SUSTAINABLE AND
RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT
(updated February 2015) Sourced from the Lesson Plan for Principles of Tourism II
OBJECTIVES Define the meaning of sustainability and
sustainable tourism
Discuss the importance of sustainability and the role of the industry
Identify the concept of carrying capacity and the difficulties involved in applying that concept to the real world.
UNIT TOPICS
• Definitions of Sustainability
• What is Sustainable Tourism?
• Definitions of Sustainable Tourism
• Sustainability of Tourism
• Economic aspects, Environmental aspects or Socio-cultural aspects working against sustainable tourism
• Thresholds and carrying capacity
• The process of determining carrying capacity
• Sustainable tourism products
• Sustainability as a strategy
Definitions of Sustainability The Brutland Report(1987) defined sustainability to be ‘meeting the needs of
the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ and it went on to identify some basic principles of sustainability.
The identified needs were to:
• Take a holistic approach to planning and strategy;
• Protect the environment (biodiversity) and man-made heritage;
• Preserve the essential ecological processes;
• Facilitate and engage public participation;
• Ensure the productivity can be sustained into the long-term future and
• Provide for a better level of fairness and opportunity between different countries.
The proponents of sustainability can be subdivided into two school of thought:
1. Those that may be classified as strong or full sustainable supporters
2. Those that may be deemed to be weak or partial sustainable supporters.
WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE TOURISM?
Tourism that takes full account of its
current and future economic, social
and environmental impacts,
addressing the need of visitors, the
industry, the environment and host
communities.
11/14/12
Simplistically we can categorize them into four types of capital stock:
Human: the population, welfare, health, workforce, educational and skill base.
Physical: productive capital such as machinery, equipment, buildings.
Socio-cultural: well being, social cohesion, empowerment, equity, cultural heritage.
Environment: nature
SUSTAINABILITY AND CAPITAL STOCKS
Human Capital
Physical Capital
Environmental Capital
Socio-cultural Capital
Economic Activity (production and consumption)
Investment (replacement and
induced)
Total Human Welfare
What is Sustainable Tourism?
Preserving the current resources base for future generations.
Maintaining the productivity of the resource base.
Maintaining biodiversity and avoiding irreversible environmental changes.
Ensuing equity between and within generations.
Maintaining and protecting the heritage of the area, region or nation.
DEFINITIONS OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
THE WTO outlined that sustainable tourism should:
Make optimal use of environmental resources (while maintaining the essential ecological processes while helping to conserve the natural heritage and biodiversity)
Respect the sociocultural authenticity of those communities (helping to conserve the cultural heritage and traditional values as well as seeking to engender intercultural understanding tolerance)
Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socioeconomic benefits to all stakeholders
SUSTAINABILITY OF TOURISM
Economic aspects working against sustainable tourism
Environmental aspects working against sustainable tourism
Socio-cultural aspects working against sustainable tourism
THRESHOLDS AND CARRYING CAPACITY
Tourism activity exceeding the thresholds is likely to affect every facet of tourism development. For instance, exceeding:
Physical thresholds will limit the volume of tourist flows and expose tourists to safety hazards.
Environmental thresholds will limit the tourists flows by creating secondary problems, such as health hazards, or detract from the attractiveness of a destination.
Socio an cultural thresholds will generate resentment and antagonism towards tourists from the host population.
Tourist flows thresholds will affect the satisfaction levels of tourists and cause them to search elsewhere for a better products.
Economic thresholds will result in misallocation of resources and factors of production
CARRYING CAPACITY
“the maximum number of people who can use a site without an unacceptable alteration in the
physical environment and without an unacceptable decline in the quality of
experience gained by visitors”
(Mathieson and Wall,1982)
When attempting to identify the levels of carrying capacity, to weigh the absolute numbers of tourist arrivals to take account of a number of factors as follows:
• The average length of stay;
• The characteristics of tourist and hosts;
• The geographical concentration of tourist;
• The degree of seasonality;
• The type of tourism activity;
• The accessibility of specific sites;
• The level of infrastructure use and its spare capacity;
• The extent of spare capacity among the various productive sectors of the economy.
The determinants and influences of carrying capacity
Local Factors Alien Factos
Planning prcoess
Management of development
Technology
IMPACTS ON
Society Culture Environment Economy
Parameters Standards
Current carrying Capacity
Tourists
T he present level of carrying capacity soon becomes accepted and this level of acceptance influences the local and alien factors at the top of the process
and modifies tolerance levels throughout in this way carrying
capacities can be extended overtime
These affect local and alien factor
The interaction between local and alien factors, directed and governed by the planning process, will determine the
impacts
THE PROCESS OF DETERMINING CARRYING CAPACITY
LOCAL FACTORS Social structure Cultural heritage Environment Economic structure Political structure Resources
ALIEN FACTORS • Tourist characteristics • Types of tourist activity • Planning, management ad technology
IMPACTS • Parameters •Standards •Carrying capacity determination
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM PRODUCTS
• Eco-tourism is unequivocally linked to natural tourism attractions rather than their man-made counterparts and environmental sustainability is often to be a core component of such a product’s definition. • Eco-tourism demands a high level of interpretation whereas the mass tourism product does not. • Both eco-tourism and alternative imply small-scale, indigenous low-key activities. •Eco-tourism suggest that it has in place constraints that will prevent or inhibit uncontrolled development. • Both forms of tourism activity ca provide a temporary runway for the take-off of the destination as it moves towards mass tourism.
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM PRODUCTS
The 10 Rs
The Three Rs
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Recognize, Refuse, Replace, Reduce, reuse, Recycle, Re-engineer, Retrain, Reward, Re-educate
SUSTAINABILITY AS A STRATEGY
• Sustainability more than anything else involves a process of recognition and responsibility. • A sustainable strategy must engage all of the stakeholders in the planning of tourism • Economic sustainability for tourism requires holistic planning across all industrial sectors •The quality of the tourism product demands staff training that is universally acceptable and the economic environment must make environmentally and socio-culturally sound behavior the best economic choice.
SUSTAINABILITY AS A STRATEGY
•Environmental sustainability in tourism requires greater awareness and knowledge about the impacts and ways of translating those impacts into the economic marketplace. •The indirect and induce environmental consequences of activities must be included in the calculation of their market prices but it must also be recognized that environmental and social system change over time as a natural consequence of development and such changes need to be accommodated