Documentation | EQUATIONS (Equitable Tourism Options)

Understanding Voluntourism and The Role That You Can Play

Voluntourism - A brochure on what it is about, why it is harmful to vulnerable children and what can be done to protect them.

Women

World Tourism Day 2022

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is holding a World Tourism Day Celebration in Bali on 27th September, 2022 with the title, ’Rethinking Tourism’. According to the UNWTO website ‘it aims to inspire the debate around rethinking tourism for development, including through education and jobs, and tourism’s impact on the planet and opportunities to grow more sustainably’, including a discussion on ‘The tourism we want’. ‘Rethinking tourism’ requires a concerted effort to put structural transformation of gender equality in tourism at the top of the agenda.

Women

Tourism and Associates Cop 26 Declaration on Gender Equality

EQUALITY IN TOURISM AND ASSOCIATES COP 26 DECLARATION

During a time when the world’s eyes are on the Climate Crisis, - Equality In Tourism,International -, want to ensure that Gender Equality isn’t left out of the conversation. Together with their associates they have written a declaration focused on sustainable tourism and women’s place within it.
Read our full declaration below. A pdf version is available for download.

Governance

Equitable Tourism Options - EQUATIONS Statement on World Tourism Day, 27th September 2021

“This is an opportunity to look beyond tourism statistics and acknowledge that, behind every number, there is a person. UNWTO invites its Member States, as well as non-members, sister UN agencies, businesses and individuals to celebrate tourism’s unique ability to ensure that nobody is left behind as the world begins to open up again and look to the future.”

Coasts, Islands, and Rivers

Ecotourism in Chilika

Chilika is a RAMSAR wetland with a complex socio-ecological and political landscape. In the early
2000s, tourism was introduced into Chilika. However, a focus on infrastructure without adequate
planning, and local complexities have led to an ecotourism model that made existing issues worse.
This photo story explores the tourism story of Chilika.

Coasts, Islands, and Rivers

Coastal Blues

EQUATIONS’ work on coastal tourism has spanned a few decades, starting in the early 1990s.In the last 5 years, understanding the importance of the changing narratives of coastal commons, we have continued and re-oriented our work to reflect this change. Our research takes the lens of environmental justice, and centers small-scale fishworkers,who we believe are the primary stakeholders with regard to the oceans.

Ecosystems

Remembering Com T Peter

T Peter, General Secretary of the National Fishworkers Forum (NFF), passed away on 8 October 2020 from COVID-19 related complications in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He was 62 years old. Peter worked for more than three decades plyaing a critical role in advancing their struggles from the margins into the political mainstream. He was as a full time activist and union organizer, who empowered India’s fishing communities.

Social Groups

Transforming Tourism Initiative's open letter to the UNWTO

We (Transforming Tourism Initiative) have sent an open letter to UNWTO and published it on TTI homepage http://www.transforming-tourism.org/fileadmin/baukaesten/sdg/downloads/Working_Programme/Open_Letter/Transforming_Tourism_Letter_to_UNWTO.pdf

The documentary of the last webinar: http://www.transforming-tourism.org/activities/seminars-covid-19/precariousness-of-work.html

Tourism Alternatives

EQUATIONS Statement on the World Tourism Day, 27th September 2020

Children

Call for Action

25 September 2020 – The Down to Zero Alliance comprising Terre des Hommes Netherlands,Defence for Children-ECPAT, ECPAT International, Free a Girl, ICCO and Plan International Netherlands calls upon the intergovernmental bodies, governments and the private sector to consider child protection as a key element for sustainable and responsible development now, and as the Travel & Tourism industry recovers. This call is based on insights from a series of webinars organized as part of the efforts to end the sexual exploitation of children. This Call for restarting Travel & Tourism with Child Protection in focus was motivated by the COVID-19 crisis and is based on the contributions from the panelists and the participants that represented the intergovernmental bodies, governments, the private sector, CSOs and academia during these events

Ecosystems

Response to MoEF on draft EIA

The proposed draft EIA Notification falls short in many ways, particularly with respect to tourism. It fails to take into account that tourism requires a robust environmental scrutiny. The COVID-19 crisis has brought out to the world the increased need for robust environmental protections. Given the learnings from this crisis, it is important to take this time to rethink and restructure the EIA framework in India, which can be the lifeline of environmental governance, bringing in the balance between environmental sustainability and development.

Economics

Whose Heritage is it anyway?

The World Heritage Site (WHS) of Hampi is a lived landscape.The site is a dynamic, riverine, agricultural, socio-cultural ecological production landscape. The key threat to the site’s Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) is the current extremely limited definition and understanding of the site. As a consequence of this, the State Party’s approach to management is bereft of community participation.

Panchayats

Whose heritage is it anyway?

Jan Mosedale referring to the work of other scholars writes, “After the first phase of roll-back neoliberalism (de-regulation), institutional arrangements were restructured and new forms of state organization, modes of governance and regulation were rolled out and ‘normalized’ (Peck and Tickell 2002). These roll-out strategies served to produce a new network of institutional and regulatory relations, which were conducive to stabilising the neoliberal trajectory and seemingly soften its effects. This institutional restructuring, the re-negotiation and transfer of responsibilities, led to new forms of governance in a different relational network of state, parastatal and non-state regulatory organizations across
space”.

