Sustainability in Tourism - Essay Example

?Introduction Tourism is among the world’s fastest growing sectors and contributes to economic, environmental and socio-cultural benefits in many countries. Tourism brings economic value in the form of revenue generation, constant foreign exchange; moreover, tourism remains a means of diversifying the economy. Socio-culturally, tourism offers employment opportunity, offers local culture the opportunity to be widely appreciated, and results in cross-cultural interactions with other nations. Moreover, the natural environment benefits from tourism through green taxes, induction of environmentally friendly practices through tourism facilities that promotes a level of aestheticism and happiness. Tourism remains a panacea of sustainable development in many nations; hence, different nations promote various forms of tourism. Sustainable tourism development relies on the premise of sustainability because it takes into consideration the resource base that currently exist and utilization of those resources in a way that the resource base for future generations are not damaged. Moreover, sustainable tourism encourages fairness and equity in order to create a win-win situation in stakeholders involved in the sector. Sustainability develops from the premise of three pillars that need to be satisfied and they include the natural environment, the economy and socio-economic benefits. For sustainability in tourism, the environment is paramount to any form of business and development and is the responsibility of everyone including developers who design and engage in supporting the infrastructure. Tourism follow established guidelines and regulatory framework in order to conform to social and economic as well as environmental standards in an attempt to embrace environmentally friendly practices. The study evaluates sustainable development within tourism and particularly the tour and accommodation businesses that offer tourist accommodation and transport and their contribution to sustainability in tourism. Sustainability in Tourism Tour and accommodation businesses within tourism industry embrace initiatives like, use of environmentally friendly products, use of energy efficient equipment in hotels, natural, lighting, reuse of wastewater and managing waste are some of the great efforts within tourism that go a long way in preserving the environment for future generations. By engaging in environmental good practices, businesses influence tourists by their efforts and follow the practices of locals in maintaining the environment. Through continuous foreign exchange brought about by the sustainable tourism, emerge positive spill-off effects that contribute in job creation, entrepreneurial ventures and links sectors. In the 21st century, businesses in the sector face the challenge of coming up with different ways of doing things in the business because there is no need of having healthy businesses without healthy society and environment; hence, the tour and accommodation business steps up to the challenge by integrating cooperate social responsibility and environmental sustainability (Benady, 2013). Given the nature of tourism and its fragility, the industry focuses on sustainability as well as sustainable tourism development by addressing the challenges of traffic congestion and engaging in strategic marketing and reforming legislation so that players in the industry comply. The paper presents a framework concerning sustainable development that takes into consideration the satisfaction of all stakeholders (Ramgulam, Raghunandan-Mohammed and Raghunandan, 2013). The significance of sustainability models witnessed increased recognition in areas of science and politics as the world faces several economic, environmental and social challenges. Tour and accommodation like other sectors that have witnessed the increase of experienced economy and skilled consumption, has undergone main transformation. The rapid development of cultural tourism has caused problems and there are signs that cultural tourism is falling prey to its own success. Increased numbers of tourists both in major and small communities raise concerns regarding the sustainability of tourism because historic centres suffer from “vicious circle” that attract large numbers of tourists resulting in degradation. Moreover, in search of uniqueness in cultural tourism, various places follow similar approaches, which resulted in making the different places feel and look alike. Therefore, the industry faces the challenge searching for different ways of articulating culture and tourism in order to help sustain thelocal culture instead of degrading it (Mowforth and Munt, 2003). Creativity in tourism has the ability of responding to the desires of cultural tourism by reinventing the industry as well as the need of tourist destinations to be different in a saturated market. This in return enhances the opportunity of a tourist learning new skills and establishing a connection with the local population and their cultural heritage. Few studies explore the connection between sustainability and creative tourism development; although, this is not surprising considering that creative tourism was initiated recently and many of those initiatives operating across the globe are in early development. During the early growth of group tourism, the crucial value of holidays for scores of people included the feature of conferring particular status to holidays. However, as holidays became part of everyday life, the emphasis shifted to what an individual saw or even did on holidays; however, currently people are being exhausted by a series of standardised sights or activities. Evidence suggest a distinction between current modes of tourism and creative tourism lies in moving toward transformation by tourism experience instead of just consuming goods and services. The concept of creative tourism indicates a level of co-creation between visitors and locals; hence, this mode of tourism is visible where visitors, service providers and local community exchange skills and ideas, which influence each other (Korez-Vide, 2013). The growth of tour and accommodation business and its environmental, social and cultural influences have increased calls for great levels of sustainability because tourism contributes about 5% of emissions that aggravate climate change. The forecast presents a major environmental and societal challenge for the future, which in return challenges the notion of sustainable tourism. Based on the notion of critical carrying capacity, sustainability in tour and accommodation from the perspective of destination requires a complete-system approach in considering the cumulative negative impacts. Transport’s contribution to tourism negative ecological impact is likely to increase despite the availability of environmentally superior performance of new aircraft. Sustainable tourism considers the physical environment as well as socio-cultural values; in addition, impacts on physical environment are inexorably connected to influences in communities because there is a link between environment and poverty. Therefore, tour