The Impact of E-tourism on Libyas Tourism Industry - Research Proposal Example

The Impact of E-tourism on Libya's Tourism Industry 0 Background of the Study Recognized as one of the pillars of the s economy in future,the tourism industry has been playing a very important role in Libya. The rapid increase of tourism can be attributed by the government's support and encouragement. In order to maintain the tourism industry's striking performance, Libya's government has spared no effort to promote the country as a travel destination. The budget for extensive promotions has increased year by year. Large amounts of money have also been spent in the construction of various tourism infrastructures. However, limited attention has been paid to the invaluable physical and cultural heritage of the country. The sudden increase of travel to the country from different parts of the world has resulted in enormous pressure on the natural environment. Negative impacts due to recreational activities within the country parks have occurred. Littering was one of the impacts caused by recreational activities. Refuse throughout the parks, as well heaped in rubbish bins was a common occurrence. In addition, animals' lives were also threatened by so-called ecotourism activities, which were organized by local travel agencies. Since this time, the government became aware the ecotourism market and the invaluable ecotourism resources in the country could serve as alternative attractions for visitors. The government cannot rely only on the man-made tourism infrastructure to retain the visitor number, as limited land is available for the construction of new tourism facilities. These facilities, on the contrary, may not be able to perform earn their keep because of the increasing number of visitors. Thus, man-made infrastructures are not necessarily a cost effective way to develop tourism in the country. 2.0 Significance of the Study The present study will not only demonstrate an effective tool for ecotourism planning, but also will help in assessing and identifying potential ecotourism destinations, which conformed to eco-tourists' preferences, to facilitate ecotourism development in Libya. The assessment has provided a comprehensive understanding of the invaluable ecotourism resources within the country to identify the best suitable locations for ecotourism development. The study may be considered as a pioneer in ecotourism planning in Libya, especially in its application of ecotourism planning, which aims at filling the knowledge gap on ecotourism research. Despite the likely uncertainties and limitations, the study will offer a relatively comprehensive approach in assisting decision making for ecotourism planning. The study will also result in a better understanding of ecotourism resources, and where they are located. Comprehensive recommendations are also given to improve the approaches and strategies for the destinations management. The understanding and recommendations contained in this report would provide essential information and advice for related departments in the government, to improve their ecotourism development strategies in the country. 3.0 Statement of the Problem The outbreak of eco-tourism passion triggered to the emerging needs for ecotourism products, as people believed that participation in outdoor activities could help to improve their health. Many travel agencies then started to package local tours in the name of ecotourism. These inappropriate tourism activities did not fit with the principles of ecotourism, but caused tremendous negative impacts to the natural environment. Many ecologically sensitive hotspots have been swarmed with visitors. This caused a far-reaching impact, which deteriorated the ecological value of the sites. Although the government has noted this issue, nothing has been done to stop and control such unhealthy development. Regulations may, therefore, be set in order to restrict humans' impact on the environment. To search for the most appropriate ecotourism planning and management approach in Libya, extensive research is needed. However, little research has been done on this aspect. This research project is a comprehensive study of the situation of ecotourism development in Libya. The results of the projects could pinpoint the eco-tourists' perceptions toward ecotourism products and destinations, as well as ecotourism development in the country. 