Issues In Tourism Sustainability Tourism Essay

This article aims to find out the likely implications of the global economy downturn currently faced by the world. The global economic cycle, which had been taken for granted to be uprising always after the boom period experienced by the world, has finally started showing signs of a downturn. All the major advanced economies of the world are already facing recession, and are expected to contract even more. For instance, even China which has huge reserves is showing a slowdown in its growth by 9%. The author tries to figure out how this change in economic cycle would affect tourism sustainability.

The major concern arising from this global economic downturn is the dilemma which the companies as well as the individuals face between long term sustainability and short term gains. Owing to the recession, the organizations will be keener to reduce their costs and secure immediate returns on their investments. They will likely not be interested to invest on the infrastructure, and training needed to make sustainable development, which may lead the society to face negative impacts of tourism.

But, many ecologists still believe that there is a scope for sustainability in this recession time as well. According to them, the returns can be increased by producing more environmental friendly products as they will increase their advantage over competition. The government also plays an important role in this regards. During recession, the government lays down certain schemes aiming at environmental improvement and public transport development, which can help develop sustainability in tourism. The author further sites examples of various great leaders of developed countries and their focus on sustainability in such recession periods as well.

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The way consumers behave during such economic downturn is also very important. For instance, owing to recession the consumers decide to spend less on their tours and travels. This can lead to a downfall in tourism industry, but at the same time gives scope for the development of carbon free destinations. But even these newly developed eco friendly places may be ignored by the consumer, which again leads the sustainability issue in trouble.

Thus, we can see that the impacts made by the global economic downturn on tourism sustainability cannot be assessed or justified as of now. Only the future can show us whether the ecologists’ theories can hold good or not. But to a large extent, the economic downturn is more or less expected to have negative impacts on tourism sustainability, which is a major issue owing to the importance of the tourism industry in supporting the global economy.

Article 2: Ecological footprint analysis as a tool to assess tourism sustainability

(Source: Gössling, S., Borgström Hanssonb, C., Hörstmeierc, O., and Saggeld, S. (2002), Ecological Economics, 43, 2-3, pp. 199-211)

Sustainable tourism has become extremely important now, with the realization that the tourism industry is growing rapidly and hence its environmental impact cannot be ignored anymore. In the past, many concepts have come up to understand the changes in the environment like CCC, LAC, EIA but their focus has been limited at the local level only. Even ecotourism, for that matter is a very local based concept. This article aims at assessing the sustainability in tourism and has chosen Seychelles, a republic of 115 islands in the south western Indian Ocean as their study site. Tourism began in the 1960s with the advancements in civil aviation. It suffered setbacks during the economic recession in European source markets and later because of the gulf wars. At every set back, be it major or minor, The Seychelles upgraded its facilities and got aggressively into marketing to ensure that there is not only the maintenance of their clientele but also a definite rise in the number of tourists.

The Seychelles is different in many ways from the other tropical countries. There is almost no crime, diseases like malaria do not exist, climate is uniform throughout the year and there are many unique varieties of birds and plants. There are many beaches and many hotel and lodging options for the tourists and the scenic beauty of the place is unmatched. Tourism is the second major source of foreign exchange earnings for The Seychelles and has made it one of the wealthiest nations in Africa. Hence, it becomes very crucial that the ecological sanctity is maintained. The Seychelles has taken steps in this regard. Approximately half of their land has been converted to protected areas. But it is seen that the sale of shark jaws, corals, shells as souvenirs are still huge and it is being increasingly reported that that some species of fishes are becoming rare because of such activities.

However, The Seychelles has taken control measures in the recent times to keep a check on the use of resources. One such control measure is the Ecological Footprints method. This method compares the population with the actual productive area available and its capacity to absorb the wastes produced by humans. This helps us estimate how many planet earths it would take to sustain the current lifestyles of people. This survey relates consumption with six components namely land, pasture, forest, sea space, built up land and fossil energy land. Special attention is given to flight emissions as the emission is closer to the ozone layer and hence the damage done is huge. However the data available for calculation is inadequate and as a result alot of assumptions and approximations are involved. Hence, there is a degree of uncertainty associated with the estimations and results.

With the increased competition amongst the airlines the advent of globalization, tourists are increasingly becoming aware of their importance as customers and the wide range of choices that they have in terms of their holiday destinations. The Seychelles are putting time, money and effort to make sure that they are the holiday destination for the high value end tourists. As it has about fifty percent of its land in protected areas, the economic activities are restricted in these areas and hence we see that there are huge opportunity costs. But these costs are compensated to a great extent by the revenues from tourism. One major aspect that Seychelles needs to look at is its contribution to global warming. If the level of global warming is not contained, it won’t be long before all the animals, in spite of living in protected areas, will perish. One very big advantage of tourism is that the small isolated islands import all the resources from other countries. In Seychelles, tourism has led to increased industrial production to meet the requirements of the local as well as tourist population. Hence, it is important that alternative and renewable sources for fuel be sought and unnecessary usage is restricted.

