tourism advantages example

21 reasons why tourism is important – the importance of tourism

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Tourism is important, more important than most people realise in fact!

The importance of tourism is demonstrated throughout the world. From the economic advantages that tourism brings to host communities to the enjoyment that tourism brings to the tourists themselves, there is no disputing the value of this industry.

The importance of tourism can be viewed from two perspectives: the tourism industry and the tourist. In this article I will explain how both the industry and the tourist benefit from the tourism industry and why it is so important on a global scale.

What is the importance of tourism?

Enhanced quality of life, ability to broaden way of thinking, educational value, ability to ‘escape’, rest and relaxation, enhanced wellbeing, who are tourism industry stakeholders, foreign exchange earnings, contribution to government revenues, employment generation, contribution to local economies, overall economy boost, preserving local culture, strengthening communities, provision of social services, commercialisation of culture and art, revitalisation of culture and art, preservation of heritage, empowering communities, protecting nature, the importance of tourism: political gains, why tourism is important: to conclude, the importance of tourism: further reading.

When many people think about the tourism industry they visualise only the front-line workers- the Holiday Representative, the Waiter, the Diving Instructor. But in reality, the tourism industry stretches much, much further than this.

As demonstrated in the infographic below, tourism is important in many different ways. The tourism industry is closely interconnected with a number of global industries and sectors ranging from trade to ecological conservation.

Why tourism is important to the tourist

When we discuss the importance of tourism it is often somewhat one-sided, taking into consideration predominantly those working in the industry and their connections.

However, the tourist is just as important, as without them there would be no tourism!

Below are just a few examples of the importance of tourism to the tourist:

Taking a holiday can greatly benefit a person’s quality of life. While different people have very different ideas of what makes a good holiday (there are more than 150 types of tourism after all!), a holiday does have the potential to enhance quality of life.

Travel is known to help broaden a person’s way of thinking. Travel introduces you to new experiences, new cultures and new ways of life.

Many people claim thatchy ‘find themselves’ while travelling.

One reason why tourism is important is education.The importance of tourism can be attributed to the educational value that it provides. Travellers and tourists can learn many things while undertaking a tourist experience, from tasting authentic local dishes to learning about the exotic animals that they may encounter.

Tourism provides the opportunity for escapism. Escapism can be good for the mind. It can help you to relax, which in turn often helps you to be more productive in the workplace and in every day life.

This is another way that the importance of tourism is demonstrated.

Rest and relaxation is very important. Taking time out for yourself helps you to be a happier, healthier person.

Having the opportunity for rest and relaxation in turn helps to enhance wellbeing.

Why tourism is important to stakeholders

There are many reasons why tourism is important to the people involved. There are many people who work either directly or indirectly with the tourism industry and who are therefore described as stakeholders. You can read more about tourism stakeholders and why they are important in this post- Stakeholders in tourism: Who are they and why do they matter?

The benefits of tourism are largely related to said stakeholders in some way or another. Below are some examples of how stakeholders benefit from tourism, organised by economic, social, environmental and political gains; demonstrating the importance of tourism.

The importance of tourism: Economic gains

Perhaps the most cited reason in reference to the importance of tourism is its economic value. Tourism can help economies to bring in money in a number of different ways. Below I have provided some examples of the positive economic impacts of tourism .

The importance of tourism is demonstrated through foreign exchange earnings. 

Tourism expenditures generate income to the host economy. The money that the country makes from tourism can then be reinvested in the economy. How a destination manages their finances differs around the world; some destinations may spend this money on growing their tourism industry further, some may spend this money on public services such as education or healthcare and some destinations suffer extreme corruption so nobody really knows where the money ends up! 

Some currencies are worth more than others and so some countries will target tourists from particular areas. Currencies that are strong are generally the most desirable currencies. This typically includes the British Pound, American, Australian and Singapore Dollar and the Euro . 

Tourism is one of the top five export categories for as many as 83% of countries and is a main source of foreign exchange earnings for at least 38% of countries.

The importance of tourism is also demonstrated through the money that is raised and contributed to government revenues. Tourism can help to raise money that it then invested elsewhere by the Government. There are two main ways that this money is accumulated. 

Direct contributions  are generated by taxes on incomes from tourism employment and tourism businesses and things such as departure taxes. 

According to the World Tourism Organisation , the direct contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP in 2018 was $2,750.7billion (3.2% of GDP). This is forecast to rise by 3.6% to $2,849.2billion in 2019.

Indirect contributions  come from goods and services supplied to tourists which are not directly related to the tourism industry. 

There is also the income that is generated through  induced contributions . This accounts for money spent by the people who are employed in the tourism industry. This might include costs for housing, food, clothing and leisure Activities amongst others. This will all contribute to an increase in economic activity in the area where tourism is being developed. 

The importance of tourism can be demonstrated through employment generation.

The rapid expansion of international tourism has led to significant employment creation. From hotel managers to theme park operatives to cleaners, tourism creates many employment opportunities. Tourism supports some 7% of the world’s workers. 

There are two types of employment in the tourism industry: direct and indirect. 

Direct employment  includes jobs that are immediately associated with the tourism industry. This might include hotel staff, restaurant staff or taxi drivers, to name a few. 

Indirect employment includes jobs which are not technically based in the tourism industry, but are related to the tourism industry.

It is because of these indirect relationships, that it is very difficult to accurately measure the precise economic value of tourism, and some suggest that the actual economic benefits of tourism may be as high as double that of the recorded figures!

The importance of tourism can be further seen through the contributions to local economies.

All of the money raised, whether through formal or informal means, has the potential to contribute to the local economy. 

If  sustainable tourism  is demonstrated, money will be directed to areas that will benefit the local community most. There may be pro-poor tourism initiatives (tourism which is intended to help the poor) or  volunteer tourism  projects. The government may reinvest money towards public services and money earned by tourism employees will be spent in the local community. This is known as the multiplier effect. 

Tourism boosts the economy exponentially. This is partly because of the aforementioned jobs that tourism creates, but also because of the temporary addition to the consumer population that occurs when someone travels to a new place. Just think: when you travel, you’re spending money. You’re paying to stay in a hotel or hostel in a certain area – then you’re eating in local restaurants, using local public transport, buying souvenirs and ice cream and new flip flops. As a tourist, you are contributing to the global economy every time you book and take a trip.

For some towns, cities and even whole countries, the importance of tourism is greater than for other. In some cases, it is the main source of income. For example, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism accounts for almost 40% of the Maldives’ total GDP. In comparison, it’s less than 4% in the UK and even lower in the US! In the Seychelles the number is just over 26% while in the British Virgin Islands it is over 35% – so tourism is vastly important in these nations.

The importance of tourism: Social gains

The importance of tourism is not only recognised through economic factors, but there are also many positive social impacts of tourism that play an important part. Below I will outline some of the social gains from tourism.

It is the local culture that the tourists are often coming to visit and this is another way to demonstrate the importance of tourism.

Tourists visit Beijing to learn more about the Chinese Dynasties. Tourists visit Thailand to taste authentic Thai food. Tourists travel to Brazil to go to the Rio Carnival, to mention a few…

Many destinations will make a conserved effort to preserve and protect the local culture. This often contributes to the conservation and  sustainable management  of natural resources, the protection of local heritage, and a renaissance of indigenous cultures, cultural arts and crafts. 

The importance of tourism can also be demonstrated through the strengthening of communities.

Events and festivals of which local residents have been the primary participants and spectators are often rejuvenated and developed in response to tourist interest.

The jobs created by tourism can also be a great boost for the local community. Aside from the  economic impacts  created by enhanced employment prospects, people with jobs are happier and more social than those without a disposable income. 

Local people can also increase their influence on tourism development, as well as improve their job and earnings prospects, through tourism-related professional training and development of business and organisational skills.

The importance of tourism is shown through the provision of social services in the host community.

The tourism industry requires many facilities/ infrastructure to meet the needs of the tourist. This often means that many developments in an area as a result of tourism will be available for use by the locals also. 

Local people often gained new roads, new sewage systems, new playgrounds, bus services etc as a result of tourism. This can provide a great boost to their quality of life and is a great example of a positive social impact of tourism. 

Tourism can see rise to many commercial business, which can be a positive social impact of tourism. This helps to enhance the community spirit as people tend to have more disposable income as a result. 

These businesses may also promote the local cultures and arts. Museums, shows and galleries are fantastic way to showcase the local customs and traditions of a destination. This can help to promote/ preserve local traditions.

Some destinations will encourage local cultures and arts to be revitalised. This may be in the form of museum exhibitions, in the way that restaurants and shops are decorated and in the entertainment on offer, for example. 

This may help promote traditions that may have become distant. 

Another reason for the importance of tourism is the preservation of heritage. Many tourists will visit the destination especially to see its local heritage. It is for this reason that many destinations will make every effort to preserve its heritage. 

This could include putting restrictions in place or limiting tourist numbers, if necessary. This is often an example of careful  tourism planning  and sustainable tourism management. 

Tourism can, if managed well, empower communities. While it is important to consider the authenticity in tourism and take some things with a pinch of salt, know that tourism can empower communities.

Small villages in far off lands are able to profit from selling their handmade goods. This, in turn, puts food on the table. This leads to healthier families and more productivity and a happier population .

The importance of tourism: Environmental gains

Whilst most media coverage involving tourism and the environment tends to be negative, there are some positives that can come from it: demonstrating the importance of tourism once again.

Some people think that tourism is what kills nature. And while this could so easily be true, it is important to note that the tourism industry is and always has been a big voice when it comes to conservation and the protection of animals and nature. Tourism organisations and travel operators often run (and donate to) fundraisers. 

As well as this, visitors to certain areas can take part in activities that aim to sustain the local scenery. It’s something a bit different, too! You and your family can go on a beach clean up walk in Spain or do something similar in the UAE . There are a lot of ways in which tourism actually helps the environment, rather than hindering it!

Lastly, there is something to be said for the political gains that can be achieved through tourism.

The tourism industry can yield promising opportunities for international collaborations, partnerships and agreements, for example within the EU. This can have positive political impacts on the host country as well as the countries who choose to work with them.

Tourism is a remarkably important industry. As you can see, the tourism industry does not stand alone- it is closely interrelated with many other parts of society. Not only do entire countries often rely on the importance of tourism, but so do individual members of host communities and tourists.

If you are studying travel and tourism and are interested in learning more about the importance of tourism, I recommend you take a look at the following texts:

• An Introduction to Tourism : a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to all facets of tourism including: the history of tourism; factors influencing the tourism industry; tourism in developing countries; sustainable tourism; forecasting future trends.
• The Business of Tourism Management : an introduction to key aspects of tourism, and to the practice of managing a tourism business.
• Tourism Management: An Introduction : gives its reader a strong understanding of the dimensions of tourism, the industries of which it is comprised, the issues that affect its success, and the management of its impact on destination economies, environments and communities.

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How Tourism Benefits Nature and Wildlife

The Great Barrier Reef. Yellowstone. The Amazon Rainforest. One of the top reasons that tourists are drawn to destinations such as these is because of their rich biodiversity and unique landscapes.

According to Brand USA,  2 of the top 5 motivators  for selecting vacation spots are ecotourism and nature. Wanderlusters are seeking experiences that reflect the  true  essence of the places they are visiting. In other words, they want to visit places with unspoiled environments and thriving native wildlife.

We often hear about all of the ways that humans are destroying wild places and jeopardizing the health of the planet – and rightfully so. Over  75%  of land environments have been severely altered by humans and species are facing extinction at up to  1000x  the natural rate. While there’s no denying that irresponsible tourism contributes to this devastation, we shouldn’t overlook the important role that sustainable and well-managed tourism plays in advancing conservation and protecting our world’s treasured ecosystems. These benefits have only been further evidenced by the current COVID-19 crisis and the resulting halt in tourism.

In this blog post we’ve highlighted just a handful of the different ways that tourism benefits nature and wildlife. Read on to learn more!

Increasing Community Support for Conservation

Over the last decade, nature-based tourism has become increasingly popular.  In total, wildlife tourism now supports nearly  22 million jobs  around the world and contributes more than $120 billion to global GDP.

This growing interest in wildlife tourism, and the economic benefits that come along with it, can change community attitudes towards conservation. Without tourism, local communities may merely view wild animals as a danger to their farms and families, and only value natural resources for consumption. But when animals and natural areas bring tourism dollars and jobs to their community, it can help residents see the importance of keeping their natural assets intact and healthy.

In Cambodia, for instance, ecotourism is motivating communities to conserve critically endangered bird species, such as the giant ibis and white-shouldered ibis. Thousands of tourists come from across the world to see these rare and iconic species. The birding operator Sam Veasna Conservation Tours incentivizes community-based conservation in the region by training and employing locals as guides and ecotourism providers, and requiring visitors to donate to village development projects. In return for this income and employment, community members agree to not hunt or cut down trees. To date, Sam Veasna’s visitors have contributed over  $500,000  to local communities, making a strong case for the importance of protecting their unique birdlife.

Creating Sustainable Livelihoods

Beyond changing mindsets, tourism can prevent ecosystem degradation by creating more sustainable livelihoods for local communities. Jobs as guides, cooks, or housekeepers offer alternative income sources to environmentally-destructive activities such as logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, quarrying, or illegal hunting.

In Rewa, Guyana, poor job security led villagers to illegally harvest and trade wild animals. As a result, wildlife species such as arapaimas, giant river turtles, and giant otters were beginning to disappear. In 2005, the village opened a community-run eco lodge to improve livelihoods while protecting its ecological diversity.  By employing community members as sport fishing guides and boat captains, the lodge allows villagers to maintain rainforest-based livelihoods without causing damage to the ecosystem. Thanks to tourism, arapaimas, turtles, and otters are now common in the Rewa River. Not to mention, visitors contribute far more money to the local economy than wildlife exploitation did. In fact, research shows that globally wildlife tourism is  5x  more lucrative than illegal wildlife trade!

Raising Environmental Awareness of Tourists

Tourism not only bears the capacity to shift local mindsets and behavior, it can also raise environmental awareness among tourists. From camping to beach lounging, tourism provides countless opportunities for individuals to learn about the natural world and experience it firsthand.

When people connect with nature during their travels, it can lead them to appreciate it more and become invested in protecting it. Tours, parks, and other travel experiences often facilitate this type of environmental learning through interpretive techniques such as educational brochures, exhibits, or guided excursions. Whale watching, for instance,  has been shown  to raise visitors’ knowledge of aquatic mammals and increase their support for whale conservation. And on the Great Barrier Reef, guided boat tours and marine biology talks  have been found  to influence visitor behavior and minimize the damage that they cause to the reef.

In Chilean Patagonia, interpretive panels have been installed along one of the world’s most iconic trekking circuits in Torres del Paine National Park. The panels, which were designed by the  Torres del Paine Legacy Fund , educate visitors about the wetland ecosystem they’re traversing, and provide information about the plants and animals found there.

A hiker reads about the types of wildlife that reside in Torres del Paine National Park. Photo: Torres del Paine Legacy Fund.

Prompting Conservation Policies & Protected Areas

Tourism can also provide a compelling incentive for governments and organizations to institute environmental policies and conservation measures. This includes the creation of national parks, nature reserves, and other protected areas to preserve their biodiversity and correspondingly boost their tourism appeal.

Due to the popularity of coastal tourism in particular, reef-based activities such as scuba diving, snorkeling, boat trips and whale watching are a particularly important source of economic revenues. In fact, it is estimated that coral reefs generate  $36 billion  in global tourism value per year. Many countries rely on the income that comes from marine-based tourism and see the importance of protecting their coastlines, coral reefs, and beaches.

In the Galapagos, for instance, marine-based tourism is worth over  $178 million  per year, and supports over a third of all jobs.  The islands are a hotspot for large and rare marine life, including the  highest abundance  of sharks on the planet. Thanks to spending by divers and other marine tourists, a single shark in the Galapagos is worth about $5.4 million over its lifetime, while a dead shark only brings in $200 to fishermen. Realizing the economic importance of its life below water, the government introduced no-fishing zones in 2016 to prevent the extraction of sharks and safeguard the island’s marine tourism value.

