Chapter 3: Sustainable Tourism Development

• Tourism can ensure economic sustainability by cultural provision of employment opportunities and income growth. this refers to skills training to ensure career progression, income growth, ensuring stable employment and income
• tourism development can also ensure economic sustainability by increasing provision of social services. tourism revenue can be used to build schools and clinics for local communities to receive healthcare and education, which would allow them to seek for better employment and income
• Tourism development can achieve social sustainability by respecting authenticity of local communities, practices and art forms. This means the attractions should be sensitively developed to show local cultures and tourists may be advised to be respectful in their interactions with locals.
• tourism development can ensure social sustainability by contributing to intercultural understanding and tolerance. exchanges between tourists and locals should enhance understanding, tolerance and a better appreciation toward each others‘ culture
• tourism development can ensure environmental sustainability by maintaining ecological processes (Eg. photosynthesis, transpiration). this allows the environment to thrive, ensuring present and future demands of people can be met.
• tourism development can also ensure environmental sustainability by conserving natural heritage and biodiversity. this involves the establishment of national parks in the area to protect environment by preventing threats and managing tourist numbers and waste generated
• government can influence sustainable tourism development by establishing policies and creating plans that minimise damage to environment while maximising benefits to locals. the government can also enforce regulations such as the type of activity and number of tourists who can enter. however, its effectiveness may be limited by poor enforcement and decision to prioritise economic development
• International organisations can influence sustainable tourism development by providing consultancy and technical and financial assistance, and raising public awareness on how different stakeholders can contribute to sustainable development. However, its effectiveness is limited by the lack of understanding of local contexts and lack of funding
• businesses can influence sustainable tourism development by seeking advice from other stakeholders regarding sustainable tourism practices and participating in decision-making for sustainable tourism development. however, its effectiveness can be limited by compromising on sustainable practices to survive and differing understandings and ways of measuring sustainability, especially in a way where they end up greenwashing
• locals can influence sustainable tourism development by seeking advice from other stakeholders and participating in decision making. however, they could be limited by lack of financial and technical assistance and prioritising economic benefits over sustainability
• tourists can influence sustainable development by developing a genuine interest in tourist destination and seeking to enhance its environment, culture and economy. they can also interact responsibly with environment and people when they travel. however, they could be limited by their budget and lack of clear information which may confuse tourists
• Ecotourism is a form of sustainable tourism that aims to conserve natural environmeant by benefitting the local community. Two strategies of doing so is by educating and increasing tourist appreciation of nature, and placing measures to minimise negative impacts on environment
• ecotourism can be limited by uncertainty over continuity of conserving nature which may lead to priority over profits over the environment. uncertainty over involving local communities could also result in lack of measures to equip locals with skills and knowledge that could maximise their benefits.
• communtiy-based tourism is a small-scale tourism managed by locals. this includes encouraging local communities to participate in decision-making on tourism developments in their community, putting in place measures to increase economic and social benefits to local communities by encouraging innovation and setting up of businesses, and directing revenue to community projects to fund social services, and educating and increasing tourist appreciation of local cultures and protection of environment
• however, CBT can be limited by loss of culture due to commodification. there could also be limitations in resources, skills and manpower to compete with large-scale tourism developments and attract more tourists to practice more sustainable tourism.
• pro-poor tourism focuses on improving livelihoods of the poor. this includes training and access to micro-finance, which enables the poor to set up business. however, PPT can be limited by inability to reduce poverty as poor may be reluctant to participate or lack skills, finances and knowledge to establish and sustain their business. economic benefits may still be highly unevenly distributed, with most of the benefits being channeled to non-poor locals as they seem to be more reliable by banks, donors and authorities.
• Sustainable tourism production occurs when demands of ecosystem services do not exceed supply of resources and different stakeholders work together and adopt responsible long-term approaches.
• equitable distribution of tourism benefits can occur by implementing tourism management to ensure tourism benefits are enjoyed by all stakeholders and minimising trade-offs between social, economic and environmental dimension
• sustainable tourism consumption is achieved when destination regions manage demand and when tourism is consumed responsibly by tourists, policies give local communities primary attention while considering needs of tourists