Sustainable Tourism Development - Assignment Example

Sustainable Tourism Development Lecturer’s Due TASK Introduction After the popularisation of sustainable tourism development by the publishing of the World Commission on the Environment and Development’s ‘Our Common Future,’ a substantial amount of research revolves around the importance, challenges and impacts of sustainable tourism development. The report below is a comprehensive discussion of some of the features of sustainable tourism. It includes a comparison between the topic and other forms of tourism. Secondly, a summary of the importance of sustainable tourism plus a number of the challenges faced by project planners. Thirdly, the text reviews the impacts of sustainable tourism towards the economy of the country. Sustainable tourism has several problems that need solutions in order to improve its purpose in the tourism economic sector. This essay provides a background review justifying the importance sustainable tourism, its challenges and impacts towards the economy. Secondary information from journals, online journals and case studies, assist in providing information in some of the subjects featuring in the essay. What is sustainable tourism development? Sustainable tourism refers to the form of tourism that fully takes account of its current and future economic, environmental and social impacts, addressing the needs of the industry, tourists, environment and host countries. Sustainable tourism aims at reducing the impacts of tourism through measures such as low energy consuming hotel design, reducing heavy traffic development, controlling tourism in sensitive locations and respecting host communities (Swarbrooke, 1999). The above statement provides evidence that sustainable tourism differs from other forms of tourism such as pro poor tourism and ecotourism. The tourism industry agrees that ecotourism mainly focuses on ecological preservation and teaching visitors about local environments, whereas sustainable tourism concentrates on travelling that has least impact to the environment and neighbouring communities. On the other hand, pro poor economy varies from sustainable tourism in that it is a form of tourism, which focuses on the reduction of poverty in the country through the promotion of tourism in the region. The importance of sustainable tourism For one to appreciate the significance of sustainable tourism, the training the trainer’s program came up with a list of principles relating to sustainable tourism development. The principles revolve around ecological, social and economic aspects. The ecological principles include minimisation of the harmful impacts of tourism, natural and social conservation and preservation and efficient utilisation of tourism resources. Socially, it promotes visitor comprehension and observation. Finally, it economically aims at generating profit for local people, promotes monetary independence in local communities and shows the limits of underdeveloped tourism. These three sets of principles provide a foundation for the importance of developing tourism in a sustainable way. Reduction of the negative impacts of tourism- beneficial as it is, tourism bears negative impacts to the ecological, social and economic sectors. Sustainable tourism reduces the destruction of the environment through conservation and preservation of natural and cultural heritage. Promote economic development for local people; tourism is an important source of revenue to the host country. As part of tourism, sustainable tourism enables a state to gain revenue from foreign exchange and the services provided. Eventually, it boosts the living standards of the population in the state. It provides tourists with a more enjoyable experience through more meaningful relations with the local people offer them with data about the indigenous culture and finally inform tourists about social and environmental issues. Therefore, it promotes comprehensive tourism. According to the Brundtland report, informing tourist about the positive and negative impacts of tourism enables them to sustainably contribute to better tourism in the future. It is a sensitive form of tourism, which supports respect between tourists and hosts, and develops local pride and confidence. Sustainable tourism reduces any cultural disrespect by locals and tourists towards one another. Through respect gained, local hosts retain their dignity and pride. According to the Brundtland Report, tourism stands as one of the biggest and fastest growing economic activities in the world. It has a significant impact on the environmental, cultural, social and economic sectors. The report states that tourism has a responsibility to finance in the preservation of the natural surroundings. If pursued sustainably, it can be an effective way to protect the environment and provide unique opportunities for raising awareness on ecological conservation. Brundtland Report states that sustainable tourism assists local communities provided they actively involve themselves in tourism. It can also boost cultural and historical traditions that often promote conservation and protection of the natural environment. Finally, sustainable tourism does not undermine local host traditions and customs hence developing respect between tourists and locals. Challenges faced by sustainable tourism planners Based on a report on the Gili Trawangan sustainable tourism development, planners and policy makers face a number of challenges while planning on the implementation of ideas. The first barrier includes the inadequate resources coupled up with a high cost, lack of information, inadequate skills and knowledge and the reluctance to get assistance from outside references. Before initializing any project, the management may require to work on other subsequent projects, which require funding; therefore, increasing the cost of the overall project. Inadequacy of resources slows the progressive development of the project. These resources include both