Mountain gorillas are another species that has benefited from tourism-motivated conservation policies. These endangered apes can only be found in Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Uganda, gorilla trekking permits start at  $600  and the economic value of gorilla tourism is estimated to be as much as  $34.3 million . This has led to policies and strategies that support conservation, such as veterinary interventions, intensive law enforcement, community conservation projects, regulated ecotourism, and transboundary collaboration among government institutions and NGOs. Thanks to these efforts, the number of gorillas within the Virunga Mountain region rose from  240 in the 1980s to 604 in 2016 . Now they are the  only wild ape population whose numbers are increasing !

Financing Conservation

But simply establishing protected areas isn’t enough on its own. Ensuring the conservation of the sensitive environments and vulnerable species that these areas aim to protect requires effective management and conservation measures.

However, this is easier said than done. Around the world, many protected areas are under-funded. In fact, the global funding gap for effectively managing these sites is estimated to be up to  $440 billion  dollars per year. Tourism plays an essential role in bridging this gap by providing an additional source of funding. Proceeds from visitor entrance fees, operating permits, accommodations, and guiding services can help pay the salaries of park rangers and guards, and fund necessary management activities such as ecosystem monitoring, anti-poaching patrols, invasive species eradication, and environmental educational programs.

In Africa, tourism is an important source of funding for land and wildlife conservation. SANParks, the public entity responsible for managing South Africa’s national parks, raises more than  80%  of its funding from tourism.  Chumbe Island Coral Park,  a marine protected area off the coast of Zanzibar, takes this model a step further and is funded  entirely  by ecotourism income. Thanks to effective management, Chumbe Island is home to one of the most pristine coral reefs in the region.

In addition to financing protected areas, tourists and tourism businesses may also contribute directly to local conservation initiatives. In St. Kitts, local tourism businesses donated  $18,500  to fund the planting of fruit trees to protect coastal areas. At Vail Resorts, guests are invited to donate $1 when they purchase a season pass, lift ticket, hotel stay, or shuttle ride. In 2019, Vail’s program raised over  $975,000  for on-the-ground conservation efforts that help restore habitat, improve forest access, and preserve land.

Carbon offsetting is another way that individuals and businesses can contribute to environmental conservation projects, while also mitigating their own emissions. Luxury tour operator TCS World Travel, for instance, partners with Sustainable Travel International to  offset  the carbon emissions generated by their jet trips. Through this partnership, TCS supports the  Madre de Dios project  which protects critical rainforest habitat and endangered species in the Peruvian Amazon.

Aiding Ecosystem Monitoring

While park rangers and guards play a critical role in patrolling sensitive environments, tracking ecosystem health, and warding off threats, it is often impossible for them to monitor such vast areas by themselves. The mere presence of tourists in natural areas can protect wildlife by providing an extra set of eyes on the ground.

In Africa, safari vehicles and guests deter poachers from wildlife conservancies, helping to safeguard highly targeted species such rhinos. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the critical role that tourism plays in deterring poachers and creating safe havens for wildlife. As visitation has come to a halt, rhino poaching has  reportedly increased  in tourism hotspots.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s “Eye on the Reef” program is an even more intentional effort to engage tourists and operators in ecosystem monitoring. The program engages divers and marine tourism providers in watching over the Great Barrier Reef by reporting the coral, fish, pollution, and invasive species they see via a citizen science app. Sustainable Travel International is currently developing NEMO, a similar reef monitoring program for use on the  Mesoamerican Reef.

There are countless other citizen science programs that aim to fill different research gaps, and that visitors can participate in during their trip. Whale watchers, for example, can contribute to whale identification and tracking by submitting their photographs of humpback whales via the HappyWhale website. To date, more than  260,000  photos have been submitted to HappyWhale, and more than 38,000 individual whales identified.

Tourism businesses may also aid researchers in collecting environmental data. In Nevis, the Four Seasons Resort helps researchers study the migration patterns of critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles that nest on the island’s beaches. Resort guests help look for nesting sea turtles which are then fitted with a satellite transmitter and released into the sea. To date,  21  turtles have been released through this program.

Supporting Habitat & Ecosystem Restoration

Along with putting on their scientist cap, visitors and tourism businesses can support conservation by participating in ecosystem restoration.  

In Bonaire, local dive operators are lending a hand in restoring the island’s coral reefs by training tourists and divers on basic reef restoration techniques. Once they are trained, visitors can help maintain coral nurseries and outplant coral fragments onto degraded reef sites. To date, more than over  22,000  corals have been outplanted onto Bonaire’s reefs.

Visitors and tourism businesses can also participate in the removal and eradication of non-native species which devastate local habitats. In Mexico, divers and guides lend a hand in  hunting invasive lionfish  which are a serious threat to the Mesoamerican Reef. After they are captured, the fish are grilled up and served to tourists as a special local dish.

Visitors and tour guides can also help restore ecosystem health by cleaning up the environments they visit. For example, more than  86,000  scuba divers have removed litter from the oceans as part of Project Aware’s “Dive Against Debris” program.

Advancing Green Technologies & Fueling Innovation

Because of its economic importance and influence, tourism can trigger environmental innovation through the advancement of green infrastructure, processes, and technologies. For instance, tourism can lead the way in the development of renewable energy infrastructure, like wind and solar farms, on remote islands or rural areas that would not usually be exposed to clean energy.

In Aruba, tourism is the primary economic activity, representing  73%  of GDP. Realizing that the future of its tourism industry depends on environmental sustainability, Aruba’s public and private sector have invested in innovative solutions. Aruba’s Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort, for instance, is considered an eco-pioneer in the  Caribbean  due to the novel sustainability initiatives that it not only implements, but also develops. Among its achievements, the property heats its water via solar panels, installed exercise equipment that produces electricity, utilizes water saving devices in its bathrooms, and reuses greywater to irrigate its gardens. The resort aids the sustainability transition on the island by offering tours of their grounds and sharing their practices with others.

In Oregon, tourism supported the expansion of electric vehicle infrastructure along the state’s rural roads and scenic highways. The state’s tourism commission,  Travel Oregon , helped facilitate the installation of electric vehicle charging stations near tourism businesses and developed Electric Byway itineraries. Now, Oregon is home to one of the largest networks of electric vehicle fast charging stations in the country!

Still Progress To Be Made

But of course, all of the benefits above will only occur when tourism happens in a well-managed and sustainable way. As we’ve gained a better understanding of how humans impact the natural world, there have definitely been great strides towards making tourism more eco-friendly. However, our work is far from done. There’s still a lot of room for improvement by everyone involved in tourism – businesses, governments, communities, and tourists – to maximize tourism’s benefits for the planet.

To learn more about how we are helping to amplify the environmental benefits of tourism and ensure that tourism safeguards local ecosystems through our work, click  here .

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Community-based tourism: how your trip can make a positive impact on local people

Community-based tourism can reap great rewards. Done well, it enables local organisations to protect precious habitats, preserve unique culture and empower grassroots employees.

In the mid-1990s, the remote community of Klemtu in Canada’s British Columbia had to make a choice. Hit hard by the collapse of the fishing and forestry industries, unemployment was rocketing, and options were running out. But they knew there were two things in the Great Bear Rainforest that you couldn’t get anywhere else: their own Indigenous culture and the rare, ghostly-white Kermode bear, also known as the Spirit Bear. And that’s how Spirit Bear Lodge was born: a showcase of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation, and an entry point for exploring the extraordinary wilderness of the largest temperate rainforest on Earth, with the added benefit of spotting those elusive bears, along with wolves, whales and brown bears. Today, the lodge is a blueprint for conservation-based, community-based tourism, with a string of successes under its belt: the surrounding rainforest is now protected from logging, bear hunting has been banned and the community has a steady income. It has also, they say, fuelled a cultural renaissance. “The lodge has created opportunities for young and old to thrive in their homelands, while educating people from around the world with our rich culture,” explains Roxanne Robinson, guest services manager at the lodge. Guests learn about Kitasoo/Xai’xais culture from the lodge staff and their guides on wildlife expeditions, kayaking tours and cultural visits, while younger community members drop by as part of the Súa Educational Foundation programme. “Súa means ‘thunder’ in our language, and they come to share stories, songs and dances with guests in our traditional big house,” says Robinson. Guests not only have an incredible experience, but they can also sleep easy knowing that their tourist dollars are doing good. Doing good, if reports are anything to go by, is something we all want to do more of. According to an American Express poll last year, 72% of travellers want to help boost tourism revenue in local economies. And the latest sustainability report by Booking.com showed that 73% of travellers would like to have authentic experiences that are representative of the local culture; 84% believe that preservation of cultural heritage is crucial; and 76% want to be sure that their economic impact is spread equally throughout society. So, being a responsible traveller is no longer just about protecting the environment or reducing our carbon footprints. It’s about how our tourist dollars can do good in the places we visit. It’s about communities. It’s taking the ‘buy local’ mantra — supporting your neighbourhood bookshop instead of buying on Amazon, say, or eating in a local restaurant instead of McDonald’s — and using it on your travels. When travelling, though, buying locally can be more nuanced. It could mean eating out in a local restaurant — but who owns the restaurant? Are the staff local but the profits going abroad? Does the restaurant support local producers and farmers, or are the ingredients imported? Is the attached gift shop a showcase of Indigenous craftsmanship, or are the souvenirs all made in China?  

It is, in other words, complicated. “Is it tourism that takes place in a community?” asks Dr Albert Kimbu, head of tourism and transport at the University of Surrey. “Or is it tourism that’s actively engaging and benefitting communities?” That’s the key. That’s the question we, as travellers, need to be asking. “My take on community-based tourism, or CBT,” explains Dr Kimbu, “is that it has to be by the community, for the community.” In other words, if a hotel or lodge takes guests to visit a local school, or to see a cultural dance in a local village, which might be taking place in the community — is the community genuinely benefitting? They might be getting paid, but it could also be straight-up cultural exploitation. Jamie Sweeting, CEO of Planeterra, the non-profit partner of G Adventures, which specialises in community tourism, agrees: “It needs to be owned, led and run by the communities themselves.” Why? “Because,” explains Dr Kimbu, “When communities become aware that what they have is a product that can be sold, then they have a stake in protecting it.” Take the Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge in Rwanda. The saleable product here is the mountain gorilla that inhabits Volcanoes National Park next door. Visitors will pay a high price to see them in the wild. Working with Sacola, a local non-profit, the idea of a lodge that’s 100%-owned and -run by the community was born, with all profits going back into social and economic projects, as well as conservation within the park. It’s worked a treat. Since opening in 2006, US$4m (£3m) has gone into community and conservation projects, while the gorilla population in the park now includes 10 different gorilla groups. So, the community recognised the financial benefits of their neighbouring gorillas and now benefit by protecting their environment. But CBT at its best goes way beyond employing locally. It means the community gets to decide how to protect the culture and environment on which it depends. So, the community benefits, the environment and local culture is safeguarded, and the resulting economic benefits stay within the community. Win-win-win. There are ripple effects, too. Spier, a wine estate in South Africa’s Stellenbosch region, has a Growing for Good programme, which includes mentoring and assisting local entrepreneurs to create businesses that can then be used by Spier. This has worked with a local laundry service, for example, as well as a taxi service used by its guests. And Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland, Canada is all about the ripple effects, having been created entirely for the benefit of the local community. This 29-room luxury inn was built by local philanthropist Zita Cobb through her Shorefast Foundation, and 100% of operating surpluses are reinvested in the community — a community that was in dire straits just a decade ago, thanks to the collapse of the global cod market.  

Power in partnership

Sabyinyo, Spier and Fogo are examples of when it works. When it doesn’t work, community involvement is nothing short of exploitation. As Amanda Ho, the co-founder of Regenerative Travel, puts it: “In many cases, what we’ve seen is communities around the world angry that their health, wellbeing, and priorities are not being recognised or respected by tourism.” Jamie Sweeting tells me about a particular lodge in Botswana — he won’t name names — which was ‘talking the talk’ about working with the Indigenous San. “The website was shouting about empowering the local community,” he says. But when Planeterra did some digging, it found that while the San were used to put on cultural shows at the lodge, they were earning below the living wage and staying in poor accommodation with barely enough food. Planeterra worked with the local San people to promote and upskill the community-owned Dqae Qare San Lodge nearby, helping them gain direct access to the same markets the other lodge was benefitting from.  

“Community-based tourism can be especially beneficial in empowering women, who are often responsible for the homestay or dining components of a trip” Francisca Kellett

That lack of access to market — and the lack of the knowledge, skills and infrastructure needed to run a successful travel business — is key. As Justin Francis of Responsible Travel puts it: “Being able to access the distribution chains of the tourism industry — to get guests through the doors — is difficult without the partnership of an established tour operator.” When CBT first appeared around 20-25 years ago, he says, NGOs and donors would pitch up at communities, build beautiful ecolodges, but allow the communities very little say — and then fail to provide the training, infrastructure and business know-how to lead to any kind of success.  

Having a voice, Francis says, is key where elected community representatives participate in the decision making: “The driving force behind successful CBT projects is local people setting the terms. It’s about them making informed decisions around how tourism develops.” In the case of the Ccaccaccollo Women’s Weaving Cooperative in Peru’s Sacred Valley, it was three women that had that voice. “When they first came to us, only a handful could do traditional Inca weaving,” Sweeting says. Led by those women, Planeterra assisted with training, infrastructure and marketing, and the co-op has boomed, now owned and run by more than 65 individuals, with an attached homestay attracting overnight visitors. CBT can be especially beneficial in empowering women, who are often responsible for the homestay or dining components of a trip. Dreamcatchers, a tour operator in South Africa, recognised this over 30 years ago, and helped launch a range of CBT enterprises including ‘Kammama’, a selection of nationwide, women-run homestays and experiences, from cooking courses in Soweto to an overnight stay with a family in the Cape Winelands. In the case of Ccaccaccollo, the ripple effect has been a huge uptick in education in the community: all the women involved are now fully literate in Spanish, the first generation to achieve this locally, and most have children in tertiary education — another first. “And there has been an uplift in the pride in their culture. They’re embracing it. They can see that people from dozens of countries travel to visit them because they have something special to offer,” says Sweeting. That special offering is what’s in it for us. “For travellers, CBT offers a genuinely authentic experience and insight into local life,” says Zina Bencheikh, at Intrepid Travel. “Travellers are welcomed into a community and have the chance to immerse themselves.” Intrepid now aims to bring a degree of CBT into many of its sustainable, small-group adventure tours. “Our clients often talk about our CBT experiences as one of the unexpected highlights of their trip,” says Bencheikh. So how do we spot the good guys? How do we know whether a lodge or restaurant or experience that claims to benefit a community genuinely is?   “Ask questions,” says Dr Kimbu. “Have a discussion with those organising your trip.” Bencheikh agrees. “Do your research. Before you visit, ask questions about how the project is run and where the money goes from your visit.” Travelling with a trusted tour operator is also sensible, as is looking out for any certification programmes such as B Corp. Covid-19, of course, has had a dreadful impact on CBT. Planeterra recently launched the Global Community Tourism Network, providing online training, promotion and marketing, to help organisations prepare for when tourists come back. “Many communities don’t have internet or phone access,” explains Sweeting. “So, we also have 16 strategic partnerships, mostly local non-profits with their own network. Our reach is now more than 800 community tourism enterprises in 75 countries.” On the flipside, Covid-19 has also changed how we want to travel. “There’s been a definite shift, with more travellers wanting to find purpose in their trips,” says Sweeting. “We need to take advantage of that. When you’re able to experience something owned and run by a community, it’s much more rewarding, and a more equitable experience for the host and the guest.” As Dr Kimbu puts it, “CBT has a sense of fairness and justice.” It’s that sense of fairness and justice that’s been behind the success of Spirit Bear Lodge for more than 20 years and one that the community hopes will last for generations. “I do hope that my children and future children continue with Spirit Bear Lodge,” Robinson tells me. “Seeing the growth in this company has been amazing. It’s a great way to learn and grow and thrive in our homelands.” You can’t say fairer than that.  