and accommodation business face the challenge of looking for solutions through global agreements; as well as the challenge of expanding intersection between socio-ecological problems and consumption and developing conditions for sustainable products. However, the main concern for tour and accommodation business involves taking into consideration the wide complex systems that do not merely consider the destination-level management issues but also the connections generated in the tour and accommodation value chain in tourism (Solene, 2011; Higham, 2007). Sustainability within the industry is often considered a concept charged with power and surrounded by controversy on who defines the concept and the way it ought to be achieved. Nevertheless, for sustainability to be realised in the industry, the industry will have to be value-laden and open to interpretation. However, the key to sustainable tour and accommdation does not necessarily involve continuous introduction of small-scale, environmentally and culturally suitable forms of tourism but rather making existing mass tourism development sustainable. Therefore, sustainability in tourism highlights the huge challenge for the industry in shifting relevance from small-scale to mass tourism, which indicates that sustainable development in tour and accommodation can be considered in the context of a whole system instead of being considered solely on destination level. Tourism being an economic activity implies that tour and accommodation business is part of the broad notion of sustainable development that meets the current needs without compromising the future generations to meet their needs. Taking whole-system approach signifies the industry to be a phenomenon that consists of human, industry and spatial elements that interact with surrounding macro-environments. Value chain in tourism is created as tourists move from their origin to the destinations helped by the industry’s elements that include the tour and accommodation businesses. Tourism value chain, similar to other service experiences creates value as the consumer goes through the supply chain to the product, which is the destination; therefore, value in tour and accommodation is weighed in terms of its contribution to the consumer as well as overall environmental integrity, social equity and economic prosperity (Blowfield, 2013). Hence, sustainability in tour and accommodation business reduces the harm that is simultaneously created along with the creation of value for tourist. Various development models have been provided that include holistic planning and strategic decisions; preservation of crucial ecological processes; protection of human heritage and biodiversity; and growth that can be sustained in the long-term. However, responsible tourism promotes a close look at issues concerning intra-generational equity as well as active involvement of stakeholders and tourism management in encouraging meaningful, respectful and enriching experiences for locals and tourists. Taking social and environmental responsibility, various authors indicate that stakeholders in the tour and accommodation business to be willing to engage in changes (Pomering, Noble and Johnson, 2011; Buckley, 2011). Environmental Sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) Critics have for a long time deride the way some companies including tour and accommodation businesses in tourism cloak themselves in cooperate social responsibility as little more than a public relations stunt because there is plenty of ‘green wash’ cooked up by the organization’s spin doctors to sell more products. However, sustainability in the industry covers various areas because it works toward environmental sustainability while encouraging positive relations with stakeholders and preserving as well as supporting widespread human rights. Many organizations in the past considered climate issues as another form of corporate social responsibility issue mostly peripheral to the business. While social and environmental issues are sides of the same coin representing economic development, the issues often require different considerations. Businesses within tour and accommodation industry are confronted by a broad spectrum of corporate social responsibility and sustainability-driven initiatives; therefore, businesses have to base investments on great rationale for competitiveness. Currently, although there has been increased awareness in sustainability, some executives remain uncertain on what sustainability entails in their businesses and crucially what the executives can do about sustainability. In the past, sustainability was considered not profitable and dominated mind-sets and literature until recently when sustainable development was found to be profitable (Orsato, 2009). From the perspective of business and environmentalist, it is clear the scope of win-win scenario is narrower than many businesses consider it to be; however, some tour and accommodation businesses that embrace the scope have been able to generate competitive advantage. Therefore, sustainability is similar to other issues in business since profitability of investment relies on internal and external contexts of an organization. Hence, to restore a balance between individuals who promote and those against sustainability, firms in tour and accommodation industry face the challenge of identifying when environmental investments pay. Moreover, the argument that there are conditional returns does not mean that organizations in the sector should do little in protecting the natural ecosystem but rather firms have to undoubtedly deploy ambitious social goals and economic activities expected by the public. Corporate responsibility in tour and accommodation business serves as a steward in society because businesses have a duty to investors, employees, consumers, communities and the environment (Donaldson and Dunfee, 1994). This propels businesses in the tour and accommodation business to refer to the field of business ethics that usually refer to systems of ethics applied within the framework of profit-oriented institutions. Various explanations argue that business ethics offers a framework upon which corporate responsibility bases on and is often concerned with behaviour of individuals as members of a corporation and the wide society (Fisher and Lovell, 2009). In some economic sectors like tourism, values remain unsatisfactory way of considering corporate responsibility because values encourage the notion that responsibility is an end instead of considering it a way of thinking regarding the role of business. The widely used model for social responsibility offer different aspects of social responsibility that include economic, legal, ethical and discretionary responsibilities. These are means through which businesses manage relations with the wide society and embrace the notion that companies are value-based organizations through incorporation of ethical as well as discretionary responsibilities within which values is apparent. Therefore, firms in the tour and accommodation business have to go beyond the notion of corporate responsibility to emphasise