Sustainability of tourism industry

Tourism is an activity that has grown by around 25 per cent in the past 10 years. It now

accounts for around 10 per cent of the world’s economic activity and is one of the main

generators of employment.

A sustainable approach to tourism means that neither the natural environment nor the

socio-cultural fabric of the host communities will be impaired by the arrival of tourists.

On the contrary, the natural environment and the local communities should benefit

from tourism, both economically and culturally. Sustainable tourism is not a discrete or

special form of tourism. Rather, all forms of tourism should strive to be more

sustainable.

Making tourism more sustainable is not just about controlling and managing the

negative impacts of the industry. Tourism is in a very special position to benefit local

communities, economically and socially, and to raise awareness and support for

conservation of the environment. Within the tourism sector, economic development and

environmental protection should not be seen as opposing forces—they should be

pursued hand in hand as aspirations that can and should be mutually reinforcing.

Policies and actions must aim to strengthen the benefits and reduce the costs of tourism.

Further massive growth is predicted for tourism between now and 2020, providing

excellent opportunities for spreading prosperity but presenting considerable challenges

and potential threats to the environment and local communities if not well managed.
 Tourism and climate change
Climate change is recognized as a major global issue, with significant implications for

tourism. Our lifestyles, economies, health and social well-being are all affected by

climate change, and although the consequences of climate change will vary on a

regional basis, all nations and economic sectors will have to contend with the challenges

of climate change through adaptation and mitigation. Tourism is no exception and in

the decades ahead, climate change will become an increasingly pivotal issue affecting

tourism development and management. Mitigation and adaptation measures are of

very different scale and significance both for tourism and climate change, and there is

no local mechanistic link between the two. Rising temperatures, sea level, storminess

and snowlines may have major economic impacts on coastal and mountain resorts, but

energy conservation measures by resorts have negligible effects on local sea level or

snowfall. The only connection is political: when tourism industry associations want to

lobby for government support or special consideration, e.g. for planning permissions

which would not otherwise be granted, they need to demonstrate that they have also

taken some steps themselves. Weather conditions are not determined by simple, linear

cause-and-effect relations. They are the product of a complex system in which many

different factors interact in such a way that even minor changes on the causal side can

bring about unforeseeable consequences on the effects side. Any change in the natural

conditions – which include weather processes– triggers risks.

Weather and climate are two fundamentally different things. Weather consists of real

phenomena which we perceive through our senses and can generally measure

precisely: heat, warmth, humidity, wind force, lightning, rainbows, fog, clouds, polar
lights, snow, hail and many other meteorological phenomena. Climate, on the other

hand, consists of figures. That is, it is neither sensor ally perceptible nor measurable in a

real sense. Climate is “a mathematical artefact that does not occur in reality”. Weather

and climate have as much or as little in common as trade at a local market has to do

with economic indicators.

The weather obeys natural mechanisms, not statistics. Statistics are a valuable

mathematical aid for establishing the areas in which it is worth examining causal

relations. Climate is the weather average. Climate change means that the average

weather is subject to change. The Inter-governmental

Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declared that “[...] warming of the climate system is

unequivocal.” The global mean temperature has increased approximately 0.76°C

between 1850–1899 and 2001–2005 and the IPCC concluded that most of the observed

increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely (> 90%

probability) the result of human activities that are increasing greenhouse gas

concentrations in the atmosphere. Discernible human influences now also extend to

other aspects of climate, including ocean warming, continental-average temperatures,

temperature extremes and wind patterns.

With its close connections to the environment and climate itself, tourism is considered

to be a highly climate-sensitive economic sector similar to agriculture, insurance,

energy, and transportation. The regional manifestations of climate change will be highly

relevant for tourism destinations and tourists alike, requiring adaptation by all major

tourism stakeholders. Indeed, climate change is not a remote future event for tourism,
as the varied impacts of a changing climate are becoming evident at destinations

around the world and climate change is already influencing decision-making in the

tourism sector. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and several partner

organizations, including UNEP, convened the First International Conference on Climate

Change and Tourism in Djerba, Tunisia in 2003. This event was a watershed in terms of

raising awareness about the implications of climate change within the international

tourism community. The Djerba Declaration recognized the complex inter-linkages

between the tourism sector and climate change and established a framework for future

research and policy making on adaptation and mitigation. A number of individual

tourism industry associations and businesses have also shown leadership on climate

change.

Security issues in global tourism

Contemporary security environment is a result of historical events affected by the

elements of the contemporary safety and political environment. Ground security

concepts, which dominate contemporary security environment, are pointed out and

further linked to the development of the modern security threats shaping tourism

destination development. Global society lives in a world shaped by radical changes in

the field of communication and deal with their importance since the early periods of the

humankind” (Kurež et al., 2009, p. 170); Security concept is a living form which

changes, grows and adapts to different environments, hence it represents the evolution

of security concept and its evolution, which is interesting.

Security is undoubtedly related to the field of the tourism, and has been so since its

origins. The modern travel industry emerged in 1841, when Thomas Cook organized his

first travel package from Leicester to Lough borough (UK) to a temperance meeting.

Based on the growth of the travel industry in the last 170 years, his trip was a rather

simple one, however had to consider main elements of the organized travel industry,

which were passed onto contemporary travel packages. Among others, security

elements were and still are essential part of this industry. Global impacts and

dimensions of the tourism economy are responsible for strengthening the importance of

the security issues from personal to local and global level. Hall and others (2003, p. 3)

report that international travel industry influences the economy and political stability of

entire regions, continents and the world. Each time security threats occur at any

popular travel destination, travel flows to and from change dramatically since the

events on the 9/11 the security issues and safety procedures became an indispensable

element of almost every travel we make and they shape global travel flows (Mansfeld &

Pizam, 2006, p.xiii). One of the reasons for such strong connections between the security

threats and travel flow changes are modern communication tools.

 Security threats in tourism Crime.

Crime certainly is one of the most serious treats to the modern tourism. There are

different forms of tourism related crime actions; pick pocketing, shoplifting, rapes,

murders, kidnappings, piracy to name only a few. It can be either domestic against

tourist or tourist against domestic population but sometimes also tourist against tourist
population related crime actions. Human organ trafficking is a relatively new form of

crime. Organs are used for transplantations and medical experiments. In some cases the

tourists’ adventurous spirit takes them to dangerous areas where they expose

themselves to targeting groups and became victims of human organs trafficking.

 Terrorism

Tourism represents an integral part of the globalization (Tarlow, 2006, p. 45), the

terrorism embodying its darkest side. As a result of globalization process tourism and

terrorism became inevitably linked. By accessing the most advanced destruction

technologies terrorist threats and consequences of terrorist attacks have became more

powerful and effective than ever before. Recent terrorist activities caused the rise of

precautionary measures at the airports and national borders, thus tourism is being

affected as well.

 Wars

There are a number of politically unstable regions and countries worldwide. The

instability is caused by religious, ethnic, racial and other disputes or imbalances. Quite

frequent instabilities involve regions of Middle East, Western Balkans, Kashmir,

Caucasus, Korean peninsula and some others. Those areas are not isolated unstable

areas but they do present a threat to wider regions and occasionally involve in military

interventions, hence destabilize the country. Such circumstances are ideal for different

forms of pressures on people and infrastructure and result in greater opportunities for

development of organized crime.

  Social and political unrest

Social and political unrests appear as military coups, violent demonstrations, uprisings

and other forms of resistance. There are many potential reasons for such events (e.g.

incompetent government, corruption, abuse of political power, weak state institutions

and lack of responsibilities by the public sector) and in many cases they lead to the

disintegration of the country or at least to collapse of the government. Such and similar

social and political unrests have indirect impacts on domestic as well as international

tourism demand (Pizam & Mansfeld, 2006, p. 4).

 Environmental security threats

The first is the relation between the scarce natural resources and the increasing needs of

the global society, another is the issue of biological weapons and climate changes and

their impact on the natural environment. Additionally authors point out the impact of

ecological migrations on the abandoned as well as newly occupied areas and, the last

but not least, vast military facilities and infrastructure with nuclear, chemical and

biological weaponry without or with weak security and surveillance.

Climate changes cause natural disasters (e.g. earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes etc.)

which destroy tourism infrastructure and indirectly cause important damage to the

destination economy. Spread of infectious diseases In the last decade tourism suffered

severely because of the infectious diseases (e.g. pig foot and mouth disease, mad cow

disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS, bird flu etc.). World Health
Organization reports that there are many other health related threats that shape the

process of travelling and experiencing different tourist destinations. Diseases such as

malaria, yellow fewer, cholera, tuberculosis, hepatitis and so on (Kou, 2008, p. 918) are

the ones that most likely affect the modern tourist, which either becomes a victim or

transmitter of the disease.

The impact of security incidents on the tourism industry can be enormous. Security

incidents do affect tourism industry, but they also affect those sectors of economy that

are directly or indirectly related to the tourism industry. This effect can either be large

or small depending on the reliance on the tourism industry.

Clash of cultures- tourist culture versus local culture

In the last few decades, international travel and tourism has become one of the largest

and fastest growing industries. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council,

the industry currently supports 260 million jobs across the world and generates nine per

cent of the global economy. As one of the fastest growing and most profitable industries

in the world, tourism can provide limitless opportunities for economic development,

particularly in developing countries. It can generate income and employment

effectively through the development of natural and cultural resources. It also provides

local communities with the opportunity to express pride in their own culture, thus

giving the impetus to revive threatened traditions and cultural practices. Tourism

enables interaction between individuals of different nationalities and backgrounds, thus

fostering dialogue among cultures and encouraging cultural diversity and creativity.
Today about 7 billion people live on Earth, and no two of them alike. People can be

small and large and in many colors. We wear different clothes and have different ideas

of beauty. Many of us believe in one God, others believe in many, and still others

believe in none. Some people are rich and many are desperately poor. Centuries of

geographical separation were concurrent with the development of diverse ways of

interpreting the world and the environment and relating to other peoples.

REGULATORS OF HUMAN LIFE AND IDENTITY

The regulatory function extends to cultures within cultures, which we will study as

subcultures, co-cultures, and subgroups.

Culture

Cultures provide diverse ways of interpreting the environment and the world, as well

as relating to other peoples. To recognize that other peoples can see the world

differently is one thing. To better understand the origins of hostilities between the

Greeks and the Persians, Herodotus visited neighboring non-Greek societies to learn

their belief systems, arts, and everyday practices. He called these non-Greek societies

“barbarian,” a word in Greek in his time that meant people whose language, religion,

ways of life, and customs differed from those of the Greeks. Initially, Barbarian meant

different from what was Greek Nineteenth-Century Definition.

In the 19th century, the term culture was commonly used as a synonym for Western

civilization. The British anthropologist Sir Edward B. Tylor (1871) popularized the idea

that all societies pass through developmental stages, beginning with “savagery,”

progressing to “barbarism,” and culminating in Western “civilization.” It’s easy to see

that such a definition assumes that Western cultures were considered superior. Both

Western cultures, beginning with ancient Greece, and Eastern cultures, most notably

imperial China, believed that their own way of life was superior. The study of multiple

cultures without imposing the belief that Western culture was the ultimate goal was

slow to develop.

Today’s Definition

Cultures are not synonymous with countries. Cultures do not respect political

boundaries. Border cities such as Juárez, El Paso, Tijuana, and San Diego can develop

cultures that in some ways are not like Mexico or the United States. For example, major

stores in U.S. border cities routinely accept Mexican currency.

Culture refers to the following:

•A community or population sufficiently large enough to be self-sustaining; that is,

large enough to produce new generations of members without relying on outside

people.

•The totality of that group’s thought, experiences, and patterns of behavior and its

concepts, values, and assumptions about life that guide behavior and how those evolve

with contact with other cultures.

Hofstede (1994) classified these elements of culture into four categories: symbols,

rituals, values, and heroes. Symbols refer to verbal and nonverbal language. Rituals are

the socially essential collective activities within a culture.

Values are the feelings not open for discussion within a culture about what is good or

bad, beautiful or ugly, normal or abnormal, which are present in a majority of the

members of a culture, or at least in those who occupy pivotal positions.

Cultures With in Cultures: Just as culture is a regulator of human life and identity, so

can cultures within cultures be. Now let’s look at the definitions of the terms

subculture, ethnicity, and co-culture as attempts to identify groups that are cultures but

that exist within another culture.

Tourism can also cause irreversible damage to culture and the environment if not

properly managed. In the rush to develop their local tourism industries, local

governments, particularly in developing countries, have often focused the bulk of their

investment on promoting the sites, while overlooking the need to make adequate

preparations to prevent the deterioration of their cultural, natural and social assets

brought about by uncontrolled tourism.

From 1999 to 2003, UNESCO implemented a four-phase regional project on “Culture

Heritage Management and Tourism: Models for Co-operation among Stakeholders”

with the participation of pilot sites from around the Asia-Pacific region. The project

developed mechanisms for cooperation among various stakeholders at eight World

Heritage and Tentative List sites. Through enhanced cooperation, the pilot sites have

created institutional frameworks for a sustainable local cultural tourism industry and

site-specific strategies to harness tourism towards the goal of heritage preservation.

Most people think of tourism in terms of economic impacts, jobs, and taxes. However,

the range of impacts from tourism is broad and often influences areas beyond those

commonly associated with tourism. Leaders as well as residents who understand the

potential impacts of tourism can integrate this industry into their community in the

most positive way.

