The roles and influences of the various actors and groups involved in Essay

The roles and influences of the various actors and groups involved in policy-making - Essay Example Thus, tourism, for any State, creates job opportunities, bringing in money, while forming a cost-effective measure to revive ‘run-down communities’ (ibid). A sustainable and well-managed tourism sector is environmentally advantageous for the country, subsequently assisting in elevating the quality of lives for the local inhabitants. Thus it is imperative that public policies on an economic sector as important as tourism be carefully framed, keeping in mind various aspects like economic development of the chosen location, sustainability of the entire project, amongst many others. Policies, in both public and private sectors, provide a framework for making decisions, and help to connect the process of strategy planning with actual implementation (Wheelen and Hunger, 1990). Tourism policy is can be viewed as "a set of regulations, rules, guidelines, directives, and development objectives and strategies† (Goeldner, Ritchie & McIntosh 2000, 445). In tourism policymaking , the focus would involve around creating guidelines for the development of sustainable tourism along with a plan for future measures and developmental route (Jenkins 2000). The Tourism industry in any country includes other business sectors like hospitality services, museums, heritage sites, various events, and transportation, thus making it imperative that besides the governmental authorities, various actors and groups form other business sectors remain involved or taken under consideration while framing policies for tourism. This essay will examine the various actors and groups that remain involved in tourism policymaking, the levels of influence of the various groups involved in tourism policy-making and how this has changed over time, and evaluate the linkages and/or partnerships that exist between groups involved in tourism policy-making especially in the context of UK tourism policymaking. Discussion A brief analysis of tourism industry in UK: UK tourism primarily is domestic based, and figures (fig 1) show that UK residents make more than â€Å"1bn overnight trips and day visits† annually, which comes to a count of nearly of 17 trips per person residing in UK, subsequently leading to almost ?67bn being circulated within UK economy each year (Tourism-Alliance, Tourism: Britain’s best opportunity for sustainable economic growth and new employment, 2010, 1). Fig 1: Domestic Tourism Expenditure by Destination. Here we find that redistribution of expenditure within UK tourism occurs mainly from urban centres like large cities and towns, and moves towards small villages and communities that live near the sea. (Source: Tourism-Alliance, Tourism: Britain’s best opportunity for sustainable economic growth and new employment, 2010, 1). In the arena of international tourism, UK is a popular destination, with large number of foreign visitors coming in each year. These overseas tourists act as a booster for the UK economy (as shown in fig 2), a s they bring in annual revenue worth almost ?19bn (which is worth more than the revenues earned from North Sea oil). Of the revenue generated the foreign tourists, nearly â€Å"?3.5bn goes straight to the Exchequer through Air Passenger Duty and VAT to help fund health, education and other public services†

Does the Fairtrade movement offer a viable model for a more ethical Essay

Does the Fairtrade movement offer a viable model for a more ethical trading system Choose one of the following sectors to explo - Essay Example Ethical trading is the umbrella term used to denote and describe all types of business processes or practices, which borders on promoting socially as well as environmentally responsible trade. This was stated by Narasaiah (2006, p.148), â€Å"Ethical trade is one dimension of corporate social responsibility, bringing social issues into the mainstream of commercial supply chain management through the use of codes of conduct.† Although, the term is also used to refer to the trade practices in an organization’s supply chain, instead of ethical trading, the term Fair Trade is being used to denote the ethical trade practices in the supply chain. Although, the words Ethical Trade and Fair Trade are synonymously used or sometimes interchangeably used, there is some clear distinction between the two words. â€Å"Ethical trade focuses on employment conditions of workers within global value chains, as distinct from Fair Trade which focuses primarily on producer prices and tradin g relationships. (Barrientos, Conroy and Jones, 2007, p.60). Thus, Fair Trade is a form of trading, where the well-being of weak actors or producers in the supply chain is taken care, through optimal trading practices. That is, the big players need to carry out ethical practices and indulge in ethical trading, so that the interests of the small players or traders are protected. What is more, the Fair trade movement also focus on reducing the poverty and improving the living standard of primary producers or farmers. Successful organization will try to incorporate a feasible model for a more ethical trading system and this is applicable to organizations in any sector, including the food and drink sector. So, in this article, the argument will be made and the reason will be given on why Fair trade has become a viable model for more ethical trading system. Role of Fair Trade Fair Trade had its origins way back in 19th century in the form of Cooperative movement among the traders. Howeve r, it evolved more in the mid part of the 20th century. That is, it began with the Mennonite Central Committee, U.S. based service entity, deciding to do trade with the poor communities in the South in the 1940s. From that beginning, it further expanded and become a "movement" in the 1960s and 1970s. (Moore 2004). Fair Trade is the term given to the trade that is authorised and overseen by certain unbiased organizational bodies, whose role is to see whether that trade happens fairly giving the due benefits to the producers in the supply chain. The four main organizational bodies which formulated the guidelines that constitute Fair Trade, and gives Fair Trade recognition to specific producers and buyers, thereby overseeing the Fair Trade practices are Fair Trade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), World Fair Trade Organization (or formerly International Fair Trade Association), Network of European Worldshops (NEWS!) and European Fair Trade Association. To further actualize a n omnipresent body, which can coordinate and oversee all the Fair Trade practices, these four bodies created together FINE (starting letters of the four) in 1998, an informal body â€Å"whose goal is to harmonize fair trade standards and guidelines, increase the quality and efficiency of fair trade monitoring systems, and advocate fair trade politically.† (articlesbase.com 2011). This FINE is also responsible for