The concept of Responsible Tourism originated in the work of Jost Krippendorf in the 1980’s and in particular his experience of the impact of tourism in the alpine plateaus of Switzerland where tourism has had significant negative impacts on the environment and communities.  Krippendorf in The Holiday Makers (1987) called for “rebellious tourists and rebellious locals” to create new forms of tourism. His vision was “to develop and promote new forms of tourism, which will bring the greatest possible benefit to all the participants - travellers, the host population and the tourist business, without causing intolerable ecological and social damage.”

He argued that. “Orders and prohibitions will not do the job - because it is not a bad conscience that we need to make progress, but positive experience, not the feeling of compulsion but that of responsibility”. 

In the 1990’s Responsible Tourism was used in the South African national tourism policy (1996) and in campaigning in the UK by Voluntary Service Overseas. The Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism in Destinations, agreed at a side-event at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, that Responsible Tourism is about “making better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit.”

From the Rio conference until the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in 1999, the main focus of the tourism industry was the green agenda. It took seven years for this narrow focus on environment to expand and to begin addressing the development agenda, in particular poverty reduction. . 

The Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism in Destinations recognises that Responsible Travel takes a variety of forms in that it:

1. Minimises negative environmental, social and cultural impacts;
2. Generates greater economic benefits for local people and enhances the wellbeing of host communities, by improving working conditions and access to the industry;
3. Involves local people in decisions that affect their lives and life chances.
4. Makes positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage and to the maintenance of the world’s diversity;
5. Provides more enjoyable experiences for tourists through more meaningful connections with local people, and a greater understanding of local cultural and environmental issues;
6. Provides access for physically challenged people; and
7. Is culturally sensitive and engenders respect between tourists and hosts.

Responsible tourism is about people taking responsibility for making tourism more sustainable for everyone involved  – hoteliers and tour operators, airlines and coach operators, governments and trade associations, travellers and holiday makers.

All forms of tourism can be more responsible; in the UK the large outbound operators in the Federation of Tour Operators are making commitments to change and making progress towards sustainable tourism objectives. 

For some, responsible tourism has become a way of travelling, offering a guilt free indulgence and a richer experience of the destination. They actively seek out Responsible Tourism experiences using several travel websites exclusively focusing on this and some UK companies have made it part of their repeat booking and referral strategies. A healthy tendency in many of the western markets including USA, UK, Germany and Netherlands have shown that travellers are becoming more and more choosey about the operators and accommodation providers in the destinations they are travelling to. Most of the travellers are comfortable to holiday when they know that the holiday provider adhere to environmental, economic and social policies.

The movement toward responsible tourism has diverse drivers but it does appear to be infectious. Online travel reservation company based on responsible travel got 50,000 hits in May 2004, in July 2006 it gets 1,420,000 hits and the concept is now being used by the World Tourism Organization and ABTA. One of the reasons to the success of the concept is that it is transparent – those claiming to be responsible need to be clear about what it is that they are doing. Besides the impact of the responsible business practice can be seen and experienced by the traveller. As a consequence, any claim made by an hotelier or tour operator is part of the contract and they are accountable for it.