The impacts of tourism can be sorted into seven general categories:

1. Economic

2. Environmental

3. Social and cultural

4. Crowding and congestion

5. Services

6. Taxes

7. Community attitude
Eco tourism- myth or reality

Ecotourism is an activity considered by most actors as a means of achieving the

conservation and valorization of biodiversity, local development, and the development

of the tourism sector. In this regard, this activity appears to be symbolic of what is

known as sustainable development, combining economic, ecological, and social

dimensions.

Myths play a critical role in the development of any field of study. They act as the

central point for coalition, and differentiate disciplines from each other. Although there

may be differing definitions of sustainable development, since the Rio Summit,

sustainable tourism can be measured by a set of guidelines which summarises the goals

of each definition created. These guidelines state that sustainable tourism can be made

possible by educating tourists who visit the destination and by the contributions made

to control the flow of tourism and preservation of the environment and population

around the attraction. Therefore, Tourism should support a wide range of local

economic activities, taking environmental costs and benefits into account, but it should

not be permitted to become an activity which dominates the economic base of an area.

Local communities should be encouraged and expected to participate in the planning,

development and control of tourism with the support of government and the industry.

Particular attention should be paid to involving indigenous people, women and

minority groups to ensure the equitable distribution of the benefits of tourism. All

organisations and individuals should respect the culture, the economy and the way of

life, the environment and political structures in the destination area.

 Sustainable tourism is focused on mainstream or mass tourism. It focuses on protecting

the environment that is used by the tourists and materials so they do not damage the

area for future generations. Although due to the rapidly increasing amount of tourists,

the environment is becoming more expensive to protect as the capacity of tourists

becomes exceeded.

Integrated tourism, to be successful, must promote sustainable development by

establishing a durable productive base that allows local inhabitants and service

providers to enjoy rising standards of living". This was said by Mr. David Barkin in one

of his papers in 1996 when the concept of Ecotourism was shaping up and word used

for sustainable tourism development was "Integrated" Tourism. Now we are sure that

word Ecotourism has taken its place integrating Sustainability, environmental

management and ecotourism. Does reality substantiate the myth?” There is no doubt

that people consider "Ecotourism" as "sustainable Tourism". Ecotourism for me is a tool

which ensures ecological, environmental, economical and cultural friendly tourism. I

believe that Ecotourism is activities controlled by local community of any respective

area where tourism activities are being generated.

Tourism is the largest industry in the world. Like other major industries, it is mainly

controlled by large transnational corporations, who profit at the expense of local

communities and the environment. In the 1980s, ecotourism emerged on the scene to

meet the demands for more nature-based travel adventures. The World Tourism

Organization defines ecotourism as a nature-based tourism in which the tourists

observe and appreciate the natural environment and the traditional cultures within that

environment in a sustainable manner. Sustainable tourism, a term often used

interchangeably with ecotourism, emphasizes projects that protect natural resources

and sustain the local community, both now and in the future. Ecotourism includes a

mixed bag of projects, including mountain trekking tours, hikes in the rainforest and

ecolodges, which in many cases are similar to mega-resorts. As a result, ecotourism has

come under fierce attack by environmental, human rights and Indigenous Peoples

organizations, who believe there has not been an adequate assessment of its

environmental and social costs. Environmental abuses may include the depletion of

local natural resources, waste mismanagement, an excess amount of tourists, and

infrastructure development such as roads and airports – all of which result in

irreversible destruction to land and wildlife. Social problems include displacing local

people, offering only low paid unstable jobs and marketing Indigenous or rural people

as ‘attractions’ with neither their consent nor an accompanied compensation. Other

problems include the lack of community involvement and control in tourist projects,

which are often developed and funded by large conservation NGOs.

As global citizens we need to be aware of the problems rooted in the tourism industry

and make informed choices about what we do on our vacation time and where we

spend our money. Deborah McLaren, author of Rethinking Tourism and Eco travel

states that “Truly sustainable tourism must be locally controlled, limited and focus on

local self-reliance for the local population.” She offers the following suggestions:
  Get involved in your own community so that when you travel you will have a

reason to be involved in other communities and will stay involved.

 Acknowledge the modern realities of Indigenous and rural communities and

learn to respect, not romanticize, other cultures.

 Support responsible tourism organizations. Subscribe to their magazines and

newsletters.

 Volunteer.

 Study.

 Pressure large tourism companies to do more than green wash.

 Organize a “reality tour” of your own community to examine environmental

economic or social justice issues. Make activism a goal of the tour.

 Contribute funds to support more integrated, diverse, critical tourism studies.

Tourism health and disease

Recovery from the global financial crisis and an emergence of new source markets has

led to considerable growth in the global tourism industry from 2009 to 2014. The
volume of travel has grown exponentially too. International tourist arrivals increased

from 25.3 million in 1950 to 1138 million in 2014, an astounding 45-fold increase. In

recent years, the World Tourism Organization has estimated growth in travel at

approximately 6% per year, and anticipates similar growths in upcoming decades as

seen in the tourism highlight United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

2014 report. Strongest overall growth (domestic and international combined) was

recorded by carriers in the Middle East (11.4%) followed by Asia-Pacific (7.1%), Latin

America (6.3%) and Africa (5.2%). The slowest growth was in the developed markets of

North America (2.3%) and Europe (3.8%). These areas of rapid growth include many

developing countries in tropical/subtropical regions, places characterized by greater

species richness, (Guernier et al. 2004). Other attributes of these areas, including poor

infrastructure, lack of clean water and sanitation, and poor vector control, may increase

the risk that travelers will be exposed to local infections. The shift of international

tourist arrivals to less-developed regions predicts increased exposure for tourists to

diseases endemic in those regions. An expansion in the overall global tourism market

has contributed significantly to the spread of infectious diseases. Like trade,

international travel is vast, rapid, on the rise, and a significant risk factor for infectious

disease emergence. Human travelers can easily carry person-to-person transmitted

infections to any part of the world as has been seen recently with the Ebola virus. In

looking ahead, it is unclear to what extent the current dramatic changes in the global

economy will affect numbers of travelers or favored destinations. Political instability

and disease outbreaks can also influence travel destinations, sometimes abruptly.
Travelers play a critical role in the movement of microbes globally. In an increasingly

interconnected world with a growing, increasingly urban population in low-latitude

areas, new risks exist and disease-causing microbes and resistance genes can move even

more rapidly than in past decades.

In some instances, disease can be prevented by vaccination, but there are some

infectious diseases, including some of the most important and most dangerous, for

which no vaccines exist, e.g. the Ebola virus. General precautions can greatly reduce the

risk of exposure to infectious agents and should always be taken for visits to any

destination where there is a significant risk of exposure. These precautions should be

taken regardless of whether any vaccinations or medication have been administered.

Global travel has evolved dramatically during the past two centuries, with ever

escalating speed, distance, and volume. Because the geographic distribution of diseases

is dynamic and influenced by ecologic, genetic, and human factors, travel allows

humans to interact with microbes and introduce pathogens into new locations and

populations. The increased numbers of travelers and their spatial mobility have

reduced geographic barriers for microbes and heightened the potential for the spread of

infectious diseases that can negatively affect the tourism industry. Between 1950 and

2013, world population grew from 2.5 to more than 6.9 billion. The population growth

favored centers of commerce, usually urban or suburban areas, which brought more

humans into close contact with larger groups of people. Concurrently, progress in

transportation led to speedier movement of humans and goods as well as microbial

organisms which cause the rapid spread of diseases. Influenza: Seasonal and Pandemic

Influenza remains an ongoing global challenge, given the large pool of influenza viruses

in avian and other species and the capacity of the virus to recombine, re-assort, and

mutate. Spread through aerosol or direct contact, the aircraft provides an ideal enclosed

space for transmission of the influenza virus. Animal and Vector Movement and Travel

Human and livestock populations continue to grow rapidly, increasing the number of

hosts potentially susceptible to novel infections. Mass transportation of people,

products, livestock, and vectors of disease brings each of these closer to one another.

Ebola Virus

In contrast to HIV, the Ebola virus is an RNA filo virus that has wiped out several

nonhuman primate populations over the past 20 years (Bermejo et al. 2006; Leroy et al.

2004; Walsh et al. 2003). The virus appears to be restricted to the rainforests of central

and western Africa and Southeast Asia (Monath 1999; Peterson et al. 2004). Marburg, a

related virus, appears to be restricted to dry, open areas of central and eastern Africa,

and the distributions of Ebola and Marburg likely reflect natural host distribution

(ibid.). Nearly all cases of Ebola in humans can be traced back to the handling or

consumption of infected wildlife carcasses, particularly that of apes (Leroy et al. 2004;

Pourrut et al. 2005).

The impact of air travel on the spread of infectious diseases has led to considerable

concern but limited study ((Mangili &

Gendreau, 2005; Leder& Newman, 2005). More than 1 billion people travel by air each

year. There are several important ways in which air travel can influence the global

spread of emerging and established infectious disease. Infections may be spread on the

aircraft through close contact and large droplets (Mangili & Gendreau, 2005); airborne

spread through small-particle aerosols, as in the case of severe acute respiratory

syndrome (SARS) (Olsen et al., 2003); or even through contaminated food, (Eberhart -

Phillipset al., 1996; Widdowson et al., 2005). Aircraft can transport infected disease

vectors, such as rats or malaria-infected mosquitoes, as nonpaying passengers. Perhaps

the greatest concern for global health, however, is the ability of a person with a

contagious illness to travel to virtually any part of the world within 24 hours as has

been seen with the Ebola virus. Travelers should be considered an integral part of the

global surveillance network for emerging infections. Research and the knowledge

gained can be used to alert the global community to the presence or susceptibility

patterns of pathogens in different regions; inform strategies that can be used to control

infections in developing countries; and prepare travelers to those areas and guide the

care of those returning.

Trends and issues in the transportation sector

 Tourism Terms

Ecotourism

Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the

welfare of local people.

Geo tourism

Tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place –its

environment, heritage, aesthetics, culture and well-being of its residents.

Pro-Poor Tourism

Tourism that results is in increased net benefit for the poor people in a destination.

Ethical Tourism

Tourism in a destination where ethical issues are the key driver, e.g. social injustice,

human rights, animal welfare, or the environment.

Responsible Tourism

Tourism that maximizes the benefits to local communities, minimizes negative social or

environmental impacts, and helps local people conserve fragile cultures and habitats or

species.

Sustainable Tourism
Tourism that leads to the management of all resources in such a way that economic,

social, and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential

ecological processes, biological diversity, and life support systems.

The field of tourism and hospitality is a fast changing one. Because tourism is not a

single discipline but is connected to many other aspects of life it is constantly changing.

Why should anyone leave Hong Kong to go travel to another part of the world? What is

there that he/she can’t find at home? If it is shopping that is his/her main interest why

should she bother to travel to New York when there are thousands of shops in Hong

Kong?

To be able to afford to travel he/she has to save enough money to be able to pay for an

air ticket and accommodation at the destination and he/she has to have enough days of

paid holidays accumulated to be allowed to leave his/ her place of work. He/She will

need to arrange for air transport and for accommodation in New York, will require a

permit to visit the United States (called an entry visa),and he/she will have to take the

seasonality of his/her visit into consideration (will it be winter or summer when he/she

arrives in New York?)

Tourism has a connection to many other disciplines including politics, religion,

agriculture, economics, environment, health, finance, transport, society, immigration,

and education just to name a few. All of these fields of human endevour are constantly

changing and changes in one field will impact on other fields and hence also on

tourism. Demand for tourism products can change very quickly, sometimes overnight,

and it is an industry that is very sensitive to changes and trends in its operating

environment.

These fast moving changes require that tourist companies must be constantly on the

alert to detect changes, trends and issues early so that they can make the necessary

adjustments to their businesses. This includes being prepared for unforeseen

circumstances and changes in their operating environment. One way of doing this is by

constantly scanning the media for trends that may impact on the firm and by setting

aside money to meet unforeseen developments that are out of the control of the

company. Sustainable development is envisaged as leading to the management of all

resources in such a way that economic, social, and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while

maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity, and

life support systems (World Travel and Tourism Council, World Tourism Organisation

and Earth Council 1995 p. 30).

Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable – to ensure that it meets the

needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet

their own needs.” (Our Common Future 1987 p.8)

It has long been known that there is a close connection between tourism and the

environment but whether this nexus is sustainable in the long run has only relatively

recently been discussed. If we want to have tourist destinations that can prosper from

tourism we need to shift our thinking away from a simple marketing approach. As

Bauer (2003) said, “The major issue for many destinations will no longer be to attract

increasing numbers of tourists but how to manage them once they have arrived.”

What does a tourism destination want to maintain (sustain) in the long term?

 The culture and the life-style of local people?

 The local natural environment?

 The local economy including jobs?

 At what levels does the government want to sustain tourism at the destination?

This leads to the question of how many tourists, from which part of the world a

destination want to attract. More tourists are not necessarily better and many

destinations are now looking to attract fewer but higher spending tourists.

 What is the connection between sustainable tourism and the broader social,

cultural and economic development of the destination? Is it possible that in an

effort to achieve sustainable tourism we may put other sectors such as

agriculture under threat by encouraging people to leave the land and to get

involved in tourism?
Transport

Travelers’ an often select from a diverse range of modes of transport. Depending on

where they are traveling to they can walk, cycle, or use a car, coach, ship, train or

aircraft. The various forms of transport have different impacts on the environment.

Obviously walking and cycling have the least negative impacts on the environment

because no fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) are burned and hence no greenhouse gas

emissions occur. Hiking Tai Mo Shan is a sustainable activity provided that hikers stick

to the established paths and that these are well maintained Small motorbikes are very

popular modes of transport but they depend on petrol and contribute to pollution The

next best form of transport is mass transport where the energy used is shared by many

other passengers.

