Sustainable Tourism and Its Role in Tourism Planning and Development - Essay Example

Investigation of Sustainable Tourism and its Role in Tourism Planning and Development Contents Contents 2 a.Introduction 3 b.Need for tourism developments to be planned in a sustainable manner 4 c.Analyzing the difficulties of planning and developing new tourism projects in a sustainable manner 5 d.Evaluation of the moral and ethical issues in enclave tourism 6 e.Evaluation of why measuring the impacts of tourism is important. 8 f.Comparison of tourism development in a developing country and in an emerging destination  9 g.Evaluation of improvement in the sustainable tourism development in these destinations 10 h.Conclusion 11 References 12 a. Introduction Sustainable tourism is also known as eco tourism or green tourism. It is a type of tourism which involves the promotion and use of nature based, ethically compliant and environmentally and socially responsible tourism aspects. Sustainable tourism has been developed as an effort on the part of the global communities and stakeholders to reduce the harmful effects of traditional tourism aspects. The perspective of sustainable tourism involves the employment of socially and environmentally conscientious approaches for the promotion of tourism. Sustainable tourism is also commonly known as alternative tourism, green tourism, nature based tourism and responsible tourism. Thus, a sustainable tourism aspect essentially tries to make the optimal use of the physical and environmental resources available in the host destinations because this constructs the basic element of an ethically and morally compliant tourism sector. Also, sustainable tourism involves the maintenance of the essential environment and ecological processes and actively acts towards the conservation of the cultural heritage, biodiversity and natural heritage of the host destination, shows adequate respect to the identification and the socio cultural authenticity of the tourism destination, conserves the living traditional values and contributes to the environmental and social development, enhances the intercultural tolerance and understanding of the benefits for the location. Sustainable tourism is also necessary because it helps to build up a more dynamic and efficient tourism sector by ensuring long term and viable operations and by providing various types of social and economic benefits to the key stakeholders of the industry. These benefits include the creation of income earning and employment opportunities, provision of social services to the local communities and contributions for poverty reduction and economic value creation for the respective destinations. b. Need for tourism developments to be planned in a sustainable manner The development of a sustainable tourism is critical to ensure that the negative impacts of the conventional tourism industry are restrained by the entities functioning in the tourism sector. The tourism developments should necessarily be planned in a sustainable manner because the need for sustainability and compliance with the environmental and ethical standards and requirements have become the buzzword for achieving competiveness and ensuring success in the dynamic and intensely competitive global tourism environment (Mowforth and Munt, 2003). Another reason why tourism developments are to be established in a sustainable manner is because sustainability has emerged as a key topic in the area of tourism development and planning. Also, planning the tourism developments ensure that all the key stakeholder groups related to the global tourism sector are taken into consideration and their requirements and needs are properly addressed by the tourism businesses. The inclusion of all types of stakeholder existing in the global tourism sector into the planning of sustainable tourism development has emerged as a necessity from the perspectives of both public participation and management of business organizations in this industry. Four distinct groups of stakeholders should be included in the sustainable tourism development planning which are the present visitor groups, the future visitor groups, the existing host community and the potential host community. The planning process of tourism in a sustainable manner can be used to address the existing and potential threats in the segment and also create the scope for tapping in the opportunities in the respective tourism markets. The planning of tourism in any destination is important because it helps to address the social, economic, political and legal functions of the segment and ensures that the destination remains prepared for facing any kinds of impacts from the visitors groups, market forces and the catastrophic events (Byrd, 2007). c. Analyzing the difficulties of planning and developing new tourism projects in a sustainable manner The planning of sustainable tourism is a complex and multilayered process which needs to take into account a number of internal and external factors that affect the individual business, stakeholder groups as well as the environment and the host community as a whole. Developing a tourism plan in a sustainable manner is a complex process and the implementation of this kind of tourism plan is an even more complicated process which may be faced with multiple threats and difficulties. This is because; the development of a sustainable tourism system requires high amounts of investments, involves dynamic business risks and requires additional resources and capabilities allocation. Additionally, the assurance of ethical, environmental and moral compliance and the adherence to the existing national and international regulatory policies and rules that govern the tourism sector is necessary (Gunn and Var, 2002).  