Tourist industry should promote Fairtrade in 2012

Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, has called on the tourist industry in the UK to clearly showcase their principles of fairness and sustainability, including their promotion of Fairtrade, in 2012. Harriet was speaking as Guest of Honour at the World Responsible Tourism Day about the connections that can and should be made between the fair trade movement and the tourism sector, the Fairtrade Foundation reports.

“We’re very pleased that London 2012 has a food charter, the Food Vision, which sets out that all the bananas, tea, coffee, sugar and chocolate tea, coffee and bananas across the 40 locations will be Fairtrade. So athletes and audiences alike from right across the world will be cheered to know they can enjoy Fairtrade products at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games,” says Harriet. “I also think it’s a fantastic opportunity for the tourist industry as a whole to show as many of our international visitors as possible that people in the London and UK do have an international outlook and care about issues of sustainability.”
 

The Fairtrade Foundation is hoping to make Fairtrade as visible as possible during the period of the Olympic and Paralympics Games in the hope of persuading visitors to do more on Fairtrade. The UK is the largest market for Fairtrade products, with retail and catering sales of  £1.17 billion in 2010.  While the Fairtrade Mark is the most widely recognised ethical label globally, recognition is highest in the UK. According to latest TNS figures, current awareness of the mark is 77 %.  

Fairtrade Foundation