Published in the   May 2022   issue of   National Geographic Traveller (UK)

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What Is Sustainable Tourism and Why Is It Important?

Sustainable management and socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental impacts are the four pillars of sustainable tourism

• Chapman University

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• Sustainable Fashion
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What Makes Tourism Sustainable?

The role of tourists, types of sustainable tourism.

Sustainable tourism considers its current and future economic, social, and environmental impacts by addressing the needs of its ecological surroundings and the local communities. This is achieved by protecting natural environments and wildlife when developing and managing tourism activities, providing only authentic experiences for tourists that don’t appropriate or misrepresent local heritage and culture, or creating direct socioeconomic benefits for local communities through training and employment.

As people begin to pay more attention to sustainability and the direct and indirect effects of their actions, travel destinations and organizations are following suit. For example, the New Zealand Tourism Sustainability Commitment is aiming to see every New Zealand tourism business committed to sustainability by 2025, while the island country of Palau has required visitors to sign an eco pledge upon entry since 2017.

Tourism industries are considered successfully sustainable when they can meet the needs of travelers while having a low impact on natural resources and generating long-term employment for locals. By creating positive experiences for local people, travelers, and the industry itself, properly managed sustainable tourism can meet the needs of the present without compromising the future.

What Is Sustainability?

At its core, sustainability focuses on balance — maintaining our environmental, social, and economic benefits without using up the resources that future generations will need to thrive. In the past, sustainability ideals tended to lean towards business, though more modern definitions of sustainability highlight finding ways to avoid depleting natural resources in order to keep an ecological balance and maintain the quality of environmental and human societies.

Since tourism impacts and is impacted by a wide range of different activities and industries, all sectors and stakeholders (tourists, governments, host communities, tourism businesses) need to collaborate on sustainable tourism in order for it to be successful.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) , which is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of sustainable tourism, and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) , the global standard for sustainable travel and tourism, have similar opinions on what makes tourism sustainable. By their account, sustainable tourism should make the best use of environmental resources while helping to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity, respect the socio-culture of local host communities, and contribute to intercultural understanding. Economically, it should also ensure viable long-term operations that will provide benefits to all stakeholders, whether that includes stable employment to locals, social services, or contributions to poverty alleviation.

The GSTC has developed a series of criteria to create a common language about sustainable travel and tourism. These criteria are used to distinguish sustainable destinations and organizations, but can also help create sustainable policies for businesses and government agencies. Arranged in four pillars, the global baseline standards include sustainable management, socioeconomic impact, cultural impacts, and environmental impacts.

Travel Tip:

The GSTC is an excellent resource for travelers who want to find sustainably managed destinations and accommodations and learn how to become a more sustainable traveler in general.

Environment 

Protecting natural environments is the bedrock of sustainable tourism. Data released by the World Tourism Organization estimates that tourism-based CO2 emissions are forecast to increase 25% by 2030. In 2016, tourism transport-related emissions contributed to 5% of all man-made emissions, while transport-related emissions from long-haul international travel were expected to grow 45% by 2030.

The environmental ramifications of tourism don’t end with carbon emissions, either. Unsustainably managed tourism can create waste problems, lead to land loss or soil erosion, increase natural habitat loss, and put pressure on endangered species . More often than not, the resources in these places are already scarce, and sadly, the negative effects can contribute to the destruction of the very environment on which the industry depends.

Industries and destinations that want to be sustainable must do their part to conserve resources, reduce pollution, and conserve biodiversity and important ecosystems. In order to achieve this, proper resource management and management of waste and emissions is important. In Bali, for example, tourism consumes 65% of local water resources, while in Zanzibar, tourists use 15 times as much water per night as local residents.

Another factor to environmentally focused sustainable tourism comes in the form of purchasing: Does the tour operator, hotel, or restaurant favor locally sourced suppliers and products? How do they manage their food waste and dispose of goods? Something as simple as offering paper straws instead of plastic ones can make a huge dent in an organization’s harmful pollutant footprint.

Recently, there has been an uptick in companies that promote carbon offsetting . The idea behind carbon offsetting is to compensate for generated greenhouse gas emissions by canceling out emissions somewhere else. Much like the idea that reducing or reusing should be considered first before recycling , carbon offsetting shouldn’t be the primary goal. Sustainable tourism industries always work towards reducing emissions first and offset what they can’t.

Properly managed sustainable tourism also has the power to provide alternatives to need-based professions and behaviors like poaching . Often, and especially in underdeveloped countries, residents turn to environmentally harmful practices due to poverty and other social issues. At Periyar Tiger Reserve in India, for example, an unregulated increase in tourists made it more difficult to control poaching in the area. In response, an eco development program aimed at providing employment for locals turned 85 former poachers into reserve gamekeepers. Under supervision of the reserve’s management staff, the group of gamekeepers have developed a series of tourism packages and are now protecting land instead of exploiting it. They’ve found that jobs in responsible wildlife tourism are more rewarding and lucrative than illegal work.

Flying nonstop and spending more time in a single destination can help save CO2, since planes use more fuel the more times they take off.

Local Culture and Residents

One of the most important and overlooked aspects of sustainable tourism is contributing to protecting, preserving, and enhancing local sites and traditions. These include areas of historical, archaeological, or cultural significance, but also "intangible heritage," such as ceremonial dance or traditional art techniques.

In cases where a site is being used as a tourist attraction, it is important that the tourism doesn’t impede access to local residents. For example, some tourist organizations create local programs that offer residents the chance to visit tourism sites with cultural value in their own countries. A program called “Children in the Wilderness” run by Wilderness Safaris educates children in rural Africa about the importance of wildlife conservation and valuable leadership development tools. Vacations booked through travel site Responsible Travel contribute to the company’s “Trip for a Trip” program, which organizes day trips for disadvantaged youth who live near popular tourist destinations but have never had the opportunity to visit.

Sustainable tourism bodies work alongside communities to incorporate various local cultural expressions as part of a traveler’s experiences and ensure that they are appropriately represented. They collaborate with locals and seek their input on culturally appropriate interpretation of sites, and train guides to give visitors a valuable (and correct) impression of the site. The key is to inspire travelers to want to protect the area because they understand its significance.

Bhutan, a small landlocked country in South Asia, has enforced a system of all-inclusive tax for international visitors since 1997 ($200 per day in the off season and $250 per day in the high season). This way, the government is able to restrict the tourism market to local entrepreneurs exclusively and restrict tourism to specific regions, ensuring that the country’s most precious natural resources won’t be exploited.

Incorporating volunteer work into your vacation is an amazing way to learn more about the local culture and help contribute to your host community at the same time. You can also book a trip that is focused primarily on volunteer work through a locally run charity or non profit (just be sure that the job isn’t taking employment opportunities away from residents).

It's not difficult to make a business case for sustainable tourism, especially if one looks at a destination as a product. Think of protecting a destination, cultural landmark, or ecosystem as an investment. By keeping the environment healthy and the locals happy, sustainable tourism will maximize the efficiency of business resources. This is especially true in places where locals are more likely to voice their concerns if they feel like the industry is treating visitors better than residents.

Not only does reducing reliance on natural resources help save money in the long run, studies have shown that modern travelers are likely to participate in environmentally friendly tourism. In 2019, Booking.com found that 73% of travelers preferred an eco-sustainable hotel over a traditional one and 72% of travelers believed that people need to make sustainable travel choices for the sake of future generations.

Always be mindful of where your souvenirs are coming from and whether or not the money is going directly towards the local economy. For example, opt for handcrafted souvenirs made by local artisans.

Growth in the travel and tourism sectors alone has outpaced the overall global economy growth for nine years in a row. Prior to the pandemic, travel and tourism accounted for an $9.6 trillion contribution to the global GDP and 333 million jobs (or one in four new jobs around the world).

Sustainable travel dollars help support employees, who in turn pay taxes that contribute to their local economy. If those employees are not paid a fair wage or aren’t treated fairly, the traveler is unknowingly supporting damaging or unsustainable practices that do nothing to contribute to the future of the community. Similarly, if a hotel doesn’t take into account its ecological footprint, it may be building infrastructure on animal nesting grounds or contributing to excessive pollution. The same goes for attractions, since sustainably managed spots (like nature preserves) often put profits towards conservation and research.

Costa Rica was able to turn a severe deforestation crisis in the 1980s into a diversified tourism-based economy by designating 25.56% of land protected as either a national park, wildlife refuge, or reserve.

While traveling, think of how you would want your home country or home town to be treated by visitors.

Are You a Sustainable Traveler?

Sustainable travelers understand that their actions create an ecological and social footprint on the places they visit. Be mindful of the destinations , accommodations, and activities you choose, and choose destinations that are closer to home or extend your length of stay to save resources. Consider switching to more environmentally friendly modes of transportation such as bicycles, trains, or walking while on vacation. Look into supporting locally run tour operations or local family-owned businesses rather than large international chains. Don’t engage in activities that harm wildlife, such as elephant riding or tiger petting , and opt instead for a wildlife sanctuary (or better yet, attend a beach clean up or plan an hour or two of some volunteer work that interests you). Leave natural areas as you found them by taking out what you carry in, not littering, and respecting the local residents and their traditions.

Most of us travel to experience the world. New cultures, new traditions, new sights and smells and tastes are what makes traveling so rewarding. It is our responsibility as travelers to ensure that these destinations are protected not only for the sake of the communities who rely upon them, but for a future generation of travelers.

Sustainable tourism has many different layers, most of which oppose the more traditional forms of mass tourism that are more likely to lead to environmental damage, loss of culture, pollution, negative economic impacts, and overtourism.

Ecotourism highlights responsible travel to natural areas that focus on environmental conservation. A sustainable tourism body supports and contributes to biodiversity conservation by managing its own property responsibly and respecting or enhancing nearby natural protected areas (or areas of high biological value). Most of the time, this looks like a financial compensation to conservation management, but it can also include making sure that tours, attractions, and infrastructure don’t disturb natural ecosystems.

On the same page, wildlife interactions with free roaming wildlife should be non-invasive and managed responsibly to avoid negative impacts to the animals. As a traveler, prioritize visits to accredited rescue and rehabilitation centers that focus on treating, rehoming, or releasing animals back into the wild, such as the Jaguar Rescue Center in Costa Rica.

Soft Tourism

Soft tourism may highlight local experiences, local languages, or encourage longer time spent in individual areas. This is opposed to hard tourism featuring short duration of visits, travel without respecting culture, taking lots of selfies , and generally feeling a sense of superiority as a tourist.

Many World Heritage Sites, for example, pay special attention to protection, preservation, and sustainability by promoting soft tourism. Peru’s famed Machu Picchu was previously known as one of the world’s worst victims of overtourism , or a place of interest that has experienced negative effects (such as traffic or litter) from excessive numbers of tourists. The attraction has taken steps to control damages in recent years, requiring hikers to hire local guides on the Inca Trail, specifying dates and time on visitor tickets to negate overcrowding, and banning all single use plastics from the site.

Traveling during a destination’s shoulder season , the period between the peak and low seasons, typically combines good weather and low prices without the large crowds. This allows better opportunities to immerse yourself in a new place without contributing to overtourism, but also provides the local economy with income during a normally slow season.

Rural Tourism

Rural tourism applies to tourism that takes place in non-urbanized areas such as national parks, forests, nature reserves, and mountain areas. This can mean anything from camping and glamping to hiking and WOOFing. Rural tourism is a great way to practice sustainable tourism, since it usually requires less use of natural resources.

Community Tourism

Community-based tourism involves tourism where local residents invite travelers to visit their own communities. It sometimes includes overnight stays and often takes place in rural or underdeveloped countries. This type of tourism fosters connection and enables tourists to gain an in-depth knowledge of local habitats, wildlife, and traditional cultures — all while providing direct economic benefits to the host communities. Ecuador is a world leader in community tourism, offering unique accommodation options like the Sani Lodge run by the local Kichwa indigenous community, which offers responsible cultural experiences in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest.

" Transport-related CO 2  Emissions of the Tourism Sector – Modelling Results ." World Tourism Organization and International Transport Forum , 2019, doi:10.18111/9789284416660

" 45 Arrivals Every Second ." The World Counts.

Becken, Susanne. " Water Equity- Contrasting Tourism Water Use With That of the Local Community ." Water Resources and Industry , vol. 7-8, 2014, pp. 9-22, doi:10.1016/j.wri.2014.09.002

Kutty, Govindan M., and T.K. Raghavan Nair. " Periyar Tiger Reserve: Poachers Turned Gamekeepers ." Food and Agriculture Organization.

" GSTC Destination Criteria ." Global Sustainable Tourism Council.

Rinzin, Chhewang, et al. " Ecotourism as a Mechanism for Sustainable Development: the Case of Bhutan ." Environmental Sciences , vol. 4, no. 2, 2007, pp. 109-125, doi:10.1080/15693430701365420

" Booking.com Reveals Key Findings From Its 2019 Sustainable Travel Report ." Booking.com.

" Economic Impact Reports ." World Travel and Tourism Council .

• Regenerative Travel: What It Is and How It's Outperforming Sustainable Tourism
• How to Be a Sustainable Traveler: 18 Tips
• What Is Ecotourism? Definition, Examples, and Pros and Cons
• Some Advice on How to Travel More Intentionally
• 'The Last Tourist' Film Will Make You Approach Travel Differently
• Best of Green Awards 2021: Sustainable Travel
• Costa Rica’s Keys to Success as a Sustainable Tourism Pioneer
• What Is Community-Based Tourism? Definition and Popular Destinations
• What Is Overtourism and Why Is It Such a Big Problem?
• What Is Experiential Tourism?
• What Is Voluntourism? Does It Help or Harm Communities?
• Food Sovereignty: Definition, Principles, and Importance
• Best of Green Awards 2021: Eco Tech
• 10 Ways to Be an Eco-Conscious Tourist
• Travel + Leisure's Global Vision Awards Are a Win for the Planet
• Spain Starts a School for Shepherdesses

Is it possible to be a ‘sustainable tourist’? 12 ways to make a positive impact on your travels

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After a period of plummeting tourism numbers during the pandemic, tourism is having a resurgence. This is good news for many workers and businesses, but it could be bad for the planet. Here is a selection of ways tourists can ensure that their holidays don’t harm the environment.

There are many positive aspects to tourism. Around two billion people travel each year for tourism purposes. Travel and tourism connect people and bring the world closer through shared experiences, cultural awareness and community building. It provides jobs, spurs regional development, and is a key driver for socio-economic progress.

However, there is often a downside; Many popular destinations are threatened by increasing pollution, environmental hazards, damage to heritage sites and overuse of resources. And that’s without factoring the pollution caused by travel to and from these destinations.

So, with that in mind here are some tips that will help you to enjoy your trip, and leave with the confidence that your favoured tourist destination will not be damaged by your presence, once you return home.

1. Ditch single-use plastics

Often used for less than 15 minutes, single-use plastic items can take more than 1,000 years to degrade. Many of us are switching to sustainable options in our daily lives, and we can take the same attitude when we’re on the road. By choosing reusable bottles and bags wherever you go, you can help ensure there is less plastic waste in the ocean and other habitats.

2. Be ‘water wise’

On the whole, tourists use far more water than local residents. With a growing number of places experiencing water scarcity, the choices you make can help ensure people have adequate access to water in the future. By foregoing a daily change of sheets and towels during hotel stays, we can save millions of litres of water each year.

3. Buy local

When you buy local, you help boost the local economy, benefit local communities, and help to reduce the destination’s carbon footprint from transporting the goods. This is also true at mealtimes, so enjoy fresh, locally grown produce every chance you get.

4. Use an ethical operator

Tour operations involve people, logistics, vendors, transportation and much more. Each link in the chain can impact the environment - positively or negatively. If you prefer to leave the planning to someone else, be sure to pick an operator that prioritizes the environment, uses resources efficiently and respects local culture.

