Global Code of Ethics for Tourism

The Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, a fundamental framework for responsible and sustainable tourism, is a comprehensive set of principles designed to guide key stakeholders in tourism development. Addressed to governments, tourism businesses, communities, and tourists alike, its objective is to help maximize the benefits of the sector while minimizing its potential negative impacts on the environment, cultural heritage, and societies around the world.

Approved in 1999 by the World Tourism Organization's General Assembly, its recognition two years later by the United Nations explicitly encouraged the UNWTO to promote effective compliance with its provisions. Although the Code is not legally binding, it incorporates a voluntary implementation mechanism through its recognition of the role of the World Committee on Tourism Ethics, to which the parties can refer any questions regarding the application and interpretation of the document.

The Code's ten principles broadly cover the economic, social, cultural and environmental components of travel and tourism:

Contribution of tourism to mutual understanding and respect between people and societies

1. Understanding and promoting the common ethical values of humanity, in a spirit of tolerance and respect for the diversity of religious, philosophical, and moral beliefs, are both the foundation and consequence of responsible tourism. Tourism developers and tourists themselves will pay attention to the social and cultural traditions and practices of all peoples, including those of national minorities and indigenous populations, and will recognize their richness.

1. Tourism activities will be organized in harmony with the peculiarities and traditions of the host regions and countries, and with respect for their laws and customs.

1. Both host communities and local professionals must learn to understand and respect visiting tourists, and learn about their way of life, tastes, and expectations. The education and training provided to professionals will contribute to a hospitable reception of tourists.

1. Public authorities have the mission to ensure the protection of tourists and visitors and their property. In this regard, they shall pay particular attention to the safety of foreign tourists, given their particular vulnerability. To this end, they shall facilitate the establishment of specific information, prevention, protection, insurance, and assistance resources appropriate to their needs. Attacks, assaults, kidnappings, or threats directed against tourists or tourism workers, as well as the intentional destruction of tourist facilities or elements of cultural or natural heritage, in accordance with the respective national legislation, must be condemned and severely suppressed.

1. When traveling, tourists and visitors will avoid all criminal acts or acts considered criminal by the laws of the country they are visiting, and any behavior that may be shocking or hurtful to the local population or damaging to the local environment. They will refrain from any type of trafficking in drugs, weapons, antiques, protected species, and products and substances that are dangerous or prohibited by national regulations.

1. Tourists and visitors have the responsibility to gather information, before their departure, about the characteristics of the country they plan to visit. They should also be aware of the health and safety risks inherent in any travel outside their usual environment and should behave in a way that minimizes these risks.

• Tourism, an instrument of personal and collective development

  Tourism, an activity generally associated with relaxation, recreation, sports, and access to culture and nature, should be conceived and practiced as a privileged means of individual and collective development. If carried out with the necessary open-mindedness, it is an irreplaceable factor in self-education, mutual tolerance, and learning about the legitimate differences between peoples and cultures and their diversity.

  1. Tourism activities shall respect the equality of men and women. They shall also aim to promote human rights, particularly the specific rights of the most vulnerable population groups, especially children, the elderly and disabled, ethnic minorities, and indigenous peoples.
  1. The exploitation of human beings, in any form, especially sexual exploitation and particularly when it affects children, violates the fundamental objectives of tourism and constitutes a denial of its essence. Therefore, under international law, it must be combated without reservation, with the cooperation of all interested States, and be rigorously punished in the national legislation of the countries visited and of the perpetrators, even when committed abroad.
  1. Travel for religious, health, educational, and cultural or linguistic exchange purposes is a particularly interesting form of tourism and deserves to be encouraged.
  1. The introduction of teaching about the value of tourism exchanges, their economic, social, and cultural benefits, as well as their risks, will be encouraged in the curriculum.