Several South-based groups and networks involved in tourism issues expressed their concern about the theme of the World Tourism Organization's World Tourism Day – 27 September 2007: "TOURISM OPENS DOORS FOR WOMEN".

Read below:

(1) Tourism Action Group's (TAG) Statement "TAG CHALLENGES UNWTO: "CLOSE THE DOORS TO SEX TOURISM !"

(2) Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism's (ECOT)- statement "TOURISM OPENS DOORS FOR WOMEN – DOES IT?"

(1) OPEN LETTER From TAG TAG CHALLENGES UNWTO: "CLOSE THE DOORS TO SEX TOURISM !"

Tourism Action Group (TAG) Statement on occasion of World Tourism Day, 27 September 2007, Theme: "Tourism Opens Doors for Women"

On this year's World Tourism Day, the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is holding a major event in Sri Lanka in order to celebrate women's achievements in the tourism sector and stimulate action in support of UN's 3rd Millennium Development Goal: Promoting Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.UNWTO Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli claimed, "Tourism is a sector of the economy that not only employs significant numbers of women, but provides enormous opportunities for their advancement". The Tourism Action Group (TAG) asks WTO: "What about the ill effects of tourism on women?" The fact is the tourism industry has not been friendly to women. On the contrary, tourism – and particularly tourism to Third World countries –has an infamous reputation as it tends to commodify and exploit human beings, and women in the first place. The experience of travel allows tourists to divest themselves of any sense of guilt and responsibility. For many affluent tourists visiting Third World countries, local women are there simply to serve and to be exploited. Women in tourism are found to have the most dehumanizing and the worst paid jobs, with little or no opportunity to improve their status through better education and training. Sex tourism is just an extension of the service aspect of mass tourism, in itself a revival of the old colonial attitudes towards the world.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the sex industry in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, may account for up to 14 percent of the gross domestic product. In SE Asian countries, women being used as sexual objects in tourism promotion and sex tourism involving foreigners has been highly visible over the last three decades, without any decisive action taken by governments and the tourism sector to protect women and girls from harm and abuse. The main reasons for the unprecedented growth in mass sexual tourism include rising income disparities between the poor and rich; worsening poverty of women in particular; the liberalisation of sexual markets, which encourages trafficking for prostitution; the persistence of patriarchal, sexist societies; and the degradation of the image of women through widespread, normalised sexual violence. There is also the explosive growth of international tourism and migration stimulated by the democratization of travel, which allows huge numbers of tourists flying cheaply everywhere.

With the booming sex trade, trafficking in women and girls for sex work in major tourist destinations has been spreading all over the Asian region. Often, the traffickers use coercion, force, deceit, fraud, debt bondage or abuse of authority to place the victims in slavery-like conditions, forced labour or servitude and deprive them of their fundamental human rights. Prostituted women and girl-children are particularly exposed to health risks as most commercial sex in the region still takes place without any protection against diseases. The World Health Organization has warned that with Asia's rapidly growing sex industry, efforts to control AIDS get more difficult. The cry then of the Tourism Action Group is "Close the doors to Sex Tourism!"

On behalf of the Tourism Action Group:
Sister Mary Soledad L. Perpiñan, RGS Chairperson and CEO, Third World Movement Against the Exploitation of Women
TAG signatories:
Giovanni Reyes, LAKHUN Agapito Tabao, Center for Solidarity Tourism
Norma Tinambacan,
Niñas Kwentistas
Anita Pleumarom, Tourism Investigation and Monitoring Team, Bangkok
Lito Reyes, SURILAP
Christina Piczon,
Niñas Kwentistas
Ma. Melia Y. Doria, Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication

For further information, please contact TAG at tag.phil@yahoo.com and/ or the Third World Movement Against the Exploitation of Women (TW-MAE- W) at info@tw-mae-w.org _____________________________________________________________

(2) MEDIA RELEASE From ECOT ECOT - ECUMENICAL COALITION ON TOURISM
9/1 Ratanakosin Road, T Watget Amphur Muang, Chiang Mai 50000, Thailand Tel/Fax: + 66 53 240 026
contours@ectonline.org www.ecotonline.org

FOR COMMENT/FURTHER INFORMATION: CAESAR D'MELLO

TOURISM OPENS DOORS FOR WOMEN – DOES IT?

The UN provides an useful service to the world community when it frequently declares special Days to focus on issues that are of concern to communities and nations. The UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) marks 27 September as a World Tourism Day, with Sri Lanka as a host country. The Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT) believes that the theme – Tourism Opens Doors For Women – hardly reflects the reality of women in tourism.

While ECOT acknowledges instances when women do benefit from tourism, this unfortunately does not apply to the majority of women involved in the world of tourism. Even the facts listed in the UNWTO Message by Secretary-General Francisco Frangialli point to the sheer disadvantage women face on a global scale. There is a plethora of statistics and reports around the world that bear this out. ECOT strongly believes that a Tourism that is associated with prostitution, and the human trafficking that accompanies it increasingly, in no way `opens doors for women'.

A Tourism that is propped up by images of women and the lure of sexual pleasures is not one that liberates women. Yes, handicrafts and other items produced by women do attract the tourist dollar. But is the price paid for these products just? Are the wages of women in these enterprises fair? Is the trivialization of culture that occurs in various tourist destinations when women are dressed in indigenous dress as if in a costume to attract the tourist camera the way to open doors for women? Do women have a voice in the decision making that determines the nature of tourism in their environment? Would it be more appropriate to conclude that `tourism closes doors for women'? How else could one view a reality wherein women are treated on the basis of sexual and gender stereotypes, with most women not sharing power and resources equitably? Such a situation is not helped when there is serious conflict as is the case with the host country for this year's World Tourism Day. Sri Lanka has seen a violent conflict rage for years while the control of its tourism is not widely shared. It is well demonstrated that poverty is a major reason that drives women to tourism. If the quality of life of women improved, conventional tourism will be less attractive to them.

The UN has given the world a set of goals known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with the hope that world poverty will be halved by 2015. Any real progress towards such an outcome would truly open doors and opportunities for women. The UNWTO is `committed to Tourism, Travel and the MDGs'. ECOT calls on the UNWTO to reflect the perspective of women who are disadvantaged and discriminated by tourism.

Caesar D'Mello ECOT