The new Airbus A 380 in the picture above consumes less than 3 liters of fuel per

passenger per 100 km and only generates 75 g of Carbon Dioxide per passenger

kilometer. This compares to the European car industry’s aim of 140 g of Carbon Dioxide

per km in 2009 (see http://www.enviro.aero/A380casestudy.aspx)

To maximize the positive benefits and to minimize the negative environmental impacts

we need to be aware of the consequences for a tourist destination when additional

people visit. More tourists generate more income and employment for residents but
more people also can put severe pressure on a destination’s natural, social and cultural

resources.

Tourism development can have many impacts on the environment. As visitor numbers

rise there will be an increase in:

 Demand for fresh, clean water

 Demand for electricity

 Creation of waste and sewage

 Increase in vehicular traffic

 Crowding

 Land, sea and air pollution

All these aspects need to be evaluated and planned for before a destination can become

sustainable.

The Concept of Carrying Capacity

Carrying capacity has been defined as “The maximum number of people who can use a

site without an unacceptable alteration in the physical environment and without an un

acceptable decline in the quality of experiences gained by visitors”. (Mathieson and

Wall 1982) ...” and without an unacceptable adverse impact on the society, economy

and culture of the tourism area” (Innskeep 1991).

Physical Carrying Capacity

When no more people can physically fit into a space its physical carrying capacity is

reached. Theatres, cinemas, or sports stadia are examples. To increase physical capacity

a new venue may be need to be built. You can also think about capacity on an aircraft. If

all seats are occupied the plane has reached its physical carrying capacity.

Ecological Carrying Capacity

The ecological state of the site must be maintained, or where possible, enhanced. Sites

vary and detailed environmental assessment is needed to establish carrying capacities.

Socio/Cultural Carrying Capacity

This refers to the acceptance of tourists by the local population. The level of acceptance

depends on previous experience and benefits that tourism brings. People who benefit

from tourism such as those who own shops that cater to tourists or those who are

employed in the industry tend to hold more favourable attitudes towards tourism than

those that are not involved with it at all. One way to minimize the negative impacts that

tourism may have is by educating visitors and tourists about what they can expect of

each other.

Psychological Carrying Capacity

Crowding is one of the problems that can be brought on by the presence of too many

tourists in a place. Some people and nationalities are more tolerant of crowds than

others. In Hong Kong people are so used to huge crowds of people that they don’t

worry much if tourists add to the congestion. In other countries such as Australia that

have low population densities even the presence of a few additional people can be

perceived as intruding on the life-style of the locals.

Trends and issues in the accommodation and food services sectors

According to International Labour Office or International Labour Organization,

1. Tourism component of the sector includes specific segments of transport,

2. travel agencies and tour operators. Hotels, catering and restaurants are all considered

by most organizations to belong to the ―tourism-characteristic industries‖ and are

therefore subsumed under tourism.

3. International tourism includes business and professional travel, visiting friends and

relatives, religious travel, and health treatments of travelers crossing a border and

spending one or more nights in the host country. The hotel and restaurant subsectors

analysed in this paper include data and information about accommodation (hotels,

boarding houses, motels, tourist camps, holiday centres, resorts and youth/backpacker

hostels) and wider hospitality (restaurants, bars, cafeterias, snack bars, pubs,
nightclubs) and other similar establishments. Structure and characteristics of the sector

are as follows.

1.1. The hotel, catering and tourism industry

Compared to other sectors of the global economy, the industry is one of the fastest

growing, accounting for more than one third of the total global services trade.

International tourist arrivals have grown by 4.3 per cent between 1995 and 2008.

The sector has benefited from the process of globalization and from the constantly

falling relative costs of travel. In 1950 the travel industry recorded 25 million

international tourist arrivals while there were 277 million in 1980, 438 million in 1990,

684 million in 2000, 904 million in 2007 and 922 million in 2008 (see figure 1). Since 1990,

international arrivals have increased by 4.3 per cent annually and the UNWTO expects

them to rise by 4 per cent per annum over the next 20 years. During the past 25 years,

international tourist arrivals have increased about one percentage point faster than

global GDP in real terms. After an increase in 2008(US$ 942 billion), international

tourism receipts decreased by 5.7 per cent in real terms to US$ 852 billion in 2009

international tourist arrivals. In recent years, air transport has increased more than

surface transport and the expansion of low-cost air travel has greatly altered the

industry in many regions. Some provides statistics to demonstrate the use of various

transport methods as well as the visitor objectives characterizing inbound tourism for

2008. Although differences do appear between countries, this trend whereby leisure and

vacation travel dominate arrivals is relevant in OECD and non-OECD countries, e.g.

business travel accounts for one third of arrivals in Belgium and Sweden, but only 4 per
cent in Mexico and Hungaryn 2009, the Air plus ―Travel management study 2009 noted

that business travel declined by 17 per cent. It was reported that more business

customers chose to fly economy class: in 2009, 8 per cent of all business journeys by air

were in business class compared to 43 per cent in 2001. Further research will be

required to ascertain whether this decrease in business travel is a short-term trend of

the global economic crisis or if it characterizes a long-term tendency linked to the use of

alternative forms of communication including ICT, media/phone conferences or other

facilities. It may also reflect wide restructuring within the airline industry which has

seen the removal of first and business class by some airlines (or a reduction in capacity)

and the growth of the one class, low-cost model for short and medium-haul travel. The

tourism industry and particularly the hotel and restaurant subsector is highly

diversified in the types of businesses that operate under its auspices. The largest

companies include portfolios that contain more than 6,000 hotels each and employ more

than 150,000 employees in up to 100 countries. Globally the industry is highly

fragmented, with around 20 per cent of the workforce located within multinational

enterprises compared to 80 per cent in SMEs. More than 2.5 million SMEs are estimated

to be involved in the European industry. They account for at least 60 per cent of the

workforce in the OECD, where 99 per cent of the companies employ fewer than 250

workers. However, the sector in Spain for example is composed of 43.4 per cent of hotel

chains with more than 50 employees compared to 56.6 per cent with one to 50

employees.
Unlike the more general European picture, businesses in North America, emerging

Asian destinations, Australia, the United Kingdom and some Nordic countries are more

strongly influenced by large chains that employ more than 250 people. Large

enterprises are active product and service innovators and frequently set trends for the

sector. As a result of ―branding‖, which aims to build brand popularity so that

consumers identify with the brand and its particular values, hotels have found that they

can avoid risks of ownership while securing a constant stream of revenue by entering

into long-term management agreements. They influence the activity of many SMEs,

businesses which remain legally independent particularly when workers‘

representation is concerned, through franchises or similar arrangements. Branding

within the chain sector helps achieve harmony between countries in respect to hotel

grading criteria.

The fragmented situation leads to differences in performance and competence. Larger

hotel chains have HRD resources including in- house and on-the-job-training whereas

SMEs lack the capacity to do so and rely more on the VCT system to meet their training

requirements. However, because of the political structure and size of such

organizations, it can be a challenge for hotel chains that have adopted broad HR

management views to maintain a consistent approach to HR practice and industrial

relations including dialogue across regions. For three consecutive years, the world‘s ten

largest hotel companies within the top 300 worldwide have remained consistent.

Growth within chains is continuing. InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) was the
largest hotel chain, and in 2009 was managing more than 600,000 rooms and aimed to

add 250,000 rooms in the next five years. Wyndham Hotel Group acquired two brands

of Global Hyatt –the economy brand

Microtel Inns & Suites as well as Hawthorn Suites –which increased the number of

managed hotels of the chain by 500 units. Hilton, the fourth largest world hotel chain,

added 300 new hotels to the group in 2008. Accor had 17,000 additional rooms. The top

20 hotel brands (see table 2) expect to reach 1.1 million rooms in 8,500 hotels by 2015,

accounting for a supply increase of 20 per cent. During the global economic crisis,

renewed enthusiasm was evident in 2009 compared to 2008 with 170,000 new rooms in

North America, 138,000 in Europe and Asia–Pacific managing 98,000 rooms

corresponding to an increase of 3.1 per cent, 2.2 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively.

Both Latin America and the Middle East show a significant growth of 4.8 per cent with

63,600 new rooms in Latin America and of 4.2 per cent with 52,700 new rooms in the

Middle East. The hotel sector is not alone when it comes to growth and the importance

of their role as chain operators. Restaurants, particularly coffee shops and the fast food

sector have seen major growth in multiple operations worldwide, generally through the

franchise format.

Chain operations in the restaurant sector are dominated by iconic names in fast food,

the majority of which are American in origin (McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Subway, Burger

King,

Starbucks and KFC among others) which all operate over 10,000 units worldwide.

Smaller in number of locations but of equal importance in terms of globalization of food

culture are key iconic themed restaurants such as Hard Rock Café (established in the

UK), Nando‘s (South Africa), Planet Hollywood (US) and TGI Friday‘s (US). All fast

food and themed restaurants offer highly standardized products and services with

limited variation from location to location across countries and continents. They all use

a simplification of the work process so that training requirements are limited and so

work can be undertaken by young, part-time, casual employees. In these work

environments, workplace organization and processes of social dialogue beyond

minimum requirements are quite unusual. In addition, several non OECD member

countries showed strong growth in international tourism terms in both destinations and

originating markets (particularly Brazil, China and India), with rapidly growing

tourism economies accounting for a significant share of GDP and total employment. In

the Pacific, tourism contributes greatly to GDP. In Fiji, the sector offered to over 40,000

people and contributed significantly to foreign exchange reserves. In 2005, US$1million

created about 63 jobs in Fiji. In Egypt, each million dollars invested in hotels creates 18

direct and 12 indirect jobs .The sector is characterized by diversity, complexity, inter

linkage and fragmentation in terms of employment relations. Direct occupations are not

the only jobs linked to the sector‘s activities (e.g. hotels and restaurants employees);

there are also many jobs that have indirect relationships with the sector (e.g. taxi

drivers, other means of transport, tourist guides, gift shops). These relationships

influence the many types of workplace contracts that include full-time, part-time,

temporary, casual and seasonal employment and have significant implications for HRD

within the sector. The sector often crosses the fluid boundaries between the informal
economy and the formal economy, with a number of formal establishments offering

black market jobs. Opportunities for street vending in high-traffic areas for tourists

generate livelihoods predominantly for women and children in developing countries, in

such activities as food stalls, sales of trinkets and artisan crafts. Lease agreements are

arranged between hotel property owners or partners and another company paying rent

to the owner. The lease can be limited to different areas of the hotel. The lender receives

rent from the lessee, who gains revenue and profit from room sales, sales in food,

beverages, banqueting and other areas of operation.–Franchise agreements, also called

licensing agreements, lease a ―brand from a franchisor to a franchisee. In addition to

the initial franchise fee, the franchisee is generally charged a joining fee upon affiliation

with the brand chain. The franchisee is given access to the brand, financing and market

strength. Many lenders will not finance hotel acquisition or construction unless the

property has a strong brand.

ACCOMMODATIONS

An inventory of accommodations considers all existing providers in the destination

including hotels, guesthouses, resorts, B & Bs, self-catering rentals, and RV/camping

sites. Important data about accommodations include the following.

•Number of Rooms and Beds

•Segmentation mix of accommodations

•Average rack rate (per season)

•Employment figures

•Occupancy rate (per season)

•Average length of stay

•Also key markets, use of green technologies, involvement with local communities, and

other elements to the destination’s strategy

•Monitoring the accommodation numbers will also help determine if more types of

accommodation are needed or if the destination is at full capacity

TOUR OPERATORS

Tour operators are vital to the destination value chain, and in many cases manage the

majority of the visitor’s experiences. All tour operators, including inbound handlers,

should be inventoried:

•Number of operators

•Number of clients served

•Length of stay

•Price ranges

•Employment figures

•Average daily expenditure per traveler should.

•Key markets, marketing techniques, and types of packages sold

ATTRACTIONS

Attractions—outstanding geological features, significant cultural monuments,

important historical events, famous sites—motivate people to become tourists. Without

attractions, visitors have no reason to visit, at least touristic ally. Therefore, it is vital to

assess a destination’s attractions in order to identify potential markets (if any) and

understand the comparative position in the marketplace.

Attractions can be divided into four categories as mentioned in the previous section of

this manual.

Attempts should be made to visit all attractions within the destination. Data collected

will not contribute to quantitative statistics, but rather be qualitative. First, location data

should be gathered, ideally including Global Positioning Systems (GPS) coordinates to

enable mapping. Additional data to collect includes:

•Accessibility

•Number of visitors

•Revenue Generated

•Resources consumed/produced

•Current and/or potential uses

•Drawing power

Environmental and socio-cultural aspects of the attraction should also be considered in

order to gain an idea of how sensitive the attraction might be to touristic disturbances.

Intangible attractions should also be considered. Local food and beverages often

identify a place, along with arts, and social ambiance. Tuscany is a prime example with

its Chianti wine and quintessential Italian cuisine. The inventory should include photos,

videos, and audio to demonstrate outstanding features.

Trends and issues in tourism destination management

People travel for a variety of reasons: to escape, explore, understand, and participate.