5. ‘Please don’t feed the animals’

Sharing food with wildlife or getting close enough to do so increases the chances of spreading diseases like cold, flu and pneumonia from humans to animals. Also, when animals get used to receiving food from humans, their natural behaviours are altered, and they become dependent on people for survival. In some cases, it can also lead to human-animal conflict.

6. And don’t eat them either!

By creating the demand, consuming endangered or exotic animals leads to an increase in poaching, trafficking and exploitation of animals. Besides the harm done to the individual animal on your plate, irresponsible dining can contribute to the extinction of species already threatened by climate change and habitat loss. Keep this in mind when shopping for souvenirs as well, and steer clear of products made from endangered wildlife.

7. Share a ride

Transportation is a major contributor to the carbon footprint from tourism. Instead of private taxis, explore using public transportation like trains, buses and shared cabs. You can also ride a bicycle, which offers a convenient and cheaper way to explore and learn about a place.

8. Consider a homestay

Staying with a local resident or family is a nature-friendly option that allows you to get up close and personal with local culture and customs. Staying at local homestays can uplift communities by providing income while giving you a peek into different ways of life.

9. Do your homework

Before your travel, educate yourself about your destination. Doing so will allow you to better immerse yourself in local traditions and practices and appreciate things that might have gone unnoticed otherwise. With the right information, you can explore a destination in a more sensitive manner and surprise yourself with new adventures and discoveries.

10. Visit national parks and sanctuaries

Exploring nature and wildlife through national parks is an intimate way to learn about the animals and their ecosystems first hand. In some cases, your entrance fee supports conservation efforts that protect species and landscapes and preserve these natural spaces for future visitors to enjoy.

11. Don’t leave a trace

You can make a mark by not leaving a mark on your vacation destination. Put garbage in its place to avoid litter, and don’t remove or alter anything without permission. Let’s make sure we leave only soft footprints, and not the environmental kind.

12. Tell your friends

Now that you’re ready to travel in eco-friendly style, it’s time spread the word! Inform fellow travellers, friends and family about how sustainable tourism benefits local people by enhancing their livelihoods and well-being, and helps all of us by safeguarding our beautiful environment.

Sustainable tourism

Related sdgs, promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable ....

Description

Publications.

Tourism is one of the world's fastest growing industries and an important source of foreign exchange and employment, while being closely linked to the social, economic, and environmental well-being of many countries, especially developing countries. Maritime or ocean-related tourism, as well as coastal tourism, are for example vital sectors of the economy in small island developing States (SIDS) and coastal least developed countries (LDCs) (see also: The Potential of the Blue Economy report as well as the Community of Ocean Action on sustainable blue economy).

The World Tourism Organization defines sustainable tourism as “tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities".

Based on General assembly resolution 70/193, 2017 was declared as the  International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.

In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development SDG target 8.9, aims to “by 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products”. The importance of sustainable tourism is also highlighted in SDG target 12.b. which aims to “develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products”.

Tourism is also identified as one of the tools to “by 2030, increase the economic benefits to Small Island developing States and least developed countries” as comprised in SDG target 14.7.

In the Rio+20 outcome document The Future We want, sustainable tourism is defined by paragraph 130 as a significant contributor “to the three dimensions of sustainable development” thanks to its close linkages to other sectors and its ability to create decent jobs and generate trade opportunities. Therefore, Member States recognize “the need to support sustainable tourism activities and relevant capacity-building that promote environmental awareness, conserve and protect the environment, respect wildlife, flora, biodiversity, ecosystems and cultural diversity, and improve the welfare and livelihoods of local communities by supporting their local economies and the human and natural environment as a whole. ” In paragraph 130, Member States also “call for enhanced support for sustainable tourism activities and relevant capacity-building in developing countries in order to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development”.

In paragraph 131, Member States “encourage the promotion of investment in sustainable tourism, including eco-tourism and cultural tourism, which may include creating small- and medium-sized enterprises and facilitating access to finance, including through microcredit initiatives for the poor, indigenous peoples and local communities in areas with high eco-tourism potential”. In this regard, Member States also “underline the importance of establishing, where necessary, appropriate guidelines and regulations in accordance with national priorities and legislation for promoting and supporting sustainable tourism”.

In 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg called for the promotion of sustainable tourism development, including non-consumptive and eco-tourism, in Chapter IV, paragraph 43 of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

At the Johannesburg Summit, the launch of the “Sustainable Tourism – Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP) initiative was announced. The initiative was inaugurated by the World Tourism Organization, in collaboration with UNCTAD, in order to develop sustainable tourism as a force for poverty alleviation.

The UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) last reviewed the issue of sustainable tourism in 2001, when it was acting as the Preparatory Committee for the Johannesburg Summit.

The importance of sustainable tourism was also mentioned in Agenda 21.

For more information and documents on this topic,  please visit this link

UNWTO Annual Report 2016

In December 2015, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. This is a unique opportunity to devote a year to activities that promote the transformational power of tourism to help us reach a better future. This important cele...

UNWTO Annual Report 2015

2015 was a landmark year for the global community. In September, the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a universal agenda for planet and people. Among the 17 SDGs and 169 associated targets, tourism is explicitly featured in Goa...

Emerging Issues for Small Island Developing States

The 2012 UNEP Foresight Process on Emerging Global Environmental Issues primarily identified emerging environmental issues and possible solutions on a global scale and perspective. In 2013, UNEP carried out a similar exercise to identify priority emerging environmental issues that are of concern to ...

Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom, We recognize that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for su...

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• January 2017 International Year of Tourism In the context of the universal 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the International Year aims to support a change in policies, business practices and consumer behavior towards a more sustainable tourism sector that can contribute to the SDGs.
• January 2015 Targets 8.9, 12 b,14.7 The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development commits Member States, through Sustainable Development Goal Target 8.9 to “devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products”. The importance of sustainable tourism, as a driver for jobs creation and the promotion of local culture and products, is also highlighted in Sustainable Development Goal target 12.b. Tourism is also identified as one of the tools to “increase [by 2030] the economic benefits to Small Island developing States and least developed countries”, through Sustainable Development Goals Target 14.7.
• January 2012 Future We Want (Para 130-131) Sustainable tourism is defined as a significant contributor “to the three dimensions of sustainable development” thanks to its close linkages to other sectors and its ability to create decent jobs and generate trade opportunities. Therefore, Member States recognize “the need to support sustainable tourism activities and relevant capacity-building that promote environmental awareness, conserve and protect the environment, respect wildlife, flora, biodiversity, ecosystems and cultural diversity, and improve the welfare and livelihoods of local communities” as well as to “encourage the promotion of investment in sustainable tourism, including eco-tourism and cultural tourism, which may include creating small and medium sized enterprises and facilitating access to finance, including through microcredit initiatives for the poor, indigenous peoples and local communities in areas with high eco-tourism potential”.
• January 2009 Roadmap for Recovery UNWTO announced in March 2009 the elaboration of a Roadmap for Recovery to be finalized by UNWTO’s General Assembly, based on seven action points. The Roadmap includes a set of 15 recommendations based on three interlocking action areas: resilience, stimulus, green economy aimed at supporting the tourism sector and the global economy.
• January 2008 Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria The Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria represent the minimum requirements any tourism business should observe in order to ensure preservation and respect of the natural and cultural resources and make sure at the same time that tourism potential as tool for poverty alleviation is enforced. The Criteria are 41 and distributed into four different categories: 1) sustainability management, 2) social and economic 3) cultural 4) environmental.
• January 2003 1st Int. Conf. on Climate Change and Tourism The conference was organized in order to gather tourism authorities, organizations, businesses and scientists to discuss on the impact that climate change can have on the tourist sector. The event took place from 9 till 11 April 2003 in Djerba, Tunisia.
• January 2003 WTO becomes a UN specialized body By Resolution 453 (XV), the Assembly agreed on the transformation of the WTO into a United Nations specialized body. Such transformation was later ratified by the United Nations General Assembly with the adoption of Resolution A/RES/58/232.
• January 2002 World Ecotourism Summit Held in May 2002, in Quebec City, Canada, the Summit represented the most important event in the framework of the International Year of Ecosystem. The Summit identified as main themes: ecotourism policy and planning, regulation of ecotourism, product development, marketing and promotion of ecotourism and monitoring costs and benefits of ecotourism.
• January 1985 Tourism Bill of Rights and Tourist Code At the World Tourism Organization Sixth Assembly held in Sofia in 1985, the Tourism Bill of Rights and Tourist Code were adopted, setting out the rights and duties of tourists and host populations and formulating policies and action for implementation by states and the tourist industry.
• January 1982 Acapulco Document Adopted in 1982, the Acapulco Document acknowledges the new dimension and role of tourism as a positive instrument towards the improvement of the quality of life for all peoples, as well as a significant force for peace and international understanding. The Acapulco Document also urges Member States to elaborate their policies, plans and programmes on tourism, in accordance with their national priorities and within the framework of the programme of work of the World Tourism Organization.

UN Tourism | Bringing the world closer

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Tourism in the 2030 Agenda

The year 2015 has been a milestone for global development as governments have adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, along with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The bold agenda sets out a global framework to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and fix climate change until 2030. Building on the historic Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the ambitious set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 associated targets is people-centred, transformative, universal and integrated.

Harnessing tourism's benefits will be critical to achieving the sustainable development goals and implementing the post-2015 development agenda

Tourism has the potential to contribute, directly or indirectly, to all of the goals. In particular, it has been included as targets in Goals 8, 12 and 14 on inclusive and sustainable economic growth, sustainable consumption and production (SCP) and the sustainable use of oceans and marine resources, respectively.

Sustainable tourism is firmly positioned in the 2030 Agenda. Achieving this agenda, however, requires a clear implementation framework, adequate financing and investment in technology, infrastructure and human resources.

GOAL 1: NO POVERTY

GOAL 2: ZERO HUNGER

GOAL 3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

GOAL 4: QUALITY EDUCATION

GOAL 5: GENDER EQUALITY

GOAL 6: CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION

GOAL 7: AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY

GOAL 8: DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

GOAL 9: INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

GOAL 10: REDUCED INEQUALITIES

GOAL 11: SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES

GOAL 12: RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

GOAL 13: CLIMATE ACTION

GOAL 14: LIFE BELOW WATER

GOAL 15: LIFE ON LAND

GOAL 16: PEACE AND JUSTICE

GOAL 17: PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS

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The role of tourism in sustainable development.

• Robert B. Richardson Robert B. Richardson Community Sustainability, Michigan State University
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.387
• Published online: 25 March 2021

Sustainable development is the foundational principle for enhancing human and economic development while maintaining the functional integrity of ecological and social systems that support regional economies. Tourism has played a critical role in sustainable development in many countries and regions around the world. In developing countries, tourism development has been used as an important strategy for increasing economic growth, alleviating poverty, creating jobs, and improving food security. Many developing countries are in regions that are characterized by high levels of biological diversity, natural resources, and cultural heritage sites that attract international tourists whose local purchases generate income and support employment and economic development. Tourism has been associated with the principles of sustainable development because of its potential to support environmental protection and livelihoods. However, the relationship between tourism and the environment is multifaceted, as some types of tourism have been associated with negative environmental impacts, many of which are borne by host communities.

The concept of sustainable tourism development emerged in contrast to mass tourism, which involves the participation of large numbers of people, often in structured or packaged tours. Mass tourism has been associated with economic leakage and dependence, along with negative environmental and social impacts. Sustainable tourism development has been promoted in various ways as a framing concept in contrast to these economic, environmental, and social impacts. Some literature has acknowledged a vagueness of the concept of sustainable tourism, which has been used to advocate for fundamentally different strategies for tourism development that may exacerbate existing conflicts between conservation and development paradigms. Tourism has played an important role in sustainable development in some countries through the development of alternative tourism models, including ecotourism, community-based tourism, pro-poor tourism, slow tourism, green tourism, and heritage tourism, among others that aim to enhance livelihoods, increase local economic growth, and provide for environmental protection. Although these models have been given significant attention among researchers, the extent of their implementation in tourism planning initiatives has been limited, superficial, or incomplete in many contexts.

The sustainability of tourism as a global system is disputed among scholars. Tourism is dependent on travel, and nearly all forms of transportation require the use of non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels for energy. The burning of fossil fuels for transportation generates emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change, which is fundamentally unsustainable. Tourism is also vulnerable to both localized and global shocks. Studies of the vulnerability of tourism to localized shocks include the impacts of natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and civil unrest. Studies of the vulnerability of tourism to global shocks include the impacts of climate change, economic crisis, global public health pandemics, oil price shocks, and acts of terrorism. It is clear that tourism has contributed significantly to economic development globally, but its role in sustainable development is uncertain, debatable, and potentially contradictory.

• conservation
• economic development
• environmental impacts
• sustainable development
• sustainable tourism
• tourism development

Introduction

Sustainable development is the guiding principle for advancing human and economic development while maintaining the integrity of ecosystems and social systems on which the economy depends. It is also the foundation of the leading global framework for international cooperation—the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (United Nations, 2015 ). The concept of sustainable development is often associated with the publication of Our Common Future (World Commission on Environment and Development [WCED], 1987 , p. 29), which defined it as “paths of human progress that meet the needs and aspirations of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” Concerns about the environmental implications of economic development in lower income countries had been central to debates about development studies since the 1970s (Adams, 2009 ). The principles of sustainable development have come to dominate the development discourse, and the concept has become the primary development paradigm since the 1990s.

Tourism has played an increasingly important role in sustainable development since the 1990s, both globally and in particular countries and regions. For decades, tourism has been promoted as a low-impact, non-extractive option for economic development, particularly for developing countries (Gössling, 2000 ). Many developing countries have managed to increase their participation in the global economy through development of international tourism. Tourism development is increasingly viewed as an important tool in increasing economic growth, alleviating poverty, and improving food security. Tourism enables communities that are poor in material wealth, but rich in history and cultural heritage, to leverage their unique assets for economic development (Honey & Gilpin, 2009 ). More importantly, tourism offers an alternative to large-scale development projects, such as construction of dams, and to extractive industries such as mining and forestry, all of which contribute to emissions of pollutants and threaten biodiversity and the cultural values of Indigenous Peoples.

Environmental quality in destination areas is inextricably linked with tourism, as visiting natural areas and sightseeing are often the primary purpose of many leisure travels. Some forms of tourism, such as ecotourism, can contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and the protection of ecosystem functions in destination areas (Fennell, 2020 ; Gössling, 1999 ). Butler ( 1991 ) suggests that there is a kind of mutual dependence between tourism and the environment that should generate mutual benefits. Many developing countries are in regions that are characterized by high levels of species diversity, natural resources, and protected areas. Such ideas imply that tourism may be well aligned with the tenets of sustainable development.

However, the relationship between tourism and the environment is complex, as some forms of tourism have been associated with negative environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater use, land use, and food consumption (Butler, 1991 ; Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ; Hunter & Green, 1995 ; Vitousek et al., 1997 ). Assessments of the sustainability of tourism have highlighted several themes, including (a) parks, biodiversity, and conservation; (b) pollution and climate change; (c) prosperity, economic growth, and poverty alleviation; (d) peace, security, and safety; and (e) population stabilization and reduction (Buckley, 2012 ). From a global perspective, tourism contributes to (a) changes in land cover and land use; (b) energy use, (c) biotic exchange and extinction of wild species; (d) exchange and dispersion of diseases; and (e) changes in the perception and understanding of the environment (Gössling, 2002 ).

Research on tourism and the environment spans a wide range of social and natural science disciplines, and key contributions have been disseminated across many interdisciplinary fields, including biodiversity conservation, climate science, economics, and environmental science, among others (Buckley, 2011 ; Butler, 1991 ; Gössling, 2002 ; Lenzen et al., 2018 ). Given the global significance of the tourism sector and its environmental impacts, the role of tourism in sustainable development is an important topic of research in environmental science generally and in environmental economics and management specifically. Reviews of tourism research have highlighted future research priorities for sustainable development, including the role of tourism in the designation and expansion of protected areas; improvement in environmental accounting techniques that quantify environmental impacts; and the effects of individual perceptions of responsibility in addressing climate change (Buckley, 2012 ).

Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries, and it has linkages with many of the prime sectors of the global economy (Fennell, 2020 ). As a global economic sector, tourism represents one of the largest generators of wealth, and it is an important agent of economic growth and development (Garau-Vadell et al., 2018 ). Tourism is a critical industry in many local and national economies, and it represents a large and growing share of world trade (Hunter, 1995 ). Global tourism has had an average annual increase of 6.6% over the past half century, with international tourist arrivals rising sharply from 25.2 million in 1950 to more than 950 million in 2010 . In 2019 , the number of international tourists reached 1.5 billion, up 4% from 2018 (Fennell, 2020 ; United Nations World Tourism Organization [UNWTO], 2020 ). European countries are host to more than half of international tourists, but since 1990 , growth in international arrivals has risen faster than the global average, in both the Middle East and the Asia and Pacific region (UNWTO, 2020 ).

The growth in global tourism has been accompanied by an expansion of travel markets and a diversification of tourism destinations. In 1950 , the top five travel destinations were all countries in Europe and the Americas, and these destinations held 71% of the global travel market (Fennell, 2020 ). By 2002 , these countries represented only 35%, which underscores the emergence of newly accessible travel destinations in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific Rim, including numerous developing countries. Over the past 70 years, global tourism has grown significantly as an economic sector, and it has contributed to the economic development of dozens of nations.

Given the growth of international tourism and its emergence as one of the world’s largest export sectors, the question of its impact on economic growth for the host countries has been a topic of great interest in the tourism literature. Two hypotheses have emerged regarding the role of tourism in the economic growth process (Apergis & Payne, 2012 ). First, tourism-led growth hypothesis relies on the assumption that tourism is an engine of growth that generates spillovers and positive externalities through economic linkages that will impact the overall economy. Second, the economic-driven tourism growth hypothesis emphasizes policies oriented toward well-defined and enforceable property rights, stable political institutions, and adequate investment in both physical and human capital to facilitate the development of the tourism sector. Studies have concluded with support for both the tourism-led growth hypothesis (e.g., Durbarry, 2004 ; Katircioglu, 2010 ) and the economic-led growth hypothesis (e.g., Katircioglu, 2009 ; Oh, 2005 ), whereas other studies have found support for a bidirectional causality for tourism and economic growth (e.g., Apergis & Payne, 2012 ; Lee & Chang, 2008 ).

The growth of tourism has been marked by an increase in the competition for tourist expenditures, making it difficult for destinations to maintain their share of the international tourism market (Butler, 1991 ). Tourism development is cyclical and subject to short-term cycles and overconsumption of resources. Butler ( 1980 ) developed a tourist-area cycle of evolution that depicts the number of tourists rising sharply over time through periods of exploration, involvement, and development, before eventual consolidation and stagnation. When tourism growth exceeds the carrying capacity of the area, resource degradation can lead to the decline of tourism unless specific steps are taken to promote rejuvenation (Butler, 1980 , 1991 ).

The potential of tourism development as a tool to contribute to environmental conservation, economic growth, and poverty reduction is derived from several unique characteristics of the tourism system (UNWTO, 2002 ). First, tourism represents an opportunity for economic diversification, particularly in marginal areas with few other export options. Tourists are attracted to remote areas with high values of cultural, wildlife, and landscape assets. The cultural and natural heritage of developing countries is frequently based on such assets, and tourism represents an opportunity for income generation through the preservation of heritage values. Tourism is the only export sector where the consumer travels to the exporting country, which provides opportunities for lower-income households to become exporters through the sale of goods and services to foreign tourists. Tourism is also labor intensive; it provides small-scale employment opportunities, which also helps to promote gender equity. Finally, there are numerous indirect benefits of tourism for people living in poverty, including increased market access for remote areas through the development of roads, infrastructure, and communication networks. Nevertheless, travel is highly income elastic and carbon intensive, which has significant implications for the sustainability of the tourism sector (Lenzen et al., 2018 ).

Concerns about environmental issues appeared in tourism research just as global awareness of the environmental impacts of human activities was expanding. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm in 1972 , the same year as the publication of The Limits to Growth (Meadows et al., 1972 ), which highlighted the concerns about the implications of exponential economic and population growth in a world of finite resources. This was the same year that the famous Blue Marble photograph of Earth was taken by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft (Höhler, 2015 , p. 10), and the image captured the planet cloaked in the darkness of space and became a symbol of Earth’s fragility and vulnerability. As noted by Buckley ( 2012 ), tourism researchers turned their attention to social and environmental issues around the same time (Cohen, 1978 ; Farrell & McLellan, 1987 ; Turner & Ash, 1975 ; Young, 1973 ).

The notion of sustainable development is often associated with the publication of Our Common Future , the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland Commission (WCED, 1987 ). The report characterized sustainable development in terms of meeting “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987 , p. 43). Four basic principles are fundamental to the concept of sustainability: (a) the idea of holistic planning and strategy making; (b) the importance of preserving essential ecological processes; (c) the need to protect both human heritage and biodiversity; and (d) the need to develop in such a way that productivity can be sustained over the long term for future generations (Bramwell & Lane, 1993 ). In addition to achieving balance between economic growth and the conservation of natural resources, there should be a balance of fairness and opportunity between the nations of the world.

Although the modern concept of sustainable development emerged with the publication of Our Common Future , sustainable development has its roots in ideas about sustainable forest management that were developed in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries (Blewitt, 2015 ; Grober, 2007 ). Sustainable forest management is concerned with the stewardship and use of forests in a way that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, and regeneration capacity as well as their potential to fulfill society’s demands for forest products and benefits. Building on these ideas, Daly ( 1990 ) offered two operational principles of sustainable development. First, sustainable development implies that harvest rates should be no greater than rates of regeneration; this concept is known as maximum sustainable yield. Second, waste emission rates should not exceed the natural assimilative capacities of the ecosystems into which the wastes are emitted. Regenerative and assimilative capacities are characterized as natural capital, and a failure to maintain these capacities is not sustainable.

Shortly after the emergence of the concept of sustainable development in academic and policy discourse, tourism researchers began referring to the notion of sustainable tourism (May, 1991 ; Nash & Butler, 1990 ), which soon became the dominant paradigm of tourism development. The concept of sustainable tourism, as with the role of tourism in sustainable development, has been interpreted in different ways, and there is a lack of consensus concerning its meaning, objectives, and indicators (Sharpley, 2000 ). Growing interest in the subject inspired the creation of a new academic journal, Journal of Sustainable Tourism , which was launched in 1993 and has become a leading tourism journal. It is described as “an international journal that publishes research on tourism and sustainable development, including economic, social, cultural and political aspects.”

The notion of sustainable tourism development emerged in contrast to mass tourism, which is characterized by the participation of large numbers of people, often provided as structured or packaged tours. Mass tourism has risen sharply in the last half century. International arrivals alone have increased by an average annual rate of more than 25% since 1950 , and many of those trips involved mass tourism activities (Fennell, 2020 ; UNWTO, 2020 ). Some examples of mass tourism include beach resorts, cruise ship tourism, gaming casinos, golf resorts, group tours, ski resorts, theme parks, and wildlife safari tourism, among others. Little data exist regarding the volume of domestic mass tourism, but nevertheless mass tourism activities dominate the global tourism sector. Mass tourism has been shown to generate benefits to host countries, such as income and employment generation, although it has also been associated with economic leakage (where revenue generated by tourism is lost to other countries’ economies) and economic dependency (where developing countries are dependent on wealthier countries for tourists, imports, and foreign investment) (Cater, 1993 ; Conway & Timms, 2010 ; Khan, 1997 ; Peeters, 2012 ). Mass tourism has been associated with numerous negative environmental impacts and social impacts (Cater, 1993 ; Conway & Timms, 2010 ; Fennell, 2020 ; Ghimire, 2013 ; Gursoy et al., 2010 ; Liu, 2003 ; Peeters, 2012 ; Wheeller, 2007 ). Sustainable tourism development has been promoted in various ways as a framing concept in contrast to many of these economic, environmental, and social impacts.

Much of the early research on sustainable tourism focused on defining the concept, which has been the subject of vigorous debate (Bramwell & Lane, 1993 ; Garrod & Fyall, 1998 ; Hunter, 1995 ; Inskeep, 1991 ; Liu, 2003 ; Sharpley, 2000 ). Early definitions of sustainable tourism development seemed to fall in one of two categories (Sharpley, 2000 ). First, the “tourism-centric” paradigm of sustainable tourism development focuses on sustaining tourism as an economic activity (Hunter, 1995 ). Second, alternative paradigms have situated sustainable tourism in the context of wider sustainable development policies (Butler, 1991 ). One of the most comprehensive definitions of sustainable tourism echoes some of the language of the Brundtland Commission’s definition of sustainable development (WCED, 1987 ), emphasizing opportunities for the future while also integrating social and environmental concerns:

Sustainable tourism can be thought of as meeting the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future. Sustainable tourism development is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that we can fulfill economic, social and aesthetic needs while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems. (Inskeep, 1991 , p. 461)

Hunter argued that over the short and long terms, sustainable tourism development should

“meet the needs and wants of the local host community in terms of improved living standards and quality of life;

satisfy the demands of tourists and the tourism industry, and continue to attract them in order to meet the first aim; and

safeguard the environmental resource base for tourism, encompassing natural, built and cultural components, in order to achieve both of the preceding aims.” (Hunter, 1995 , p. 156)

Numerous other definitions have been documented, and the term itself has been subject to widespread critique (Buckley, 2012 ; Hunter, 1995 ; Liu, 2003 ). Nevertheless, there have been numerous calls to move beyond debate about a definition and to consider how it may best be implemented in practice (Garrod & Fyall, 1998 ; Liu, 2003 ). Cater ( 1993 ) identified three key criteria for sustainable tourism: (a) meeting the needs of the host population in terms of improved living standards both in the short and long terms; (b) satisfying the demands of a growing number of tourists; and (c) safeguarding the natural environment in order to achieve both of the preceding aims.

Some literature has acknowledged a vagueness of the concept of sustainable tourism, which has been used to advocate for fundamentally different strategies for tourism development that may exacerbate existing conflicts between conservation and development paradigms (Garrod & Fyall, 1998 ; Hunter, 1995 ; Liu, 2003 ; McKercher, 1993b ). Similar criticisms have been leveled at the concept of sustainable development, which has been described as an oxymoron with a wide range of meanings (Adams, 2009 ; Daly, 1990 ) and “defined in such a way as to be either morally repugnant or logically redundant” (Beckerman, 1994 , p. 192). Sharpley ( 2000 ) suggests that in the tourism literature, there has been “a consistent and fundamental failure to build a theoretical link between sustainable tourism and its parental paradigm,” sustainable development (p. 2). Hunter ( 1995 ) suggests that practical measures designed to operationalize sustainable tourism fail to address many of the critical issues that are central to the concept of sustainable development generally and may even actually counteract the fundamental requirements of sustainable development. He suggests that mainstream sustainable tourism development is concerned with protecting the immediate resource base that will sustain tourism development while ignoring concerns for the status of the wider tourism resource base, such as potential problems associated with air pollution, congestion, introduction of invasive species, and declining oil reserves. The dominant paradigm of sustainable tourism development has been described as introverted, tourism-centric, and in competition with other sectors for scarce resources (McKercher, 1993a ). Hunter ( 1995 , p. 156) proposes an alternative, “extraparochial” paradigm where sustainable tourism development is reconceptualized in terms of its contribution to overall sustainable development. Such a paradigm would reconsider the scope, scale, and sectoral context of tourism-related resource utilization issues.

“Sustainability,” “sustainable tourism,” and “sustainable development” are all well-established terms that have often been used loosely and interchangeably in the tourism literature (Liu, 2003 ). Nevertheless, the subject of sustainable tourism has been given considerable attention and has been the focus of numerous academic compilations and textbooks (Coccossis & Nijkamp, 1995 ; Hall & Lew, 1998 ; Stabler, 1997 ; Swarbrooke, 1999 ), and it calls for new approaches to sustainable tourism development (Bramwell & Lane, 1993 ; Garrod & Fyall, 1998 ; Hunter, 1995 ; Sharpley, 2000 ). The notion of sustainable tourism has been reconceptualized in the literature by several authors who provided alternative frameworks for tourism development (Buckley, 2012 ; Gössling, 2002 ; Hunter, 1995 ; Liu, 2003 ; McKercher, 1993b ; Sharpley, 2000 ).

Early research in sustainable tourism focused on the local environmental impacts of tourism, including energy use, water use, food consumption, and change in land use (Buckley, 2012 ; Butler, 1991 ; Gössling, 2002 ; Hunter & Green, 1995 ). Subsequent research has emphasized the global environmental impacts of tourism, such as greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity losses (Gössling, 2002 ; Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ; Lenzen et al., 2018 ). Additional research has emphasized the impacts of environmental change on tourism itself, including the impacts of climate change on tourist behavior (Gössling et al., 2012 ; Richardson & Loomis, 2004 ; Scott et al., 2012 ; Viner, 2006 ). Countries that are dependent on tourism for economic growth may be particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change (Richardson & Witkoswki, 2010 ).

The early focus on environmental issues in sustainable tourism has been broadened to include economic, social, and cultural issues as well as questions of power and equity in society (Bramwell & Lane, 1993 ; Sharpley, 2014 ), and some of these frameworks have integrated notions of social equity, prosperity, and cultural heritage values. Sustainable tourism is dependent on critical long-term considerations of the impacts; notions of equity; an appreciation of the importance of linkages (i.e., economic, social, and environmental); and the facilitation of cooperation and collaboration between different stakeholders (Elliott & Neirotti, 2008 ).

McKercher ( 1993b ) notes that tourism resources are typically part of the public domain or are intrinsically linked to the social fabric of the host community. As a result, many commonplace tourist activities such as sightseeing may be perceived as invasive by members of the host community. Many social impacts of tourism can be linked to the overuse of the resource base, increases in traffic congestion, rising land prices, urban sprawl, and changes in the social structure of host communities. Given the importance of tourist–resident interaction, sustainable tourism development depends in part on the support of the host community (Garau-Vadell et al., 2018 ).

Tourism planning involves the dual objectives of optimizing the well-being of local residents in host communities and minimizing the costs of tourism development (Sharpley, 2014 ). Tourism researchers have paid significant attention to examining the social impacts of tourism in general and to understanding host communities’ perceptions of tourism in particular. Studies of the social impacts of tourism development have examined the perceptions of local residents and the effects of tourism on social cohesion, traditional lifestyles, and the erosion of cultural heritage, particularly among Indigenous Peoples (Butler & Hinch, 2007 ; Deery et al., 2012 ; Mathieson & Wall, 1982 ; Sharpley, 2014 ; Whitford & Ruhanen, 2016 ).

Alternative Tourism and Sustainable Development

A wide body of published research is related to the role of tourism in sustainable development, and much of the literature involves case studies of particular types of tourism. Many such studies contrast types of alternative tourism with those of mass tourism, which has received sustained criticism for decades and is widely considered to be unsustainable (Cater, 1993 ; Conway & Timms, 2010 ; Fennell, 2020 ; Gursoy et al., 2010 ; Liu, 2003 ; Peeters, 2012 ; Zapata et al., 2011 ). Still, some tourism researchers have taken issue with the conclusion that mass tourism is inherently unsustainable (Sharpley, 2000 ; Weaver, 2007 ), and some have argued for developing pathways to “sustainable mass tourism” as “the desired and impending outcome for most destinations” (Weaver, 2012 , p. 1030). In integrating an ethical component to mass tourism development, Weaver ( 2014 , p. 131) suggests that the desirable outcome is “enlightened mass tourism.” Such suggestions have been contested in the literature and criticized for dubious assumptions about emergent norms of sustainability and support for growth, which are widely seen as contradictory (Peeters, 2012 ; Wheeller, 2007 ).

