What is Sustainable Tourism?

What is Sustainable Tourism?

Tourism is a big part of our global culture, enabling us to discover different regions of the world, meet people from different walks of life and have new experiences. Tourism provides many benefits both to travelers and local communities. However, the sector is rapidly changing. Over the years we become more aware of the threat of climate change and our role in aggravating it. All sectors, from fashion to cement, from publishing to industry, think of ways to decrease its negative impacts on the planet. Of course, tourism sector started to become more aware of its role in this matter as well.

A study published by Nature Climate Change in 2018 tourism creates 8% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, we may say that tourism sector has realized that it needs to transition into a more sustainable model.

In the article below, we will examine definitions of sustainable tourism and ecotourism, discuss pros and cons of the tourism industry and explore what kind of solutions can sustainable tourism provide for our current challenges.

What is the Definition of Sustainable Tourism?
Sustainable tourism refers to sustainable practices in the tourism industry. Its aim is to minimize negative impacts of tourism and maximize positive impacts.

• Negative impacts are; economic outages, damage to the natural environment, etc.  
• Positive impacts are; employment, conservation of cultural heritage and natural habitat, landscape restoration, etc.

UN Environment Program and UN World Tourism Organization define Sustainable Tourism as “tourism activities that address the needs of visitors, industry, the environment and host communities and consider fully its present and future economic, social and environmental impacts.” 

How to Practice Sustainable Tourism?
Due to its nature tourism focuses on the valuable things in the world: great landscapes, wild life, history, culture and people. Tourism may be a catalyst for growth in local economy through quality works, enterprising opportunities and funds for conservation. If not managed properly, however, tourism can have negative impacts on local communities and environments, and cause a decrease in tourism in the destination by creating long-term problems for local residents. 

Sustainable tourism’s main responsibilities include the following:

1. Protecting environment, natural resources and wild life, 
2. Providing socio-economic benefits for the communities living at tourism destinations,
3. Protecting cultural heritage and creating authentic tourism experiences,
4. Bringing together tourists and local people for mutual benefit,
5. Creating inclusive and accessible tourism opportunities.

Below are the things that need to be done for sustainable tourism:

1) Helping to protect key ecologic processes, natural heritage and biodiversity, enabling optimal usage of environmental resources which are a key factor in the development of tourism. 
2) Respecting the socio-cultural originality of the host communities, protecting local and living cultural heritages and traditional values, and contributing in the inter cultural understanding and tolerance.
3) Providing stable employment and income-generation opportunities and socio-economic benefits that are fairly distributed among host communities and all stakeholders, and conducting feasible, long-term economic operations by contributing in the reduction of poverty.

Sustainable tourism requires wide participation, consensus and strong political leadership. 

What is the Difference between Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism?
You may have heard the terms ecotourism and sustainable tourism used instead of each other however there is a distinct difference between the two. 

Sustainable tourism is concerned with creating travel opportunities with minimum impact and positive benefits for destinations and communities while ecotourism is more focused on creating awareness in tourists about nature and environment and protecting the travelers and enabling their participation in cultural activities.

What Does Responsible Travel Mean?  
Responsible Travel refers to the behaviors of individual tourists who want to choose according to sustainable tourism practices. These behaviors are, in general, focused on minimizing the negative impacts and maximizing the positive impacts when visiting a tourism destination. 

What are Sustainable Tourism Goals?
The twelve main goals for sustainable tourism laid out in 2005 by the World Tourism Organization and the United Nations Environment Program are as follows :

