The Implementation of Sustainable Tourism Planning - Case Study Example

The Implementation of (better) Sustainable Tourism Planning Name Institution Name Date Introduction Sustainability is defined has forms of progress that are a requirement to fulfill the current needs without denting the ability of the future generations not to benefit in fulfilling their respective needs (Lozano-Oyola et al., 2012). The purpose of sustainability is to preserve certain aspects that can become extinct easily because of abuse or misuse (Liu, Tzeng & Lee, 2012). For example, vegetation and forests are important because it brings numerous benefits to the society and community. For instance, without rain through the process of the water cycle, the ecology, and the environment would be affected immensely. Sustainability allows future generations to enjoy what the current generation enjoys. To fulfill the requirements of sustainability, implementation of proposals and methods to improve sustainability processes is important. The paper summarizes the overview of sustainability and legislations that are in place that champions environmental sustainability. It further discusses the integration of different sectors and industries in sustaining the requirements of sustainability. The paper discusses the importance of stakeholders in the entire process and discusses four stakeholders: the government, customers, community, and investors/management of the facilities. The paper further discusses strategies to determine whether the sustainability process is effective and provide mechanisms in which it can be employed to address the shortcomings. Overview of Sustainability According to the statistics released in December 2014, the region received 1.95 million domestic overnight visitors while international visitors in the year ending June 2014 totaled 180,807 visitors (Visit Canberra, 2015). The statistics are from the visitors who spent their time in the Canberra hotels. It illustrates that many local visitors and international visitors visit the region annually meaning sustainability measures should be capitalized for preservation and sustainability requirements. The government and other stakeholders have played an important role in creating laws that champion sustainability (ACT Government, 2015). For example, the 1975 Barrier Reef Marine Act is aimed at protecting and preserving the reef. The purpose of the legislation is to regulate how activities are done in the park and other environs within the park. It requires seeking permission before removing animals or even fishing. The Environmental Protection Act 1997 requires each institution to minimize environmental harm or to prevent environment harm through taking appropriate measures (ACT Government 2015). Apart from these two Acts, numerous legislations including authoritative bodies exist that are required to guide during and review sustainability processes (ACT Government, 2015). The two acts including the institutions are important during the implementation of strategies because sustainability addresses the environment apart from other sectors. Hence, concentration on environment preservation and protection are important in the achievement of sustainability requirements (ACT Government, 2015). Authority and Organizations/Institutions Responsible ACT government has created numerous institutions and authority bodies to support in environmental protection (ACT Government, 2015). Some of the authorities and institutions include Environment Protection Authority, National Environment Protection Measures (NEPMS), Air Quality Monitoring and legislations such as the Environment Protection Policies. In addition, numerous sectors have authorities and legislations that are aimed at ensuring sustainability are encouraged in each sector of development. These different sectors and policy organs play an important role in advancing the requirements of sustaining the environment, which also translates in the sustainability of tourism industry. The purpose of highlighting the legislations is geared towards understanding the institutions and authorities that can collaborate with other stakeholders in sustaining the requirements of the environment (ACT Government, 2015). The legislations and institutions provide and guides during the implementation of strategic expectations. Sustainability requires clear policies and the mentioned institutions that can guide in implementations (Waligo, Clarke & Hawkins, 2013). Therefore, the implementers of sustainability strategies should collaborate with the different departments that aim to sustain the environment (ACT Government, 2015). For example, if a hotel wants to extend some section of its building, it is important to introduce the legislations and authorities in designing the new structure, assist in construction, and review the entire process. If each new building and structures pass through a similar line of operations, environmental degradation would be managed, and the sustainability process continues to pick (Blancas et al., 2011). Industrial/Sectors Integration In the tourism industry, numerous departments that the ACT government manages come together. For example, transport, customers, infrastructure, and destinations are some of the crucial sectors to enable the success of the tourism industry (ACT Government, 2015). These different departments should understand their respective roles in advancing tourism initiatives and partner with the ACT Government in ensuring their views are integrated in managing tourism based activities (Liu, Tzeng & Lee, 2012). For example, infrastructure development requires disturbing the environment through building of new roads, improving an existing building and other components that are associated with construction (Waligo, Clarke & Hawkins, 2013). The infrastructural development plans should receive clearance on the impact of the process on the environment, short-term effects, long-term and strategies that can be employed to address other shortcomings. Stakeholders Integration The following are some of the important stakeholders and their role in the implementation of strategies. In addition, how the stakeholders can contribute towards the sustainability of