Retour Foundation

Mission

The Retour Foundation (in Dutch: 'stichting Retour") was founded in 1987 to promote what was known then as responsible tourism (REsponsible TOURism). For Retour this is tourism that is in line with the idea of sustainable development, safeguarding the preservation of ecological, social and economic resources needed by future generations.

This idea of tourism over the years has been covered under many headings, e.g. alternative tourism, ethical tourism, acceptable tourism, community tourism, eco-tourism and/or sustainable tourism. Although in our opinion these semantics can be important, we have not let this wide array of concepts interfere with our vision of what responsible tourism should accomplish. The main thrust of Retour is to promote tourism that contributes to sustainable development with special attention for the empowerment of local communities in tourism destinations.

In the past 15 years we have carried out projects, supported organizations and projects in developing countries and lobbied for sustainable tourism in international fora and developed new ideas, trying to stay up front in the development of ideas leading to a more sustainable tourism. Our approach has been one of building bridges between the different stakeholders involved, but always giving voice to the interests that are the least heard at the tables where the important discussions take place. We have tried to share our work and our opinions through reports, articles and interviews. 

Sustainable Tourism Development

Tourism is regarded as one of the most important sectors to enhance economic growth in developing countries. Therefore governments, industry and NGOs invest in tourism projects. At the same time the need for investments in sustainable development increases: natural, socio-cultural and economic resources should be secured for future generations. Sustainable tourism development aims at enhancing the contributions of tourism to sustainable development, thereby creating sustainable tourism.

Efforts to create sustainable tourism should focus on both large scale development and small scale projects: the sustainability of tourism depends on the major players in tourism such as airlines, international touroperators and national governments, but cannot do without the participation and support of local communities.

Both sustainable development and tourism development are complex processes, with many interests and parties involved. To deal with these complexities, planning methods have been designed. In these methods quite often the interests of local communities are not taken into account. Therefore Retour has developed a Packet of Services and a Tourism Planning Method which takes empowerment and participation of local people as its key elements. 

Key Elements in the Retour Approach to Tourism

Empowerment

Tourism development inevitably affects local people in destination countries. It offers them opportunities as well as threats. Pilot projects have shown that tourism development, if planned carefully, can contribute to economic and social empowerment. It offers opportunities for income, employment, capacity building and institutional strengthening (also for non-tourist sectors). As in other sectors, the positive effects will be enhanced if tourism is linked to institutional development and organisational strengthening of local people. Tourism can strengthen the values of local cultures and offers opportunities to build relations with many actors.

Participatory Process

Tourism development is an ongoing process that should be guided by a planning procedure and active participation of the parties involved. The Retour Tourism Planning Method, essentially is an iterative process in which elements of community development, training and participation play a central role. Pilot projects, evaluation, feed back and consultation after every step, guarantee continuous improvement of the process.

Cooperation and Information

Tourism is a complex sector with many actors involved. Retour stimulates and initiates national and international cooperation between the actors relevant for the development of sustainable tourism. Through active participation in networks involved in tourism and sustainable development, Retour shares its expertise with others. Information is made available to other groups through information campaigns, workshops, lectures, a website and publications in the "Montezuma" series.

Projects we were involved in