Voluntary environmental codes of conduct in the tourism sector

Over recent years, voluntary environmental codes of conduct have come to the fore as a new and promising tool to raise awareness of environmental issues and improve behaviour and practices. They provide an interesting complement to other tools such as regulations and economic instruments. Within the tourism sector, codes of conduct are now sufficiently numerous and widespread to warrant an interim review of their content, implementation and effectiveness. This paper is based on a survey and analysis of existing codes developed by countries, industry associations and NGOs. It outlines the essential elements common to successful codes, and identifies some of the most common pitfalls. If such voluntary codes are to become a useful tool, they must be specific and action‐oriented and, above all, must be supported by programmes to facilitate implementation, monitoring and reporting of results.