The high level of competition among the global tourism industries and tourism companies has made it difficult to attain sustainable competitive advantage across different tourism destinations. The forecasting of the tourist influxes and the estimation of the potential groups of tourists remains a challenge for the different sustainable tourism planners and developers operating in the host destinations. Apart from that, the focus on maintaining ethicality and morality while generating sufficient economic values for the businesses at the same time make the planning process a more complex one. The adequate consideration of the heterogeneous factors and the differentiated opinions guiding the tourist interests and preferences have emerged as a major challenges for the sustainable tourism planners functioning in the current tourism industries. d. Evaluation of the moral and ethical issues in enclave tourism There are diverse moral and ethical aspects that are involved in the domain of tourism. The planner or the developer of a sustainable tourism plan has to consider a wide range of internal and external factors that impact the ethical and moral functions of the sector and also has to carefully evaluate the impacts of these factors on the tourist groups, the host communities as well as on the economic aspect of the destination. There may be diverse political, social, legal, environmental, moral as well as ethical impacts of the functioning of the tourism sector on the visitor groups, the tourism companies as well as the host communities. All these perspectives have to be accounted for to ensure that the tourism development plan is designed in the most value adding and beneficial manner for all the concerned stakeholder groups (Godfrey and Clarke, 2000). The various ethical and moral issues that may be involved in the tourism sectors across various destinations include the development of employment opportunities, the creation of economic and environmental value for the host communities, the promotion of the host community as an attractive destination which brings in additional revenues for the country and the broadening of the community horizons. There are both positive and negative impacts of the moral and ethical aspects involved in enclave tourism. The positive impacts may include the following Building up community value and pride Enhancing the interests of the regional host community Encouraging the developments and other cultural aspects Maintenance and revival of the traditional art and crafts industries unique to the host community Extending support to the minority group in the host community Bringing in revenues and adding value to the economic strength of country Enhancing the level of support for the cultural heritage of the destination (Gunn and Var, 2002). The negative influences of enclave tourism may include the following Increased level of pollution in the locations caused by the higher influx of tourists. The loss and alienation of cultural identity among the host communities and the tourists Conflict among the local residents and the tourist groups Extensive commoditization of the traditions and cultures pertaining to a region Destruction of the natural habitats Displacement of the local residents Conflict over access to different kinds of resources Loss of historical accuracy and authentication in the presentations of the destination communities among a diverse group of tourists (Cooper, 2008). Since, enclave tourism is a type of tourism in which the tourist activities are concentrated and planned in particular small geographical areas, therefore this can allow the tourists to access better travelling experiences without having to move to distant places and without having to plan high budget tours. This type of tourism can be extensively facilitated by external tourism businesses thereby making it more profitable for the profit based tourism companies and least beneficial for the host countries. As such, the prospects of enclave tourism being developed into a form of sustainable tourism seems to be weak, especially in a scenario in which the benefits and values added to the host communities from the tourism sector remain the most focused on aspect of sustainable tourism development (Swarbrooke, 1999). e. Evaluation of why measuring the impacts of tourism is important. Since, tourism is a sector which requires large scale capital investments and infrastructure development; this brings about the creation of a number of negative consequences like heightened pollution levels, displacement of human habitants and the damage and destruction of the natural habitats in the region. As such, the need for developing sustainable tourism has become a preliminary objective for all the organizations operating in the tourism sectors in different destinations across the globe. The economic impacts of the tourism sector can be evaluated and assessed through the use of Input Output Analysis tool, the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, cost benefit analysis tool and the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). The social and environmental impacts of the tourism sector can be measured by the use of the Social Impact Assessment Model, The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) model and the ecological footprint model of measurement (Hall, 2008). f. Comparison of tourism development in a developing country and in an emerging destination  Havana in Cuba can be identified as one of the tourism destinations in a developing