It has become important at this junction to integrate the travel abroad with the national footprint calculations. If we ponder on the question as to whether ecological footprint method is a good method to measure ecological sustainability, the answer to this cannot be surely known. EFA needs a lot of data for analysis and the way we value lands and other resources are pretty subjective. The calculations are pretty complex and are dependent on detailed statistical information.

EFA, in itself is not sufficient for calculation of sustainability, but when used with other analysis tools, it can definitely present a better picture. Thus, we have to realise that if corrective measures are not taken after the analysis, the whole objective is lost. It is important that people restrict their domain of leisure else it will not be long before basic sustainability will also become a big question. People should be made aware of what they have to lose if they do not restrict their extravagance as far as the environment is concerned.

Article 3: Sustainable Tourism in Goa (A pictorial view of tourism)

(Source: Dr. Nirmala De Abreu, Conference on Tourism in India – Challenges Ahead, 15-17 May 2008, IIMK)

The impact of tourism and the importance of tourism sustainability in Goa have been discussed in this article. Goa, also known as the “Rome of the East”, has become a favorite tourist destination over the years, for tourists from all over the world owing to its natural beauty. Tourism plays an important part in the economy of this state located in the western part of India. But the infrastructure of the state and various other impacts of tourism have led to focus on the issue of tourism sustainability.

Goa is the leading state in India in terms of the tourists, both foreigner and domestic, which visit this state. It is a great tourist attraction place because of the several types of tourism possible in the state, namely, beach tourism, adventure tourism, wildlife tourism etc. But owing to the increasing tourism, the natural beauty of this state is being continuously affected drastically owing to the negative impacts of tourism. Tourism has led to the damage of the flora and fauna of Goa over the years. It has also led to the depletion of natural resources, especially water, which is the key attraction factor of Goa. Increasing tourism has also led to an increase in the hotels, which in turn puts additional pressure on the land. Moreover, the pollution caused by increasing tourism has badly affected the habitats and the culture of the state. Even the local culture of Goa has been badly influenced by tourism.

But tourism, being the major contributor to the financial economy of Goa as well as a major source of the generation of employment in the state, needs to be taken a lot of care. This has led the government to focus on the sustainability of tourism in Goa to a large extent. The government has also laid down Tourism Policy and has also laid down various guidelines for tourism development, which strictly need to be followed in order to achieve sustainability in tourism.

The author, Dr. Nirmala De Abreu, has also proposed certain recommendations which according to her can lead to tourism sustainability in Goa. She recommends training the guides and the local people in Goa so as to increase hospitality among them. She also recommends enhancing the safety of the tourists, especially women, so as to make Goa a safer place for tourists from all over the world. And also according to her, Goa needs to focus on diversifying its area of tourism. Although Goa has got various forms of tourism as stated above, but still the main focus is laid on beach tourism which is the most popular in Goa. But by diversifying its areas of tourism, it can attract tourists of various other interests as well.

Thus, we see that this article lays emphasis on the issue of tourism sustainability in Goa, which is one of the most favourite tourist destinations in India for tourists all over the world. The increasing negative impacts of tourism have led the government to lay focus on the issue of tourism sustainability. Tourism industry being the major contributor to Goa’s economy needs to be made more sustainable as discussed throughout the article. Hence, the argument raised by the author regarding the sustainability of tourism in Goa is of great importance.

Article 4: Heading into uncharted territory? Exploring the institutional robustness of self regulation in the Antarctic tourism sector

(Source: Daniela Haase, Machiel Lamers and Bas Amelung, Journal of Sustainable Tourism Vol. 17, No. 4, July 2009, 411-430)

Who doesn’t cherish seeing the beauty of the nature? And if you see dramatic landscape, pristine wilderness and undisturbed wildlife, that very moment becomes memorable. This pristine natural beauty (the attraction towards nature can be qualified as commons) can be seen in Antarctica but that also is diminishing with the increase in number of tourist flocking that area. There is always a danger of wildlife being disturbed and natural beauty getting spoiled on increasing the number of tourist and it also reduces the quality of tourism. It can also affect the ongoing research activities there. This kind of situation is very difficult to avoid though not impossible and can be handled by sustainable tourism.

