NationStates Jolt Archive

Tourism Guidelines
A resolution to reduce barriers to free trade and commerce.


Category: Free Trade
Strength: Strong
Proposed by: Of Cascadia

Description: The NationStates United Nations,

NOTING that tourism is an important part of almost every nation's economy,

FURTHER NOTING that tourism can also have negative effects on the enviroment and local peoples and culture,

DECLARES that the following shall be made law in all member nations:

The following guidelines will be used to make sure that the tourism industry does not have any negative impacts.

-Save natural resources. Try not to waste water. Switch off lights and appliances when not in use. Discourage all business that clearly consume limited resources at the expense of local residents and the enivronment. Don't litter. Do not take home any exotic pets. Do not cause any damage to the environment.

-Support local enterprise. Encourage locally and employee-owned hotels and businesses and support trade and craft workers by buying locally made souvenirs.

-Promote the asking of people by tours before they take close-up photographs of them.

-Encourage respect for all cultures. Leave it as you found it: don't take home fossils or artifacts.

-Educate people on the local history and current affairs.

The United Nations shall create the United Nations Commision on Tourism to make sure all nations follow these guidelines.

The Democratic Republic of Ponderon, while recognizing the good intentions of this proposal, will be forced to vote against it if it gets to a vote. This legislation may have good ideals in mind, but it is enforcing laws onto the local level which would require a large bureaucracy in every country. This is something we feel the UN has no right to be doing.

Joseph Wardell
Ambassador to the UN

again this is a prime example of UN micromanagement.

this will not have the support of the empire

These are unenforceable. Specifically: "Do not cause any damage to the environment." It's nigh-on impossible for humans to exist in modern societies without damaging the environment somewhat. The important thing is that we should try to be sustainable.

Plus, are you offering these as guidelines, or rigidly followed regulations? You call them guidelines, but then set up a body to enforce them and say "DECLARES that the following shall be made law in all member nations:". If they're laws, it's simply impractical, because many of them are too vague, and some of them are nice aims, but are impractical to achieve all the time.

Sorry, won't be supporting this. Once again, it's just another proposal for the sake of proposals.

As written I don't think this qualifies as an international issue for the UN, with the exception of "Do not take home any exotic pets." All of the other resolutions can be easily adopted by individual member nations and if they don't ... that's their problem.

Having said that, I think there is a good idea behing adopting some sort of resolution for the promotion of tourism among member nations. In my opinion one needs to concentrate on the matter from the point of view of the tourist, because it is the tourist who corsses international boundaries (thus making it a proper matter for the UN) and not the place they are visiting.

Note the following are not in a form of a resolution, only what the resolution lines should accomplish

- Establishment of a committee for the creation of a universal iconographic language to assist tourists in the basic necessities. (The bath room (or whatever you call it in your country) the elevator (or whatever you call it in your country) whether you can safely and legally cross the street, and so forth.)

- Establishment of a committee for the creation and certification of reasonable standards for handicapped accomodation. Instead of mandating these regulations, (which might cause complaints among nations who cannot afford them because they are far from the standard) promote a certification process that basically gives a member nation a carrot instead of a stick for adopting the regulation as they (nations and individual industries) can list themselves as "handicapped accessable" in all promotional literature.

If items such as the above were incorporated into a resolution Tzorsland would be most happy to vote in the affirmative.

Micromanagement, most of this stuff is common sense and would already be in place. Plus, why should we force our tourists to be kind to the enviroment? Maybe they like blowing up rainforests...

Category: Free Trade
Strength: Strong
O.K.
NOTING that tourism is an important part of almost every nation's economy,
Sure. I agree.

FURTHER NOTING that tourism can also have negative effects on the enviroment and local peoples and culture,

DECLARES that the following shall be made law in all member nations:

The following guidelines will be used to make sure that the tourism industry does not have any negative impacts.

-Save natural resources. Try not to waste water. Switch off lights and appliances when not in use. Discourage all business that clearly consume limited resources at the expense of local residents and the enivronment. Don't litter. Do not take home any exotic pets. Do not cause any damage to the environment.
This sounds like an environmental proposal, not free trade.

-Support local enterprise. Encourage locally and employee-owned hotels and businesses and support trade and craft workers by buying locally made souvenirs.
Borderline. This actually smacks of protectionism, rather than a free trade stance.

-Promote the asking of people by tours before they take close-up photographs of them.

-Encourage respect for all cultures. Leave it as you found it: don't take home fossils or artifacts.

-Educate people on the local history and current affairs.
This is mostly "human rights" stuff. "Leave it as you found it: don't take home fossils or artifacts" sounds environmental.

It looks like what you have here is a mis-categorization. It only has one preambulatory clause and one active clause that might be taken as promoting Free Trade. This is a workable proposal, but for it to be Free Trade you'll need to touch on more of the economic aspects of the tourist industry. Right now, it is more of an environmental or human rights proposal.

As written I don't think this qualifies as an international issue for the UN, with the exception of "Do not take home any exotic pets." All of the other resolutions can be easily adopted by individual member nations and if they don't ... that's their problem.

Having said that, I think there is a good idea behing adopting some sort of resolution for the promotion of tourism among member nations. In my opinion one needs to concentrate on the matter from the point of view of the tourist, because it is the tourist who corsses international boundaries (thus making it a proper matter for the UN) and not the place they are visiting.

