Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

International regime literature shows the significance of global civil society’s emergence. This approach adopts a perspective that includes non-state actors in the form of global public policy networks that create the public-private sector alliance called ‘global governance’. Its mechanisms are international regimes and norm diffusion where the latter has become a global governance alternative across a wide range of issue areas. Meanwhile, civil society groups have now been more positively recognized regarding their involvement in the implementation and monitoring of regime laws. These groups often campaign for the negotiation of international agreements leading to regime creation making them norm entrepreneurs. Norms originate from ideas turning into collective expectations and this begins at the domestic level and then international level. But is it possible that norms can emerge from the international regime level and then diffused domestically by civil society groups making them regime entrepreneurs instead of norm entrepreneurs? At the core of international regimes are environmental issues and tourism is one area where international bodies like the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) have given attention in recent decades. Tourism is an environmental issue because it depends largely on natural resources. The UNWTO conducted and engaged itself in numerous conferences addressing tourism’s sustainability, and has come up with a set of formalized norms for sustainable tourism embodied in the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism (GCET), an evolving regime. This study reviews the roles of selected civil society groups in the Philippines, Japan, and Thailand as regime entrepreneurs of the GCET.