Sustainable tourism

Sustainable tourism refers to a modern movement to reform the tourism industry, as well as the behaviors and beliefs of tourists themselves. The movement aims to improve the tourism experience and reduce social, economic, cultural, and environmental harms that have traditionally been caused by tourism. Like other movements for sustainability, sustainable tourism pushes for improvements to tourism in the present and awareness of the long-term effects of tourism in the future. Reformers target many goals, including increasing economic benefits in host communities, reducing wasted resources and harm to the environment, respecting cultures and traditions, and improving the experience of tourists worldwide.

Background

With the rapid increase in modern transportation and communication technology, tourism has rapidly become one of the world’s favorite pastimes. Every year, hundreds of millions of people travel by automobile, train, or airplane to visit destinations far and near. Some of these people travel in search of beautiful natural areas, interesting wildlife, historical monuments, countless cultural experiences, or simply relaxation.

This great rise in tourist activity has made tourism one of the most important and profitable industries in the world, employing approximately one-tenth of the global working population. These workers are divided among a wide variety of related fields including guest accommodation, tour guiding and driving, food service, souvenir and gift sales, and many more. Millions of people, and some entire nations, economically rely on tourism. Tourist money creates jobs, often in areas with few promising industrial or technological work opportunities. It can also stimulate greater investments in a region or country, such as the construction of new hotels, restaurants, airports, railways, and various new attractions for visitors.

Consequently, many countries and organizations seek to increase their appeal to tourists. Popular destinations aim to maintain interest, and newer and less-popular destinations seek more attention. Travel experts foresee an ongoing growth of tourism as people around the world gain more disposable income and find new, more efficient means of travel. The travel industry is set to potentially outperform most other industries in the third decade of the twenty-first century.

At the same time, however, tourism rates that rise too high or too quickly, or are managed improperly, can lead to many negative repercussions. The phenomenon of overtourism involves too many tourists visiting a particular location, potentially causing a wide variety of problems for all parties involved as well as the environment as a whole.

One effect of overtourism is that huge numbers of tourists gather in a small number of popular locations. These locations frequently become overcrowded, with visitors cramped shoulder-to-shoulder, unable to see or appreciate the unique and appealing features of the location. Overcrowded areas also increase the risk of dangers such as pickpocketing, and strain the resources of the surrounding area and the everyday lives of local natives. Overtourism can even dilute the original ways of life in an area and bring a new focus on “touristy” attractions of little cultural merit or authenticity.

Overtourism and other negative aspects of tourism can reduce the economic benefits of tourism or even create varying forms of financial inequity or loss. For example, when governments focus excessively on drawing and accommodating tourists, they may fail to provide needed economic and social services to their own people, particularly those in need or those in areas less popular among tourists. In addition, poorly managed tourism can lead to much of the crucial money spent by tourists in a destination to spread to other sites, regions, or countries.

Poorly managed tourism can also bring a wide variety of other liabilities. Excessive carbon emissions from tourist vehicles, and pollution and resource waste caused by inefficient hotel practices, can do serious harm to the environment. Some of the delicate natural areas whose beauty most appeals to tourists are those most threatened by tourism. In addition, physical wear and tear on historical buildings or monuments caused by excessive tourism can irreparably damage priceless cultural legacies.

Overview

Growing understanding of the potential negative long-term effects of tourism, in particular overtourism and poorly managed tourism, has led many people and organizations to call for change. In general, the reform movement pushes for sustainable tourism, a broad concept encompassing many kinds of action and subject to many interpretations. In general, sustainable tourism refers to systems and practices of tourism that consider the social, economic, cultural, and environmental impacts of tourism, both in the present and future.

Sustainable tourism is meant to combine efforts by tourists, the tourism industry as a whole, and host governments and communities to foster shared benefits. It also overlaps other reform movements in tourism, such as responsible tourism and ecotourism. Responsible tourism is a more mainstream, informal push for tourists and tourism-related businesses to behave in a more thoughtful manner toward people and places. The idea is quite similar to, and sometimes used interchangeably with, sustainable tourism. Ecotourism aims more specifically at preserving natural areas and native people in areas often visited by tourists, and promoting environmental awareness and education.

The movement toward sustainable tourism has grown quickly in the twenty-first century, but it faces a huge challenge in counteracting the enormous global effects of the entrenched traditional practices of tourism. The early years of the sustainable tourism movement were propelled mainly by individuals and small nongovernmental organizations, generally staffed by fewer than twenty-five people each. These groups had little means of cooperation and, in fact, often had to compete with one another for scarce project funding. Supporters of sustainable tourism have pushed for greater exposure of their ideals and increased adoption of their practices into the mainstream to create more lasting and widespread global effects.

A major step for this movement was its adoption by the United Nations (UN), which declared 2017 the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. The UN has also established September 27 as an annual World Tourism Day on which experts and educators spread the word about the effects of tourism and the need for a new approach. In addition, the UN has incorporated several sustainable tourism goals into its overarching list of worldwide Sustainable Development Goals. Acknowledgement and support from the UN has brought sustainable tourism concepts more into the mainstream and helped to demonstrate their importance to organizations and governments.

Sustainable tourism reformers push for a wide range of goals in many ways. The UN and the World Tourism Organization set out a list of twelve main goals for the movement in 2005 that remain a standard guideline for evaluating and improving tourism practices.

One of the main goals relates to the cultural richness of a particular site or region. Sustainable tourism would show respect toward the authentic and unique traditions, beliefs, and heritage of the locale, as well as help to support and perpetuate the culture.

Three of the sustainable tourism goals relate to economic aims. One goal is to ensure the ongoing economic viability of a particular destination so it can remain open and compete with rival destinations and share the benefits of tourism. Sustainable tourism also aims to bring economic benefits to the destination and the surrounding area by bringing in money that is mainly kept within the area. Much of this tourism income should ideally be used to create new, fair-paying jobs in the area. This will allow local workers of varying backgrounds and ability levels to find meaningful work in the tourism industry.

Stemming from the previous goals are three relating to the social health and wellbeing of a tourist destination. The economic benefits of tourism should be used to promote social equity through a system of fair distribution through the local social structure. Second, part of this allocation of funds should be improving community wellbeing, which means making life better for the people who live in and near the tourist destination. Thirdly, local people should maintain significant planning and decision-making powers relating to the tourist attractions and the ways tourism is conducted in the area.

Another four goals relate to the physical and environmental health of the destination region. These goals work to ensure that landscapes and various natural and human-made sites remain physically sturdy and safe, without undue deterioration caused by improper use. Sustainable tourism should push for resource efficiency, meaning that tourists should create as little waste as possible, whether it be in the form of water or soap waste in hotels or single-use plastic waste at restaurants or destination sites. The environmental purity of the region should be protected, with minimal pollution, and by extension the biological diversity of the plants and animals there must be preserved from harm.

Finally, sustainable tourism aims to improve the experience of the motivating force: the tourist. Reformers hope that sustainable practices, in improving and preserving vacation destinations, will help visitors enjoy more enriching, satisfying, and fun journeys. Sustainable tourism aims to educate tourists, not only about culture but also about sustainable practices, and ensure that they are safe and afforded equal and fair treatment in their host locations.

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