Note the following are not in a form of a resolution, only what the resolution lines should accomplish

- Establishment of a committee for the creation of a universal iconographic language to assist tourists in the basic necessities. (The bath room (or whatever you call it in your country) the elevator (or whatever you call it in your country) whether you can safely and legally cross the street, and so forth.)

- Establishment of a committee for the creation and certification of reasonable standards for handicapped accomodation. Instead of mandating these regulations, (which might cause complaints among nations who cannot afford them because they are far from the standard) promote a certification process that basically gives a member nation a carrot instead of a stick for adopting the regulation as they (nations and individual industries) can list themselves as "handicapped accessable" in all promotional literature.

If items such as the above were incorporated into a resolution Tzorsland would be most happy to vote in the affirmative.

The government of St Edmund would probably vote FOR a proposal along those lines, but would vote AGAINST the "fluffier" one that's currently described.

this idea has inspired me to see if a bushmeat resolution could be brought about.

More on that later.

FURTHER NOTING that tourism can also have negative effects on the enviroment and local peoples and culture,
Seems enviormental from the start with only a vague mention of eliminating trade barriers. The things listed below aren't barriers to trade. They're what happens to the environment Because of tourism. Ok maybe this would cause some countries to reduce tourism, but it still seems miscategorized. I would think it's every government's own responsbility to decide what restrictions they feel are necessary in their land. Doesn't seem like this should be the UN's responsbility.

-Save natural resources. Try not to waste water. Switch off lights and appliances when not in use. Discourage all business that clearly consume limited resources at the expense of local residents and the enivronment. Don't litter. Do not take home any exotic pets. Do not cause any damage to the environment.
"Try" not to waste water. How is this enforcable? Have a government official stand by the tap and ask people to pretty please turn it off when? Sure there are low flow taps, showerheads, etc but they're not mentioned and is it really the UN's responsbility to manage every countries' varying water supplies anyways? Do not cause any damage to the enviornment is a useless statement and an impossibility as well. The line "Save natural resources" is unspecific as to how or how much and likewise useless. Litter and exotic pet laws are workable, but environmental.

-Support local enterprise. Encourage locally and employee-owned hotels and businesses and support trade and craft workers by buying locally made souvenirs.
Support local enterprise by buying souvernirs and such... Who is this aimed at? The average person who obviously doesn't read these UN resolutions? Are countries supposed to make it into law that you have to buy something? How is this line helpful?

-Promote the asking of people by tours before they take close-up photographs of them.
I don't even know why this is here. Fluff.

-Encourage respect for all cultures. Leave it as you found it: don't take home fossils or artifacts.
Fluff

-Educate people on the local history and current affairs.
...this is a barrier to free trade? If people want some historical tour they'll go on it. If the country sees a market for it... they'll do it. This is not UN business.

This proposal is miscategorized and lacks solutions. This will not have the support of Wyldtree if it comes to vote. I highly doubt it will make it to or at least past proposal anyways. It would have to be almost completely rewritten and offer some ideas on how to manage these resources & protections.

This is a temporary draft. If anyone else has anything to add, please post here!

The NationStates United Nations,

NOTING that tourism is an important part of almost every nation's economy,

FURTHER NOTING that tourism can also have negative effects on the enviroment and local peoples and culture,

DECLARES that the following shall be the basis for a certification program that any nation, in the NSUN or not, can apply to. If they pass, they can use an offical logo to be designed by the NSUN on tourist information and other media.

The following guidelines will be used to make sure that the tourism industry does not have any negative impacts.

-Discourage all business that clearly consume limited resources at the expense of local residents and the enivronment.

-Ban the export of any exotic pets.

-Encourage the support of locally and employee-owned hotels and businesses and trade and craft workers by tourists.

-Encourage respect for all cultures. Ban the export by tourists of fossils and artifacts.

-Educate people on the local history and current affairs.

-Create a universal iconographic language to assist tourists in the basic necessities.

-The creation and certification of reasonable standards for handicapped accomodation.

The United Nations shall create the United Nations Commision on Tourism to certify all nations that follow these guidelines.

This is a temporary draft. If anyone else has anything to add, please post here!

I cannot believe this is legal. Which category are you going for?

National laws can cover this just fine. There is no need for a UN resolution addressing this "issue."

DECLARES that the following shall be made law in all member nations:

The following guidelines will be used to make sure that the tourism industry does not have any negative impacts.

-Save natural resources. Try not to waste water. Switch off lights and appliances when not in use. Discourage all business that clearly consume limited resources at the expense of local residents and the enivronment. Don't litter. Do not take home any exotic pets. Do not cause any damage to the environment.
What is to be the international standard punishment for crimes such as littering, overwatering plants, or standing with the refrigerator door open trying to decide what you want?

I like.

What is to be the international standard punishment for crimes such as littering, overwatering plants, or standing with the refrigerator door open trying to decide what you want?

Why, death, of course.

You might want to read the second draft of the resolution.

The specific guidelines in the proposal are good ones. In the main, they're common sense. We do not believe, though, that they are (or should be) enforceable as matters of national law.

Ausserland regrets it cannot support the proposal.

Lorelei M. Ahlmann
Ambassador-at-Large