Models of responsible or alternative tourism development include ecotourism, community-based tourism, pro-poor tourism, slow tourism, green tourism, and heritage tourism, among others. Most models of alternative tourism development emphasize themes that aim to counteract the perceived negative impacts of conventional or mass tourism. As such, the objectives of these models of tourism development tend to focus on minimizing environmental impacts, supporting biodiversity conservation, empowering local communities, alleviating poverty, and engendering pleasant relationships between tourists and residents.

Approaches to alternative tourism development tend to overlap with themes of responsible tourism, and the two terms are frequently used interchangeably. Responsible tourism has been characterized in terms of numerous elements, including

ensuring that communities are involved in and benefit from tourism;

respecting local, natural, and cultural environments;

involving the local community in planning and decision-making;

using local resources sustainably;

behaving in ways that are sensitive to the host culture;

maintaining and encouraging natural, economic, and cultural diversity; and

assessing environmental, social, and economic impacts as a prerequisite to tourism development (Spenceley, 2012 ).

Hetzer ( 1965 ) identified four fundamental principles or perquisites for a more responsible form of tourism: (a) minimum environmental impact; (b) minimum impact on and maximum respect for host cultures; (c) maximum economic benefits to the host country; and (d) maximum leisure satisfaction to participating tourists.

The history of ecotourism is closely connected with the emergence of sustainable development, as it was born out of a concern for the conservation of biodiversity. Ecotourism is a form of tourism that aims to minimize local environmental impacts while bringing benefits to protected areas and the people living around those lands (Honey, 2008 ). Ecotourism represents a small segment of nature-based tourism, which is understood as tourism based on the natural attractions of an area, such as scenic areas and wildlife (Gössling, 1999 ). The ecotourism movement gained momentum in the 1990s, primarily in developing countries in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, and nearly all countries are now engaged in some form of ecotourism. In some communities, ecotourism is the primary economic activity and source of income and economic development.

The term “ecotourism” was coined by Hector Ceballos-Lascuráin and defined by him as “tourism that consists in travelling to relatively undisturbed or uncontaminated natural areas with the specific object of studying, admiring, and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals” (Ceballos-Lascuráin, 1987 , p. 13). In discussing ecotourism resources, he also made reference to “any existing cultural manifestations (both past and present) found in these areas” (Ceballos-Lascuráin, 1987 , p. 14). The basic precepts of ecotourism had been discussed long before the actual use of the term. Twenty years earlier, Hetzer ( 1965 ) referred to a form of tourism “based principally upon natural and archaeological resources such as caves, fossil sites (and) archaeological sites.” Thus, both natural resources and cultural resources were integrated into ecotourism frameworks from the earliest manifestations.

Costa Rica is well known for having successfully integrated ecotourism in its overall strategy for sustainable development, and numerous case studies of ecotourism in Costa Rica appear in the literature (Chase et al., 1998 ; Fennell & Eagles, 1990 ; Gray & Campbell, 2007 ; Hearne & Salinas, 2002 ). Ecotourism in Costa Rica has been seen as having supported the economic development of the country while promoting biodiversity conservation in its extensive network of protected areas. Chase et al. ( 1998 ) estimated the demand for ecotourism in a study of differential pricing of entrance fees at national parks in Costa Rica. The authors estimated elasticities associated with the own-price, cross-price, and income variables and found that the elasticities of demand were significantly different between three different national park sites. The results reveal the heterogeneity characterizing tourist behavior and park attractions and amenities. Hearne and Salinas ( 2002 ) used choice experiments to examine the preferences of domestic and foreign tourists in Costa Rica in an ecotourism site. Both sets of tourists demonstrated a preference for improved infrastructure, more information, and lower entrance fees. Foreign tourists demonstrated relatively stronger preferences for the inclusion of restrictions in the access to some trails.

Ecotourism has also been studied extensively in Kenya (Southgate, 2006 ), Malaysia (Lian Chan & Baum, 2007 ), Nepal (Baral et al., 2008 ), Peru (Stronza, 2007 ), and Taiwan (Lai & Nepal, 2006 ), among many other countries. Numerous case studies have demonstrated the potential for ecotourism to contribute to sustainable development by providing support for biodiversity conservation, local livelihoods, and regional development.

Community-Based Tourism

Community-based tourism (CBT) is a model of tourism development that emphasizes the development of local communities and allows for local residents to have substantial control over its development and management, and a major proportion of the benefits remain within the community. CBT emerged during the 1970s as a response to the negative impacts of the international mass tourism development model (Cater, 1993 ; Hall & Lew, 2009 ; Turner & Ash, 1975 ; Zapata et al., 2011 ).

Community-based tourism has been examined for its potential to contribute to poverty reduction. In a study of the viability of the CBT model to support socioeconomic development and poverty alleviation in Nicaragua, tourism was perceived by participants in the study to have an impact on employment creation in their communities (Zapata et al., 2011 ). Tourism was seen to have had positive impacts on strengthening local knowledge and skills, particularly on the integration of women to new roles in the labor market. One of the main perceived gains regarding the environment was the process of raising awareness regarding the conservation of natural resources. The small scale of CBT operations and low capacity to accommodate visitors was seen as a limitation of the model.

Spenceley ( 2012 ) compiled case studies of community-based tourism in countries in southern Africa, including Botswana, Madagascar, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In this volume, authors characterize community-based and nature-based tourism development projects in the region and demonstrate how community participation in planning and decision-making has generated benefits for local residents and supported conservation initiatives. They contend that responsible tourism practices are of particular importance in the region because of the rich biological diversity, abundant charismatic wildlife, and the critical need for local economic development and livelihood strategies.

In Kenya, CBT enterprises were not perceived to have made a significant impact on poverty reduction at an individual household level, in part because the model relied heavily on donor funding, reinforcing dependency and poverty (Manyara & Jones, 2007 ). The study identified several critical success factors for CBT enterprises, namely, awareness and sensitization, community empowerment, effective leadership, and community capacity building, which can inform appropriate tourism policy formulation in Kenya. The impacts of CBT on economic development and poverty reduction would be greatly enhanced if tourism initiatives were able to emphasize independence, address local community priorities, enhance community empowerment and transparency, discourage elitism, promote effective community leadership, and develop community capacity to operate their own enterprises more efficiently.

Pro-Poor Tourism

Pro-poor tourism is a model of tourism development that brings net benefits to people living in poverty (Ashley et al., 2001 ; Harrison, 2008 ). Although its theoretical foundations and development objectives overlap to some degree with those of community-based tourism and other models of AT, the key distinctive feature of pro-poor tourism is that it places poor people and poverty at the top of the agenda. By focusing on a very simple and incontrovertibly moral idea, namely, the net benefits of tourism to impoverished people, the concept has broad appeal to donors and international aid agencies. Harnessing the economic benefits of tourism for pro-poor growth means capitalizing on the advantages while reducing negative impacts to people living in poverty (Ashley et al., 2001 ). Pro-poor approaches to tourism development include increasing access of impoverished people to economic benefits; addressing negative social and environmental impacts associated with tourism; and focusing on policies, processes, and partnerships that seek to remove barriers to participation by people living in poverty. At the local level, pro-poor tourism can play a very significant role in livelihood security and poverty reduction (Ashley & Roe, 2002 ).

Rogerson ( 2011 ) argues that the growth of pro-poor tourism initiatives in South Africa suggests that the country has become a laboratory for the testing and evolution of new approaches toward sustainable development planning that potentially will have relevance for other countries in the developing world. A study of pro-poor tourism development initiatives in Laos identified a number of favorable conditions for pro-poor tourism development, including the fact that local people are open to tourism and motivated to participate (Suntikul et al., 2009 ). The authors also noted a lack of development in the linkages that could optimize the fulfilment of the pro-poor agenda, such as training or facilitation of local people’s participation in pro-poor tourism development at the grassroots level.

Critics of the model have argued that pro-poor tourism is based on an acceptance of the status quo of existing capitalism, that it is morally indiscriminate and theoretically imprecise, and that its practitioners are academically and commercially marginal (Harrison, 2008 ). As Chok et al. ( 2007 ) indicate, the focus “on poor people in the South reflects a strong anthropocentric view . . . and . . . environmental benefits are secondary to poor peoples’” benefits (p. 153).

Harrison ( 2008 ) argues that pro-poor tourism is not a distinctive approach to tourism as a development tool and that it may be easier to discuss what pro-poor tourism is not than what it is. He concludes that it is neither anticapitalist nor inconsistent with mainstream tourism on which it relies; it is neither a theory nor a model and is not a niche form of tourism. Further, he argues that it has no distinctive method and is not only about people living in poverty.

Slow Tourism

The concept of slow tourism has emerged as a model of sustainable tourism development, and as such, it lacks an exact definition. The concept of slow tourism traces its origin back to some institutionalized social movements such as “slow food” and “slow cities” that began in Italy in the 1990s and spread rapidly around the world (Fullagar et al., 2012 ; Oh et al., 2016 , p. 205). Advocates of slow tourism tend to emphasize slowness in terms of speed, mobility, and modes of transportation that generate less environmental pollution. They propose niche marketing for alternative forms of tourism that focus on quality upgrading rather than merely increasing the quantity of visitors via the established mass-tourism infrastructure (Conway & Timms, 2010 ).

In the context of the Caribbean region, slow tourism has been promoted as more culturally sensitive and authentic, as compared to the dominant mass tourism development model that is based on all-inclusive beach resorts dependent on foreign investment (Conway & Timms, 2010 ). Recognizing its value as an alternative marketing strategy, Conway and Timms ( 2010 ) make the case for rebranding alternative tourism in the Caribbean as a means of revitalizing the sector for the changing demands of tourists in the 21st century . They suggest that slow tourism is the antithesis of mass tourism, which “relies on increasing the quantity of tourists who move through the system with little regard to either the quality of the tourists’ experience or the benefits that accrue to the localities the tourist visits” (Conway & Timms, 2010 , p. 332). The authors draw on cases from Barbados, the Grenadines, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago to characterize models of slow tourism development in remote fishing villages and communities near nature preserves and sea turtle nesting sites.

Although there is a growing interest in the concept of slow tourism in the literature, there seems to be little agreement about the exact nature of slow tourism and whether it is a niche form of special interest tourism or whether it represents a more fundamental potential shift across the industry. Conway and Timms ( 2010 ) focus on the destination, advocating for slow tourism in terms of a promotional identity for an industry in need of rebranding. Caffyn ( 2012 , p. 77) discusses the implementation of slow tourism in terms of “encouraging visitors to make slower choices when planning and enjoying their holidays.” It is not clear whether slow tourism is a marketing strategy, a mindset, or a social movement, but the literature on slow tourism nearly always equates the term with sustainable tourism (Caffyn, 2012 ; Conway & Timms, 2010 ; Oh et al., 2016 ). Caffyn ( 2012 , p. 80) suggests that slow tourism could offer a “win–win,” which she describes as “a more sustainable form of tourism; keeping more of the economic benefits within the local community and destination; and delivering a more meaningful and satisfying experience.” Research on slow tourism is nascent, and thus the contribution of slow tourism to sustainable development is not well understood.

Impacts of Tourism Development

The role of tourism in sustainable development can be examined through an understanding of the economic, environmental, and social impacts of tourism. Tourism is a global phenomenon that involves travel, recreation, the consumption of food, overnight accommodations, entertainment, sightseeing, and other activities that simultaneously intersect the lives of local residents, businesses, and communities. The impacts of tourism involve benefits and costs to all groups, and some of these impacts cannot easily be measured. Nevertheless, they have been studied extensively in the literature, which provides some context for how these benefits and costs are distributed.

Economic Impacts of Tourism

The travel and tourism sector is one of the largest components of the global economy, and global tourism has increased exponentially since the end of the Second World War (UNWTO, 2020 ). The direct, indirect, and induced economic impact of global travel accounted for 8.9 trillion U.S. dollars in contribution to the global gross domestic product (GDP), or 10.3% of global GDP. The global travel and tourism sector supports approximately 330 million jobs, or 1 in 10 jobs around the world. From an economic perspective, tourism plays a significant role in sustainable development. In many developing countries, tourism has the potential to play a unique role in income generation and distribution relative to many other industries, in part because of its high multiplier effect and consumption of local goods and services. However, research on the economic impacts of tourism has shown that this potential has rarely been fully realized (Liu, 2003 ).

Numerous studies have examined the impact of tourism expenditure on GDP, income, employment, and public sector revenue. Narayan ( 2004 ) used a computable general equilibrium model to estimate the economic impact of tourism growth on the economy of Fiji. Tourism is Fiji’s largest industry, with average annual growth of 10–12%; and as a middle-income country, tourism is critical to Fiji’s economic development. The findings indicate that an increase in tourism expenditures was associated with an increase in GDP, an improvement in the country’s balance of payments, and an increase in real consumption and national welfare. Evidence suggests that the benefits of tourism expansion outweigh any export effects caused by an appreciation of the exchange rate and an increase in domestic prices and wages.

Seetanah ( 2011 ) examined the potential contribution of tourism to economic growth and development using panel data of 19 island economies around the world from 1990 to 2007 and revealed that tourism development is an important factor in explaining economic performance in the selected island economies. The results have policy implications for improving economic growth by harnessing the contribution of the tourism sector. Pratt ( 2015 ) modeled the economic impact of tourism for seven small island developing states in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean. In most states, the transportation sector was found to have above-average linkages to other sectors of the economy. The results revealed some advantages of economies of scale for maximizing the economic contribution of tourism.

Apergis and Payne ( 2012 ) examined the causal relationship between tourism and economic growth for a panel of nine Caribbean countries. The panel of Caribbean countries includes Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. The authors use a panel error correction model to reveal bidirectional causality between tourism and economic growth in both the short run and the long run. The presence of bidirectional causality reiterates the importance of the tourism sector in the generation of foreign exchange income and in financing the production of goods and services within these countries. Likewise, stable political institutions and adequate government policies to ensure the appropriate investment in physical and human capital will enhance economic growth. In turn, stable economic growth will provide the resources needed to develop the tourism infrastructure for the success of the countries’ tourism sector. Thus, policy makers should be cognizant of the interdependent relationship between tourism and economic growth in the design and implementation of economic policy. The mixed nature of these results suggest that the relationship between tourism and economic growth depends largely on the social and economic context as well as the role of tourism in the economy.

The economic benefits and costs of tourism are frequently distributed unevenly. An analysis of the impact of wildlife conservation policies in Zambia on household welfare found that households located near national parks earn higher levels of income from wage employment and self-employment than other rural households in the country, but they were also more likely to suffer crop losses related to wildlife conflicts (Richardson et al., 2012 ). The findings suggest that tourism development and wildlife conservation can contribute to pro-poor development, but they may be sustainable only if human–wildlife conflicts are minimized or compensated.

Environmental Impacts of Tourism

The environmental impacts of tourism are significant, ranging from local effects to contributions to global environmental change (Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ). Tourism is both dependent on water resources and a factor in global and local freshwater use. Tourists consume water for drinking, when showering and using the toilet, when participating in activities such as winter ski tourism (i.e., snowmaking), and when using swimming pools and spas. Fresh water is also needed to maintain hotel gardens and golf courses, and water use is embedded in tourism infrastructure development (e.g., accommodations, laundry, dining) and in food and fuel production. Direct water consumption in tourism is estimated to be approximately 350 liters (L) per guest night for accommodation; when indirect water use from food, energy, and transport are considered, total water use in tourism is estimated to be approximately 6,575 L per guest night, or 27,800 L per person per trip (Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ). In addition, tourism contributes to the pollution of oceans as well as lakes, rivers, and other freshwater systems (Gössling, 2002 ; Gössling et al., 2011 ).

