CHAPTER 1

Sustainable Tourism
 UNWTO – one that meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while
protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future.
 WCED – development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Scope of Sustainable Tourism:

 Sustainable Tourism
 Pollution
 Resource Use
 Wildlife
 Operational Practices of Tourism Organization
 The Host Community tourism
 The Tourists
 The Industry
 Public Sector Policy
 Conservation, Policies and Practices

Stakeholders in Sustainable Tourism 

• Tourists – Mass market, ecotourists
• The Host Community – Directly or indirectly employed in tourism, Local business people
• Governmental Bodies – International eg: European Union, National, Regional and Local
• Tourism Industry – Tour operators, Transport Operators, Hospitality Sector, Visitor
attractions
• Pressure Groups – Environment, Wildlife, Human rights, Workers Rights Media – News,
Specialist travel articles
• Experts – Commercial consultants, Academics
• Voluntary sector – NGO’s, Trusts and Environmental charities

DIFFERENT TYPES OF TOURISM ORGANIZATION

• Public sector sets strategies, private sector develops the products. Hence public sector
must persuade the private sector which dominates the supply to follow their plans.
• Large organizations seen as culprits for showing no or less commitment towards
sustainability. One person business, small enterprises show long term commitment as
they are locals.
• Transnational enterprises should show interest in sustainability of the countries they
deal with apart from their own country.
Different Sectors of Tourism and their issues with sustainability:
a) Accommodation

 Environmental impact of new buildings and their operation management eg: waste
disposal
 Role of multinational chains
 Human resource policies eg: wage levels, discrimination
b) Transport

 Use of fuel
 Land acquired for infrastructure for airports and roads
 Traffic congestion on the roads
 c) Tourism Services (Tour Operators)

 Volume and types of trips tourists take to their destinations

 Relations with local suppliers
 Educating tourists about sustainable issues
d) Visitor Attractions

 Environmental impact of new buildings and attractions

 Relations with local community
 Employment policies
e) Retail Travel Trade

 Role in creating tourist expectations

 Advice about destinations Eg: religion, health issues, political problems
f) Adventure tourism and recreation:

 Use and abuse of new destinations

 Use and abuse of present destinations
 Largely an area of interest of present travelers
g) Destination Management (F and B Service, Events and Conferences)

 Public sector planning and economic development strategies

 Financial incentives for new developments
 Tourist taxes and spending of this revenue

Sustainable Tourism and Functional Management

Sustainable tourism should be of concern to every person in an organization irrespective of
departments and functions.
Different types of functional management roles are:
Marketing
- Attracting tourists to already fragile and overcrowded environments
- Raising and shaping tourist expectations.
Human Resources
- The recruitment of locals and immigrants
- Training and education
- Racial or sexual discrimination
- Wage levels and working conditions
- Management styles
Finance
- Short term views
- Longer term financial planning
- Impact of cost reduction measures on the environment, staff and host community
Operations
- Purchasing supplies
- Waste disposal
- Energy conservation
- Pollution

HISTORY OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

 1948 – The International Union for the Protection of Nature is founded.
 1970 – Sustainable tourism is a paradigm that evolved as a reaction to criticism of
tourism's unprincipled growth in Europe in the 1970s.
 Jost Krippendorf – A swiss researcher who first wrote about the negative environmental
impacts of tourism.
 1982 – UN approved the World Charter for Nature.
 1987 – The concept of sustainable development, a generic term, was defined by
Brundlandt Commission.
 1992 – The UN Conference on Environment and Development is held in Rio de Janeiro;
agreements were reached on Agenda 21, which integrates the principles of sustainable
development.
 1996 – The World Tourism Organization, the World Travel & Tourism Council, and the
Earth Council released their own action-plan.
  1999 – The UNWTO published the Global Codes of Ethics for Tourism.
 2000 – The UN Millennium Declaration contains the now famous “Millennium
Development Goals” (MDG).
 2005 – UNWTO and UNEP published “Making Tourism More Sustainable – A Guide for
Policy Makers.”
 2012 – In “The Future We Want, the Conference’s outcome document, member nation
pledge “to promote education for sustainable development (2005-2014)”.
 2015 – The year 2015 marked the deadline for achieving the MDGs formulated in 2000.
In the Global Sustainable Development Report, the UN (2015) identified key sustainable
development goals for the next 15 years.