the tourism industry. ACT Government – the government plays an important role in ensuring the environment is preserved, and the environment is sustainable for future obligations (ACT Government, 2015). The approaches that the government employs include creating institutions and legislations that guides the process (Waligo, Clarke & Hawkins, 2013; Yasarata et al., 2010). To improve fully the sustainability measures, the policies developed are important in guiding the implementers (Blancas et al., 2010). With the help of government institutions, laws and legislations that champion the requirements of the visitors and addresses the requirements of the environment or sustainability should be passed (Krutwaysho & Bramwell, 2010; Yasarata et al., 2010). It should employ a constructive framework in which the government collects the views from different stakeholders including the community in developing approaches to preserving the environment and to advance the requirements of the investors. It is attributed to the win-win situation in which the investors require to gain economically while the community is after the employment activities associated with the tourism industry (Blancas et al., 2011). Therefore, in implementing any strategic requirement, the government should be involved in every step (Lozano-Oyola et al., 2012). Customers/visitors – in the development of any tourist based activity, the tourists are important; especially in the documentation of their requirements and expectations of a tourist destination (Blancas et al., 2011). Visitors visit different destination because of the unique or services that they are offered. For example, viewing and watching animals including the variety of fish and birds may be one of the factors that attract the customers to Australia and Canberra region by extension (ACT Government, 2015). Without effective sustainability processes, the number of visitors dwindles overtime and it is important to include these visitors in sustainability processes. For example, some customers throw plastics and waste materials through the car window when they are traveling (Waligo, Clarke & Hawkins, 2013). The customers should be informed and highlighted the importance of the use of dustbins to store the waste materials (Blancas et al., 2010). This role can be fulfilled by the taxi drivers and other persons assisting the visitors to move from one location to the next (Liu, Tzeng & Lee, 2012). In addition, the visitors should be informed of the benefits of switching off the lights or closing the taps when they are not using these services (Krutwaysho & Bramwell, 2010). It will enable the reduction of energy and resources wastage, which is common across the world and not Canberra alone (Lozano-Oyola et al., 2012). Furthermore, the education and information provided to the customers should change their entire view on sustainability, and if the visitors visit other regions, they will continue employing approaches that sustain the environment. Community – the community is integral in entire preservation processes because the community understand their environment and challenges that the community faces including the environment (Krutwaysho & Bramwell, 2010). The community should be consulted before any developmental requirement is done. A community that is against any project can make the project unviable because of the environmental conflict (ACT Government, 2015). Therefore, engaging the community is important for goodwill to the new structure or project (Lozano-Oyola et al., 2012). Secondly, engagement with the community provides valuable information that would improve the relationship between the different stakeholders such as advising the investors on rights and wrongs of the region. In addition, conflicts between the investor and other stakeholders would decrease because the community provides valuable information (Waligo, Clarke & Hawkins, 2013). The community should also be informed of the importance of preserving and protecting the environment (Whitford & Ruhanen, 2010). Some communities may employ certain approaches thinking it helps the community but degrades the environment (Blancas et al., 2010; Yasarata et al., 2010). In fulfilling the requirements of sustainability, any development should not be viewed from the side of benefits to the tourists but also how the community impacts the sustainability process (Whitford & Ruhanen, 2010). The society and community should be informed about the appropriate processes and mechanisms that allow sustainability of the environment. The community can also be used to report on issues that the authorities cannot see or hear. For example, if a tourist facility is releasing discharges to the environment, the community can report the problem to the right authority or raise the alarm (Krutwaysho & Bramwell, 2010). Hence, in the implementation process, the community places an important role, and the community should be integrated into the entire process (Waligo, Clarke & Hawkins, 2013). Service providers e.g. hotel management – the facility management and the investors should encourage sustainable means in both construction and operation of their respective facilities (Whitford & Ruhanen, 2010). The design should factor into consideration sustainability processes (Blancas et al., 2010). For example, the tourist facilities should reduce reliance on papers and use technology to accomplish the operational requirements (ACT Government, 2015). For example, computers and other peripherals can be used to make an order and provide the customers with services rather than noting the customer’s requirements on a piece of papers (Lozano-Oyola et al., 2012). The hotel or tourist facilities should reduce reliance on electricity and such forms of energy and target the use of solar energy. Furthermore, the design process should capitalize on natural lighting because it will decrease the use of energy in both lighting and provision of ventilation (Krutwaysho & Bramwell, 2010). Reducing the use of non-renewable energy is the appropriate step to take in advancing the requirements of sustainability of the environment and resources. The facility management should assist and inform its customers about the importance