This article will provide a brief overview about
the historical background, importance, concepts, principles and general debates about sustainable tourism.
Sustainable tourism is one of the pre-requisites
of achieving sustainable development. the concept of tourism with sustainability and development gets its historical inclusion from mass tourism that got flourished in 1960s due to advent of jet aircraft and the
passions for tourism got tremendous following and it also reached Third World countries (Dann, 2002).
It was also argued that this boost pushed organizations
like World Bank and UN to examine the cost benefit analysis of tourism and it was acknowledged that potential costs of tourism
are far lower than financial benefits in shape of balance pf payment surpluses, infrastructure development, and employment
and foreign exchange gains. So that gave rise to the concept of sustainable tourism as one of the source of bringing sustainable
development. According to the World’s Summit on Sustainable
Development (2002), it is claimed that Tourism is the world’s largest industry where in 2000, 698 million people travelled
internationally which 7.3 % more than 1999. Similarly the economic worth of international tourism was US$477.9 billion in
2000 (Papers4you.com, 2006).
In terms of one concrete definition, literature
suggests that it is not fixed and is ever evolving. However Coccossis (1996) asserts that sustainable tourism can be taken
in four different interpretations that include” economic sustainability of tourism”, the “ecologically sustainable
tourism”,” sustainable tourism development” with both focus of environment as well as long term feasibility
of the industry and finally “tourism as a part of a strategy for sustainable development”.
As mentioned above, sustainable tourism should be
taken in consideration to environmental and resources effects. It was argued that Mediterranean tourism is the main source
of economic gain for the reason however short term growth was overlooked with long term adverse effect and deterioration of
their ecosystem and resources (Farsari, 2000)
Effects of ignorant tourism on its sustainability include: ‘over consumption of natural resources ,environmental degradation,
exploitation of cultures and labour, displacement of people from their land, lack of consultation with local communities,
poorly thought out tourism planning and high foreign exchange leakage which reduces local economic benefits’ in long
run (World’s Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002),
Where such effects are there to pose a threat on
sustainable tourism there are guiding principles that can lead to ensure sustainability (Papers4you.com, 2006). Those principles
include sustainable use of resources, waste and over-consumption reduction, diversity maintenance, tourism-planning integration,
local economy support as well as local community involvement, consultation, training, research and responsible marketing (Farsari,
2000)
So the discussion suggest that tourism industry
has potential to be a prerequisite for sustainable development, however it is imperative to realize that focus on mass tourism
only can pose danger to environment so in order to ensure sustainability in tourism, guiding principles should be followed
References
Coccossis, H. (1996) ‘Tourism and Sustainability:
Perspectives and Implications’ in Priestley, G. et al. (eds), Sustainable Tourism? European Experiences, U.K.: Cab International
Dann, G, M, S, (2002), “Tourism & Development”,
in Desai V and Potter, R. (eds) (2002), The Companion to Development Studies, London:
Arnold,
Farsari, Y, (2000), ‘Sustainable Tourism Indicators
for Mediterranean Established Destinations’, Heraklion: IACM & FORTH
Papers For You (2006) "C/T/32. Sustainable travel
& tourism", Available from http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/sprttrav4.htm [22/06/2006]
Papers For You (2006) "C/T/27. Sustainable Tourism
Development", Available from http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/sprttrav4.htm [21/06/2006]
World Summit on Sustainable
Development, (2002), ‘Sustainable Tourism and the Earth Summit’, Briefing Paper,
Aug 26-Sep 06, 2002, London: Tourism Concern. Also available
on
http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/media/2002/WSSD%20sustainable%20tourism%20briefing.htm
