ITB panel discussion on human rights due diligence in tourism

Joint Efforts, Joint Benefits: Advancing human rights due diligence in tourism together

Joint efforts for joint success: Why is a collaborative approach needed to establish human rights due diligence in tourism beyond the legal guidelines? In March 2024, panelists with many years of experience from well-known companies in the tourism industry came together on a stage at ITB to discuss this topic and the industry project initiated by Futouris and the Roundtable Human Rights in Tourism.

Caroline Steimle from the FTI Group, Petra Thomas from the association forum anders reisen e.V. and Manfred Häupl from Hauser Exkursionen held exciting discussions on the joint industry project to develop online training courses on human rights due diligence for partners in the destinations. The entertaining discussion was moderated by Katharina Stechl from the Roundtable Human Rights in Tourism.

The speakers had a uniform approach to the topic and clearly emphasized a central point: It's important to join forces!

"Effective multi-stakeholder approaches are needed to improve the standards of global cooperation. The players in the industry - some of whom pursue very similar business models - sometimes work with the same partners. This makes it all the more important not to overburden them with several similar formats with the same content on one topic. The aim is to pool expertise and strength through a joint initiative."

- Caroline Steimle, FTI Group

"The joint project is an important tool for training our partners and entering into dialog with them. We are currently not in a position to develop this on our own, so I think it is important that this joint platform exists."

- Manfred Häupl, Hauser Excursions

"The German Supply Chain Duty of Care Act only affects a few companies directly, so we need to work together beyond that and involve as many stakeholders as possible to really achieve change and drive sustainable development."

- Petra Thomas, forum anders reisen e.V.