Fair trade grew from a desire to protect and stop the exploitation of peoples in developing countries and began with things such as chocolate and coffee. Now the range of goods which can be sourced is significantly larger (see World Fair Trade Organisation)

Although on occasion tourism has been linked with exploitation and abuse of people and places it is perhaps surprising then that Fair Trade principles have not made their way into the tourism sector. Within this sector, the potential for exploitation of producers, suppliers and workers alike is ever present due to the diversity of stakeholders and the scale to which it is intertwined within our society.

In Australia tourism contributed over $40 Billion to the GDP (approx. 3.6%) and generating $23 Billion in export earnings (10.1% of total exports) making it Australia’s largest services export in 2007-08. In the same year, it directly employed over 500,000 people or around 4.7% of total employment (Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, Tourism Industry Facts and Figures at a Glance, October 2009, p.26.)

Given the current magnitude of the industry and real probability that it will continue to grow it is critical that this situation is addressed.

Given also that we are in the fledgeling stages of developing ‘Fair Trade Criteria for the travel industry in Australia I put forward the following points which we at ‘ethical adventures’ subscribe to (based on the standards set down by the ‘World Fair Trade Organisation’)
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