If we look at the problems the world is facing, many of them are caused by commons and some of the problems are deforestation, overfishing, climate change etc. This is really difficult to control because of rational behaviour (self interest) of individuals and rational group behaviour over shared resources. So there is a need of well formed rules and regulations or we can say tourism sustainability. Main focus should be on the strength and weaknesses of Antarctic tourism. It requires in depth knowledge about all self organised resource users and their functioning.

Antarctica tourism management is a self organisation and majority of Antarctic tour operators come under International Association of Antarctica Tour operators (IAATO). They have been very crucial in maintaining safety and environmental sensitivities. There are many guidelines put forward by the IAATO which are practical and consistent in nature. Though IAATO is working fine in present scenario because of benefits that it offers to the members but it may not be so in future when increase in the number of tourists and changing circumstances will make lead tour operators believe that it’s not advantageous to stay with the IAATO.

Many countries have signed Antarctic Treaty system (ATS) but then also to build a robust system for self organization and a framework to handle commons, a set of rules is needed which can be built on assessment of following:

Define the boundaries clearly so that every individuals and group know their resource domain. Antarctica is mainly known for its wilderness space and a clear interest to visit easily accessible site with abundant wildlife is prominent among tourist. So to protect space IAATO follows the rule of allowing one ship, one place and one moment principal which creates problem for lead operator in booking for a favourable place.

There should be proportional equivalence between benefits and costs which is in accordance with local conditions, materials, money inputs etc.

Those people who have direct relation with harvesting and protection rules should be given the right to modify the rules. Every decision is taken after consulting the committee members. This has resulted in rapid development in the tourism sector. But with the increasing number of committee members there is a chance of disagreement and thus guidelines can go for a revision.

Monitoring the situations actively and studying the nature’s behaviour helps maintain the transparency as members keep an eye on other members. If any misuse is done then matter is reported to the governing committee.

Strict actions should be taken against those who violate rules in use and they should receive graduated sanctions.

There should conflict resolution mechanisms present in the system to prevent conflict among users or between officials and users.

Everything should be organized under one roof so that appropriation, provision, monitoring, governance activities etc are organised under one roof and thus not letting anything get lost in the complex geographical nature of Antarctica.

Thus we see that, in order to preserve the natural beauty of Antarctica it is necessary to go for tourism sustainability. This article states the various negative impacts that tourism has on the natural beauty of Antarctica. The guidelines towards sustainable tourism, which are given in the article can be very effective in preserving the naturality of Antarctica, and help it remain a tourist- attraction destination.

Article 5: Sustainability indicators for managing community tourism

(Source: HwanSuk, Choia, and Sirakayab, E. (2006), Tourism Management, 27, 6, December, pp. 1274-1289)

With the advent of globalization, technological advancements and advances in transportation, tourism has grown by leaps and bounds. The growth in tourism has had many positive effects as far as job has wealth creation is concerned. But the flip side is also very powerful. Lack of planned growth in tourism has led to degradation of the natural, cultural as well as the social environments. Hence, we see the emergence of the concept of sustainable development in place of the traditional concept of economic development. This concept was accepted by all, but, the scope of sustainable development in tourism is still very limited.

No country is aware as to how to apply and monitor the concepts of sustainable development in tourism. They are not aware of the indicators that need to be used and how to track and monitor the few indicators that they are aware of. Sustainable community tourism (SCT) points out many new indicators for sustainable tourism. Apart from economic, ecological and socio- cultural, it now considers political and technological dimensions also. Sustainable tourism must be economically feasible but it must be kept in mind at all times that the amount of natural resources is fast depleting and must be preserved for future generation. Also there should be respect for and pride in the community residents so that they can live happy lives. The government should involve the locals in the decision making towards SCT to ensure that the benefits of SCT are experienced at all levels of the community. The impact of technology and the role it can play for SCT is enormous. The internet can be used for marketing the place and educating the customers about it, on a much wider base. Apart from that, more eco friendly vehicles can also be developed. Lack of statistical data and indicators was a big problem. And hence emerged the concept of Social indicators, but it was unfortunate that most of the indicators could not be used for tourism.

But since the efforts had been taken, there was an unmistakable positive effect on development of tourism indicators as well. Now, there has been a lot of planning and planning and research done, but the monitoring and control of the policies is still a big problem. Everyone has to realize that sustainable monitoring system is not and cannot be same as traditional monitoring system which focuses on economic growth and development only. Sustainable monitoring system aims at improving the quality of life for the present as well as the future generation, not only in terms of wealth, but also on the socio-cultural front. The complexity and interdependence of the indicators of SCT demand that they be treated separately from the traditional indicators. All parts of the community should be involved and each and every aspect like economic, social, cultural, technological and ecological should be covered. The right kind of political support is a must for the system to work. Proper involvement of all stakeholders and transparency in the entire process is crucial. The number of indicators should be manageable and implementable and the entire process must be carried out systematically. The system must be dynamic, economically viable and must be able to predict and warn about future threats.

