- Jean and the agent in Europe. The most important points of WINTA is that the organization sees tourism as a tool to activate indigenous rights. It is linked with New Zealand Maori Tourism, Indigenous Tourism BC (Canada), Native Tourism Alliance, WAITOC, Vagvisaren (Finland) and HELP (Nepal).
What is indigenous tourism? It is “Tourism activity in which the indigenous population are directly involved, either by control and/or by the fact that their culture constitutes the very essence of the attraction.”- Butler and Hinch (1996:9) wrote in their famous book Indigenous Tourism. In this definition there are two specific points- ‘indigenous tourism must be made by indigenous people’ and ‘the experience must put in value their culture’. There are different types of indigenous tourism in the world depending on the range of control indigenous people have over the tourism activity. The first one is Non Indigenous Tourism- it is not controlled by the indigenous group and is not based on indigenous theme, the second one is Dispossessed Culture- which is also under non-indigenous control but it is based on indigenous people, then there is Diversified Indigenous- which is under indigenous control but not based on an indigenous theme (casinos in US) and finally there is Culture-driven Experiences- which is under indigenous control and based on an indigenous theme. There has been an evolution in the legal framework of Indigenous tourism, Jean shares Rights with Indigenous people which consists some key documents which can be used and there are technical tourism documents that have been created lately. It consists documents like; Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Convention no.169 on Indigenous and tribal people (ILO-1989), United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous people (UNDRIP 2007) and American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (OAS- 2016). India can use the first three rights if necessary. There are other technical tourism documents such as; World Code of Ethics for Tourism (UNWTO – 1999), Larrakia Declaration (2012)-, UNWTO Recommendations on Sustainable Development of Indigenous Tourism (2019), Inclusive Recovery Guide- Sociocultural Impacts of Covid-19, issue 4: Indigenous Communities (2021) and Protect and Promote Your Culture A Practical Guide to Intellectual Property for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (Published by WIPO)- this is very important because in many parts of the world Intellectual Property is not respected. Since 1948 there is an evolution of the legal framework of international technical (tourism) documents, since 2012 there is an increase until 2019 in more documents being published. So, now there is a legal framework that indigenous people can use to develop tourism, to connect with their rights and secondly there are technical documents that means there are methodologies so it doesn’t need to be created again -there are methodologies, they are very useful. The Larrakia Declaration (2012) it was made in the same year when WINTA was created and it was endorsed by UNWTO and it establishes 6 principles that Jean connected with UNDRIP. For that reason WINTA says that in centres it works in using tourism as a tool to activate the rights of indigenous people. So, tourism must be a tool for indigenous populations to activate their rights. Tourism doesn’t have to be developed based in an indigenous people- they don’t have to be used by the tourism industry instead the indigenous people have to use the stakeholders for their benefits. The six principles of The Larrakia Declaration are; Respect, Protection, Empowerment, Consult, Business and Community. The Recommendations on Sustainable Development of Indigenous Tourism, this document was developed by UNWTO and WINTA and it establishes four recommendations for different stakeholders; the first one for tour operators and travel agencies, the second one for tour guides, the third one for indigenous communities and finally for tourists (before the trip, during the trip and after the trip). So, there are recommendations and there are documents that indigenous communities can use, probably they can take those documents and adapt to reality/their reality- the reality of the country or the reality of the indigenous that is specific indigenous culture or a community that is part of a culture. The UNWTO Inclusive Recovery Guide Sociocultural Impacts of Covid 19 issue 4: Indigenous Communities (2021), this document was also developed by UNWTO with WINTA and actually they are developing another publication that is probably going to be published at the end of 2022, it is about the good practices in indigenous tourism in the American continent. The UNWTO Inclusive Recovery Guide talks about different key points; Indigenous communities at the centre of recovery plans, Engage indigenous leaders now for better tourism tomorrow, Establish participatory data collection systems to support informed decision making, Creating an enabling policy environment for indigenous-led tourism, strengthening skills to harness the resilience of indigenous peoples, recognizing the relevance of indigenous peoples in destinations and Creating visibility of indigenous-led tourism networks.
The Indigenous tourism movement globally- Indigenous Tourism is a movement, it cannot be outside of this movement. Most of the population is actually indigenous and is very rich culturally. So, it has a lot of things to share to the world and communities and indigenous people must be in the centre of this development. Some of the organizations which believe as such are WAITOC, Larecoturh, Raturc (Argentina), AIANTA (United States), Feptce (Ecuador), Tusoco (Bolivia), RITA (Mexico), ITACH (Canada) but there are many more. ITACH has many videos on Indigenous Tourism, they are leaders in a couple of methodologies, they are experts in marketing indigenous tourism and they have won international prizes in the tourism industry. They also created a methodology to create indigenous tourism experiences, it is not yet market ready. They take many indicators that allows one to make sure what are the gaps that the indigenous businesses have to enter to the market they also include authenticities, so that their indicators can measure their authenticity in indigenous tourism experiences. There is a need to advance in the governance of indigenous tourism, when talking about governance of the indigenous tourism, it is not just the private sector (indigenous communities/organizations). They have to empower, organize and create this organization and this organization must be created in different levels. But there is also the need to work with the public sector, with state agencies related to tourism and indigenous development. Most of the time these public organizations/agencies or government agencies don’t work together, so they go to the territories and they develop their actions, they give training and sometimes the same training, so people are bored and tired and the money is not well used. So they need to work together, they need to create a working table of indigenous tourism at national level, regional, provincial level. When this indigenous tourism working table is created it has to be public and private so indigenous people well organized can be part of this table and they can have this conversations together about how to develop indigenous tourism in their territory. There must be a national body, then regional provincial or by an indigenous people body and some local organizations too. All of them must be connected and work together. This is a challenge, it is not easy- it must be to say but to apply it is very difficult.
About the Speaker
Jean-Philippe Le Moigne
Jean-Philippe is a consultant specialized in Sustainable Tourism, Ecotourism, Community-Based & Indigenous Tourism, and Tourism in Protected Areas. During the last 15 years, he has been involved in projects including indigenous tourism development, ecotourism planning, monitoring the impacts of tourism, territorial tourism evaluation, and protected area planning. Holding a Forestry Engineer Diploma and a Master Degree in Development & Management of Tourism in Territories, today Jean-Philippe is part of different organizations leading projects not only in Latin America by supporting the development of Community Based and Indigenous tourism, but also in China through the development of Ecotourism Plans in Protected Areas. Moreover, he is the National Coordinator in Chile for Travolution Foundation, Ecotourism specialist for Oréade – Brèche Consultancy (France) and Secretary of the NGO Native Immersion.