But at the core of the experience lies the destination — the place that hands something
to the traveler to keep forever and share with others. Destination management

organizations (DMO) are often the only advocates for a holistic tourism industry in a

place; and in this role they ensure the mitigation of tourism’s negative impacts to the

environment and local communities as well as the sharing of opportunities for a vibrant

exchange of people. In fact, a DMO may best serve to facilitate dialogue among the

private sector, public sector, and other stakeholders that may otherwise never

collaborate or understand how their decisions reverberate down a destination’s long

tourism value chain. DMOs prove invaluable for supporting tourism development,

especially in developing destinations where tourism is an important economic driver

and mechanism for equitable social capacity building. Developing a DMO iteratively

relies on identifying and redefining a destination vision through collaboration. The

pages that follow outline how to build a successful DMO to increase visitation while

preserving a destination’s assets. Every destination is different, however, so no one

volume could ever be a complete resource. The information within hopefully guides the

reader to explore more deeply additional interests and seek out examples of innovation

by other organizations around the world. The market ultimately decides the boundaries

of a destination, influenced by marketing, as well as physical and cultural limits. Thus

the market may perceive an entire country as a destination (as marketed by a tourism

ministry) or a single national park, such as Iguazu National Park in Argentina. The term

site overlaps significantly with destination but tends to center on a particular place

bound by physical or cultural characteristics. Many sites often inhabit a single

destination such as the principal temples of Tikal National Park, or multiple historical

buildings in the Historic Center of Vienna.

An attraction is any object, person, place, or concept that draws people either

geographically or through remote electronic means so that they might have an

experience. The experience can be recreational, spiritual, or otherwise. An attraction is

an outstanding example (for whatever criteria used) of a resource which includes all the

elements in a particular class. For example the Monarch Butterfly is an attraction among

the 1,000s of Lepidoptera species, the resource class of butterflies and moths, in Mexico.

Thousands and thousands of Mayan burial sites exist in Guatemala, yet only very few

actually earn the distinction of being an attraction. Ultimately the market — not tourism

experts or magazines — decide what is an attraction among its much wider resource

class. If people spend time and money to experience a particular resource, then that

resource is also an attraction. Traditionally, people divide up attractions between

cultural and natural. Cultural should, but does not always, include historical attractions

as well. Public Use Planning effort of the World Heritage Center uses another

categorization, perhaps more refined, consisting of four categories: Geophysical-

landscape-aesthetic. Includes mountains, gorges, big rocks, rock formations, caves,

rivers, water bodies, scenic views, overlooks of forests (when the attraction is merely

seeing and not interacting more directly with the forest), unusual cloud formations,

unusual meteorological conditions (high velocity or unusual wind behavior, light

hitting or passing through geological formations in strange ways), thermal waters,

volcanic activity, or even unusual celestial events such as the Northern Lights, Perseid
Meteor Showers, or exceptionally clear night views for star-gazing. Ecological-

biological. Includes any and all organisms, their parts, their behaviors, aggregations, or

associations in communities with other organisms. It also includes ecological events or

processes that include the participation of organisms, such as decomposition,

reproduction, predation, migration, and fossil remains (though one could categorize

these as geophysical as well). Cultural-historical. Includes all human constructions,

practices, and remains (archaeological). It includes all manifestations of human

evolution and cultural expression. In some cases, it includes ideas of particular

individuals or events that are interpreted through objects and places like a house or a

person’s possession, like some famous philosopher’s eyeglasses or the house of a

military commander. Recreational. These include all attractions built by humans for the

specific purpose of entertainment or education. This includes theme parks, botanical

gardens, sports fields, motion-based attractions (such as roller coasters), zoos,

museums, theatres, shopping malls, etc. In the context of protected areas, this resource

category is normally not considered, since the purpose of protecting sites is to preserve

and exhibit natural and cultural attractions, not artificial human-based attractions like

Disney World. This is not to speak badly of this type of attraction, but since such

attractions are normally incompatible with and compete with protected sites, they

sometimes can be left out of protected area attraction inventories. If they do exist in a

site, they can be classified as existing services, designed to support the experience of the

protected resources. Attractions are often confused with activities and services. See

“product” below. Attractions can also manifest at a variety of scales, again, depending
completely on market perception. For example, a local attraction may only draw people

from a local village such as a mundane fountain in which the mayor’s daughter cried

after having twin babies. A regional attraction has power to attraction domestic tourists

from throughout a region such as the Basilica and the Virgen de los Ángeles in Costa

Rica to which once a year tens of thousands of Costa Ricans walk to offer thanks and

ask favors; most of those who walk live nearby. Likewise attractions can draw visitors

nationally and internationally. Attractions can also be nested, one inside another.

Durmitor National Park in Montenegro is an attraction in and of itself, but also enjoys

the blessings of two major site attractions whose patrons might care less about the rest

of the park. Black Lake draws large numbers of Montenegrins who would never

venture much beyond the picnic tables and the Tara River brings in rafters and

kayakers the world over. Each of these then appeals to a different market segment and

would be marketed separately as well as together. All tourism products begin with an

attraction, without which no further discussion is needed.

Access.

An attraction must have access or else no further discussion is needed. Do note,

however, that most often access refers to visitor capacity to arrive. Sometimes access

means the opposite. Sometimes an attraction is attractive because it is difficult to get to,

such as wilderness areas and for adventure activities. Either way, access is essential to

the exploitation of the attraction.

Activity
. Every visitor experiences an attraction, but how they experience depends on the

activity they select (see “Experience” below). A person can experience Mount Everest

vicariously through the Internet or from the porch of a cushy mountain lodge. They

could also experience it by scaling the mountain to its death-defying icy peak. Thus it is

erroneous to say that Mount Everest offers a particular kind of experience; it may be

short-hand for mountaineering, but experience depends on the activity.

Services

To realize an activity requires services. Services are all those functions that a visitor

might or might not be able to do for him or herself but in all cases chooses someone else

to do it for them. Services include actually allowing the activity to take place (such as

access granted by a national park), the security of park guards and wilderness

responders, the food, the housing, the transportation, the communication, the provision

of souvenirs, etc. If an activity requires no services (such as using the backyard of one’s

own home), then we are not talking about a tourism product.

Qualified personnel

Service provision, in turn, requires that someone qualified provide that service, whether

a guide, chef, driver, transportation company, national park staff, police, or street

juggler.

Even if that someone is an automated robot, it still requires someone (and someone also

to service the robot, of course).

Promotion
Despite the best of tourism product designs, if no one knows the product exists, then all

is for naught. A tourism product must also include promotions, even if that is “only”

word-of mouth.

EXPERIENCE

Some people might include the experience as one of the tourist components, but no

product can provide an experience, only an opportunity to have an experience. Mount

Everest cannot provide an experience, no matter what kind. The tour operator does not

provide an experience. Only the visitor can create the experience based on certain

factors an experience begins as an event where a visitor experiences (activity) an

attraction (resources) within a particular context or situation (high-quality rock

climbing equipment with top-rated guides or with tattered ropes and a retired green

beret). This event generates a reaction (“I liked it!” “I hated it!” “I’m really pretty good

at rock climbing after all!”) and that reaction burns a memory upon which the visitor

reflects and creates new meaning. Ultimately the person, through this meaning-making

process, both increases his or her understanding of the world and of the self as well. As

the visitors’ confidence increases or decreases, as self-image transforms, in effect, they

literally recreate themselves, which of course is where the word “recreation” comes

from anyway. As the figure further points out, interpretive planning and recreation

planning influence greatly the event or the opportunity to have an experience.

WHAT ABOUT THE TOURISTS?

Tourists are a barely tapped resource. Alert, mindful tourists can help, if properly

involved. Traveler’s philanthropy is one way. Direct donations support a heritage site.

Brian Mullis of Sustainable Travel International

(www.sustainabletravelinternational.org) provides an example from the Dogon country

of Mali. Tour operators offer clients visiting the Cliff of Bandiagara an opportunity to

contribute to local nonprofit organizations, such as the Joliba Trust

(www.jolibatrust.org.uk). Joliba helps communities with agriculture, well-digging, and

small business development.

Travel businesses can also team up with grant-giving organizations like US-based

Tourism Cares (www.tourismcares.org/save-our-sites), which gives small grants to

support heritage sites worldwide, this includes publishing much-needed visitor

guidelines at Angkor Wat. Lindblad Expeditions (www.expeditions.com) takes a

different tack. For many years, the expedition cruise line persuaded clients on its

Galápagos cruises to donate two millions US dollars toward local conservation projects.

They use immersive, highly interpretive wildlife expeditions over several days to excite

visitors before the company actually invites them to contribute to the Galapagos

Conservation Fund Voluntourism is another route. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in

Miami, for instance, runs a volunteer day trip into Florida’s ecologically troubled

Everglades. Volunteers help with tree planting, pest plant removal, and recycling. The

help such programs provide varies widely, from a few hours to many months.

WHAT WE’VE LEARNED, WHERE WE’RE GOING

Better management, building capacity, not going overboard all contribute to making

tourism more sustainable. Work to date suggests some basic lessons:

Communication counts.

Residents need to understand why the historic site or natural landscape they see every

day represents a potentially important economic benefit for them. Managers need to

understand locals’ needs and concerns. Tourists need to learn the significance of what

they see, why and how they can help conserve it. It is best when locals help with this

interpretation, as the process increases their ownership of the story. And finally, the rest

of the world needs to understand the value of the place. No better messengers exist than

those enthusiastic home comers with travel stories to tell.

Planning counts.

Without planning and public education, the incentive to protect can easily degenerate

into mere exploitation. There is a need to see the whole. Says Pedersen: “You have to

look beyond the site borders for ideas like payback schemes,” whereby local businesses

support site conservation.

Management counts.

Just letting tourism happen likely leads to trouble, especially when visitation soars.

Dispersing tourists and timing their access can mitigate crowding. Encouraging tourists

to stay overnight instead of making quick day trips can increase local economic benefits.

High-quality tourism rather than high-volume tourism conserves rather than exploits.

Individuals count.
Behind institutional reports and government memos hides a key reality: individuals

make huge differences. Success or failure easily depends on a dedicated local person

working tirelessly to inspire others, organize them, and keep the process moving. Dion

sees this over and over. “Good managers working with a bad tool are better than bad

managers with a good one.” Sheppard confirms, “a champion is important in virtually

every case.” Yet procedures to identify and mentor this most essential ingredient are

almost always absent.

Communities count.

People who live in gateways hold the key to create a “virtuous circle,” whereby

tourism’s contribution to the economy generates incentives to conserve the resources

that keep tourists coming. Pedersen thinks it necessary to have some kind of forum,

such as geo tourism stewardship councils. Top-down schemes imposed from the

outside don’t work well, if at all.

Locals must own part of the process. At the Great Barrier Reef, community meetings on

no take zones kept policy disagreements from solidifying into polarization. The process

included opportunities for fishing interests to state their positions, no matter how

hostile. Results slowly won converts as reserves increased fishing productivity beyond

their borders. It is clear that industry practitioners are only beginning to understand

how best to harness the power of tourism, how to use it for better, and not worse. Art

Pedersen sums it up this way: “There are no success stories. It’s a process. The more

arrows in the quiver, the better.” He pauses. “Nobody’s carrying a full quiver.” A

vision is an exciting picture of a destination’s desired future intended to motivate

stakeholders to work together to achieve this future. Visioning is most successful when

it is participatory and creates an image that integrates all the separate visions of

stakeholders. In order for a vision to mobilize resources — ultimately the purpose of a

vision — it must find common, higher ground in which each stakeholder sees part of

their future. A strong vision then can motivate disparate stakeholders to work together

to achieve what otherwise might be unachievable. Unfortunately all too common, many

efforts simply write too short, bland, under motivating admixtures of key words

contributed by different stakeholders. As a result, no one can identify with the sterile

statement and it fails as a project development tool. Tourism visions, in particular,

involve the elaboration of the style of tourism the destination would like to host

(ecotourism, culinary, cruise port, allowable ship size, voluntourism, etc.), and who the

target market is for the destination. The vision may also include elements of a shared

strategy although the how rather than the often falls to the mission, objectives, and

strategies elements of a process. Since a vision is only as strong as those who share it,

the assessment team will want the broadest possible participation from a diverse set of

community representatives. Some questions to ask during the visioning:

•How do you see your destination after tourism development?

•What do you want to see happen?

•What is an acceptable level of change in your community?

•How much of what type of tourism development fits with your image of your

destination’s future?

•What future state of tourism here really gets you excited to think about?
Ideally visioning is an on-going effort since both individual and collective visions

continually evolve and the process must capture that evolution in order to avoid

turning sterile (Senge, 2006) the following process incorporates one destination-wide

meeting and a month to gather local responses to a draft vision revised and adopted at

a final meeting, as a means to get started. The process, though short, is an essential

element in establishing tourism development goals.

Goals are realistic, measurable targets for the destination’s tourism vision. That is, every

goal must be consistent with the vision established in the prior section. For example:

•How many inbound tourists does the destination want to attract?

•What alliances do they want to create?

•How many jobs, for whom, at what pay scales, and for what seasons

•What is the anticipated percentage increase of income for local residents?

•How many tourists are too many?

As mentioned above with vision, a participatory process should result in greater resolve

and commitment to implement the goals.

It also produces a broader range of ideas during the initial brainstorm. As such a group

process composed of all stakeholders, at least all those in the foreseen value chain,

should identify and prioritize project goals followed by small group work to agree on

specific targets for each goal. Once goals are agreed upon, the destination can identify

actions, timelines, and responsible parties to achieve them. Furthermore, if managers set

up a monitoring system and they have the capacity to learn from the data that that
system generates, then they can adapt their strategy — including the goals and even the

vision — based on their experience pursuing these goals.

Trends and issues in the attraction sector/ trends and issues in human resources

management

The world of work is rapidly changing. As a part of organization, Human Resource

Management (HRM) must be prepared to deal with effects of changing world of work.