The clearing and conversion of land is central for tourism development, and in many cases, the land used for tourism includes roads, airports, railways, accommodations, trails, pedestrian walks, shopping areas, parking areas, campgrounds, vacation homes, golf courses, marinas, ski resorts, and indirect land use for food production, disposal of solid wastes, and the treatment of wastewater (Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ). Global land use for accommodation is estimated to be approximately 42 m 2 per bed. Total global land use for tourism is estimated to be nearly 62,000 km 2 , or 11.7 m 2 per tourist; more than half of this estimate is represented by land use for traffic infrastructure.

Tourism and hospitality have direct and indirect links to nearly all aspects of food production, preparation, and consumption because of the quantities of food consumed in tourism contexts (Gössling et al., 2011 ). Food production has significant implications for sustainable development, given the growing global demand for food. The implications include land conversion, losses to biodiversity, changes in nutrient cycling, and contributions to greenhouse emissions that are associated with global climate change (Vitousek et al., 1997 ). Global food use for tourism is estimated to be approximately 39.4 megatons 1 (Mt), about 38% than the amount of food consumed at home. This equates to approximately 1,800 grams (g) of food consumed per tourist per day.

Although tourism has been promoted as a low-impact, nonextractive option for economic development, (Gössling, 2000 ), assessments reveal that such pursuits have a significant carbon footprint, as tourism is significantly more carbon intensive than other potential areas of economic development (Lenzen et al., 2018 ). Tourism is dependent on energy, and virtually all energy use in the tourism sector is derived from fossil fuels, which contribute to global greenhouse emissions that are associated with global climate change. Energy use for tourism has been estimated to be approximately 3,575 megajoules 2 (MJ) per trip, including energy for travel and accommodations (Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ). A previous estimate of global carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from tourism provided values of 1.12 gigatons 3 (Gt) of CO 2 , amounting to about 3% of global CO 2 -equivalent (CO 2 e) emissions (Gössling & Peeters, 2015 ). However, these analyses do not cover the supply chains underpinning tourism and do not therefore represent true carbon footprints. A more complete analysis of the emissions from energy consumption necessary to sustain the tourism sector would include food and beverages, infrastructure construction and maintenance, retail, and financial services. Between 2009 and 2013 , tourism’s global carbon footprint is estimated to have increased from 3.9 to 4.5 GtCO 2 e, four times more than previously estimated, accounting for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions (Lenzen et al., 2018 ). The majority of this footprint is exerted by and within high-income countries. The rising global demand for tourism is outstripping efforts at decarbonization of tourism operations and as a result is accelerating global carbon emissions.

Social Impacts of Tourism

The social impacts of tourism have been widely studied, with an emphasis on residents’ perceptions in the host community (Sharpley, 2014 ). Case studies include research conducted in Australia (Faulkner & Tideswell, 1997 ; Gursoy et al., 2010 ; Tovar & Lockwood, 2008 ), Belize (Diedrich & Garcia-Buades, 2008 ), China (Gu & Ryan, 2008 ), Fiji (King et al., 1993 ), Greece (Haralambopoulos & Pizam, 1996 ; Tsartas, 1992 ), Hungary (Rátz, 2000 ), Thailand (Huttasin, 2008 ), Turkey (Kuvan & Akan, 2005 ), the United Kingdom (Brunt & Courtney, 1999 ; Haley et al., 2005 ), and the United States (Andereck et al., 2005 ; Milman & Pizam, 1988 ), among others. The social impacts of tourism are difficult to measure, and most published studies are mainly concerned with the social impacts on the host communities rather than the impacts on the tourists themselves.

Studies of residents’ perceptions of tourism are typically conducted using household surveys. In most cases, residents recognize the economic dependence on tourism for income, and there is substantial evidence to suggest that working in or owning a business in tourism or a related industry is associated with more positive perceptions of tourism (Andereck et al., 2007 ). The perceived nature of negative effects is complex and often conveys a dislike of crowding, traffic congestion, and higher prices for basic needs (Deery et al., 2012 ). When the number of tourists far exceeds that of the resident population, negative attitudes toward tourism may manifest (Diedrich & Garcia-Buades, 2008 ). However, residents who recognize negative impacts may not necessarily oppose tourism development (King et al., 1993 ).

In some regions, little is known about the social and cultural impacts of tourism despite its dominance as an economic sector. Tourism is a rapidly growing sector in Cuba, and it is projected to grow at rates that exceed the average projected growth rates for the Caribbean and the world overall (Salinas et al., 2018 ). Still, even though there has been rapid tourism development in Cuba, there has been little research related to the environmental and sociocultural impacts of this tourism growth (Rutty & Richardson, 2019 ).

In some international tourism contexts, studies have found that residents are generally resentful toward tourism because it fuels inequality and exacerbates racist attitudes and discrimination (Cabezas, 2004 ; Jamal & Camargo, 2014 ; Mbaiwa, 2005 ). Other studies revealed similar narratives and recorded statements of exclusion and socioeconomic stratification (Sanchez & Adams, 2008 ). Local residents often must navigate the gaps in the racialized, gendered, and sexualized structures imposed by the global tourism industry and host-country governments (Cabezas, 2004 ).

However, during times of economic crisis, residents may develop a more permissive view as their perceptions of the costs of tourism development decrease (Garau-Vadell et al., 2018 ). This increased positive attitude is not based on an increase in the perception of positive impacts of tourism, but rather on a decrease in the perception of the negative impacts.

There is a growing body of research on Indigenous and Aboriginal tourism that emphasizes justice issues such as human rights and self-empowerment, control, and participation of traditional owners in comanagement of destinations (Jamal & Camargo, 2014 ; Ryan & Huyton, 2000 ; Whyte, 2010 ).

Sustainability of Tourism

A process or system is said to be sustainable to the extent that it is robust, resilient, and adaptive (Anderies et al., 2013 ). By most measures, the global tourism system does not meet these criteria for sustainability. Tourism is not robust in that it cannot resist threats and perturbations, such as economic shocks, public health pandemics, war, and other disruptions. Tourism is not resilient in that it does not easily recover from failures, such as natural disasters or civil unrest. Furthermore, tourism is not adaptive in that it is often unable to change in response to external conditions. One example that underscores the failure to meet all three criteria is the dependence of tourism on fossil fuels for transportation and energy, which are key inputs for tourism development. This dependence itself is not sustainable (Wheeller, 2007 ), and thus the sustainability of tourism is questionable.

Liu ( 2003 ) notes that research related to the role of tourism in sustainable development has emphasized supply-side concepts such as sustaining tourism resources and ignored the demand side, which is particularly vulnerable to social and economic shocks. Tourism is vulnerable to both localized and global shocks. Studies of the vulnerability of tourism to localized shocks include disaster vulnerability in coastal Thailand (Calgaro & Lloyd, 2008 ), bushfires in northeast Victoria in Australia (Cioccio & Michael, 2007 ), forest fires in British Columbia, Canada (Hystad & Keller, 2008 ); and outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the United Kingdom (Miller & Ritchie, 2003 ).

Like most other economic sectors, tourism is vulnerable to the impacts of earthquakes, particularly in areas where tourism infrastructure may not be resilient to such shocks. Numerous studies have examined the impacts of earthquake events on tourism, including studies of the aftermath of the 1997 earthquake in central Italy (Mazzocchi & Montini, 2001 ), the 1999 earthquake in Taiwan (Huan et al., 2004 ; Huang & Min, 2002 ), and the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in western Sichuan, China (Yang et al., 2011 ), among others.

Tourism is vulnerable to extreme weather events. Regional economic strength has been found to be associated with lower vulnerability to natural disasters. Kim and Marcoullier ( 2015 ) examined the vulnerability and resilience of 10 tourism-based regional economies that included U.S. national parks or protected seashores situated on the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean coastline that were affected by several hurricanes over a 26-year period. Regions with stronger economic characteristics prior to natural disasters were found to have lower disaster losses than regions with weaker economies.

Tourism is extremely sensitive to oil spills, whatever their origin, and the volume of oil released need not be large to generate significant economic losses (Cirer-Costa, 2015 ). Studies of the vulnerability of tourism to the localized shock of an oil spill include research on the impacts of oil spills in Alaska (Coddington, 2015 ), Brazil (Ribeiro et al., 2020 ), Spain (Castanedo et al., 2009 ), affected regions in the United States along the Gulf of Mexico (Pennington-Gray et al., 2011 ; Ritchie et al., 2013 ), and the Republic of Korea (Cheong, 2012 ), among others. Future research on the vulnerability of tourist destinations to oil spills should also incorporate freshwater environments, such as lakes, rivers, and streams, where the rupture of oil pipelines is more frequent.

Significant attention has been paid to assessing the vulnerability of tourist destinations to acts of terrorism and the impacts of terrorist attacks on regional tourist economies (Liu & Pratt, 2017 ). Such studies include analyses of the impacts of terrorist attacks on three European countries, Greece, Italy, and Austria (Enders et al., 1992 ); the impact of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States (Goodrich, 2002 ); terrorism and tourism in Nepal (Bhattarai et al., 2005 ); vulnerability of tourism livelihoods in Bali (Baker & Coulter, 2007 ); the impact of terrorism on tourist preferences for destinations in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands (Arana & León, 2008 ); the 2011 massacres in Olso and Utøya, Norway (Wolff & Larsen, 2014 ); terrorism and political violence in Tunisia (Lanouar & Goaied, 2019 ); and the impact of terrorism on European tourism (Corbet et al., 2019 ), among others. Pizam and Fleischer ( 2002 ) studied the impact of acts of terrorism on tourism demand in Israel between May 1991 and May 2001 , and they confirmed that the frequency of acts of terrorism had caused a larger decline in international tourist arrivals than the severity of these acts. Most of these are ex post studies, and future assessments of the underlying conditions of destinations could reveal a deeper understanding of the vulnerability of tourism to terrorism.

Tourism is vulnerable to economic crisis, both local economic shocks (Okumus & Karamustafa, 2005 ; Stylidis & Terzidou, 2014 ) and global economic crisis (Papatheodorou et al., 2010 ; Smeral, 2010 ). Okumus and Karamustafa ( 2005 ) evaluated the impact of the February 2001 economic crisis in Turkey on tourism, and they found that the tourism industry was poorly prepared for the economic crisis despite having suffered previous impacts related to the Gulf War in the early 1990s, terrorism in Turkey in the 1990s, the civil war in former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, an internal economic crisis in 1994 , and two earthquakes in the northwest region of Turkey in 1999 . In a study of the attitudes and perceptions of citizens of Greece, Stylidis and Terzidou ( 2014 ) found that economic crisis is associated with increased support for tourism development, particularly out of self-interest. Economic crisis diminishes residents’ concern for environmental issues. In a study of the behavior of European tourists amid an economic crisis, Eugenio-Martin and Campos-Soria ( 2014 ) found that the probability of households cutting back on travel expenditures depends largely on the climate and economic conditions of tourists’ home countries, and households that do reduce travel spending engage in tourism closer to home.

Becken and Lennox ( 2012 ) studied the implications of a long-term increase in oil prices for tourism in New Zealand, and they estimate that a doubling of oil prices is associated with a 1.7% decrease in real gross national disposable income and a 9% reduction in the real value of tourism exports. Chatziantoniou et al. ( 2013 ) investigated the relationship among oil price shocks, tourism variables, and economic indicators in four European Mediterranean countries and found that aggregate demand oil price shocks generated a lagged effect on tourism-generated income and economic growth. Kisswani et al. ( 2020 ) examined the asymmetric effect of oil prices on tourism receipts and the sensitive susceptibility of tourism to oil price changes using nonlinear analysis. The findings document a long-run asymmetrical effect for most countries, after incorporating the structural breaks, suggesting that governments and tourism businesses and organizations should interpret oil price fluctuations cautiously.

Finally, the sustainability of tourism has been shown to be vulnerable to the outbreak of infectious diseases, including the impact of the Ebola virus on tourism in sub-Saharan Africa (Maphanga & Henama, 2019 ; Novelli et al., 2018 ) and in the United States (Cahyanto et al., 2016 ). The literature also includes studies of the impact of swine flu on tourism demand in Brunei (Haque & Haque, 2018 ), Mexico (Monterrubio, 2010 ), and the United Kingdom (Page et al., 2012 ), among others. In addition, rapid assessments of the impacts of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 have documented severe disruptions and cessations of tourism because of unprecedented global travel restrictions and widespread restrictions on public gatherings (Gössling et al., 2020 ; Qiu et al., 2020 ; Sharma & Nicolau, 2020 ). Hotels, airlines, cruise lines, and car rentals have all experienced a significant decrease globally because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the shock to the industry is significant enough to warrant concerns about the long-term outlook (Sharma & Nicolau, 2020 ). Qiu et al. ( 2020 ) estimated the social costs of the pandemic to tourism in three cities in China (Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Wuhan), and they found that most respondents were willing to pay for risk reduction and action in responding to the pandemic crisis; there was no significant difference between residents’ willingness to pay in the three cities. Some research has emphasized how lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic can prepare global tourism for an economic transformation that is needed to mitigate the impacts of climate change (Brouder, 2020 ; Prideaux et al., 2020 ).

It is clear that tourism has contributed significantly to economic development globally, but its role in sustainable development is uncertain, contested, and potentially paradoxical. This is due, in part, to the contested nature of sustainable development itself. Tourism has been promoted as a low-impact, nonextractive option for economic development, particularly for developing countries (Gössling, 2000 ), and many countries have managed to increase their participation in the global economy through development of international tourism. Tourism development has been viewed as an important sector for investment to enhance economic growth, poverty alleviation, and food security, and the sector provides an alternative opportunity to large-scale development projects and extractive industries that contribute to emissions of pollutants and threaten biodiversity and cultural values. However, global evidence from research on the economic impacts of tourism has shown that this potential has rarely been realized (Liu, 2003 ).

The role of tourism in sustainable development has been studied extensively and with a variety of perspectives, including the conceptualization of alternative or responsible forms of tourism and the examination of economic, environmental, and social impacts of tourism development. The research has generally concluded that tourism development has contributed to sustainable development in some cases where it is demonstrated to have provided support for biodiversity conservation initiatives and livelihood development strategies. As an economic sector, tourism is considered to be labor intensive, providing opportunities for poor households to enhance their livelihood through the sale of goods and services to foreign tourists.

Nature-based tourism approaches such as ecotourism and community-based tourism have been successful at attracting tourists to parks and protected areas, and their spending provides financial support for biodiversity conservation, livelihoods, and economic growth in developing countries. Nevertheless, studies of the impacts of tourism development have documented negative environmental impacts locally in terms of land use, food and water consumption, and congestion, and globally in terms of the contribution of tourism to climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases related to transportation and other tourist activities. Studies of the social impacts of tourism have documented experiences of discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, race, sex, and national identity.

The sustainability of tourism as an economic sector has been examined in terms of its vulnerability to civil conflict, economic shocks, natural disasters, and public health pandemics. Most studies conclude that tourism may have positive impacts for regional development and environmental conservation, but there is evidence that tourism inherently generates negative environmental impacts, primarily through pollutions stemming from transportation. The regional benefits of tourism development must be considered alongside the global impacts of increased transportation and tourism participation. Global tourism has also been shown to be vulnerable to economic crises, oil price shocks, and global outbreaks of infectious diseases. Given that tourism is dependent on energy, the movement of people, and the consumption of resources, virtually all tourism activities have significant economic, environmental, and sustainable impacts. As such, the role of tourism in sustainable development is highly questionable. Future research on the role of tourism in sustainable development should focus on reducing the negative impacts of tourism development, both regionally and globally.

Further Reading

• Bramwell, B. , & Lane, B. (1993). Sustainable tourism: An evolving global approach. Journal of Sustainable Tourism , 1 (1), 1–5.
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1. One megatonne (Mt) is equal to 1 million (10 6 ) metric tons.

2. One megajoule (MJ) is equal to 1 million (10 6 ) joules, or approximately the kinetic energy of a 1-megagram (tonne) vehicle moving at 161 km/h.