THREE DIMENSIONS OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSION
Natural Resources – clean air, land, mineral waters, and the water in lakes and seas.
Natural Environment – natural forests, mountains, and regions which attract tourists because
of their rivers and lakes.
Farmed Environment – agriculture landscapes, man-made forests, and fish farms.
Wildlife – as land-based mammals and reptiles, flora, birds, insects, fish, and marine mammals.
Build Environment – individual buildings and structures, villages and townscapes, transport
infrastructure, dams, and reservoirs.

ECONOMIC DIMENSION
Tourism is an economic phenomenon because:

 It is a major industry and foreign currency earner.

 It is the basis of the growth of many transnational corporations.

 It accounts for a significant proportion of the annual disposable income.

 Economic Benefits of Tourism

Job creation
Injection of income into the local economy through the multiplier effect.
Helping keep the local business viable.
Infrastructure development.
Attracts the foreign direct investments.
  Economic Costs of Tourism
Many jobs are low paid and seasonal.
Opportunity costs.
Congestion.
The need to invest in expensive infrastructure which may only be required for part of the
year.
Over-dependence on tourism makes the host economy vulnerable.

SOCIAL DIMENSION
 The strength and coherence of the local society and culture.
 The nature of tourism in the resort.
 The level of economic and social development of the host population in relation to the
tourists.
 The measures were taken by the public sector in the destination to manage tourism in
ways which minimize the socio-cultural costs of tourism.

GOALS OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

- Sustainable tourism aims to achieve the following:
• ECONOMIC PROSPERITY – could be achieved by developing appropriate tourist
products for carefully selected markets and profitable business operations, providing
decent employment to all, especially local communities, fostering livelihood and small
enterprises, and adopting fair procurement practices
• SOCIAL AND CULTURAL EQUITY – could be pursued through respecting local traditions,
protecting indigenous communities, and preventing the exploitation of women and
other vulnerable groups.
• ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION – sustainable tourism requires that the environment
is safeguarded from destruction and that the tourism industry and tourists behave in a
responsible manner.

PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

(UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION)
 Enhances the well-being of communities in which tourism takes place.
 Supports the protection and enhancement of the natural and cultural resources of the
destination.
 Recognizes the importance of product quality and tourist satisfaction as key factors for
the economic success of tourism.
 Adopts adequate management and monitoring measures.
REQUISITES FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
To increase the chances of success of tourism sites, a few questions need to be addressed first
(DOT et al. 2014):
 Is the area safe?
 Are the attractions unique?
 Do the attractions have social and cultural value?
 Is it accessible?
 Is there political support?
 Is the community supportive of the project?
 Are there sources of funds for the project?
 Are there available utilities and infrastructure?
 Are there onsite facilities?
 Is the are open for tourism development?
 Is the quality of the area conducive for the tourism development?

TOURISM & SUSTAINABILITY PARADIGM IN THE PHILIPPINES

1970
- The focus had been on undifferentiated mass tourism.
- The main strategy was to boost tourist arrivals in order to maximize tourism revenues
for both government and private business.
- This has led to socio-cultural issues, such as child prostitution and drugs and
concomitant disillusion by the general public.
1980
- The motivation was still economic but with tourism being managed like a corporation.
- The Department of Tourism staff complement was trimmed down, and a master plan
was formulated.
- The plan embodied the strategies of creating tourism clusters with supporting
international airports, regional dispersal of accommodation facilities, deregulations of
transportation industry, and diversification of markets and tourism offerings.
1990
- The 1990s saw the advent of sustainable development as a tourism development
paradigm.
- Its key principle has slowly been integrated in tourism-relevant planning and
development.
- At the turn of millennium, the environmental dimension was given more prominence,
culminating in the passage of the National Ecotourism Strategy.
- The DOT also paid attention to the development of the rural areas through Agritourism
initiatives.
- Since then, Tourism has solidified its positions as an anchor of the Philippine economic
development.
 - In recent years, sustainable development principles have been embodied in the
landmark legislation.
2009 – In the Tourism Act of 2009 (RA. 9593), the state declares tourism as an indispensable
element of the national economy and an industry of national interest and importance, which
must be harnessed as an engine of socio-economic growth and cultural affirmation to generate
investment, foreign exchange and employment, and to continue to mold an enhanced sense of
national pride for all Filipinos.
2011-2016 – The National Tourism Development Plan of 2011-2016 includes action plans, such
as provision of water treatment and solid waste management; safeguarding natural and
cultural heritage and vulnerable groups; and adopting a participatory policy-making process.