For the HR people it means understanding the implications of globalization, work-force

diversity, changing skill requirements, corporate downsizing, continuous improvement

initiatives, re-engineering, the contingent work force, decentralized work sites and

employee involvement for which all and more have the financial implication to

organization. Let alone on the employees side where engagement, satisfaction,

motivation, retention, absenteeism, turnover have to be checked. As a rule human

resource management has to venture into new trends in order to remain relevant

corporate development partner. Look at the new trends bellow;

1. Globalization and its implications

Business today doesn’t have national boundaries – it reaches around the world. The rise

of multinational corporations places new requirements on human resource managers.

The HR department needs to ensure that the appropriate mix of employees in terms of

knowledge, skills and cultural adaptability is available to handle global assignments.  In

order to meet this goal, the organizations must train individuals to meet the challenges

of globalization. The employees must have working knowledge of the language and

culture (in terms of values, morals, customs and laws) of the host country.

Human Resource Management (HRM) must also develop mechanisms that will help

multicultural individuals work together. As background, language, custom or age

differences become more prevalent, there are indications that employee conflict will

increase. HRM would be required to train management to be more flexible in its

practices. Because tomorrow’s workers will come in different colors, `nationalities and

so on, managers will be required to change their ways. This will necessitate managers

being trained to recognize differences in workers and to appreciate and even celebrate

these differences.

2. Work-force Diversity

In the past HRM was considerably simpler because our work force was strikingly

homogeneous. Today’s work force comprises of people of different gender, age, social

class sexual orientation, values, personality characteristics, ethnicity, religion,

education, language, physical appearance, marital status, lifestyle, beliefs, ideologies

and background characteristics such as geographic origin, tenure with the organization,

and economic status and the list could go on. Diversity is critically linked to the

organization’s strategic direction. Where diversity flourishes, the potential benefits from

better creativity and decision making and greater innovation can be accrued to help

increase organization’s competitiveness. One means of achieving that is through the

organization’s benefits package. This includes HRM offerings that fall under the

heading of the family friendly organization. A family friendly organization is one that

has flexible work schedules and provides such employee benefits such as child care. In

addition to the diversity brought by gender and nationality, HRM must be aware of the

age differences that exist in today’s work force. HRM must train people of different age

groups to effectively manage and to deal with each other and to respect the diversity of

views that each offers. In situations like these a participative approach seems to work

better.

3. Changing skill requirements

Recruiting and developing skilled labor is important for any company concerned about

competitiveness, productivity, quality and managing a diverse work force effectively.

Skill deficiencies translate into significant losses for the organization in terms of poor-

quality work and lower productivity, increase in employee accidents and customer

complaints. Since a growing number of jobs will require more education and higher

levels of language than current ones, HRM practitioners and specialists will have to

communicate this to educators and community leaders etc. Strategic human resource

planning will have to carefully weigh the skill deficiencies and shortages. HRM

department will have to devise suitable training and short term programs to bridge the

skill gaps & deficiencies.

4. Corporate downsizing.
Whenever an organization attempts to delayer, it is attempting to create greater

efficiency. The premise of downsizing is to reduce the number of workers employed by

the organization. HRM department has a very important role to play in downsizing.

HRM people must ensure that proper communication must take place during this time.

They must minimize the negative effects of rumors and ensure that individuals are kept

informed with factual data. HRM must also deal with actual layoff. HRM dept is key to

the downsizing discussions that have to take place.

5. Continuous improvement programs

Continuous improvement programs focus on the long term well-being of the

organization.  It is a process whereby an organization focuses on quality and builds a

better foundation to serve its customers. This often involves a companywide initiative

to improve quality and productivity. The company changes its operations to focus on

the customer and to involve workers in matters affecting them. Companies strive to

improve everything that they do, from hiring quality people, to administrative paper

processing, to meeting customer needs.

Unfortunately, such initiatives are not something that can be easily implemented, nor

dictated down through the many levels in an organization. Rather, they are like an

organization wide development process and the process must be accepted and

supported by top management and driven by collaborative efforts, throughout each

segment in the organization. HRM plays an important role in the implementation of

continuous improvement programs.  Whenever an organization embarks on any

improvement effort, it is introducing change into the organization. At this point

organization development initiatives dominate. Specifically, HRM must prepare

individuals for the change. This requires clear and extensive communications of why

the change will occur, what is to be expected and what effect it will have on employees.

6. Re-engineering work processes for improved productivity

Although continuous improvement initiatives are positive starts in many of our

organizations, they typically focus on ongoing incremental change. Such action is

intuitively appealing – the constant and permanent search to make things better. Yet

many companies function in an environment that is dynamic- facing rapid and constant

change. As a result continuous improvement programs may not be in the best interest

of the organization. The problem with them is that they may provide a false sense of

security. Ongoing incremental change avoids facing up to the possibility that what the

organization may really need is radical or quantum change. Such drastic change results

in the re-engineering of the organization.

Re-engineering occurs when more than 70% of the work processes in an organization

are evaluated and altered. It requires organizational members to rethink what work

should be done, how it is to be done and how to best implement these decisions. Re-

engineering changes how organizations do their business and directly affects the

employees. Re-engineering may leave certain employees frustrated and angry and

unsure of what to expect. Accordingly HRM must have mechanisms in place for

employees to get appropriate direction of what to do and what to expect as well as

assistance in dealing with the conflict that may permeate the organization. For re-

engineering to generate its benefits HRM needs to offer skill training to its employees.

Whether it’s a new process, a technology enhancement, working in teams, having more

decision making authority, or the like, employees would need new skills as a result of

the re-engineering process.

7. Contingent workforce

A very substantial part of the modern day workforce are the contingent workers.

Contingent workers are individuals who are typically hired for shorter periods of time.

They perform specific tasks that often require special job skills and are employed when

an organization is experiencing significant deviations in its workflow. When an

organization makes its strategic decision to employ a sizable portion of its workforce

from the contingency ranks, several HRM issues come to the forefront. These include

being able to have these virtual employees available when needed, providing

scheduling options that meet their needs and making decisions about whether or not

benefits will be offered to the contingent work force.

No organization can make the transition to a contingent workforce without sufficient

planning. As such, when these strategic decisions are being made, HRM must be an

active partner in these discussions. After its entire HRM department’s responsibility to

locate and bring into the organization these temporary workers. As temporary workers

are brought in, HRM will also have the responsibility of quickly adapting them to the

organization. HRM will also have to give some thought to how it will attract quality
temporaries. This is sometimes done on consultancy basis. Consultancy work is often a

short time basis and to re-invent the organization’s operation such a workforce of

consultancy is vital.

8. Mass Customization

There is a lot going on already within HR concerning mass customization, the optimal

combination of mass production with customization. We’ve seen companies basing

employment arrangements on learning styles and personalities, allowing employees to

choose between lower base pay and higher bonuses vs. higher base pay and lower

bonuses, and changing from career ladders with a straight shot to the top to career

lattices where a sideways move is considered a good career move. Here, HR has done a

great job of applying HR principles to its own traditional functional processes.

HR will need to take the tools of marketing around customization for consumers and

clients and applying them to the task of talent segmentation. The key is to optimize. At

one extreme, a personal employment deal for every individual would be chaotic. At the

other extreme, defining fairness as “same for everyone” risks missing important

benefits of customization, and in fact may be unproductive and unfair.

Thus, HR should develop principles for understanding the optimal level of

customization in the employment relationship. Moreover, because customization will

often mean that different groups of employees receive different employment

arrangements based on their needs or the way they contribute, HR must develop
principles that equip leaders to explain these differences to employees. Our work

suggests that while many HR managers understand the need for customization and

differentiation in principle, they resist it because they simply don’t feel well-equipped

to explain them. It is far easier to say, “We do the same thing for everyone, so it’s out of

my hands.” The concept of fairness is sometimes confused with treating everyone the

same.

9. Decentralized work sites

Work sites are getting more and more decentralized. Telecommuting capabilities that

exist today have made it possible for the employees to be located anywhere on the

globe. With this potential, the employers no longer have to consider locating a business

near its work force. Telecommuting also offers an opportunity for a business tin a high

cost area to have its work done in an area where lower wages prevail.

Decentralized work sites also offer opportunities that may meet the needs of the

diversified workforce. Those who have family responsibilities like child care, or those

who have disabilities may prefer to work in their homes rather than travel to the

organization’s facility. For HRM, decentralized work sites present a challenge. Much of

that challenge revolves around training managers in how to establish and ensure

appropriate work quality and on-time completion. Work at home may also require

HRM to rethink its compensation policy. Will it pay by the hour, on a salary basis, or by

the job performed? Also, because employees in decentralized work sites are full time

employees of the organization as opposed to contingent workers, it will be

organization’s responsibility to ensure health and safety of the decentralized work

force.

10. Employee involvement

For today’s organization’s to be successful there are a number of employee involvement

concepts that appear to be accepted. These are delegation, participative management,

work teams, goal setting, employee training and empowering of employees.  HRM has

a significant role to play in employee involvement. What is needed is demonstrated

leadership as well as supportive management. Employees need to be trained and that’s

where human resource management has a significant role to play. Employees expected

to delegate, to have decisions anticipatively handled, to work in teams, or to set goals

cannot do so unless they know and understand what it is that they are to do.

Empowering employees requires extensive training in all aspects of the job. Workers

may need to understand how new job design processes. They may need training in

interpersonal skills to make participative and work teams function properly.

11. Technology

With the current technological advancement and its projection in the future, it has

brought in new eyes in the face of HRM. A number of computerized systems have been

invented to help in the HRM of which they are seen as simplifier of HR functions in

companies. Large or multinational organizations using some of the human resources

information systems are reaping big. You do not have to stay in a particular location to
do your duties but you can do on a mobile basis. For instance the paper work files are

being replaced by HRMIS which may be tailor made or Off the Shelf. These systems

help in handling a lot of data on a chip other than having a room full of file shelves.

What HRM is concerned with here is the safety (confidentiality) of the

data/information of staff, and therefore it is at the forefront of having to train personnel

in operating such systems and developing the integrity of such personnel to handle the

sensitivity of the matter.

12. Health

With the emergence of the wellness clubs and fitness centers together with the need for

having healthy workforce, it has emerged that HRM has to move to another step like

having to subscribe for its employees to such clubs, paying health insurance services for

the staff. This is not only a productivity strategy but also a strategy used to attract and

retain valuable employees.

In the current situation as it is now especially with the outbreak of HIV/AIDS epidemic,

it has been seen to be of value to have infected and affected employees have special

attention so that they can have confidence of support from the employers. With its

effect leading to stigmatization, HRM has to think of counseling and guiding such

employee so that despite of the effect they (employee) remain productive. Cancer is

another kind of issue that has seen the current trend in HRM look closer to health and

wellness of employees. Cancers of all types are endemic to employees. Couple with
other communicable and none communicable diseases HRM has no option other than to

advice management to invest in health care packages that will revitalize the

performance of the affected and infected employees’

Therefore for HRM to continue showing relevance it has shifted to providing health

services to staff through health insurance, sensitization, and free medical treatment

bills. This has seen high results in not only in performance but also in attraction and

retention of highly qualified personnel.

13. Family work life balance

Over a long time now in HRM history it has been a big debate about family life work

balance. Employees have been on toes of the employers to see if there could be justice

done and on the other hand employers have been keen to minimize the effect of the

same. The fact is a happy family is equal to a happy workforce. With the current trend

HRM have to work it out that every employee’s family to some extent is a happy one.

Therefore investing in what may seem out hand for the organization is inevitable. It is

time HRM to convince management to organize family day out for the staff and their

families, sacrifice sometimes for days off to enable employees to attend to their family

issues.

The employment laws unlike from the past now allow family leaves and above all you

have parental leave (paternity and maternity). In this moment the member of the family

is not missed. Time off your duty is to enrich one with family chore which help identify
the employee with the organization. From break of family affairs of course an employee

is rejuvenated and recognizes that the employer values him so much to the extent that

he/she is allowed to visit, stay and enjoy family bond.

Still it is realized that the family bond is a cost to employer in terms of time but it is a

great motivator the employee. Which leads to high productivity. Therefore the HRM

has to stay tuned the dynamics of family needs of employees and go a step ahead to

provide development assistance like loans to meet family needs and social

development.

14. Confidentiality

The current trends have been seen as new challenges in the terms of costs especially in

the short run but for organization to strive well in this competitive market to together

with the labor mobility it is imperative important to rethink the HRM in terms of the

current trends at all levels.

It goes without say that as longer as there is no clear defined human resource

management strategies in the given organization there is definitely a problem boiling in

the same organization or an explosion is bound to happen. With the current trend in

managing the most valued organization resource, organizations have to dig deeper to

maintain in recent times, these practices are Human resource being used as a tool for

meeting the objectives of the organization, rather than being restricted to the traditional

approach (Negi 2013) Human Resource Management is the process of bringing people
and organizations together so that the goals of each are met (Rao 2005). This has

emerged as one of the major functions of any enterprise. This means focused human

resources planning, recruitment, selection, placement, training, development,

performance appraisal, compensation administration, incentives, employee benefits,

social security, industrial relations, employee grievances, collective bargaining,

personnel records and accounting and many other fields directly or indirectly related to

management of human resources . According to Niles (2013) the important role that

human resource management activities play in the operations of a healthcare

organization. Human resources can be applied to any activity of the operations of an

organization, regardless of the industry. The role of HRM as briefly discussed has

different functions in the health care management these are including legal and ethical

issues of the treatment, health and safety of employees and patients, careers in health

care, labor unions in health care, job analysis and design, recruiting and selecting

employees, employee benefits, training and motivating employees, and terminating

employees. Strategic planning, including labor budget and forecasting, is addressed

because of the contribution of HRM to successful strategic planning. The increased

diversity of the patient and employee, the effect of technology and the globalization of

the economy on healthcare delivery, the new trend of medical tourism, and the

increased focus on accountability in the delivery of services and teamwork education

are exciting changes in health care, which ultimately will improve patient care. Dr. E.