To develop such indicators, the Delphi technique was followed. The panel members selected, although small in number, were experts in the field of sustainable development. Several rounds were carried out and chances of biasness were eliminated as far as possible. At the end of the entire process, one hundred and twenty five indicators were identified under the six dimensions. Out of the one hundred and twenty five, twenty four indicators were identified for the economic dimension of which the main ones were leakage of tourism income and the strength of the local owned businesses. Twenty seven dimensions were identified for the social dimension and the main stress was on satisfaction and health of the tourists and the local people. The political category was deemed important and had thirty two indicators. It emphasized on control policy, effective communication between the government and the local community. There were only three indicators in the technological category and they were for data collection, adopting low impact technologies and benchmarking.

All these indicators were classified into three categories namely, checklist indicators, core indicators and indicator issues. The checklist indicators helped the local community identify the current status of their resources in the areas of human resources, policies and regulations, planning and education and funding. In order to maximise the involvement of the local people, they should be provided access to information and good channels to communicate their views and ideas. The regulations and legislations should be passed at the national and international levels to ensure compliance and function as a guideline for the local authorities. It is also important to realize that regular funding to maintain and develop infrastructure and local industries is crucial, especially in rural communities and developing counties. Proper education to the tourists and other stakeholders is a must to make them aware of the region and its expectations. This will help avoid conflicts and develop a better understanding of the regions being visited. The sustainability criteria must be specific to each region. What maybe an apt indicator for one region may not work for another. The indicators used depend on the size of the region, the circumstances, the level of funding, the involvement of government and the likes.

Thus, before choosing the indicators, the opinions of experts should be sought and integrated with all the other micro indicators. The importance of residents’ involvement is magnanimous. They will help craft the indicators, their application, monitoring and control. One thing that has to be kept in mind is that every indicator is dynamic and needs to be regularly updated. Also the indicators used for a region will change over time. The constant and voluntary involvement of all stakeholders is crucial to ensure that the sustainable community tourism is attained and a constant monitoring of all the indicators is maintained.

Article 6: Managing Sustainable Tourism In Lithuania: Dream or Reality

(Source: Dainora Grundey, Technological and Economic Development, 2008, 14(2): 118-129)

Lithuania, a country in northern Europe is known for its tourist spots. Tourism though economically very beneficial, sometimes can cause environmental concern or hamper cultural growth. So in order to get the maximum benefits from tourism there is a need for good planning or sustainable development. Initially no attention was paid on quality and real purpose while going for strategic planning for that region. Now a lot of attention is paid on that because strategy planning forms the base for development of tourism in Lithuania and it helps to compete in international market of tourism. While doing strategic planning, attention is paid on its geographic features, population, religion, nature and development of society, towns, region at national, regional and international level.

Sustainable development deals with economical, environmental and social aspects of development which is aimed towards making life better. Here infrastructure is designed keeping in mind the impact it can have on economical, social, ethical level and also on future generations’ prospect. Everything ranging from positive to negative effects on all social, cultural, economical, ecological should be paid attention to. It works with the cooperation from all different public, private groups which are directly or indirectly involved with the tourism.

While going for sustainable development in tourism one has to look after the following factors like ecological sustainability which means that the development is in harmony with the environment. It is not disturbing the very nature and is not causing a major problem. It should be economically sound so that future generation can also use it. It should have local sustainability which means that it should support local environment, societies. It should have culture sustainability which means that the local culture must not get destroyed but should get support and enrich the life of people.

Sustainable development has got many different forms defined by speed, strength, level and field. Public institutions, nonprofit organization and private sector, tourism infrastructure, tourists, government and investors all are part of sustainable development in tourism and thus influence it. Any action taken to develop tourism in Lithuania must be compatible with ecological, cultural, economic, social and economical development of the environment.

While solving a scientific problem one must look at the factors affecting the development and its influence on the society. The main task of research is to give more attention to the influence, possibility of application and assumption of the sustainable development in Lithuania.

In order to achieve sustainable tourism in Lithuania one must pay attention to the following points:

Tourism should be taken as a positive entity which can benefit the society. There should be development in service sector, industrial sector and agricultural sector.