of switching off lights that are not in use (Blancas et al., 2010; Yasarata et al., 2010). Another strategy is to use sensitive lighting in which the lights detect movements so that the lights are powered on: sometimes, a customer may forget to put off lights unintentionally and this is the appropriate solution to address the problem. Therefore, in fulfillment of implementation processes the management of the tourist facility is crucial to ensuring its success (Waligo, Clarke & Hawkins, 2013). A single stakeholder cannot accomplish the requirements of sustainability and requires a collective approach (Blancas et al., 2010). Each of the four stakeholders play an important role in advancing the requirements of sustainability, and their views should be integrated in reviewing process and creating effectiveness on the entire processes (Lozano-Oyola et al., 2012). Therefore, the numerous stakeholders involved in the tourism industry should come together and ensure the entire process champion sustainability while increasing the number of visitors. Auditing and Evaluation Policies, strategies, and many implementation approaches can be done, but the effectiveness of any strategy is questionable until the process is quantified (Krutwaysho & Bramwell, 2010). The effectiveness of any process is determined by the extent in which goals have been achieved (ACT Government, 2015). Auditing and evaluation are crucial components that can be used to determine whether the goals have been achieved (Blancas et al., 2010). The general aims of the process are “the implementation of sustainable tourism planning” and during the formulation process, goals are usually indicated (Whitford & Ruhanen, 2010). The general approach is the determination of the current situations and devising strategies to address the problem (Waligo, Clarke & Hawkins, 2013). The final goals should be specific in that they should be measurable so that comparison is done to determine whether improvement has been obtained. Without evaluation, it is difficult to determine whether the process continues well and what mechanisms should be introduced to improve the process. Therefore, the purpose of the evaluation is not to determine the effective of the problems but to determine the future of the process. For example, understanding the shortcomings and challenges faced creates a platform in which future approaches can be customized (Krutwaysho & Bramwell, 2010). In fulfillment of any project, shortcomings and weaknesses are important to appreciate changes to advance the requirement of the entire process (Blancas et al., 2011). The evaluation also allows identifying the sectors or institutions that are ineffective and introduce approaches to improve the entire process (Waligo, Clarke & Hawkins, 2013). Evaluation should not be seen as a means of looking for weaknesses or shortcomings rather a means of improving quality resulting in the fulfillment of sustainability requirements (Blancas et al., 2010). In the evaluation process, the four identified stakeholders should be involved to determine the success and view of each stakeholder (Waligo, Clarke & Hawkins, 2013; Yasarata et al., 2010). For example, the management of the hotel facility may be requested to provide utility expenses after a certain period and to compare the prior to sustainability processes with the post sustainability process to determine whether the process was effective. Moreover, the community may be asked to comment on the impact of the facility in terms of sustainability, and such information will be used to determine the success of the process (Krutwaysho & Bramwell, 2010). Conclusion The implementation of (better) sustainable tourism planning requires the employment of different strategies to fulfill the sustainability requirements. The ACT government has played its role in developing and advancing legislations that are aimed at sustainability. In addition, it is important to integrate the views of other industries; the stakeholders in ensuring sustainability processes are championed. The stakeholders bring different approaches and integration of these divergent approaches ensures the appropriate decisions are used. The sustainability process should also be audited to determine the success of the process and measures that can be improved to improve the processes. Hence, to implement successfully the implementation of sustainable tourism planning, the different stakeholders and institutions should be involved in the entire process. References ACT Government. (2015). Environment and Planning Directorate – Environment. Retrieved from http://www.environment.act.gov.au/environment/environment_protection_authority Blancas, F. J., González, M., Lozano-Oyola, M., & Perez, F. (2010). The assessment of sustainable tourism: Application to Spanish coastal destinations. Ecological indicators, 10(2), 484-492. Blancas, F. J., Lozano-Oyola, M., González, M., Guerrero, F. M., & Caballero, R. (2011). How to use sustainability indicators for tourism planning: The case of rural tourism in Andalusia (Spain). Science of the Total Environment, 412, 28-45. Krutwaysho, O., & Bramwell, B. (2010). Tourism policy implementation and society. Annals of Tourism Research, 37(3), 670-691. Liu, C. H., Tzeng, G. H., & Lee, M. H. (2012). Improving tourism policy implementation–The use of hybrid MCDM models. Tourism Management, 33(2), 413-426. Lozano-Oyola, M., Blancas, F. J., González, M., & Caballero, R. (2012). Sustainable tourism indicators as planning tools in cultural destinations. Ecological Indicators, 18, 659-675. Visit Canberra. (2015). Latest Research. Retrieved from http://tourism.act.gov.au/research/latest-research Waligo, V. M., Clarke, J., & Hawkins, R. (2013). Implementing sustainable tourism: A multi-stakeholder involvement management framework. Tourism Management, 36, 342-353. Whitford, M. M., & Ruhanen, L. M. (2010). Australian indigenous tourism policy: practical and sustainable policies? Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18(4), 475-496. Yasarata, M., Altinay, L., Burns, P., & Okumus, F. (2010). Politics and sustainable tourism development–Can they co-exist? Voices from North Cyprus. Tourism Management, 31(3), 345-356. Read More