Mubarak Ali and S. Abdul Aameed, “HRM Issues and Challenges in Healthcare”–

(ICAM 2016)‘ human resources’ and ‘management’. First and foremost, people in work
organizations, endowed with a range of abilities, talents and attitudes, influence

productivity, quality and profitability. People set overall strategies and goals, design

work systems, produce goods and services, monitor quality, allocate financial resources,

and market the products and services. Individuals, therefore, become human resources’

by virtue of the roles they assume in the work organization. Employment roles are

defined and described in a manner designed to maximize particular employees

contributions to achieving organizational objectives (Zaria, 2007)

Human resource, when pertaining to health care, can be defined as the different kinds

of clinical and non-clinical staff responsible for public and individual health

intervention. As arguably the most important of the health system inputs, the

performance and the benefits the system can deliver depend largely upon the

knowledge, skills and motivation of those individuals responsible for delivering health

services. According to MSH, human resource management is defined as the integrated

use of systems, policies, and management practices to recruit, maintain, and develop

employees to strengthen the capacity of an organization in meeting its desired goals

(MSH 2009). HRM is a critical management area that is responsible for an organization’s

most important asset, its people. When an organization manages its investment in

people wisely, the result is a satisfied and motivated workforce that delivers quality

health services and an organization able to fulfill its mission, meet its health objectives,

and enhance its competitive advantage.

A common definition of HRM remains an enigma and, in many respects, what HRM is

purported to represent has not moved beyond some key principles laid down in the
1980s (Fombrun et al., 1984; Hendry and Pettigrew, 1986; Guest, 1987; Storey, 1989;

Armstrong, 2000). Human Resources Management is defined as a system of activities

and strategies that focus on successful management of employees and working staff

inside the organization to achieve the goals of the organizations (Bayars and Rue, 2006).

HRM deals with hiring and firing employees, staff development and paying salaries.

HRM plans and implements efficient processes, policies and procedures for the work

force in the organization, such as recruitment, hiring and job placement, planning and

appraising employee performance, rewarding and promoting staff. Human resources

management also provides support for the needs, concerns, and problems of employees

and identifies ways to increase staff competence and commitment. In this era of rapid

and continuous change, human resources management is one of the organizational

domains that can provide support for employees during internal change processes and

help managers and leaders identify and implement processes for change (Ulrich 1997).

Bratton and Gold (1999:11) interpreted the HRM as “That part of the management

process that specializes in the management of people in work organizations. HRM

emphasizes that employees are critical to achieving sustainable competitive advantage,

that human resources practices need to be integrated with the corporate strategy, and

that human resource specialists help organizational controllers to meet both efficiency

and equity objectives.

Some scholars claim that HRM can lead to specifically measurable business outcomes

(Huselid, 1995). Equally, HRM has its critics (Sisson, 1994; Legge, 1995) both of whom

view HRM as a symbolic excuse to enhance managerial legitimacy where the

management of individuals has been intensified within an enterprise culture (Keenoy

and Anthony, 1992). However, HRM is the most misunderstood and poorly utilized

system in the health sector today. Many organizations face pressing human resource

challenges, for example, staff shortages, attrition and absenteeism, and low morale-all of

which can be addressed by an effective HRM system. Although managers say that their

employees are critically important, many organizations frequently neglect the

management systems, practices and procedures needed to support this important

resource. HRM systems in developing countries are weak and fragmented in the

majority of health care organizations. Many do not routinely staff human resource

professionals and as a result vacancy rates soar, promotions lag, workloads increase

with regularity, and morale is low. In addition, without the guidance of human

resource professional, managers do not develop adequate HRM skills, a short fall that

reduces their effectiveness. Mathis (2006) states that the organization should use human

resource management input in the following organizational functions, they are,

Establishment of a legal and ethical management system, Job analysis and job design,

Recruitment and selection, Healthcare career opportunities, Distribution of employee

benefits, Employee motivation, Negotiations with organized labor, Employee

terminations, Determination of emerging and future trends in health care, Strategic

planning. While, McKinnies (2012) concluded that HRM comprises five broad functions,

which are:

i. Resourcing:
Activities include HR planning, talent management, succession planning and ending

the employment contract (including managing retirement and redundancy).

ii. Performance:

Managing individual and team performance and the contribution of workers to the

achievement of organizational goals, for example, through goal-setting and appraisals.

iii. Reward system:

Designing and implementing reward systems covering individual and collective,

financial and non-financial rewards, including pay structures, parks and pensions.

iv. Learning and Development:

Identifying individual, team and organizational development requirements and

designing, implementing and evaluating training and development interventions.

v. Employment relations:

Managing employees, communication, handling union management relations,

managing employee welfare and handling employee grievance and discipline. Human

resource management in the tourism industry Tourism creates special benefits, both

concerning the reconstruction of the national economy of many countries having a high

touristic potential, and also due to the fact that according to the WTO evaluations, the

touristic industry stands first in the world from the contribution to the work force

employment point of view. In light of this growth of the tourism industry

counterbalanced with the international industry’s vulnerability regarding safety and

security issues, the success of the travel and tourism industry in the global environment

will ultimately depend on the professionalism of its workforce (Edgell et al., 2008). As
the travelling population ages and becomes more sophisticated in its needs, desires and

expectations, tourism suppliers must deal with more refined market demand (Lozato-

Giotart, Balfet, 2007). Industry-wide improvements are being made in the areas of

quality service and customer satisfaction. Recognition of travel and tourism career

patterns, and of the training and higher education policies and programmes necessary

to support them, has taken a longer time to evolve. Much more progress needs to be

made in fostering policies to improve tourism education and training, but the prognosis

now is better than ever (Hawkins,

1994) Tourism is an industry with an intensive labour market, which is based on people.

When tourists visit a destination-attraction, they “buy” not only the charm and the

attractions, but also the ability and the services of the employees in tourism (trimitere).

This is why the development of human resources should be a main preoccupation of

the professional people from tourism. In the last years, the countries responded to the

growth in the industry of tourism, focusing on the development of the product and

marketing.

The modifications encountered on the tourism markets, the reorganization of the

industry and a higher competition on the internal and international markets creates a

very big pressure on the specialty knowledge. The ability to succeed and the future

performance of tourism and the activities who go along with it will depend greatly on

the abilities, qualities and the knowledge that the managers are capable to bring to their

businesses, goods that they can obtain through the sectors of education and training. A

multitude of aspects define the relationship tourism-workforce under the qualitative

aspect, such as: the level of qualification of these occupants in tourism and the structure

of the working force on steps of preparation, the report between those hired with total

time and partial time of work, the proportion season employees and the personnel

fluctuation, the cost of the professional formation. In the past, there has been much

discussion regarding the industry’s need to invest in human resources. This is made

more pronounced by the number of small businesses that dominate the industry, and

their inability either to support or recognize the importance of investing in human

resources to improve overall professionalism and the quality of the tourism product

(Cooper at al.,

1994). Too often in the past, managers view training as a cost rather than as an

investment. Edgell et al. (2008) stated that many in the industry are “simply

unconvinced of the benefits of tourism education and training” despite the obvious fact

that tourism is a service business dependent on the quality of personal skills of those

delivering the services.

From the point of view of the professional formation, a great part of the specialists

argue that tourism needs personnel with a high level of qualification, with a large

horizon of knowledge, well trained, knowing a foreign language of international

circulation, capable of recommending and promote the tourism success of the travel

and tourism industry in the global environment will ultimately depend on the

professionalism of its workforce (Edgell et al., 2008). As the travelling population ages

and becomes more sophisticated in its needs, desires and expectations, tourism

suppliers must deal with more refined market demand (Lozato-Giotart, Balfet, 2007).
Industry-wide improvements are being made in the areas of quality service and

customer satisfaction.

Recognition of travel and tourism career patterns, and of the training and higher

education policies and programmes necessary to support them, has taken a longer time

to evolve. Tourism is an industry with an intensive labour market, which is based on

people. When tourists visit a destination-attraction, they “buy” not only the charm and

the attractions, but also the ability and the services of the employees in tourism

(trimitere). This is why the development of human resources should be a main

preoccupation of the professional people from tourism. In the last years, the countries

responded to the growth in the industry of tourism, focusing on the development of the

product and marketing. The modifications encountered on the tourism markets, the

reorganization of the industry and a higher competition on the internal and

international markets creates a very big pressure on the specialty knowledge. The

ability to succeed and the future performance of tourism and the activities who go

along with it will depend greatly on the abilities, qualities and the knowledge that the

managers are capable to bring to their businesses, goods that they can obtain through

the sectors of education and training.

A multitude of aspects define the relationship tourism-workforce under the qualitative

aspect, such as: the level of qualification of these occupants in tourism and the structure

of the working force on steps of preparation, the report between those hired with total

time and partial time of work, the proportion season employees and the personnel

fluctuation, the cost of the professional formation. In the past, there has been much
discussion regarding the industry’s need to invest in human resources. This is made

more pronounced by the number of small businesses that dominate the industry, and

their inability either to support or recognize the importance of investing in human

resources to improve overall professionalism and the quality of the tourism product

(Cooper at al., 1994). Too often in the past, managers view training as a cost rather than

as an investment. Edgell et al. (2008) stated that many in the industry are “simply

unconvinced of the benefits of tourism education and training” despite the obvious fact

that tourism is a service business dependent on the quality of personal skills of those

delivering the services.

From the point of view of the professional formation, a great part of the specialists

argue that tourism needs personnel with a high level of qualification, with a large

horizon of knowledge, well trained, knowing a foreign language of international

circulation, capable of recommending and promote the tourism product; also an

important segment of the experts in the field appreciates that the activities which do not

require a specialty too have large representation in tourism, this becoming an

outlet/market for the unqualified and poorly qualified working force. It is widely

argued that people are vital for the successful delivery of tourism services and, as a

consequence, those who work in tourism are widely portrayed as a critical dimension in

the successful operation of businesses within the sector.” The story of successful

tourism enterprises is one that is largely about people – how they are trained and

educated, how they are valued and rewarded, and how they are supported through a

process of continuous learning and career development.

Tourism is a traditional, fragmented industry, dominated by small businesses and led

by managers, which, mainly, have no education or formal training in tourism. There is a

point of view that a well-qualified generalist can be very soon trained in the specific

touristic problems of an operation and is preferred to a highly qualified specialist in

tourism. This “bottom to top” may suffocate both the innovation and the leadership.

Indeed, considering the rapid change of the nature of tourism, there is a danger of

overspecialization in knowledge and detailed abilities. Liu and Wall (2006) are rightly

critical of this neglect when they state that ‘‘tourism’s human resource issues are poorly

conceptualized and the many studies of tourism development approaches, both

theoretical and practical, provide no consolidation of useful recommendations to situate

the human dimension as an integral part of a comprehensive planning framework for

tourism’’.

The tourism sector offers many and varied opportunities for working lives across its

diverse sub-sectors and at different levels throughout the world. The industry’s

heterogeneity, geographical spread and stochastic demand cycle provides both

opportunity and challenge in terms of mapping these against the aspirations and

expectations of those attracted into the tourism industry, either as new entrants to the

labour force or in the context of change opportunities within their working lives. In

most developed countries, traditional models of one sector working lives, built on the

notion of a logical and progressive career ‘‘ladder’’ represents a reality which will face

fewer and fewer entrants to the jobs market in the future.

For some people, this is not a concern or a fear but provides the basis for challenge and

opportunity, the ability to take control of aspects of their lives and to respond to

changes within the external environment in a positive manner. Unlike their

grandparents, today’s school leavers and college graduates are more likely to think of

their working lives in terms of finite segments rather than sustained and permanent

careers, viewing the future in terms of what have been called ‘‘boundary less careers’’

(Arthur, 1994) or ‘‘fragmented futures’’ (Buchanan et al., 2004).The number of

institutions and organizations involved with tourism education and training delivery

today is immense. Businesses, themselves, often assume a significant proportion of

training, in addition to professional associations, proprietary and vocational schools,

high schools, community colleges and university. The training modes for tourism

education in the past were often based on guesswork, and since advancement in the

industry is characterized by “coming up through the ranks”, or through in-house

promotion, the value of a degree was and frequently still is questioned. Exacerbating,

the problem was the fact that the tourism industry lacks basic consensus on the need for

education (Ritchie, 1993).

Innovations in tourism development

Tourism is seen as one of the most promising areas of growth for the world economy.

The World Tourism Organization expects international arrivals to increase by a

respectable 4% in the next 20 years, i.e. about the same rate of growth as in the recent

past. Since 1990 international arrivals have enjoyed an annual growth rate of about

4.3%. The Asia and Pacific region enjoyed the highest annual rate of growth with an

average of 7.2%. Within this region three areas benefited from double-digit growth,

namely Hong Kong, China (21%), China (11%) and Japan (10%). The growth in arrivals

in North America was limited to 2.4%, with the United States as the world’s leading

destination showing signs of stagnation (-0.1%). The average growth rate for Western

Europe was similar at 2.2%. In Switzerland there has been virtually no growth in

international tourism for a decade.

While in developing countries tourism is frequently a motor for rapid growth, a number

of tourism countries of the West face growth problems. This raises questions that are

not easy to answer: Is this the result inevitable in countries that have been transformed

into modern high-tech service economies? Are there mechanisms that can be put in

place to help us to overcome this weakness in growth?

