As director of Tourism Concern, Tricia Barnett designed and managed a wide range of successful projects working with local communities, government, the tourism industry and multi-stakeholder partnerships. These included Empowering Coastal Communities (funded by the UK’s Department for International Development), 2008-2011, which provided skills training and workshops for local community representatives, including women’s groups, fish workers’ unions and local government, while advocating for more sustainable, fair and inclusive approaches to tourism.
To achieve effective partnerships for developing high-level “buy-in” to the needs of local people in tourism development, Tricia has worked with the Department for International Development to integrate tourism into its programmes for the first time; with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to train the UK industry in corporate social responsibility; with the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture on integrating sustainability into tourism degrees; with the Department of Trade and Industry on embracing human rights in its tourism agenda; with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to radically reform their Foreign Office Advisories, as well as to facilitate the establishment of The Travel Foundation.
She has also worked with the UK’s leading tour operators in the development of their work on sustainable tourism and established and managed the Ethical Tour Operators’ Group. At a grass-roots level, she has worked extensively with indigenous people adversely affected by tourism, including pastoralists in Kenya and Tanzania, native Hawaiians, Solomon Islanders, Ethiopians, Gambians, Balinese, Indians and Sri Lankans.
