Sustainable Tourism and Important Sustainability Issues - Research Paper Example

Sustainable Tourism Sustainable tourism is neither a distinct nor a special form of tourism. All forms of tourism are supposed to struggle to be sustainable something worthwhile noting. All forms of tourism should work on to this even the so called mass tourism. Securing the planets future needs the involved parties coming into terms with the economic and social requirements that exist currently and that should be the main focus. Most importantly, it should be done without undermining the delicate ecosystems that enables people to coexist freely. Also, jeopardizing the future generations ability in meeting their personal requirements should be avoided at all cost. The report analyses the development of the term sustainable tourism. It highlights on the failures and success of sustainable tourism and in the midst identifying the most significant sustainability issue that the whole operation has to deal with. It also views on the criteria from the industry certification standard of sustainable tourism discussing the operations that stick to the set principles. Various ways of improving sustainability issues are discussed including the interrelationship that exists in social, economic and environmental sustainability aspects. Introduction The term sustainable tourism also referred to as responsible tourism can be defined as an act of making a gesture that brings about a positive difference to individuals and the surroundings of the destinations various people travel to. This can be achieved by following some fair and simple rules which include, giving respect to the local cultures as well as the natural surroundings, helping in protection of endangered wildlife, giving fair and sound economic returns to the families living within the localities by buying locally. Water and energy are extremely valuable resources that need care when using the therefore one should recognize this and practice too (Middleto & Hawkins, 2006). Putting efforts in conserving and enhancing various favorite destinations bearing in mind of the future enjoyment of visitors and the people living within those localities is something commendable. Lastly, it should be the duty of every individual to take responsibility of our own actions while enjoying ourselves. The projected layout should be in the heart of sustainable development. Three issues thus social, economic and environmental matters are inseparable according to studies. Depending on how well the people balance these three issues in the decisions they make today, the future will heavily rely on it. The tourism sector has a much greater responsibility to play alongside the path that leads towards sustainable developments given its great importance. Cultural and natural resources pose as the backbone of tourism business therefore tourism may have a vested interest in walking in line with sustainability (Middleto & Hawkins, 2006). Facts The World Tourism Organization describes Sustainable tourism as a satisfying new tourist and travel entity that certifies the desires of host’s community requirements while being mindful of protecting and improving the future opportunities. It is viewed as a special guide upon whom resources are managed (Mihalic, 2013). Through this way, economic, aesthetic and social needs are met and in the process, biological diversity including the life support systems improve gradually. Adopting the best practices makes a sustainable tourism become a reality. It therefore should be implemented in every area of tourist business operations. Facts do not lie. They are always dependent on things that are there or have happened or are a must for them to happen. In this case, it has been observed that tourism has impact globally with research indicating that more than 1 billion individual travelled internationally in 2012 and the figure is poised to rise to 1.5 billion by 2020. Per person, the average international receipt for every tourist is around 700 US$. Of the totals global gross domestic product in 2013, travel and tourism pose an awesome 9.5% and that includes various tourism related activities such as catering (Mihalic, 2013). The world’s traveling and tourism industry creates about 10% of the planets employment whether directly or indirectly. Tourism receipts are affected in ever country where people tend to spread due to persecution, violence or other justified or unjustified calamities. On the environmental impacts, Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas still uses 12 million liters of water despite its water recycling project still existing and functioning. It recurs every year in an area where water is very scarce. The average individual in the UK uses close to 150 liters of water daily thus three times of a village located in Asia utilizes (Miller, 2012). A plant or animal species disappears from earth at a rate of one per every minute including a greater percentage of about 70% of marine mammals threatened. The western world presently consumes 52% of the total global energy because they occupy only 17% of the globes total population. Important Sustainability Issues Statistics indicate that tourism will not at one point be completely sustainable as for the reason ever industry has its own impacts. However, tourism can work hard towards becoming more sustainable. Tourism contributes to significant impacts on natural resources, pollution, social systems and consumption patterns. For the industry to thrive as a whole there is an urge to put-up sustainable and responsible planning and management strategies (Miller, 2012). For instance, most studies that dwell in assessing tourism activities tend to be pulled towards one critical aspect of tourism. The particular aspect is the economic issue. The economic impact of the tourism activities is normally estimated on various statistical recordings (Papatheodorou, 2012). They include the number of arrivals, average length of stay, economic indicators and the receipt per tourist. Some studies have gone further developing a tourism account methodologies with the idea of giving correct estimates on the