1. Economic Viability: To ensure the viability and competitiveness of tourism destinations and enterprises, so that they are able to continue to prosper and deliver benefits in the long term.
2. Local Prosperity: To maximize the contribution of tourism to the economic prosperity of the host destination, including the proportion of visitor spending that is retained locally.
3. Employment Quality: To strengthen the number and quality of local jobs created and supported by tourism, including the level of pay, conditions of service and availability to all without discrimination by gender, race, disability or in other ways.
4. Social Equity: To seek a widespread and fair distribution of economic and social benefits from tourism throughout the recipient community, including improving opportunities, income and services available to the poor.
5. Visitor Fulfillment: To provide a safe, satisfying and fulfilling experience for visitors, available to all without discrimination by gender, race, disability or in other ways.
6. Local Control: To engage and empower local communities in planning and decision making about the management and future development of tourism in their area, in consultation with other stakeholders.
7. Community Wellbeing: To maintain and strengthen the quality of life in local communities, including social structures and access to resources, amenities and life support systems, avoiding any form of social degradation or exploitation.
8. Cultural Richness: To respect and enhance the historic heritage, authentic culture, traditions and distinctiveness of host communities.
9. Physical Integrity: To maintain and enhance the quality of landscapes, both urban and rural, and avoid the physical and visual degradation of the environment.
10. Biological Diversity: To support the conservation of natural areas, habitats and wildlife, and minimize damage to them.
11. Resource Efficiency: To minimize the use of scarce and non-renewable resources in the development and operation of tourism facilities and services.
12. Environmental Purity: To minimize the pollution of air, water and land and the generation of waste by tourism enterprises and visitors.

What are the Impacts of Tourism? 

1. Environmental impacts
The quality of the environment, both natural and man-made, is essential to tourism. However, tourism's relationship with the environment is complex. It involves many activities that can have adverse environmental effects. Many of these impacts are linked with the construction of general infrastructure such as roads and airports, and of tourism facilities, including resorts, hotels, restaurants, shops, golf courses and marinas. The negative impacts of tourism development can gradually destroy the environmental resources on which it depends. Tourism development can put enormous pressure on an area and lead to impacts such as soil erosion, increased pollution, discharges into the sea, natural habitat loss, increased pressure on endangered species and heightened vulnerability to forest fires. It often puts a strain on water resources, and it can force local populations to compete for the use of critical resources.

On the other hand, tourism has the potential to create beneficial effects on the environment by contributing to environmental protection and conservation. It is a way to raise awareness of environmental values and it can serve as a tool to finance protection of natural areas and increase their economic importance.

2. Socio-cultural Impacts 
The socio-cultural impacts of tourism emerge when tourism causes a degradation in value systems and changes in human behaviors, thus threatening local identity. In some societies, tourism frequently leads to changes in family relations, collective traditional life styles, ceremonies and morals. However, since it may serve as a supportive power for peace, help being proud of cultural traditions and contribute in avoiding urban resettlement by creating local jobs, tourism may create positive impacts as well. As happens when different cultures come together, socio-cultural impacts are often hard to identify. They require careful measurement and monitoring.

3. Economic Impacts of Tourism
The tourism industry generates substantial economic benefits to both host countries and tourists' home countries. Especially in developing countries, one of the primary motivations for a region to promote itself as a tourism destination is the expected economic improvement.

How Can We Measure Sustainable Tourism?
While sustainable tourism has many positive goals, there must be a concrete measurement system that enables the business to determine their progress towards sustainability. In order to measure results and progress, benchmarks are used. Benchmarking is “the comparison of a business’s performance in a given area (such as water consumption) with those of a similar business.”  Benchmarking does not only put a business’s activities in perspective with that of its competitors, but also contributes to many positive internal improvements. 

For example, in tourism sector, commonly used benchmarks are:

• Electricity and energy consumption in kilowatt hours (kWh) per square meter of serviced space,
• Fresh water consumption in liters or cubic meters (m3) per guest per night,
• Waste production (kg per guest per night and/or liters per guest per night)

With these benchmarking categories, achieving sustainability in the tourism industry is not just a rhetorical goal; it is tangible, providing measurable benefits and potential economic savings to those businesses who strive for improvement in their daily performance.   

By beginning to benchmark activities, businesses can engage in sustainable development while simultaneously reaping the tangible and economic benefits of internal improvements.

Why Sustainable Tourism is Important? 
Tourism is one of the world’s most significant sources of economic outcomes and employment. However, tourism is a very complex industry involving numerous stakeholders and requiring significant amount of resources. As such, tourism can have very opposite effects according to the way activities are managed. Managed well, tourism can play a positive role in the socio, cultural, economic, environmental and political development of the destination and as such represents a significant development opportunity for many countries and communities. On the contrary, unchecked tourism development can lead to very damageable impacts on natural resources, consumption patterns, pollution and social systems. The need for sustainable planning and management is imperative for the industry to survive as a whole.