4.0 Research Questions What are the tourists' and local citizens' perceptions toward the ecotourism development of Libya What are the eco-tourists' preferences regarding ecotourism products and destinations Are the ecotourism resources good enough to support ecotourism development Where are the suitable regions for ecotourism destinations in Libya How can the sector manage the identified ecotourism sites to maximize benefits and minimize harms How can the sector plan and manage the ecotourism development in Libya effectively What kinds of ecotourism policies should be considered to facilitate wise use of the natural environment in a sustainable manner 5.0 Research Objectives To understand the potential of ecotourism development in Libya, as well as the demand among visitors To understand the behavior of tourists and local citizens toward the development of ecotourism in Libya To develop a comprehensive and objective evaluation methodology to rate and identify potential sites for the development of ecotourism in Libya with the help of Geographical Information Systems To develop a nation-wide policy, a planning and management strategy for a long-term plan of ecotourism development in Libya To develop an ecotourism accreditation and certificate system for the ecotourism industry in Libya 6.0 Literature Review Ecotourism is one of those terms that have been the subject of academic debate for the past 20 years and nobody has been able to offer a widely accepted definition. No agreement has been made on what it is, how it should be defined and how it interacts with the physical environment (Page and Dowling, 2002). Ecotourism is commonly classified as a segment of nature-based tourism. Allcock et al. (1994) claimed that ecotourism is a kind of nature-based tourism that involves education and interpretation of the natural environment and is managed to be ecological sustainable. Other researchers suggest that conservation, environmental education and the provision of economic benefits to local communities are the main contribution of ecotourism. Mader (1999) mentions a comparative study of ecotourism in the Americas where the authors found that 25 government tourism agencies chose to define 'ecotourism', of which 21 chose to create their own definition. Besides governments that have tried to define ecotourism, academics, commercial tour operators, conservation organizations and non-governmental organizations also made attempts. Tourism is the key sector of the world's economy. It is one of the largest industries in the world economy (Scheyven, 1999). According to the data collected by WTO, the number of international tourist arrivals reached nearly 700 million in 2000. It is equivalent to over 10% of the world population which represents a growth of 7.4% since 1999, about twice of the rate of 3.8% in 1998/99. These international movements generated receipts for a value of US$476 billion, plus an estimated US$100 billion in international transport fare receipts (Yunis, 2003). Ecotourism is the fastest growing sector of the tourism industries. Overall trends indicate that nature-based tourism niches are gaining importance. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) announced in 1997 that "ecotourism is worth US$20 billion a year" at the World Ecotour Conference. Although this amount less important in comparison to tourism's estimated US$3.6 trillion contribution to the global gross domestic product, it still represents a substantial portion of the total tourism receipts (WTO, 1998). Ecotourism has shown significant growth in some countries, especially for developing countries which are rich in natural resources (Wunder, 2000; Han and Ren, 2001). For example, China is one of the countries with fast growing rate of ecotourism. Han & Ren (2001) reported a dramatic increase in the number of foreign ecotourists. In 1990, there was in excess of 27 million overseas visitors of whom over 1.7 million were classified as ecotourists. Foreign currency income from inbound tourism was US$2.2 billion. In 1998, the number of overseas visitors had climbed to 63 million, with over 7.1 million ecotourists; foreign currency income totalled US$12.6 billion. The average annual growth rate of international tourist arrivals in mainland China has risen to 7.85% since 1995. Tourism contributes 5.4% of the country's GDP and by 2020 this is estimated to rise to 11% amounting to around US$58 billion (Cros et al., 2005). The development of tourism has led to the increasing number of tourists visiting the nature reserve in China as an ecotourism activity (Han and Ren, 2001). 7.0 Research Methodology 7.1 Questionnaire surveys This research used two sets of questionnaires as the main research instrument. The first set of questionnaires consisted of two sections asking for information relating to visitor characteristics, knowledge of ecotourism and willingness to pay for ecotourism services. The study adopted two main approaches for the questionnaires, online questionnaire together with a 20-day field survey. The researcher created a website with the domain name (create a website such as www.ecotourismsurveylibya.com ) which started operating in mid-May 2009. At the same time, field surveys were conducted at several sites between June 2009 and August 2009. 