the significance of legal responsibility because they make clear that such businesses have obligations even when there is no legal compulsion. This is the meaning of economic responsibility where responsibility is described not only in terms of making profit for shareholders but also in terms of generating goods and services necessary in the society (Crane, Matten and Crane, 2007). Recurring criticism of corporate responsibility involves attempts to engineer benefits of organizations, which is wrong because in free enterprise system and performing CSR in a law abiding and ethical manner means businesses contribute to society. Moreover, the criticism is connected to the perceived problem of an organization having many objective functions, which make an organization to have unclear definition of good performance. Nevertheless, perhaps the most basic responsibility an organization toward the society is obeying the law; therefore, no matter the level of innovative corporate responsibility the fact remains that the basic expectation of a business is making profit within the law. Hence, in the 21st century there are local, national and international laws set out with regard to employment, environment protection, human rights, corruption and product safety. Besides, there are strong reasons indicating that corporate social responsibility is more than just compliance with set legislation because since the 19th century companies sought to do more than just meeting the statutory obligation, because they considered their actions to be socially beneficial. Hence, for firms within tour and accommodation business, corporate social responsibility goes beyond the law and the essential part of discretionary responsibility in businesses involves the notion of “giving back” to the society through philanthropy. The environmental dimension in businesses within tourism sector have always been recognised and their significance and management of nature in order to attain commercial goals (Mill, n.d). However, there is need to manage the environment upon which firms in the tour and accommodation industry develop because in many cases the environment is considered for its exploitation by firms in the industry resulting in pollution, resource depletion and contamination, which is often the price of economic prosperity. Nevertheless, the current emphasis on financial as well as environmental benefits takes into account sustainability, which marks a significant step toward corporate responsibility in the tour and accommodation business within the tourism industry. In tourism, the term eco-friendly is widely used to highlight that there is no need to trade-off between business and the environment; therefore, as sustainability in tour and accommodation business becomes a main issue, companies within the sector and in the 21st century face the challenge of developing new ways of production. As well, this involves the society by considering what it needs from commercial enterprises in the sector a concern that is gaining widespread attention as organizations consider the catastrophic consequences of global climate change (Blowfield and Murray, 2008). Sustainability encourages businesses in tour and accommodation to think in terms of increasing economic, social and environmental value; however, the three dimensions that indicate a company’s relation to sustainable develop prove difficult because there is a tendency of considering each separately. Nevertheless, there are other ways of conceptualising sustainability such as the natural step a model that involves understanding the sustainable ecological systems within the tour and accommodation business context. However, some tour and accommodation businesses look at the environmental policies and consider the status quo to be rosy resulting in mere labelling of ideal suggestions regarding the conservation of the environment (Schaltegger, Burritt and Petersen, 2003). Moreover, other businesses desire relaxation of environmental standards asserting that the problems have been exaggerated and that financial resources could be used in creating jobs or even lowering taxes. Addressing the environmental issues within tour and accommodation business in the tourism sector with the aim of attaining economic efficiency, improves even the simplistic views regarding maximization of production and minimization of pollution (Olson, 2010). For instance, irresponsible maximisation of production in the hotel industry would result in the decrease of society welfare because the quest for output would mean smoke-black skies, failing health, end of leisure time and eradication of wildlife, which are crucial for the tour and accommodation business (Brown and Brown, 2009). The 21st century consumer looks for products and services that address global warming and that are environmentally conscious. Therefore, demand for environmentally friendly products spur new product service strategies and fresh business models in the tourism sector. Hence, for tour and accommodation businesses to mitigate risks, they offer environmentally friendly products while mitigating reputation risk by establishing themselves as environmental stewards, which make such organizations socially responsible (Anderson, 2010). Hence, tour and accommodation firms in the industry have come up with sophisticated methods of assessing product lifecycle in order to understand environmental impact of their products and services to the environment (Pearce, 2006). With the change of innovation the in the 21st century, there has been tension and confusion regarding sustainability and on whether some phenomena are more hype than fact. In conclusion, sustainability in the tour and accommodation sector involves meeting the current needs of the present generation while ensuring that the process of attaining them never compromises the ability of future generation to attain their needs. The notion of oneness with nature demonstrates humanity’s role in being the custodian of the planet; although, other humans consider natural resources as infinite source of capital that can be exploited with impunity. The current unprecedented combination of population, technological innovation, wealth creation and capital enabled companies to exploit resources than before, results in consideration of natural resources as things, that can be preserved and management. This change of thinking in tourism makes it consider sustainable development for both the current generation and future generation through corporate sustainability that creates long-term shareholder value while embracing opportunities and managing risks from economic, environmental and social developments. Therefore, sustainability in the tour and accommodation business in 21st century involves systematic changes in ways that seem likely to influence the well-being of the planet, business and the human life. Bibliography Anderson, D. A. 2010. Environmental economics and natural resource management.New York, NY, Routledge. Benady, D 2013, 'Reinventing sustainability', Marketing (00253650), pp. 26-27. Blowfield, M. 2013. 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