The tourism industry is one of the least productive sectors in the economies of the most

developed countries. We may take Switzerland as a typical example. The productivity

of labour in tourism is USD 50 000 per employed person. Swiss banks achieve

productivity of USD 250 000, the chemical industry USD 120 000 and the machine
manufacturing industry USD 67 000. The proportions are similar for comparable sectors

in most other industrialised nations. Such differences in productivity must be

interpreted with caution however. The branch of the Swiss economy with the greatest

productivity is the electricity and water supply industry for example, with USD 280 000

per employed person. Here however, as with banks indeed, the input of capital per

employed person is exceedingly high. Moreover no direct link can be found between

these differences in labour productivity and such factors as the growth dynamic or the

competitiveness of a given sector.

Indeed it is not the current rate of productivity or the level of prosperity that determines

the future of an economy. An economy will above all be successful when its rate of

innovation is high. Branches that suffer from below-average labour productivity tend to

face procurement problems in the factor markets. This is particularly true of tourism,

which due to low productivity increasingly finds it hard to attract the necessary capital,

and more difficult still to attract highly qualified staff. There are of course good reasons

for this weakness in productivity, beginning with the fact that tourism is a labor-

intensive industry. But that does not help us to solve the problem. We need to identify,

and then to adopt, whatever measures are necessary to increase the productivity of this

industry.

Inventions and patents do not in themselves produce growth .Tourism itself is not a

field in which we can point to innovations that have changed the course of history. The

invention of alpine tourism by adventurous English gentlemen in the 19 th century did, it

is true, begin a gradual process of development which over many decades transformed
the impoverished villages of our mountains into the prosperous “jet set” destinations of

today, such as Zermatt and St. Moritz. As inventions go however this development is

not on quite the same level as the steam engine, the jet engine, the microprocessor or the

laser.

It is understandable therefore that private and public funds are first and foremost

attracted to high-performance industries. Switzerland has invested above all in such

fields as information and communication technology, biotechnology, life sciences and

nanotechnology. For it is in these fields that the greatest productivity gains are to be

expected. Switzerland indeed has the greatest number of patents per capita in the

world. Major breakthroughs in technology are a rare occurrence. But they do not

automatically lead to economic growth. When a group of researchers at the Geneva-

based European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) developed the forerunner

of today’s Internet in 1972, the world at large remained ignorant of this epoch-making

event for years to come. The economic boom triggered by the dot-com start-ups was

still 35 years away, although it was doomed to be short-lived.

This new branch of the economy does however seem to be on the way to recovery, and

heading in the direction of sustainable growth. Even a fundamental innovation is not

sufficient to ensure the sustainable growth of an economy. It is not so much the one “big

leap” as the countless small steps following it that eventually lead to real growth. It is in

this second stage of development that many new goods and services, that have no need

of a patent, can be successfully launched on the market. Breakthroughs in major

scientific disciplines have without doubt done much to increase the general prosperity

of the Western world. But it is not these advances in knowledge which in themselves

bring growth. Innovation research has shown that economic growth depends not only

on the creation of new knowledge in the form of innovations, but on their dissemination

and application. Such fundamental innovations only bring significant growth when

they begin to spread from one sector of the economy to another.

A key innovation like the internet has done more than stimulate growth in the field of

information technology (IT). Sustainable economic growth is only possible when inter-

industry multipliers come into play. In this view, the key innovation of the internet can

only be transformed into economic success when other industries start to use and

improve the new technology. In this inter-industry innovation process tourism can play

a key role in translating high-tech innovations into economic growth. Tourism is

already one of the most important sectors of e-business today.

A lack of process innovation in tourism Technological improvements in the transport

sector have more than once set in motion a rapid and irreversible process of change in

the field of tourism. The construction of the first railways in the 19thcentury made it

possible to travel long distances comfortably and at great speed for the first time in

history. Mass production of the automobile brought about a further quantum leap in

general mobility. The spread of the automobile was the sine qua non for the

development of individual tourism among the masses. In the middle of the 20th century

the jet airplane added a new dimension to travel, bringing the world closer to the state
of a “global village”. Today the countries that pioneered tourism are facing the

consequences of this continuous rapid development. Europe’s leading position as prime

mover in the field of tourism is threatened as distances continue to shrink. It is as if our

protective patent had run out. A downward price spiral has been set in motion. The

European tourist of today can choose between two weeks of skiing in the Alps or

snorkelling in the turquoise waters of Bali -- all for the same price, and with comparable

quality. Even when the attraction of locations like the Matterhorn or Lake Lugano

continue to provide competitive advantages, acting as barriers to market penetration,

the traditional tourism countries would be foolish not to adapt as quickly as possible to

the changing market conditions. In Switzerland we must learn to accept with good

grace the fact that other countries have “Matterhorns” of their own. In this new

situation process innovations become essential for survival. Above all this means

concentrating our efforts on bringing down costs. This should be the preamble to

quality improvements, increased profitability and lower prices. Process innovations are

indeed possible in a number of areas. Full use must be made of economies of scale in

purchasing and marketing. The hotel trade needs to specialise to an even greater

degree. Quality management must be extended beyond the individual level to cover the

entire chain of services, from the time a guest arrives to the time of departure.

Can the State promote innovation? Should it?

The purpose of our meeting is to discuss the innovation process as applied to tourism,

and to chart the paths that can lead us back to growth. Such a debate is long overdue in

tourism. Switzerland is a paradigmatic example of a traditional, highly developed

tourism country that is suffering from lack of growth. Many observers have reassured

us of course that Switzerland has lost none of its tourism potential.

But you cannot live on potential. We need to become proactive, to develop new

products and processes that will safeguard the future of Switzerland as a leading

tourism country in the new millennium. Many economists are skeptical when it comes

to the promotion of innovation by the State. We must not be so naive as to think that the

State is able to restore the faltering motor of innovation to its highest performance level.

The Swiss government nevertheless supports innovative industry-wide tourism projects

which are put forward by initiatives which are submitted by more than one operator. Its

programme “Promotion innovation and cooperation in tourism” can be considered as a

successful instrument to adapt Switzerland’s tourism offer to the new requirement of

the world market.

The magic role of innovation

International tourism has undergone a fundamental change. New destinations are

successfully competing against the traditional tourism countries, which in many cases

have exhausted existing resources and the potential for rationalization. Additional

inputs of capital and labour are costly in such circumstances and do not always lead to

the desired level of growth. Tourism policy therefore increasingly focuses on the

promotion of innovation. The aim is to achieve a new burst of growth at the lowest

possible cost in terms of incentives. Innovations are expected to add consumer

surpluses and to increase profits for the suppliers of tourism products and services.
There is indeed something magical about innovations. They are the essential motor of

growth in market economies. The ability to innovate is crucial not only to the survival

of individual companies, but to the entire economy of a modern nation.

Nonetheless, innovations can only perform the function of providing economic growth

in the presence of favourable State incentive systems. It is not the State however that

creates innovations. Rather they are the result of processes which, having been

subjected to extensive analysis are today well known and have become quite routine.

This is as true of innovations in the field of tourism as in any other sector.

The tourism industry does of course have a number of specific characteristics which can

influence the innovation process in ways that are both positive and negative. Tourism is

best defined on the demand side. It has heterogeneous and ephemeral industrial

structures. Tourism is important to many sectors of the economy. And it has an inherent

geographical dimension. It is an industry in which the State plays a major role as co-

producer.

Innovation can thrive in tourism, but only in conditions of the greatest possible

competition that make the renewal of existing structures possible. These structures need

to be either developed further or entirely replaced. New structures are needed, of a kind

that will increase productivity and growth. Governments must not attempt to devise

counter-productive laws and regulations to hinder the inevitable process of

restructuring.
Competition and structural change in the developed tourism countries

The shock of globalization: The relentless process of globalization, together with

liberalization and the extension of the international tourism market led to unexpected

losses of market share for the developed tourism countries. The emerging destinations

are often able to count on resources that are relatively unknown and thus uniquely

attractive. They are in a position to introduce new products and services capable of

competing on the international market. In doing so they can take advantage of what has

been called the “advantages of backwardness”.

Despite the advantages that traditional tourism countries obtain from a high level of

development, many years of specialization in tourism and a great deal of competitive

experience, their ability to compete on price suffers greatly from high wages and

exchange rates. The economic framework conditions in the industrialized countries

slow the speed of growth and put pressure on the rate of growth.

Cost disease of personalized services

Moreover the increasing automation of the industry and rationalization in the field of

the progressive services in various economic sectors in all of the more developed

countries enables these sectors to grow significantly faster than tourism, which tends to

be less productive. It is for this reason that the share of the gross domestic product

(GDP) that goes to tourism-dependent sectors, compared to industry and branches with

progressive services, is shrinking in all OECD countries.

Small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in labour-intensive branches of tourism

suffer from the cost disease. They have below average productivity and are under
pressure in domestic factor markets. They have no choice but to resort to price increases

to compensate for their relative lack of productivity. This further weakens their

international competitiveness.

Innovations are therefore needed to make tourism products and services more

attractive, as are new ways to rationalize in an effort to win back at least part of the

room for manoeuvre in setting prices.

Saturation of products

Innovations obey the law of natural growth. They therefore have a life cycle that always

takes the form of a bell curve. The innovation cycle begins with a product’s launch in

the market, followed by a rapid growth phase and a sharp increase in turnover, before

reaching the peak value in the product’s phase of maturity.

The future of tourism- where are the limits

The current ideas surrounding sustainable tourism have tended to evolve from two

main strands. One is a broader concern linked with the increased awareness of the

general environmental consequences of economic development as highlighted in the

influential

Brundtland Report (1987), which presented a working definition of sustainable

development. The other source, by contrast, was much more specific, relating to

perspectives of the impact of mass tourism on the physical, sociocultural, and economic

environments of tourist destination areas. The Brundtland Report established clear,

basic principles for sustainable development, and while not entirely new, it gave strong
recognition to the issue of equity, calling for far greater convergence between rich and

poor nations in the global system if stability and sustainability are to be achieved. It also

recognized:

•planning and strategy making should be holistic

•the importance of preserving essential ecological processes

•the need to protect both human heritage and biodiversity

•development should occur in such a way that productivity can be sustained for future

generations

•intergenerational social considerations

Such ideas in part were already being loosely debated within tourism following the rise

of mass tourism in the 1970s. In this context, commentators had already drawn

attention to the destructive force of tourism, while others sought to draw together the

various contexts of the impact of tourism in a range of geographical settings.

In part, these diverse evolutionary route ways, but more especially the rather protracted

debates about the nature of tourism and its impact, have led to a confused situation.

Such confusion takes two main forms, namely a lack of clarity over the nature, scope,

and definition of sustainable tourism, and a critical, if rather unstructured, debate about

its effectiveness as a management tool. One of the major criticisms of the notion of

sustainable tourism is the lack of clarity concerning its definition. According to the

opening editorial of the first volume of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism in 1993,

sustainable tourism is “a positive approach intended to reduce the tensions and

frictions created by the complex interactions between the tourism industry, visitors, the
environment, and communities which are host to holidaymakers.” However, there is

another key element that is fundamental to the concept and more in line with the

definition of sustainable development which implies an approach that involves

working for the long-term viability and quality of both natural and human resources. It

is not antigrowth but it acknowledges that there are limits to growth. In this context,

sustainable development acknowledges that limits to growth will vary geographically

and according to the specific management practices adopted in different areas. Of

course, such ideas may be directly applied to sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism

development therefore recognizes that for many geographical areas tourism is an

important form of economic development and as such should be managed effectively

and in sympathy with indigenous resources. Equally, attention can be directed at

tourists themselves, and in these terms sustainable tourism development highlights the

need to educate tourists to become more concerned and caring about the places and

communities they visit. Some commentators have attempted to encompass all these

aspects arguing that it is vital that sustainable tourism is embraced as a valued concept

by planners, developers, consumers, and host communities so that tourism avoids

causing its own destruction. As a result of the nature of sustainable tourism’s

development as a paradigm, the notion itself has unfortunately become associated with

a plethora of different terms that refer to the development of tourism other than mass

tourism. Some commentators have suggested that sustainable tourism can be viewed as

an alternative to mass tourism. This view has been refuted by some others, who argue

that mass tourism need not be uncontrolled, unplanned, short-term, or unstable. The
view has also been expressed that it has not yet been proven that all examples of mass

tourism are unsustainable, and that unproven assumptions have diverted researchers

away from the more important task of resolving how mass tourism can be made more

sustainable.

There are, unfortunately, a range of terms that relate to forms of alternative tourism

which have evolved from the late 1980s. These include ideas of green tourism, soft,

responsible, low-impact, endemic, and new tourism. There are also a number of more

specific forms of alternative tourism including nature tourism and ecotourism. The

confusion from this range of terms, tourism products, and management philosophies

has created a tendency to ignore the fact that these different forms of tourism can

potentially have dramatically different effects on the environment of a destination area.

Another legacy of these varied concepts of alternative tourism is that the notions of

sustainable tourism have been criticized for being confused and not clearly focused.

Other criticisms see the concept as fundamentally misguided, while some

commentators have a pessimistic view of the concept, believing that perhaps there is no

answer to all of the problems raised by mass tourism. Some argue that unless the

central issue of volume is addressed, then claims that there are answers to the problems

are not only wrong but can also be misleading. This line of reasoning is extreme, but it

does give a coherent voice to the widely perceived notions about the impact of certain

types of tourists. The question as to which type of tourist is likely to do more harm in

the long term, the mass tourist to the Mediterranean or the sensitive traveler, is often

raised, but it is sometimes also pointed out that the aware, educated, individual traveler
who is forever seeking the new, the exotic, and the unspoiled may simply be paving the

way for the mass package tour. Of course, this argument can be turned around and

used as a powerful reason for why sustainable tourism practices need to be adopted in

such circumstances where added management is required. Critics have also called into

question the language and rhetoric used, because some supporters of the concept have

used emotive terms such as appropriate or responsible to define aspects of planning in

destination areas. One commentator summarizes some of these views by suggesting

that “sustainable tourism has burdened itself with conflicting, incompatible objectives.”