7.2 Locations of field questionnaire survey one The second set of questionnaires consisted of five sections of structured questions. The first section asked for information relating to eco-tourists' characteristics, including basic demographic background questions. The variables included gender, age, household income, level of education, occupation, etc. The research compared this information with the population to test the representativeness of the sample (Jakobsson and Dragun, 1996; Bateman et al., 2002). The research included a pilot test of around 100 sets of questionnaire one and 30 sets of questionnaire two before implementing the full-scale survey to check the logic and understandability of the questionnaires so that the real world experience gained could be used as feedback to refine the questionnaires. Based on this feedback, slight modifications were made to eradicate ambiguities in the statements so that they would be more user-friendly. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with the tourists and eco-tourists on site and asked them to complete the questionnaires. Eight research assistants were trained in the procedures and etiquettes of conducting the survey. Whenever necessary, the research assistants provided the interviewees with explanations; otherwise, the interviewees answered the questions independently. The research assistants randomly chose respondents at the sites, inviting respondents at piers and pavilions where many visitors were assembled. Respondents took about five minutes to complete questionnaire one and about ten minutes for questionnaire two and each respondent received a small gift (a bookmark) as a token of appreciation after completing the survey. 8.0 Timescale/Research Planning Any research starts with proper planning and preparation. As the present study involves many target audience from different walks of life, planning and preparation are quite necessary. Identification of a problem is the first and foremost stage in the research process. Once a well researchable problem/research question (s) is/are identified, the next stage is review of literature. Usually, lion part of a researcher's time is spent for literature review. Afterwards, a pilot study may be conducted before finalizing the research design. With the insights from pilot study, the final design is decided. All the requirements such as hypotheses and sample design are incorporated in the design. The questionnaire will be sent along with request as part of the data collection. Collected data are then coded after editing for mistakes and inconsistencies. The edited data are then used for analysis using SPSS package. Then, a report is prepared incorporating all the stages of the research process. A more detailed research plan is prepared using Gantt chart as shown below: Limitations The study is basically a sample survey research. Therefore, sampling errors are the first and foremost problem of the study. However, maximum effort has been made by the researcher to minimize the sampling errors by properly selecting the sample method and sample units. Another limitation of the study is that it relies heavily on secondary data and data are collected from a web site, though the authenticity of which is highly desired. However, every effort is put by the researcher to make cross check between various connected data and thereby avoids all mistakes and errors. In addition to that whatever are the findings, they can be attributed to the period of the study and therefore any generalization may no longer be valid and acceptable. Work Cited Allcock, A., Jones, B., Lane, S. & Grant, J., 1994, National Ecotourism Strategy, Commonwealth Department of Tourism, Canberra Bateman, I. J., Carson, R. T., Day, B., Hanemann, M., Hanley, N., Hett, T., Jones-Lee, M., Loomes, G., Mourato, S., zdemirolu, E., Pearce, D. W., Sugden, R. & Swanson, J., 2002. Economic valuation with stated preference techniques: a manual. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Cros, H. D., Bauer, T., Lo, C. & Rui, S., 2005. Cultural heritage assets in China as sustainable tourism products: case studies of the Hutongs and the Huanghua section of the Great Wall. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 13(2):171-194 Han, N. & Ren, Z., 2001Ecotourism in China's nature reserves: opportunities and challenges. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 9(3):213-228 Jakobsson, K. M. & Dragun, A. K., 1996, Contingent valuation and endangered species: methodological issues and applications, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK. Mader, R., 1999. Ecotourism research and promotion on the Web: experiences and insights. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 11(23):78-79. Page, S. J. & Dowling, R. K., 2002, Ecotourism, Prentice Hall, Harlow Scheyven, R., 1999. Ecotourism and the empowerment of local communities, Tourism Management 20:245-254. WTO, 1998 Ecotouris,. WTO news, Issue 1, World Tourism Organization, Madrid Wunder, S., 2000.Ecotourism and economic incentives -- an empirical approach, Ecological Economics 32:465-479 Yunis, E., 2003. Sustainable tourism: world trends and challenges ahead. In: Buckley, R., Pickering, C. & Weaver, D. B. (Eds.) Nature-based tourism, environment and land management. CABI Publishing, Washington DC Read More