Call for Student Research, 2009-2011
Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA) is a non profit initiative that promotes equitable and sustainable tourism in South Africa, primarily through facilitating a voluntary certification programme that awards a special Trademark (label) to businesses that comply with specific criteria, including fair wages and working conditions, fair operations, fair purchasing, fair distribution of benefits, ethical business practice, and respect for human rights culture and environment. In turn, the FTTSA Trademark – the first of its kind in the world – conveys certain benefits to certified establishments, including improved access to niche markets.
FTTSA has reviewed its strategy for 2009-2014 and has identified five strategic goals:
1. Grow the numbers of products (accommodation, activities and attractions) certified by FTTSA by 50% per annum.
2. Extend certification to new categories of products not currently catered for by the FTTSA certification programme. Examples including volunteer-tourism (“voluntourism”) products, homestays, agri-tourism activities etc.
3. Expand Fair Trade in Tourism principles and models within southern Africa, with the aim of developing an integrated approach to sustainable tourism certification within the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
4. Develop mechanisms for influencing the nature of the international tourism value chain so that FTTSA-certified products retain greater value from the trade in international tourism services. This includes a pilot project endorsed by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) to develop and market Fair Trade holidays to South Africa.
5. Contribute to the transformation of South African tourism, which includes supporting community-based/emerging tourism enterprises and undertaking research and advocacy towards a fairer and more inclusive industry.
FTTSA has identified a number of student research projects that will support the achievement of these strategic goals. Some of the projects identified by FTTSA will be completed using desktop research methods while others entail field research. Accordingly the list of topics developed by FTTSA will appeal to international as well as South African students, including international students focusing on desktop research in their home countries. FTTSA believes that collaborating with student researchers and their institutions is an excellent way of building shared capacity in a way that will ultimately contribute to the growth of Fair Trade in Tourism in South Africa and beyond.
For 2009-2011, the following research topics have been identified. These topics are intended as broad guidelines that will enable interested students to formulate more specific research questions, depending on their particular interests and requirements:
1. Market Research
- Comparative study: in a particular market, survey ‘responsible’ tour operators and compare their attitudes / practices to a comparable number of ‘mainstream’ operators. Determine the extent to which their clientele, market offers, structures, practices, etc. differ, if at all.
- Survey to determine awareness levels in a particular market, e.g. UK outbound travel industry: Do tour operators know about ‘Fair Trade’ / ‘Fair Trade in Tourism’? Do they use alternate terms / language to describe these concepts?
- Survey of consumers’ attitudes/knowledge about tourism certification (labels, logos, trademarks) within a particular market (e.g. Switzerland, Germany, Canada etc.). Does certification influence their buying behaviour and, if so, why? This type of study could be undertaken in collaboration with one or more tour operators.
- Conduct a survey of tourists who have visited one or more FTTSA-certified establishments over the past X months. Were they aware of the connection to FTTSA before they booked? Did they find branding on site? Did knowing they were patronising a fair business enhance their travel experience? Would they look for FTTSA-certified products in future? How do responses vary between international and domestic guests? Can responses be segmented using other categories?
- To what extent are South African consumers interested in purchasing fairly operated and fairly traded holidays? Are certain segments more likely to buy into this concept than others? Do they assume it to be more expensive?
2. South African Industry Research
- Survey of South African travel trade (e.g. SATSA members) to determine awareness, knowledge and opinions about Fair Trade in Tourism in general, and about FTTSA more specifically.
3. FTTSA-certified Product Research
- Case study: What impact/s has FTTSA certification had on the operation? This could be measured financially as well as non-financially.
- Case study: To what extent are travel partners (e.g. tour operators, wholesalers, marketing agents) aware of the establishment’s status as FTTSA-certified? Does this influence how the product is marketed, if at all? Does FTTSA result in the product increasing its position within the tourism value chain?
- Case study: Who does/should champion sustainability/Fair Trade in Tourism within FTTSA-certified establishments? This could be a comparative study of different FTTSA-certified businesses analyzing who drives sustainability and certification compliance activities with recommendations for the most effective internal arrangements.
- Analytical study: Which practices by FTTSA-certified establishments have the greatest impacts on poverty reduction, and why? This type of approach could also focus on other topic such as biodiversity conservation and HIV/Aids prevention / awareness raising.
4. Elephant Tourism
In South Africa, Elephant Tourism is a significant but controversial sector whereby elephants are held in captivity for utilisation as a tourist “attraction” either through an interaction with elephants (e.g. walking with them) or riding on their backs. The South African government has published draft legislation to regulate the treatment of captive elephants; however the extent to which this legislation is being applied is unknown. FTTSA needs to understand the issues at play and identify/document best practices, with a view to developing an FTTSA position paper on Elephant Tourism. This project would include:
- Literature Review
- Stakeholder surveys/interviews
- Case study research
- Critical analysis and recommendations for FTTSA (including whether FTTSA should certify elephant tourism products and if so, under what conditions).
5. Golf Tourism
In recent years South Africa has witnessed a proliferation of golf estates (often linked to property development). This trend raises a number of Fair Trade issues regarding local residents’ access to land, water and other resources, and the fundamental question of whether poor communities are being marginalized by these developments. FTTSA needs to understand the issues at play and develop guidelines for best practice in this sector so that we may clearly advocate to industry how golf tourism can be managed in ways that benefit local destination stakeholders. This project would include:
- Literature Review
- Stakeholder surveys/interviews
- Case study research
- Critical analysis and recommendations for FTTSA (including whether FTTSA should continue to certify golf tourism products and if so, under what parameters).
6. Southern Africa
- Country policy analysis: For any SADC country, what policies / policy instruments are in place to encourage sustainability within the tourist industry? What role/s do the various government departments/ministries play in driving this agenda? What steps could government take to improve its effectiveness? Where governments do not seem to play an active role in this arena, what other bodies are assuming this role and what is the nature of their activities?
- Country product inventory: For any SADC country, what if any initiatives are in place to differentiate sustainable tourism products/practices? Which if any of these are locally-developed? Which are most successful, and why? How many products in the country could be deemed sustainable, and what would be the basis of calculation?
INTERESTED IN ANY OF THE ABOVE PROJECTS?
Please speak to your supervisor(s) and then contact FTTSA. Ideally we’d like to hear from you in cooperation with your supervisor(s), clearly introducing your proposed research topic including objectives, methodology, time frames and type of cooperation requested from FTTSA. Before embarking on your project, please refer to FTTSA’s Policy on Student Research.
Although FTTSA does not fund student research, we can assist researchers to access information, experts and other people. We may also be able to facilitate publication and/or presentation of research findings, e.g. on the FTTSA website.
