About the project "Transforming Tourism"

For more than 40 years non-governmental organizations all over the world have taken action to make the voices of poor and marginalized people in globalized tourism heard. From 1999 when tourism became an issue for the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, at its 7th meeting in New York up to the formulation of the 2030 Agenda, NGOs raised a number of issues, concerns and challenges during the process.

After three organizations from German-speaking countries published a first position paper on tourism in the 2030 Agenda and shared it with other NGOs, it became obvious, that the 2030 Agenda, even though it is full of contradictions and vaguenesses, offers a great opportunity to re-frame and revive critical discussions on tourism.

A more specialized analysis of the connections between tourism and sustainable development in each of the 17 SDGs was the logical next step. Therefore, in 2016 authors from different backgrounds put together case studies, academic analysis as well as experiences from the local ground and developed recommendations on how to realize the necessary shift in tourism. Their texts resulted in an online compendium. The variety of analyses are by no means comprehensive, but aimed to be a first starting point for further discussions.

Most of the authors as well as additional organisations gathered for the Berlin Meeting from 3 to 6 March 2017 to discuss the 2030 Agenda from a tourism-critical civil society perspective. More than 30 participants from 19 countries brought together their ideas, experiences and concerns, developed and adopted the Berlin Declaration on "Transforming Tourism". They also decided to strengthen their networks, to intensify exchange amongst themselves and to further develop this homepage.

With this project we want not only encourage further reflection and debate, but activities and actions. We demand stronger dialogue and involvement of civil society organisations, people´s movements and affected population in tourism decision making - locally as well as globally.