physical and intangible resources. No activity can run without needed resources. Finally, lack of proper skills and knowledge blocks the human resource factors needed by the project to succeed. The second barrier comprehensively includes lack of enough momentum in action taking by business owners, hotels and accommodation hotels. According to the Indonesian Island of Gili Trawangan report, most managers lacked the motivation to manage the implementation of the projects especially in terms of money and time. Hotels and hotel accommodations may decide not to take the initiative in providing conservative services to tourists. Thirdly, local culture, beliefs and values of the locals in the host country could hinder the implementation of sustainable development projects (Barriers to sustainable tourism to Develop tourism essay). Such a barrier prevents the execution of various actions including societal involvement in the success of the project. According to the Turkish report, sustainable tourism faces lack of flexibility, integration, perspective and consistency (Kilicbeyli, 2011). Based on the flexibility, a decentralised management makes it difficult to make any changes in the project plan. Group cohesiveness and integration leads to poor teamwork hence lowering the chances of proper carrying out of responsibilities. Finally, every project needs innovation and development of new ideas. Lack of new notions leads to slow growth implementation of the project. Lastly, infrastructure is another huge barrier that affects the practical implementation of sustainable tourism. Infrastructure barriers include lack of proper transport, communication breakdowns and obsolete technology. Enclave tourism Enclave tourism refers to the form of tourism where tourist activities congregate in one geographical region in order to allow tourists to feel the tourist experience in one concentrated region. Some of the features involved with enclave tourism make it similar to sustainable tourism including highly concentrated, separate from existing communities and lifestyle is different from the surroundings. All these attributes aim at reducing the impacts of tourism over a wider region. Based on a planner’s view, enclave tourism stands as a high investment in small projects. Through it, planners invest on traveller demand. The higher the number of tourist the higher the demand for certain services. Secondly, from a tourist’s point of view, enclave tourism enables him or her to have the travelling experience integrated in one place. The visitor gets a chance to explore different cultures and natural heritage all in one place. Finally, the host community benefits from enclave tourism through gaining of employment from the investments created by planners. For example, in the Kenyan Tourism sector the government provides incentives and creates employment for the locals. However, enclave tourism still bears several disadvantages to the planner, tourist and host community. To the tourist, enclave tourism stands as an inadequate and inaccurate form of tourism due to the limited geographical region. There is an absence of diverse information, which provides a broader aspect about the country. At the planners perspective, the economy over depends on foreign business. When the state decides to seclude tourism to one region, it over depends on it, which could lead to disasters if the sector fails. Finally, with enclave tourism employment is usually seasonal, which fails the host community at times. Moreover, in the Okavango Delta site the local government sets high travelling prices discouraging both locals and low income earning visitors from visiting the place (Mbaiwa, 2006). In relation to social factors, enclave tourism aims at upgrading the standards of living of the locals in the host region. Secondly, tourists learn about the cultural moral values about the community. Finally, the neighbouring community gets a chance to understand and respect the visitors to their region. However, if not correctly implemented, enclave tourism may fail to fulfil its social responsibilities to both the travellers and immediate population. According to the tourists, it prevents them from learning more about other cultures within the host country. It hinders locals from improving their social life, which eventually forces them to neglect their roles and responsibilities in the sector. TASK 2 Measuring the impacts of tourism Tourism plays an important role towards the social-economic needs of the country. Through tourism, the country earns revenue, promotes foreign relations, enhances the living standards of the locals and promotes blending of diverse cultures. Therefore, it is appropriate to measure, evaluate and analyse the impacts of tourism in the country. Measuring allows the state to identify any problems associated with tourism giving governments the chance to rectify any mistakes. It also assists in innovation of new plans or projects that may lead to success of the tourism sector. Through evaluation of the impacts of tourism, the board can mitigate on some of the unavoidable calamities that might affect the economic activity. All these aspects aim at creating better tourism in the travelling destinations. One principle method utilised in measuring the impacts of tourism to a destination is the satellite account. Satellite accounts mainly aim at giving an overall aggregate approximation of the contribution of tourism to the country. A satellite account re-arranges the national system of accounts to identify the role of tourism to the economy (Tourism Satellite Account, 2001). It measures the direct impacts of tourism spending. The method primarily measures visitor trip expenditure and added capital spending; for example, hotel development. Furthermore, it measures selected durable purchases. The benefit of satellite account is that it uses existing data and embeds tourism in an accepted system of accounts. However, its drawback is the inadequacy of information needed to extract tourism activity from national monetary accounts. In addition, it is difficult to apply the method below the national level for subcategories of tourism activity. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a technique implemented to measure the environmental impacts of tourism. It involves the evaluation of the service system through all stages of its life cycle. There are four phases in the method, which comprise of impact assessment and interpretation, inventory analysis, Goal and scope definition (Horne & Grant2009). The first phase identifies, defines and compares the services and products provided. The second phase performs an inventory analysis of the energy, raw materials used and also the secretions to the surroundings (land, air and water). The third phase involves impact assessment through comparison of the effects of resources used and emissions generated by tourism. The weighing of both the positive and negative impacts of tourism provides a suitable conclusion. Finally, assessors interpret the results in the most comprehensive way. LCA faces one major problem; data boundary knowledge. The data boundary problem involves difficulty in quantifying all interactions of the analysed impacts to the environment. In most cases, inaccurate conclusions are made due to the difficulty of obtaining data. Impacts of tourism in Kenya and Tanzania Kenya stands as one of the leading tourist sites among other third world countries. It is famous for rich and diverse wildlife, national parks and game reserves; more to that, it also has sandy beaches along the coast. Tourism adds to the country’s Gross Domestic Product providing the government with revenue. Through tourism, the people in the country gain employment, which improves their living standards. Socially, tourism has promoted the cultural heritage of the people of Kenya through embracing of the diverse cultures including language, attire and customs. Additionally, tourism has led to the improvement and proper management of the environment in a bid to preserve the natural habitation of the wild animals. Tanzania is an emerging tourist destination found in East Africa. Currently, the country receives 600, 000 tourist every year. Tourism boosts the economy of the country through increased revenue and foreign exchange. Socially, tourism has led to employment opportunities to the locals in the regions. Tourism promotes preservation and protection of the natural environment from demolition. However, it leads to congestion in respective areas and annoys residents. Comparison of the two destinations reveals that tourism plays an important role in the economy of the country. Tourism provides revenue to the country, but in Kenya tourism provides employment as an economic impact. In Tanzania, tourism provides employment, which is a social impact. Finally, in both Kenya and Tanzania tourism assists in the preservation and security of the ordinary environment (Zeppel, 2006). Recommendations For one to raise the positive effects of tourism and reduce its negative impacts, both states can implement the following: Passing environmental laws that inhibit destruction of the environment. Third wild countries are usually prone to cases of poaching and misuse of land, which leads to demolition of the natural setting and wild animals. Through setting heavy fines and consequences for law offenders, the government protects and conserves the environment. Reduce taxes on tourism and hotel accommodation. The best way to offer incentives to the tourism industry is to reduce the levy on hotel accommodation; therefore, enabling both local and international visitors to comfortable afford their stay in hotels. Concurrently, it increases the number of tourists in the country increasing the revenue. The two states should involve the locals in the tourist activities in order to build better social relation between hosts and visitors. Through integrated tourism, both groups get to mingle and understand one another. Moreover, it also provides employment to the neighbouring communities hence improving their living standards (Nanda, 2013). Conclusion In the first task, the discussion provides a review on sustainable tourism. It defines it and gives the social-economic an environmental importance of sustainable tourism. The task also involves identifying some of the challenges planners, tourist and locals face when implementing sustainable tourism. Finally, enclave tourism possesses negative and positive impacts, moral and ethical issues that need identification. The essay provides an insight into these factors and also looks into the impacts of tourism in developing countries. Through execution of the above recommendations, tourism could develop healthily in any nation. Reference List KILICBEYLI, E. H. (2011). Challenges of Sustainable Tourism Development in the Developing World: the case of Turkey. Global Management Journal, 4(1), 1-20. Barriers To Sustainable Tourism Developments Tourism Essay. (n.d.).Barriers To Sustainable Tourism Developments Tourism Essay. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from http://www.ukessays.com/essays/tourism/barriers-to-sustainable-tourism-developments-tourism-essay.php Horne, R., & Grant, T. (2009). Life cycle assessment principles, practice, and prospects. Collingwood, Vic.: CSIRO Pub.. Mbaiwa, J. E. (2006). Enclave tourism and its socio-economic impacts in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Tourism Management, 1(1), 157-172. Nanda, S., & Warms. (2013). Cultural anthropology (11th ed., international student ed.). Belmont, Calif: Thomson Wadsworth. Swarbrooke, J. (1999). Sustainable tourism management. Wallingford, Oxon, UK: CABI Pub.. Tourism satellite account (TSA) implementation project: the tourism satellite account as an ongoing process : past, present and future developments.. (2001). Madrid: World Tourism Organization. Zeppel, H. (2006). Indigenous ecotourism sustainable development and management. Wallingford: CABI. Read More