Special attention should be paid to conserve natural resources and protect them for further use by future generation. Historical identity and culture should be preserved and there should be unity between different generations and there should be equality in social area.

Environment should be paid attention to so that there should be balance between environment and ecosystems.

Careful attention should be paid on not breaking the principal of sustainable tourism development so that it may not have any negative impact on the society and environment. A rapid progress is being done in the field of tourism infrastructure like building of hotels, restaurants or camps which can destroy the natural resources. So tourism development must be done in an organised and planned manner.

Everyone, members of tourism, local government and environment must not break any principal of sustainable tourism development because to develop the quality of tourism, all principal must be applied in a correct manner.

Thus, we can conclude that Lithuania can be highly developed if proper attention is paid to all the problems, distribution of natural resource, analysis done at a regular interval, effective strategies applied and at all the principals of sustainable development. If properly followed, the dream of sustainable tourism in Lithuania can easily be turned into reality.

Article 7: Sustainable tourism innovation: Challenging basic assumptions

(Source: Gianna Moscardo, Tourism and Hospitality Research (2008) VOL. 8, 4 – 13.)

The importance of innovation in sustainable tourism is the main area of discussion of the article. According to the author, one always needs to innovate on the idea so as to increase the output and maintain a proper growth in the market. Innovation is the driving force for the development of anything in this world and as such is the much needed factors for growth. This paper is mainly focused on the new and innovative ways to develop tourism and make it more sustainable.

Innovation by the way does not merely mean to develop a new product; rather it has got a much wider picture. So for tourism to innovate does not mean just to develop newer product. There should be constant change in the idea also to make it grow always. A good tourism can help a lot to develop the region where it is being carried out. According to several people there are negative consequences of tourism. They include-

A reverse impact on the local culture and tradition

Destruction of heritage property

No return business for the region

Interference in local activities

Restriction form the use of land and other property for regional development

This is due to above reasons the government and several other tourism related companies have proposed two tourism techniques, namely eco tourism and community based tourism. Out of these two, community based tourism option can be very beneficial as this type of tourism involves native people who help in deciding the tourism structure for the particular region. But in some areas it has proved to be negative and as such is mainly governed by the political party or any NGO. The main problem with this is that the local people may not speak openly due to several constraints. Whereas, in community based tourism the external agent or NGO plays an important role rather than the local people. This is also due to fact of their inability to participate and contribute to the idea of maintaining sustainable tourism growth.

Sustainable tourism is all about maintaining the continuity of tourism rather than hoping for the outcome. The topic has become a main topic of discussion among government and has gathered much attention in recent times. It should be quite clear while discussing about the tourism whether it is helping the society to grow or is helping it to decline. Having clear idea and conception is the key to develop and maintain sustainable tourism development and industry in the region.

One cannot think of tourism as the separate matter to discuss when it comes to sustainable growth of the region. There are mainly three factors which lead to create confusion among sustainable tourism development and Tourism development for sustainable growth in the region. The first is to think tourism as separate parameter from other activities. The second one is the availability of several tourism plans leading to confusion and third is the less involvement of local stakeholders and people in development of tourism. Considering above assumption and criteria, Devuyst and Hens proposed that- to sustain a growth in the market it is inevitable to innovate newer ideas and ways. So there should be drastic change in the way the people think to develop tourism to maintain sustainable tourism.

There are three types of synergies between other activities and tourism they are- Product synergies, Market Synergies and Marketing Synergies. Product synergies focus on the facilities which are shared between tourism and other activities of the society. So it is the best idea to develop infrastructure for tourism as such that it can be used in some other work in case of decline in the tourism sector. The market synergies suppose tourist as a customer for buying particular item form the region. The main challenge is just to provide the sufficient product so that it can be very well utilized by the common people as well as tourist. Marketing Synergies is just focused on the evolution and creation of mass awareness of tourism among local people for developing the region.

The main idea of the article is to think tourism as the tool to develop other sectors of the market like agriculture product, crafts, hospitality industries etc. So the only way to bring this change is to change in two aspects of tourism. One is to develop various ways for assessment criteria and other one is to constant monitoring on sustainability of the industry. Thus to start up with the pace of growth of tourism sector one need to clear that whether the tourist can be easily attracted to the particular place or do the current infrastructure can further help in the development of the tourism sector or do the tourism is helping non tourist of the area to get benefited from the department etc.

Thus, the article tries to lay emphasis on how innovation in tourism can lead to sustainability in tourism. The author has mainly tried to convey that how innovation can lead to the development in tourism as well as other related fields to sustain a growth in the tourism department so as to help a development in the market.

Article 8: TRANSITIONS TO SUS

 

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