Bonn, Germany  - The worldwide economic downturn will not necessarily put a damper on sustainable tourism, according to experts.

"At the moment, no change in booking behaviour is evident," Heinz Fuchs, senior policy advisor for Tourism Watch, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Tourism Watch is an agency of the Bonn-based Protestant Development Service (EED).

Fuchs said that while leisure travel was perhaps the first target of belt-tightening when mass layoffs loomed, safety, reliability and sustainability were still in demand in tough economic times.

"Such things are even more important when it comes to travel, too," he remarked.

Tour operators focusing on sustainable tourism may even come out ahead. "The segment could turn out to be more stable than the travel market as a whole," Fuchs suggested, a development which was not inconsistent with the trend toward more cost-consciousness, for example in the retail business.

"Discounters are the winners of the crisis. And discounters are also showing a significant increase in fair-trade products," Fuchs noted. So the relatively small tourism niche occupied by sustainable travel apparently has continued growth potential despite the economic problems.

"There are signs that the market for sustainable travel is growing, not shrinking," Fuchs said.

Fuchs said it was unlikely tour operators would now lower their sustainable-travel standards for fear of fewer bookings and lower profit margins.

The lack of clarity surrounding concepts like sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) was an ongoing problem, he said, adding, "There are no clear, binding definitions of what they mean."

FAR now has plans that go a step further and award independent CSR certificates, based on sustainability reports, to qualifying tour operators with the aim of giving tourists orientation before they book a trip.

Fuchs said a new certifying company, TourCert, would award the first "CSR-certified" labels to tour operators with positive CSR and sustainability reports at the ITB international travel trade show in Berlin, from March 11 to 15. (dpa)