tourism activities including tourism’s impact on various nations’ economies. However, others have focused on the utilization of various tourism resources such as culture and natural resources (Papatheodorou, 2012). It is noticeable that quite a number of literature deals focusing on the sustainability assessment try to come up with indicators including providing methodologies of establishing sustainable tourism. A good example is Miller who focuses on the development of indicators that are directed in measuring tourism sustainability. Miller presents a number of several indicators that tend to cover each sustainability aspect such as physical and human aspects (environmental issues), financial leakages, customer’s aspects, and financial leakages. It is contrary to numerous studies that only focus on tackling physical and human environment only. Tourism can contribute in terms of gross domestic product in both the developing and already developed countries. Revenues constitute a significant fraction of the economy locally and nationally. This contribution come in four key areas of business terminologies thus profits, taxes, wages and purchases. Profits are earned and distributed to various owners. Taxes are paid on sales (Pearce, 2000). Wages are the real estate including the jobs created while purchases of the supplies and materials are made. Businesses provide a wide avenue of taxing opportunities and are greatly viewed as contributors that boost the local communities economically. It is important for various firms to take significant measures and act responsibly in the direction of undertaking sustainable measures in their operations. Economic aspect is the most important sustainability issues facing the sustainability operation due to other notable attempts in the same study. Comprehensive methodologies of fishing out matters to do with economies’ on various nations’ tourism while assessing sustainably have proven to be justifiable. Pearce in particular takes the opportunity and comes up with a more comprehensive study (Pearce, 2000). He did so after noticing that most studies that dwell on sustainable tourism are descriptive judging from their qualitative data including subjective base while concluding. Upon noticing this gap in these literatures, he comes up with a conceptual framework for tourism sustainability assessment. He does so based on a total of eight dimensions that include economic, social cultural, environmental impact, social cultural, political, political, environmental policies and biodiversity (Perez-Ducy, 2001).The eight aspects are assessed separately basing on a number of quantitative and qualitative indicators. They are scaled and clustered to assess the sustainability of various tourist destinations. From the reports, one can argue that the issues including the concerns related to sustainable tourism vary between various tourism destinations (Perez-Ducy, 2001).It is therefore correct for one to suggest that the indicators, data gathering methods, and dimensions may vary from one destination to another. However, whichever method used, the issue of economy matters toped the ladder. An Industry Certification Standard of Sustainable Tourism Tourism business certification can be defined as a voluntary act that performs assessment, monitoring including giving a written justification that a business, process, service, product or a management system conforms to the specific requirements. It establishes the scale in which tourism experiences conform to the industry nominated standards (Perez-Ducy, 2001). Latest News/Articles on Certification Botswana Ecotourism certification systems a product of Botswana tourism realizes that green is merely a color or concept as many people take it but a way of life. In 2002, Botswana formalized its commitment in the conservation of its natural heritage (Prescott-Allen R. 2008). That includes natural resources, culture and the rich wildlife. It was through the inception of its national ecotourism strategy that positions Botswana as the leading sustainable tourism destination. It has led to the development of Botswana ecotourism certification system which is an open tourism industry broad program that is managed and operated by the Botswana tourism. Likewise, Japan environmentally sustainable accommodations international standard is widely recognized with its importance. It is famous for implementing the planets sustainable tourism criteria (Prescott-Allen, 2008). It works on the planets minimum urge for tourism business of all sizes in approaching sustainability. The Global Sustainable Tourism Council declares that Japan ecolodge association has reached the levels of recognition in certification issue. It was so for the fact that the nation’s environmental sustainability capacity is in line with the international standards. Criteria for Sustainable Destination The Global Sustainable Tourism Council has recently announced the release of their criteria for various destinations. The criteria are aset principles guides and performance indicators that are designed for leading purposes. They lead managers, businesses and the community at large on the path towards sustainability (Puppim de Oliveira, 2003). The criteria basically maximize social, economic, cultural and environmental benefits on the other hand minimizing negative impacts. The destination criteria appear more on the living GSTC criteria meant for hotels and tour operators. A panel of business owners, government officials, academics and other experts came up with the GSTC destination criteria. They examined the sustainable developments from the UN world tourism organization’s indicators. That includes other guidelines presently existing and helping in giving reliable information (Puppim de Oliveira, 2003). The criteria’s intention is to give a description of a globally applicable set of minimum follow ups that are required to approach sustainability. In simple terms, the criteria are viewed as a support in the manner that each destination should add or rather adjust as per the requirement. Tourism is an amalgamation of a number of industries that offer products and services in airline