The U.N.W.T.O. ST-EP Initiative
Sustainable Travel for Eradication of Poverty (ST-EP) is an initiative that was introduced in 2002 by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (WTO) at a World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. During the World Summit, the WTO formally recognized how tourism can be a vehicle for addressing broadening economic and social disparities in the world and then coined the ST-EP concept to begin a global campaign for support of it.
The ST-EP initiative is based on extensive research that favors how the tourism industry could be a viable way to alleviate poverty in developing countries. More than fifty of the worlds poorest countries reported tourism as one of their top three sources of national income, , according to a study conducted by the WTO in 2000; furthermore, tourism is the only service industry among developing countries to show a positive balance of trade. Tourism is a principal export for 83% of developing countries and reported to be the principal export in one third of them. The combined tourism export receipts of all least developed countries in 1998 accounted for 16.2% of the total non-oil export receipts, thereby exceeding the second and third largest non-oil export sectors (cotton and textiles) by 39% and 82%, respectively.
The tourism industry is indeed one of the worlds fastest-growing, if not most expansive industries, showing money flux from advanced economies to developing countries, and touching every country in the world.
Given these trends, the travel industry can be harnessed as a viable conduit of funds from wealthier classes directly to people in need. StepUp Travel was created in 2005 for that express purpose. Our travel classifieds service makes up a state-of-the-art marketing utility that removes intermediary agents and promotes local, travel-related service providers.
Bridging the Divide
Current standards of practice in the tourism industry foster information gaps between traveler and local service providers in order to maintain high profit margins for intermediary booking services. The less a tourist knows about destination markets and prices, the more an intermediary agency can charge for making the connection. And the divide is getting larger as travel destinations expand into less-familiar countries. The extent of information gaps is commensurate to the growth of the industry itself.
Research data indicates that developing countries enjoyed 292.6 million international arrivals in 2000 and has continues to increase 9.5% per year since then, accounting for up to 40% of national GDPs. And despite attracting 35% of international travelers each year, most developing countries have been unable to increase tourism profits because up to 85% of trips to such nations are planned, booked and financed through firms based in wealthier nations.
StepUp Travel was founded in 2005, therefore, to create a utility to address this problem. It intends to promote a freer market by granting equal access to our services and help under-represented service providers compete at a level known almost exclusively by tech-savvy companies.
What drives our website is the value generated by resolving information gaps, narrowing high profit margins maintained and enjoyed by intermediary agencies, and tending to a noble social agenda. The result is more income for service providers in destination countries, and greater access to more unique and affordable services to the traveler. The success of our company will be commensurate only to the value of service we provide to our users by bridging the divide. And just as the gaps to bridge are sizeable, so is the anticipated success of the StepUp Travel community.