Guyonne James on Ethical Tourism 'Why put ethics into tourism or to put it another way: Is Tourism living up to its environmental obligations?' Tourism Concern started as a charity 15 years ago Aims: to highlight the way mass tourism rides roughshod over the needs and wishes of local communities, especially in the developing world. Tourism - the world's biggest industry, Highly competitive Dominated by large western operators and companies Tourism Concern's research highlights exploitative labour conditions in Europe's favour-ite holiday resorts Tourist sites - frequently developed at the expense of fragile eco-systems Tourism accounts for 12% of global GDP; expected to double by 2020 Water problems - global; tourism is exacerbating them - not enough to go around. 68 out of the world's 69 least-developed countries get most revenue from tourism Research revealed widespread examples of exploitative labour conditions very low wages, over-dependency on tips, long working hours, unpaid overtime, stress, lack of secure contracts, poor training almost no promotion opportunity for locally employed people. Employers systematically ignore national law; blatantly abuse human rights. Corruption and weak governments leave workers powerless to complain. Revenues from tourism - primary sources of foreign exchange for almost 50 least developed countries. For more information visit: www.tourismconcern.org.uk