Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA) – Development of an Organisational Framework and Road Map
In June 2011, FTTSA and Swisscontact commissioned Mthente Research and Consulting Service (Pty) Ltd to conduct research to underpin the development of a sustainable business model for FTTSA, a non-profit organisation (NPO) which focuses on promoting responsible, sustainable tourism.
The aims of the research were to:
- Understand the market and demand for FTT.
- Review FTTSA’s current certification models, and other Fair Trade and tourism certification models, in order to draw lessons for FTTSA.
- Investigate the demand for and provision of business development services (BDS) related to tourism certification.
- Investigate the perspectives of tour operators and tourism businesses on the strengths, weaknesses and benefits of the current FTTSA and FTT certification systems.
Mthente used the following methodology to undertake the study:
- Desktop research to analyse the market for Fair Trade Travel, conduct an institutional analysis of FTTSA, and review FTTSA’s current labels and systems for certifying tourism enterprises and the tourism value chain.
- One-on-one stakeholder interviews.
The research forms the basis for the development of a framework and roadmap for the organisational development of FTTSA towards a sustainable organisation. The project also aimed to devise a certification system which would integrate FTTSA’s two current fair trade labels and systems and could be implemented in South Africa.