Social Groups

Statement on Threats to Rights of Adivasi Indigenous Peoples and Forest Dwellers in India

Social Groups

EQUATIONS Response to the Role Played by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in the Matter Before the Supreme Court (WP 109/2008)

This is in response to the role played by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) in the matter before the Supreme Court (WP 109/2008), challenging the constitutional validity of the Schedule Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA). Vide an interim order, the Supreme Court of India, on 13.02.2019 passed an order for the eviction of thousands of adivasi communities on the basis of rejected claims under the the FRA.

Women

EQUATIONS Letter To National Commission For Women

We are raising concerns on sexual harassment of women at the workplace in the tourism sector as well as the industry by advocating against the commodification /objectification of women in tourism and making the tourism processes and the industry accountable to such concerns.

Economics

EQUATIONS Submission of Response to the Proposed Hampi Master Plan

EQUATIONS response to the Notification issued by HWHAMA regarding seeking public opinion for preparation of revised Master Plan 01 for Hampi Local Planning Area

Hills and Mountains

EQUATIONS Response to Ecologically Sensitive Areas Notification in the Western Ghats Region

EQUATIONS objections to the draft notification dated 3rd October 2018 issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change notifying Ecologically Sensitive Areas in the Western Ghats region.

Forests

Response To The Draft Karnataka Private Conservancies Rules And Policy, 2018

The policy proposes to declare private areas along boundaries of protected areas, which are a minimum of 100 acres, as private wildlife conservancies. The policy states that any land that is declared as a private conservancy cannot have activities such as agriculture, horticulture, pig farming etc. The owners of such private wildlife conservancy can use 5% of the land for building infrastructure for tourism.

Coasts, Islands, and Rivers

Response to Draft Coastal Regulation Zone Notification,2018

Coastal tourism has been an important form of tourism in India. The beaches of Goa and Kerala have been seeing tourism since the 1960s. Since then, other coastal states, especially, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal has seen increasing tourism on the coasts. Central governments and state governments have also supported coastal tourism by creating a conducive policy environment.

Social Groups

EQUATIONS Letter to UNESCO on the Situation of Evictions of the Local Community in Hampi

A letter written to UNESCO about the situation in Hampi, where the local community is once again facing the threat of eviction, demolition and loss of their livelihood options.

Children

Caught In The Legal Mesh

India has strong legislation in place to protect children from sexual exploitation. However, this has not translated into child-friendly practice for accessing justice, in particular the criminal justice system. Instead, these children continue to face unique and powerful barriers that prevent them from accessing justice for the crimes committed against them. 
This study examines the experiences of children in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal and provides insights on their access to the justice system as well as judicial processes themselves.

Social Groups

TOURISM: URGENT APPEAL FOR HARM AVOIDANCE:

Joint Statement of the International Support Centre for Sustainable Tourism, Tourism Investigation & Monitoring Team (Tim-Team), Global Anti-Aerotropolis Movement (GAAM), Third World Network (TWN), Consumers Association of Penang, Sahabat Alam Malaysia, and Tourism Advocacy & Action Forum

Economics

Corporatising Tourism in Manipur

The Government of Manipur in its endeavour to provide job opportunities and overall progress in the State, has been pushing tourism industry as the key source of economic growth. In the process, infrastructure development has been given prime attention. In order to facilitate the boost of tourism, the Manipur Tourism Policy 2014 which claims that Manipur with its inherent tourism potential, rich cultural heritage and vibrant pool of youth, with excellent grip over english language is an ideal place for promotion of Tourism as its main industry and sector to generate employment substantially.

Social Groups
-Women
-LGBTQIA
-Caste
-Children
Economics
-Economic Policies
-Heritage, Communities and Tourism
-Corporate Responsibility
-Tourism Finance
-Land
-Labour
Tourism Alternatives
-Community-based Tourism
Outreach
-Education
Governance
-Policies
-Panchayats
Ecosystems
-Hills and Mountains
-Coasts, Islands, and Rivers
-Forests

International (Outside India)
India
-West India
--Maharashtra
--Gujarat
--Dadar and Nagar Haveli
--Daman and Diu
-East India
--Odisha
--West Bengal
-South India
--Andhra Pradesh
--Goa
--Kerala
--Karnataka
--Tamil Nadu
--Telangana
-Central
--Jharkhand
--Chhattisgarh
--Madhya Pradesh
-North India
--Bihar
--Chandigarh
--Delhi
--Haryana
--Himachal Pradesh
--Jammu and Kashmir
--Punjab
--Rajasthan
--Uttar Pradesh
--Uttarakhand
-North East
--Assam
--Arunachal Pradesh
--Manipur
--Meghalaya
--Mizoram
--Nagaland
--Sikkim
--Tripura
-Andaman and Nicobar Islands
-Lakshadeep

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