and cruise ship travel unlike many other business sectors. It also includes offering other services such as accommodation to restaurant meals, souvenirs, gifts, entertainment, recreational vehicles, safaris, park services, recreational opportunities, resort development and leisure (Rosensweig, 2005). A growing acceptance exists which acknowledges that management practices are leading to undesirable social as well as environmental impacts. Some of these management practices pose a threat to the well being of sustainable tourism operations. Major implications of sustainability emanate from the managing tourism in small scale. It is very important that forces of change to commence from the company policy and actions at the root level thus organizational level. The tourism and travel sector is made up of small and medium size enterprises which are the majority stakeholders. The enterprises are located both in built and natural surroundings where they become an often hub of constant visitation and impact. Example of these places includes campground, visitor information center, car park and picnic area. The amazing thing is that for the many operations, protection of the assets is not a major priority. What most managers do is concentrate on making more wealth and saving costs ignoring conserving the resources. From a deep perspective, these management practices are short term in their look. They daily dent the long term future sustainability of the enterprise (Rosensweig, 2005). This short term gains lead to improper utilization of environment which appears through the misuse of resources, local community and suppliers through improper practices in purchasing material. Staffs that run under a management practices that are poor thus lack quality leadership and may operate wrongly. Improving Sustainability Practices Sustainable tourism development can easily lead to fulfillment of economic, aesthetic and social requirements. It can do this at the same time maintaining ecological processes and cultural integrity. It can easily provide comfort the visitor of today as well as cater for the future visitor which is good news. It is however significant to acknowledge that this does not come that easily. It involves making hard political choices that are based on compound economic, social and the surroundings tradeoffs (Song & Romilly, 2000).There is an urge for a community to contribute in planning and decision making in this process. Various principles that pose as basic guidelines in attempting to incorporate this broader vision of sustainable practices have to be implemented. The tourism industry consists of the existing community, the natural surroundings, culture and businesses. Business can be boosted from an increased number of visitors. Businesses that seek to have genuine and interactive experience by incorporating various sustainable practices when running their operations are recommendable (Maloney & Rojas, 2010). Taking actions in reducing environmental impacts can help save a good percentage of the total operational cost. It also increases employment and improves the reputation of the operators. For a customer seeking to reduce their own environmental impact through their purchases, sustainability can be an excellent hook for them. Tourism development, operation and planning should indeed be part of the conservation strategies or sustainable development for a particular nation, region or province. To improve sustainability, tourism development, planning and operations should be integrated. This means involving various government agencies, citizen groups, individuals and private corporations. It may help provide the broadest possible benefits (Miller, 2012). Energy and money can be saved by minimizing the consumption and enforcing strategies to improve efficiency. This is an easy thing such as checking out whether vehicle tires are inflated which in turn brings about the difference on the amount of fuel consumed on travels. Drivers must be trained on how to operate vehicles for consumption of fuels to maximum levels improving efficiency that is worthwhile (Song & Romilly, 2000). It is good to note that tourism should be managed and planned in a more sustainable way. Bearing in mind the importance of protection and the appropriate economic uses of the scarce human and environmental resources, sustainable measures must be implemented in the host areas. Tourism should be undertaken with measurable equity in distribution of fair benefits and the cost among tourism promoters. The host people in those areas should also be a factor to consider when improving sustainability. Conclusion Sustainable tourism is all about a matter of adapting and refocusing again. This is a case where this research highlights that a balance must be found in between the usages and limits. The continuous changing, planning and monitoring makes it possible for the management of tourism. It may require long term thinking of ideas that may cater for 10- 20 years to come and if possible beyond that (Souty, 2003). Moreover, change is always cumulative, irreversible and gradual something that should be at the back of the people’s minds. Also, the economic, social as well as the environmental aspects of sustainable development have to include the interest of every individual stakeholder and that includes native people, visitors, the local communities, industry and the government. References Maloney, W. & Rojas, M. (2010). Demand for Tourism. World Bank mimeo. New York: McGraw-Hill. Middleto F, & Hawkins R. (2006). Sustainable Tourism, A Marketing Perspective. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Mihalic T. (2013). Environmental Management of a Tourism destination. A factor of tourism competitiveness. Journal of Business & Economics 24 (4)51 Miller G. (2012). The development of indicators for sustainable tourism: results of a Delphi survey of tourism researches. Tourism Management, Vol 3, (35) 12-15 Papatheodorou, A. (2012). The demand for International Tourism in the Mediterranean Region. The Journal of Tourism&marketing 12 (3): 212–225. Pearce D. (2000). 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