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Inventory of the Center for Responsible Tourism Collection
GTU 97-2-02  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Biography / Administrative History
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Arrangement
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Center for Responsible Tourism collection
    Dates: 1980-2005
    Bulk Dates: 1985-2000
    Collection number: GTU 97-2-02
    Creator: Hadsell, Virginia
    Collection Size: 15 boxes 14.50 linear feet
    Repository: The Graduate Theological Union. Library.
    Berkeley, CA 94709
    Abstract: The work of the Center for Responsible Tourism was for the most part to educate and inform First World, especially North American, people to be sensitive to how tourism can have a negative impact on the visited country environmentally and culturally, especially regarding the sexual exploitation of children and women. The collection includes administrative records, meeting minutes, correspondence, conference planning files and proceedings, collected articles, newsletters and journals, brochures, lectures, presentations, audiotapes (cassettes), and videotapes (VHS). The organization ran from the mid 1980s to the early 2000s.
    Physical location: 4/I/2 - 4/I/6
    Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright has not been assigned to The Graduate Theological Union. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Graduate Theological Union as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

    Preferred Citation

    Center for Responsible Tourism collection, GTU 97-2-02. Graduate Theological Union Archives, Berkeley, CA.

    Biography / Administrative History

    A laywoman in the United Presbyterian Church in the United States, Virginia Hadsell (1922 - 2011), helped coordinate a consultation in 1984 titled Tourism: The Human Dimension. The consultation was held at the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California. This meeting led to the establishment of the Center for Responsible Tourism. In a 1993 informational flyer about CRT, they describe themselves as "a para-church/tourism-activist organization which confronts North Americans with the impact we have as tourists on our sisters and brothers in the Third World, on their cultures, economy, and environment." This included the issues of sex tourism, and the prostitution and trafficking of women and children as well as tourism's impact which can cause cultural and environmental destruction.
    Hadsell had previously planned and led study tours for United States lay people in various countries. She became aware of and was then influenced by the Ecumenical Coalition on Third World Tourism (ECTWT), now known as the Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT). ECTWT was founded in 1982 by ecumenical organizations worldwide as a response to the profound impact of tourism on third world communities. It continues to work in collaboration with faiths-based and secular groups to promote socially, ecologically and ethically responsible tourism that benefits all. The Center for Responsible Tourism was established as a group in the United States that would participate in and disseminate the information of ECTWT (Ecumenical Coalition on Third World Tourism).
    CRT Center for Responsible Tourism built a membership and organized the work carried out by volunteers. It was first based in San Anselmo, California, later in Berkeley. Virginia Hadsell served as Director. A Board of Directors was formed and in 1988 CRT Center for Responsible Tourism was incorporated in California as a 501(c) non-profit corporation. CRT Center for Responsible Tourism under Hadsell's direction organized and held annual consultations on various themes. Members attended numerous tourism, child prostitution, and women's issues consultations, seminars, and workshops throughout Asia and Europe. Relations and correspondence with ECTWT headquarters and staff were closely maintained. Relations and coordination were maintained to varying degrees with a myriad of groups throughout the United States and the world with similar interests and missions. One such close relationship was with PEACE (Protecting Environment and Children Everywhere), a group in Sri Lanka directed by Maureen Seneviratne. CRT Center for Responsible Tourism produced and disseminated a newsletter Responsible Tourism and other informational materials, planned and held workshops and conferences, coordinated lectures and workshops with visiting people who worked in the field, and collected resources for research and public information.
    In 1990, participants at a tourism consultation in Thailand exposed the degree to which child prostitution was increasing in many Asian countries. The consultation ended with a determination to take action, and ECPAT, End Child Prostitution Asian Tourism, was established as a three-year campaign, 1990 - 1993, focusing on ending the commercial aspect of sexual exploitation of children. CRT Center for Responsible Tourism decided to become a participating organization in the campaign. They continued the work and expanded the name to the North America Coordinating Center for Responsible Tourism, NACCRT. Relations and correspondence were very strong with ECPAT, particularly the director, Ron O'Grady.