The sustainable tourism debate is not only confused and as some argue misplaced but is

also somewhat characterized by advocacy, and lacks a critical political economy

perspective. The term can be an ideology, a process, a concept, or a mere political catch

phrase. Clearly, there are concerns and criticisms over the different terms used to

describe aspects of sustainable tourism, and some commentators have also raised

doubts about the workability of the concept. In an effort to overcome such concerns, it is

important that we establish a coherent and workable definition of sustainable tourism.

The pressure group Tourism Concern has defined sustainable tourism as “tourism and

its associated infrastructures that, both now and in the future:

•operate within natural capacities for the regeneration of and future productivity of

natural resources

•recognize the contribution that people and communities, customs and lifestyles make

to the tourist experience

•accept that local people must have an equitable share in the economic benefits of

tourism

•are guided by the wishes of local people and communities in host areas.”

The core element of this definition is that tourism development, if well managed, need

not lead to resource degradation and the alienation of tourists or members of the host

communities. Also implicit in this definition is the notion that tourism will continue to

grow as a global activity, but that there are some limits to growth and, more important,

that these can be managed. It also incorporates the strong notions of equity that the

Brundtland Report brought to popularity. Furthermore, this definition is not time-

specific or place-specific and as such can be applied to all forms of sustainable tourism.

The three main conditions for tourism sustainability in small islands. On theoretical,

and– above all – empirical evidence, conditions of tourism sustainability in small

islands can be found when the following three conditions are met, at least to a

reasonable extent.

1. Empowerment of the local people and the emergence of their entrepreneurial

capacity. They are the only actors capable of meeting their aspirations for

development with their concern for conservation of their culture, their

environment and their biodiversity. Conservation of cultural and natural

heritage should be considered as a dynamic and continuously adaptive and

evolving process, and not a simple preservation of the status quo, or of a

hypothetical status quo ante.

 2. Connectivity among all stakeholders concerned, from local populations to

potential tourists, tourism operators and environmental managers. Aspects of in

situ social cohesion and connection, as well those of international marketing and

benchmarking are equally important, going from the local to the global scale.

This implies a network-based, decentralized approach, which is largely

facilitated by new tools of the information technology.

3. Diversification of tourism activities themselves, and as placed in the context of

economic diversification of other sectors. A tourism “monoculture” would be too

risky in the current unpredictable society, and would not ensure per se

conditions of sustainability. All aspects of cultural diversity (both the tangible

and the intangible facets, language, traditions, system values) and of biological

diversity (from genes to species, to ecosystems and landscapes) should be

considered under this item. A more detailed characterization of conditions for

tourism sustainability in small islands – a checklist to be monitored in a

comparative way - is given as follows. They shape three blocks, with seven

pillars in each one of them.

The growing complexity of the customer/employee interaction, driven by technology

and the information age, will shape human resources needs in the future. The customer,

armed with more information, will expect frontline and other hospitality staff to be at

least as knowledgeable about the firm’s offerings as they are themselves. This will be
difficult in an industry characterized by low-skilled, low-paid personnel and a high

degree of cultural and behavioral diversity among its employees.

Visioning the future: major forces driving change in the hospitality industry’ considers

seven areas decisive to the future development of the industry. Each is examined to

determine the scope and complexity of the issue and the timing of its impact. That is

assets and capital, health and safety, new management, marketing, distribution and

capacity management, technology, sustainable development, social issues.

Sustainability has emerged as a paradigm in tourism planning and development. The

demand for sustainability in tourism is based on several interrelated processes. Since

the 1960s and 1970s, the growth of global tourism has been intensive, with significant

impacts on the tourism system in a global-local nexus. These impacts and especially the

negatively perceived outcomes of tourism growth in destination regions highlighted a

need to guide and limit tourism growth in many places. In addition, the societal context

in the late 1960s and 1970s supported the focus on environmental concerns and global

inequalities: the emergence of the environmental movement, the limits to the growth

debate and a north-south divide in global politics, for example, had a strong influence

on the discussion on the nature of tourism development. Rather than focusing on the

limits to growth or inequalities in global tourism, however, the discussions were more

grounded on a destination or site scale analysis.

Indeed, the tourism industry has become responsible for various aims and impacts on

global and local scales. In general, responsible tourism refers to tourism development

principles and practices aiming to make places better for people to live and visit .It aims
to minimise the negative and maximise the positive social, economic and environmental

impacts of tourism in destination communities and environments by promoting ethical

consumption and production among all stakeholders. Although the concept of

responsible tourism is often used as a specific form of tourism, its principles and

guidelines are rather similar to the general aims of sustainable tourism: according to

Richard Sharpley ([25], p. 385) ―it is difficult, or even impossible, to distinguish

responsible tourism from the concept of sustainable tourism‖. He has also critiqued

whose responsibility we are referring to when using the concept. Indeed, it is important

to identify who actually are responsible and for what, i.e., are we, the industry,

governmental agencies etc., responsible to local communities, societies and people in

general, for example, when aiming to develop and manage tourism in a responsible

way.

While responsibility is partly built on the same grounds as sustainability in tourism

with over-lapping targets, there is a contextual difference. Responsibility discourse is

also a product of neoliberal ―self-organising modes of new governance with resulting

corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and the creation of a ―perfect green

consumer‖ who does not consume less but consumes in a responsible way.

An increased focus on responsibility also has an academic grounding. In geography,

for example, Smith has discussed ―the moral turn‖ in human geography and Lawson

and Gregory have emphasised a need for caring not only for ―our own‖ but for distant

strangers, which resonates well with the recent discussions on responsible tourism and
especially volunteer tourism, for example, aiming to social development goals in

destination communities.

Overall, the need for sustainability in tourism is an outcome of a complex set of

processes, systems, aims and scales. This has led to a multifaceted conceptual ground of

sustainable tourism and a criticism concerning the clarity and meaning of the concept

and its applicability in tourism (see [33–36]). Swarbrooke has stated that ―sustainable

tourism is perhaps an impossible dream‖ and some scholars have even suggested that

we should actually get rid of the concept and idea of sustainability in tourism.

According to Sharpley for example, it is time to move beyond sustainability as the

―academic study of sustainable tourism development has reached something of an

impasse‖. While criticisms and evolved frustrations are understandable, the demand for

sustainability, responsibility and limits to growth thinking in tourism has not

disappeared; in fact, the reality is quite the opposite. According to the World Bank

―tourism is a three-billion-a-day business‖, the growth of which is estimated to reach

1.6 billion international tourists arrivals by 2020 (UNWTO, 2013). As further noted by

the World Bank the tourism industry and its growth ―comes with its own set of risks

and challenges. Therefore, the need for the idea of sustainability in tourism is now more

urgent than ever before.

Instead of actively sinking the idea of sustainability, there is a need to further reflect on

the conceptual idea of sustainability, including the issues of responsibility, in tourism

and evaluate the potential reasons why we have failed to progress faster in sustainable

tourism research and operations in practice over the past 25 years. The purpose of this
paper is to critically overview the conceptual dimensions of sustainability in tourism

based on the literature and previous discussions. As the focus is on sustainability on

tourism, the reviewed literature is mainly based on (sustainable) tourism studies with

links to general sustainable development and governance literature. After a short

conceptual overview, some of the main sources of criticisms and frustrations are

discussed. Finally, the critical points of departure in the sustainability in tourism and

development are evaluated.

Traditions of sustainable tourism and setting the limits to growth.

Resource-Based Activity-Based Community-Based

Origin/Manifestatio Carrying Capacity Product Cycle Participatory Planning

n Model (TALC)

Orientation Environment Industry Community

(physical)

Limits to growth Objective/Measurabl Relative/Changin Constructed/Negotiate

e g d

Resource and Static Dynamic Dynamic/Static

system view
 Time scale Long Now‖ Short

The activity-based tradition is industry-oriented. It refers to tourism-centric

approaches in tourism development discussions, focusing on the needs of tourism as an

economic activity and its resource base. From this perspective, the limits to growth are

not primarily based on the capacity of the destination and its original resources for

absorbing tourism, but on the industry and its capacity or incapacity to generate

growth. This approach is illustrated in the evolution of the tourism area life cycle

model, in which the relationship between life cycle—representing tourism growth—and

the limits of carrying capacity is a dynamic one: after a stagnation phase, indicating that

the limits of carrying capacity have been reached, the development of a tourist

destination may actually be activated again based on new products, infrastructure

development and marketing, for example. Thus, the activity-based tradition is

grounded on a relational approach and understanding of space (destination), which

implies that certain tourism activities, tourist segments or products may have different

kinds of limits to their growth and their ability to absorb increasing numbers of tourists.

A non-growth situation implies that the limits to growth are reached and modifications

are needed in tourism products in order to achieve further growth.

In this respect, the relation between resource-based and activity-based sustainability

can be quite conflicting. As the number of tourists increases and the destination evolves

(i.e., grows) cyclically through changing modifications of destination as a product,

indicating that the limits to activity-based sustainability have not yet been reached,
tourism growth may overstep some of the resource-based limits to change . In order to

overcome the potential and often highly probable conflicts between the industry, other

stakeholders and resource use, various participation processes and governance models

have been used and developed. These processes refer broadly to community

approaches in tourism studies in which the setting of limits to growth is based on

participation and negotiations. This community-based tradition aims to involve

communities and other (local) stakeholders in tourism development and management

by stating that communities should have control over the uses and benefits of

(common) resources used in tourism. Thus, in order to reduce the negative impacts of

tourism and safeguard effective benefit sharing, local participation, awareness creation

and control over tourism development are said to be needed.

Various perspectives and competing ideas of the concept of sustainable tourism can be

seen as problematic. However, while they are challenging for researchers and policy-

makers, it is good to note that there are very few, if any, conceptual definitions in the

social sciences we universally accept as being ―the definition‖ and the only existing way

to understand an issue. In addition, a value-based nature of sustainable tourism has

been regarded as a major challenge for the concept. Indeed, sustainable tourism is

value-laden idea, but in contrast to physics and other natural sciences, for example,

concepts in the social sciences in general tend to be loaded with values. They are also

used in academic and societal discussions and politics based on different kind of

ideologies and socio-economic and cultural preferences and aims. By replacing

sustainability with some other term pre-perceived as less value-based may not change
the situation: as soon as adaptation or resilience, for example, were applied from

natural science contexts to the social sciences, their definitions have multiplied and

become transparently value-laden and contested . The idea of sustainability is

important for the tourism of today and especially for its future. However, the criticism

of the conceptualization and operationalization of sustainable tourism has recently

increased. Still, deepening frustrations have yet to create viable alternatives to

sustainability as a paradigm, and sustainable development and sustainable tourism are

still in a high profile position in international and national politics, development and

planning debates, and also in research. Nevertheless, the expressed criticism has

relevant grounding, which underlines a need to understand and potentially re-frame

the concept of how the limits to growth are set in tourism and how to overcome the

perceived shortcomings of sustainable tourism in policy and practice.

To summarize, while there are major challenges in sustainable tourism as a concept and

development tool in practice, the calls for forgetting the idea may be premature. Instead

of going beyond sustainability in tourism, there may be a real need to take serious steps

back towards the original ideas of sustainable development. Therefore, the re-framing

of sustainable tourism as a less tourism-centric activity operating in a local-global nexus

is vital. Sustainability is a crucial element for the future of tourism and this re-framing

would make it a critical tool and dimension for the evaluations of the limits to growth

in tourism with strong references to evolving discussions on ethical components in

tourism.
The ethical element in sustainable tourism development is built upon both theory and

practice. This means that the industry would need to change and reconsider its position

in development discourse if it really is aiming to promote sustainable development in

tourism beyond rhetoric and ―green washing. However, to expect the industry as a

private sector economic actor to substantially share its benefits, and decentralize its own

role and position in its own operations may not be realistic. As Scheyvens has critically

asked in the context of tourism and poverty alleviation: why should we assume that the

tourism industry has some ethical commitment to ensuring that their operations

contribute to the alleviation of poverty ? While there are individual companies doing

well in this respect, a large majority seem to continue to operate along the activity-based

limits to growth. Therefore, the industry as a whole and its customers need to have

firmer guiding regulative frameworks for creating a wider responsibility and a path

towards sustainable development. Obviously, this is easier said than done, which is

evident in the global scale regulative processes such as the Kyoto Protocol, for example.

However, the first step is to recognize the need for re-framing sustainability in tourism:

after that, the operationalization of firmer regulative frameworks is definitely easier to

process than under the current hegemonic idea of sustainable tourism as a local-scale

and self-organized industry-oriented development issue focusing on short-term

economic prospects.

REFERENCES:

1. www.unep.fr.com
2. www.onecaribbean.org

3. www.times.edu.rs.com

4. www.seagrant.umn.edu.com

5. www.globalization101.org

6. https://www.sagepub.com

7. www.markedbyteachers.com

8. www.condesan.org

9. www.doitgreen.org

10. www.cdb.gov.hk

11. www.ilo.org

12. http://www.cscanada.org

13. http://www.cscanada.net

14. www.usaid.gov

15. www.rdee.com

16. https://stephen.org

17. www.schneider.stanford.edu.com

18. www.liaa.gov.lv

19. www.ersj.eu

20. www.iaeme.com