country. The socio cultural impacts of the tourisms sector in Cuba are found to be value adding for the economy because this sector is bringing in revenues for the country and attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and Foreign Institutional Investments (FII) into the country, thereby creating the scopes for development in infrastructure and creating employment opportunities in the country. However, the negative impacts of the tourism sector in the country include factors like increased level of carbon footprints, environmental pollutions, damage to the natural habitats and resources, exploitation of natural resources, harm to the cultural heritage and existing biodiversity of the host destination. Since, the country is a developing nation, therefore, the exploitation of natural resources and human resources as labours are commonly done by the foreign multinational tourism companies which act in a derogative manner for the social, cultural and environmental aspects of the location. Thus, though the growth of the tourism sector adds value to the economic aspect of the region, the other key determinants of the tourism sector efficiency and value i.e. the social, cultural and environmental perspectives are not appropriately beneficial in the country. Macau in China can be identified as one of the major emerging tourism destinations in the recent times. The tourism industry in China has emerged as one of the high growth global tourism sectors with a total tourist influx of 84 million as of 2013. The positive impacts of the tourism sector in the country include the focus on cultural evolvement, increasing visibility of the location, influx of large amounts of capital investments and the promotion of the location as a globally competitive host destination (Drumm and Moore, 2012). The growth in the economy is a core driver of the tourism sector in different locations across China. The Chinese government actively regulates and monitors the tourism sector in the country due to which the negative impacts of the sector have been controlled to a huge extent. As compared to Cuba, the strength of the tourism sector in China is much more controlled, well regulated, compliant and value adding in nature. g. Evaluation of improvement in the sustainable tourism development in these destinations The management practices and guidelines of sustainable tourism development can be used for all types of tourism in different kinds of destinations. As such the development of tourism in the selected destinations can be done by considering the economic, environment, political as well as the socio cultural impacts of tourism development in the countries and finding the most appropriate balance between these different factors. Taking up an integrated and balanced approach by considering all these factors would ensure the long term sustainable of the tourism sectors in both these destinations (Andriotis, 2008). The development of tourism in Macau can be made by establishing more stringent regulations and by increasing the level of interference of the government in the monitoring and management of the tourism sector. The development of tourism in Cuba can be done in a more sustainable manner by establishing suitable constraints on the employment of foreign human resources thereby creating higher scope of income for the local people. h. Conclusion Thus, it can be identified that sustainable tourism has emerged as a necessity across both developing and developed countries across the world. The tourism sectors of different countries being significant revenue and income generators for the economies, the government as well as the business organizations are focusing on developing higher levels of sustainability and compliance in this sector. It can also be concluded from the report, that the development of a sustainable tourism plan is a difficult process which needs the planners to take into account diverse barriers and constraints and also needs them to tap into the existing and the emerging opportunities in the sector. The consideration of the global stakeholder groups are equally significant as is the need for extending corporate social responsibility activities for the local communities to develop enhance brand as well as industry reputation. Since, the tourism sectors add high economic values in a nation, therefore, the need for focusing on the opportunities and reducing the threats faced by the sector are preliminary requirements that are to be fulfilled by both the state governments as well as the profit based organizations functioning in the respective tourism sectors of different destinations. References Andriotis, K. 2008. Tourism Planning. [Pdf]. Available at www.angelfire.com/ks/andriotis/Chapter3.pdf. [Accessed on 12 March 2015]. Byrd, E. T. 2007. Stakeholders in sustainable tourism development and their roles: applying stakeholder theory to sustainable tourism development. Tourism Review, Vol. 62(2), pp.6 – 13. Cooper C. 2008. Tourism: Principles and Practice. Harlow, Essex: FT Prentice Hall. Drumm, A. & Moore, A. 2012. An Introduction to Ecosystem Planning, Second Edition. Arlington, Virginia: The Nature Conservancy. Godfrey, K. & Clarke, J. 2000. The Tourism Planning Handbook. Stamford: Cengage Learning Gunn, C. A. & Var, T. 2002. Tourism Planning: Basics, Concepts, Cases. New York: Routledge. Hall, C. M. 2008. Tourism Planning Policies, Processes and Relationships. Harlow, Essex: Prentice Hall. Mow forth, M. & Munt, I. 2003. Tourism and Sustainability. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Swarbrooke, J. 1999. Sustainable Tourism Management. Wallingford, Oxon: CABI. Read More