    Now using the same acronym, ECPAT, the organization name has changed to End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes. The early years were concentrated on expanding the campaign in Asia; defining its strategy; and establishing relationships. They held the first international consultation to assess the problem in Thailand, March 1992. It was agreed that the focus should not be limited to Asian countries, but should address the international scope of the problem. Links were forged with European NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and international organizations such as ECTWT. It was decided to continue ECPAT End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism for another 3-year period, 1994 - 1996. In 1996, partnering with UNICEF and the NGO Group for the Rights of the Child, ECPAT co-organized the World Congress Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) in Stockholm, Sweden. (See Box 12 File Folders 47 - 50 and Box 13 File Folders 1 - 4.) ECPAT then ceased to be a campaign regional to Asia, and became a global non-governmental organization (NGO) and network.
    CRT Center for Responsible Tourism participated in all phases of ECPAT's End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism evolution. By 1994, however, the NACCRT members were in disagreement as to the focus of the Center's mission, geographic span, and the groups with which it should partner. The Center splintered with members leaving and working on the focus in which each were interested. Some members stayed and continued the work in partnership with ECTWT and ECPAT End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism. The name reverted to the Center for Responsible Tourism, a program of which became known as Broken Bud. Hadsell, joined by Dorothy (Dody) Donnelly and later an intern, Diana Cabcabin, continued to operate the Center. The work tapered off through the late-1990s into the early-2000s. It cannot be determined an actual date when the Center for Responsible Tourism ceased operation.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The Collection was received already boxed in three segments containing several boxes in each segment. The first segment was picked up by Lucinda Glenn from Virginia Hadsell's house in Berkeley, California. The second and third segments were brought to the GTU Archives by Diana Cabcabin. CRT moved offices several times from the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California to various members' homes in the San Francisco Bay Area. Any original order the records may have had was destroyed by these moves. The majority of the material was not foldered, but in loose unrelated, unsorted paper piles. The loose materials have here been foldered and the file folders given headings by the processor. The arrangement was imposed by the processor.
    The work of the Center was for the most part to educate and inform First World, particularly North American, people to be sensitive to how tourism can have a negative impact on the visited country environmentally and culturally. It also educated and informed about the most negative impact in the form of tourism for sexual exploitation of children and women. The Center both sponsored and attended conferences, often called consultations, on many aspects of tourism, sexual exploitation, and environmental issues. They worked in partnership with several international organizations. They created, collected, and dispersed information on all topics appropriate to the Center's mission.
    The Collection has an overall division of two Series, each subdivided into Sub-Series which reflect the organization of the Center, and the resources the Center made available to members and the broader public for information and education. The Series are: 1) Administration (Sub-Series, 1-A Center for Responsible Tourism, 1-B End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism, 1-C Broken Bud, 1-D Groups (including: Related, in Partnership, and General); 2) Resources, (Sub-Series, 2-A Articles, 2-B Books, 2-C Brochures, 2-D Newsletters, 2-E Meetings, 2-F Presentations and Papers); 3) Audiotapes; 4) Videotapes.

    Arrangement

    The collection is divided into four series: Series 1) Administration with Sub-Series: 1-A Center for Responsible Tourism, 1-B End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism, 1-C Broken Bud, 1-D Groups (including: Related, in Partnership, and General); Series 2) Resources with Sub-Series, 2-A Articles, 2-B Books, 2-C Brochures, 2-D Newsletters, 2-E Meetings, 2-F Presentations and Papers); Series 3) Audiotapes; Series 4) Videotapes.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
    Sex tourism - Asia
    Child prostitution - Asia
    Tourism - Religious aspects
    Tourism - Environmental aspects
    Ecotourism
    Thailand - Prostitution
    Philippines - Prostitution
    Sri Lanka - Prostitution
    Korea - Prostitution
    Human trafficking - Asia
    Child trafficking - Asia
    Non-governmental organizations
    Church work with prostitutes
    Hadsell, Virginia
    Donnelly, Dody
    Seneviratne, Maureen
    O'Grady, Ron
    Cabcabin, Diana
    End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT)
    Ecumenical Coalition on Third World Tourism (ECTWT)