3. One gigatonne (Gt) is equal to 1 billion (10 9 ) metric tons.

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The impact of tourism: How can we all do this better?

John perrottet, beril benli.

Tourism is growing, and growing fast. After surpassing 1 billion international visitors in 2012, we are expecting 1.8 billion by 2030. Tourism is growing faster than the global economy and, for the first time, the statistics for 2015 are expected to show that there were more trips taken to the developing world than to the developed world. But what does this actually mean? Growth, on its own, is not enough. Destinations and their stakeholders are responsible for ensuring that growth is well-managed; that benefits are maximized; and that any negative externalities are minimized. This requires a continuous process of planning and management that evolves and that can be measured over time. For the World Bank Group, our clients and our development partners, this process of planning and management is a central interest. How can we help these processes to deliver more and better development impact? What kinds of interventions or types of assistance will deliver the best results? How do you define the best results – for whom? – and how do we measure them? Being able to demonstrate how the tourism sector contributes to the Bank Group’s twin goals of eliminating extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity is an imperative for all stakeholders. It’s relevant for national governments, sub-national state agencies, businesses (both multinationals and SMEs), multilateral development banks, NGOs, academics and think tanks. Moreover, it’s vital in helping guide future planning and development, gaining access to and applying for funding, and demonstrating progress to constituents at all levels.

Despite the great breadth and depth of existing impact information, however, serious concerns remain about the accuracy, complexity, gaps, comparability and sustainability of the types of the impact analyses that have been carried out. The Bank Group’s Sustainable Tourism Global Solutions Group recently convened a thought-leadership event in Washington to begin a preliminary discussion about how all stakeholders can come together to try and address some of the current shortcomings. During the “ Measuring for Impact in Touris m” event, we heard about a wide range of challenges for those working in this area and we began to map out the greatest gaps and issues. As Anabel Gonzalez, the Senior Director of the Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice, said at that conference: “We want to be better at monitoring and evaluating our impact, we want to learn from others, and we want to contribute more effectively to tourism development.  I believe these are goals most of you will share. We invite you to join this discussion – and be frank, open and provocative.”The findings can be found in our report, “ Towards More Effective Impact Measurement in the Tourism Sector: Observations and Key Issues ,” which highlights a number of priorities. Some of those challenges concern the availability, quality and consistency of data; the high cost of impact measurement for SMEs; the proliferation of different systems; issues of attribution; quantifying notions of “value”; and the ability to communicate effectively to a wide range of audiences. Some key areas for immediate follow-up and further analysis were also identified. They include:

• Exploring the theory of change by examining more closely the proposition  that, when tourism growth occurs, those living in extreme poverty benefit and by digging deeper into what tourism growth really means for the poor, especially in terms of employment. 
• Assessing the impact value of different types of tourism.
• Assessing and developing the role of technology for data collection, impact measurement and communication.
• Evaluating the use of training for better communication – including assessing what has been tried and what has worked and considering how it could be scaled up. 
• Analyzing the necessity and practicality of improving collaboration among various actors, and assessing the alignment of frameworks along with proposals for greater alignment.
• Developing ideas and proposals for the enhanced sharing and pooling of impact data.
• Developing ideas and proposals for greater inclusion of SMEs.
• Competitiveness
• Digital Development
• Urban Development

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Sustainable Tourism Practices and Destinations: Examples from Around the World

Sustainable Tourism Practices: Sustainable tourism is a growing trend in the travel industry that focuses on minimizing the environmental and social impact of tourism while providing economic benefits to local communities. From eco-friendly accommodations to responsible travel practices, there are many ways that tourism can be made more sustainable. Around the world, destinations and businesses are implementing sustainable tourismthat support conservation, reduce carbon emissions, and promote local cultural heritage. These efforts not only benefit the planet, but also provide a unique and authentic travel experience for visitors. In this context, we will explore some of the sustainable tourism and destinations from around the world that are leading the way in promoting responsible and ethical tourism.

Here are 40 examples of sustainable tourism and destinations from around the world:

• The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador – A protected wildlife sanctuary that limits visitor numbers to prevent environmental damage and promote sustainable tourism.
• Costa Rica – A country that has made a strong commitment to sustainable tourism, with a focus on eco-tourism, community-based tourism, and conservation efforts.
• Bhutan – A country that measures its economic success through a Gross National Happiness index, which includes the protection of the environment and cultural heritage.
• Norway – A country that is known for its sustainable tourism, including eco-friendly transportation, green energy, and sustainable tourism certification programs.
• The Netherlands – A country that is promoting sustainable tourism through initiatives such as green hotels, bike-friendly cities, and nature conservation programs.
• New Zealand – A country that has a strong focus on sustainable tourism, including eco-tourism, conservation efforts, and responsible travel practices.
• The Amazon Rainforest, Brazil – A region that has adopted sustainable tourism to promote conservation and support local communities.
• The Great Barrier Reef, Australia – A protected marine park that promotes sustainable tourism, such as reducing carbon emissions and protecting the natural environment.
• Kenya – A country that has implemented sustainable tourism, including wildlife conservation, community-based tourism, and eco-friendly lodges.
• Iceland – A country that is promoting sustainable tourism through eco-friendly transportation, renewable energy, and eco-certification programs.
• South Africa – A country that is known for its conservation efforts, including wildlife protection and community-based tourism.
• The Azores, Portugal – A group of islands that is promoting sustainable tourism through eco-tourism, whale watching, and nature conservation programs.
• The Serengeti, Tanzania – A protected wildlife sanctuary that promotes responsible tourism practices, such as reducing carbon emissions and supporting local communities.
• The Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean – A group of islands that is committed to sustainable tourism, including protecting the environment and supporting local communities.
• Thailand – A country that has implemented sustainable practices, including community-based tourism, wildlife conservation, and responsible travel.
• The Faroe Islands, Denmark – A group of islands that is promoting sustainable tourism through eco-friendly transportation, sustainable seafood, and nature conservation programs.
• The Lake District, England – A protected national park that promotes sustainable tourism, such as reducing carbon emissions and supporting local communities.
• The Annapurna Region, Nepal – A region that is promoting sustainable tourism through community-based tourism, conservation efforts, and responsible trekking practices.
• The Maasai Mara, Kenya – A protected wildlife reserve that promotes sustainable practices, such as reducing carbon emissions and supporting local communities.
• The Blue Mountains, Australia – A protected national park that promotes sustainable tourism practices, such as reducing carbon emissions and supporting local communities.
• Guna Yala, Panama – A protected indigenous territory that promotes sustainable tourism, such as supporting traditional livelihoods and preserving cultural heritage.
• The Isle of Eigg, Scotland – An island that is promoting sustainable tourism through renewable energy, eco-friendly accommodations, and community-based tourism initiatives.
• The San Blas Islands, Panama – A group of islands that is promoting sustainable tourism through eco-tourism, community-based tourism, and responsible travel practices.
• The Burren, Ireland – A protected national park that promotes sustainable practices, such as reducing carbon emissions and supporting local communities.
• The Bay of Fundy, Canada – A protected marine park that promotes sustainable tourism practices, such as reducing carbon emissions and supporting local communities.
• The Lofoten Islands, Norway – An archipelago that is promoting sustainable tourism through eco-friendly transportation, responsible fishing, and community-based tourism initiatives.
• The Tongariro National Park, New Zealand – A protected national park that promotes sustainable tourism, such as reducing carbon emissions and supporting local communities.
• The Danube Delta, Romania – A protected wetland that promotes sustainable tourism practices, such as eco-tourism and responsible travel practices.
• The Douro Valley, Portugal – A region that is promoting sustainable tourism through eco-tourism, responsible wine tourism, and community-based tourism initiatives.
• The Lake Titicaca, Peru/Bolivia – A protected lake that promotes sustainable tourism, such as preserving cultural heritage and supporting traditional livelihoods.
• The Everglades, United States – A protected wetland that promotes sustainable tourism, such as reducing carbon emissions and supporting local communities.
• The Cinque Terre, Italy – A protected coastal area that promotes sustainable tourism practices, such as reducing carbon emissions and supporting local communities.
• The Mekong Delta, Vietnam – A region that is promoting sustainable tourism through eco-tourism, responsible travel practices, and community-based tourism initiatives.
• The Lake District, Chile – A protected national park that promotes sustainable tourism practices, such as reducing carbon emissions and supporting local communities.
• The Sinharaja Forest Reserve , Sri Lanka – A protected rainforest that promotes sustainable tourism, such as eco-tourism and responsible travel practices.
• The Jasper National Park, Canada – A protected national park that promotes sustainable tourism practices, such as reducing carbon emissions and supporting local communities.
• The Arctic, various countries – A region that is promoting sustainable tourism through eco-tourism, responsible travel practices, and nature conservation programs.
• The Torres del Paine National Park, Chile – A protected national park that promotes sustainable tourism, such as reducing carbon emissions and supporting local communities.
• The Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal – A protected national park that promotes sustainable tourism practices, such as eco-tourism and responsible trekking practices.
• The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica – A protected cloud forest that promotes sustainable tourism practices, such as eco-tourism and nature conservation programs.

These are just a few more examples of the many destinations and businesses around the world that are adopting sustainable tourism. With a growing focus on responsible and ethical tourism, sustainable tourism is becoming an increasingly important industry worldwide.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Sustainable Tourism Practices

What is sustainable tourism?

Sustainable tourism is a form of tourism that focuses on minimizing the environmental and social impact of travel while providing economic benefits to local communities.

What are some sustainable tourism practices?

Some sustainable tourism practices include supporting conservation efforts, reducing carbon emissions, promoting local cultural heritage, and supporting local communities through community-based tourism initiatives.

Why is sustainable tourism important?

Sustainable tourism is important because it helps to preserve natural and cultural resources, provides economic benefits to local communities, and promotes responsible and ethical travel practices.

How can travelers practice sustainable tourism?

Travelers can practice sustainable tourism by supporting eco-friendly accommodations, engaging in responsible travel practices, supporting local communities, and minimizing their carbon footprint.

What are some examples of sustainable tourism destinations?

Some examples of sustainable tourism destinations include national parks, protected areas, eco-tourism lodges, and community-based tourism initiatives.

How can tourism businesses implement sustainable tourism practices?

Tourism businesses can implement sustainable practices by reducing their carbon emissions, supporting local communities, promoting conservation efforts, and adopting eco-friendly practices.

What is community-based tourism?

Community-based tourism is a form of tourism that involves local communities in the tourism industry, providing economic benefits while preserving local culture and traditions.

What is responsible tourism?

Responsible tourism is a form of tourism that focuses on minimizing the environmental and social impact of travel while providing economic benefits to local communities and promoting cultural awareness.

What is the difference between sustainable tourism and ecotourism?

Sustainable tourism is a broader concept that encompasses all forms of tourism that are socially, economically, and environmentally responsible, while ecotourism is a specific form of tourism that focuses on nature-based experiences that support conservation efforts.

How does sustainable tourism benefit local communities?

Sustainable tourism benefits local communities by providing economic benefits through job creation and supporting local businesses, while also preserving cultural heritage and traditions.

How can tourists ensure they are practicing sustainable tourism?

Tourists can ensure they are practicing sustainable tourism by choosing eco-friendly accommodations, engaging in responsible travel practices, supporting local communities, and minimizing their carbon footprint.

What role do governments play in promoting sustainable tourism?

Governments play an important role in promoting sustainable tourism by establishing policies and regulations that support conservation efforts, promoting sustainable practices, and providing funding for sustainable tourism initiatives.

What are some challenges to implementing sustainable tourism practices?

Some challenges to implementing sustainable tourism practices include the high cost of implementing eco-friendly practices, lack of awareness among tourists, and limited resources in developing countries.

What is the role of tourism businesses in promoting sustainable tourism?

Tourism businesses play a critical role in promoting sustainable tourism by adopting eco-friendly practices, supporting conservation efforts, and engaging with local communities to ensure their economic benefits are sustainable.

What is the impact of sustainable tourism on the environment?

Sustainable tourism aims to minimize the impact of tourism on the environment by reducing carbon emissions, supporting conservation efforts, and promoting eco-friendly practices. This can have a positive impact on the environment by preserving natural resources and reducing pollution.

What is the role of tourists in promoting sustainable tourism?

Tourists have a crucial role to play in promoting sustainable tourism by supporting eco-friendly accommodations, engaging in responsible travel practices, supporting local communities, and minimizing their carbon footprint.

What is the role of local communities in sustainable tourism?

Local communities play a vital role in sustainable tourism by providing unique cultural experiences, supporting conservation efforts, and benefitting from the economic opportunities that tourism can bring. Sustainable tourism initiatives often involve working with local communities to ensure their voices are heard and their needs are met.

How can sustainable tourism help preserve cultural heritage?

Sustainable tourism can help preserve cultural heritage by supporting local cultural practices and traditions, promoting cultural awareness, and providing economic benefits to local communities. In doing so, it helps to maintain and celebrate cultural diversity and promote the value of cultural heritage.

What is the impact of sustainable tourism on the economy?

Sustainable tourism can have a positive impact on the economy by providing job opportunities, supporting local businesses, and promoting economic growth in tourism-dependent communities. It can also encourage investment in infrastructure and services, leading to long-term economic benefits.

What is the role of education in promoting sustainable tourism?

Education plays a critical role in promoting sustainable tourism by raising awareness among tourists, tourism businesses, and local communities. It can help to promote best practices, encourage responsible travel behavior, and foster a culture of sustainability.

How can technology be used to promote sustainable tourism?

Technology can be used to promote sustainable tourism by supporting digital platforms that provide information and resources for sustainable travel, reducing the need for paper-based materials and promoting more efficient and eco-friendly travel methods.

What is the role of sustainable tourism in climate change mitigation?

Sustainable tourism can contribute to climate change mitigation by promoting low-carbon travel options, reducing carbon emissions, and supporting conservation efforts that help to mitigate the impact of climate change on natural resources.

How can sustainable tourism be measured?

Sustainable tourism can be measured using a range of indicators, such as carbon emissions, waste reduction, water conservation, and economic impact. There are also several certification programs and sustainability standards that can be used to assess the sustainability of tourism businesses and destinations.

How can travelers support sustainable tourism initiatives?

Travelers can support sustainable tourism initiatives by choosing eco-friendly accommodations, engaging in responsible travel practices, supporting local communities, and minimizing their carbon footprint. They can also seek out sustainable tourism certification programs and support businesses that are committed to sustainable tourism practices.

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• conservation
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• Eco-friendly travel
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• Local Communities
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About Sustainability, & Related Topics & Issues

Sustainable Tourism: Pros & Cons, Examples, & Is It Possible?

In this guide, we analyse sustainable tourism.

Specifically, we look at what it is, give examples of how tourism might become more sustainable, the pros and cons of a sustainable tourism approach, and how sustainable tourism compares to conventional and mass tourism .

Summary – Sustainable Tourism

Importance Of The Tourism Industry

Overall as an industry, tourism has a significant economic value to the world economy, and billions of tourists travel every year.

So, it’s an important industry – especially in countries where tourism is one of, or the most valuable industry to the economy.

What Sustainable Tourism Involves

The concept of sustainable tourism involves the incorporation of sustainable tourism practices, aimed at improving the short term and long term environmental, economic and social impact of tourism, for all tourism stakeholders

Sustainable Tourism vs Conventional Tourism vs Mass Tourism

Compared to conventional and mass tourism , sustainable tourism might place more focus on issues like environmental and site degradation, resource usage and environmental footprint, and the impact of tourism on the local humans and ecosystems in the area

Examples Of Sustainable Tourism

A few examples of sustainable tourism include but aren’t limited to:

– Restricting/limiting tourist numbers at the most popular tourism destinations

– Allocating funding towards maintaining tourism sites

– Making ‘green’ improvements to tourism transport and accomodation

– Supporting and/or promoting tourism businesses that provide a guaranteed level of rights for humans or animals involved in the business (with one example being ethical or humane elephant sanctuaries)

Challenges With Implementing Sustainable Tourism Practices

A number of tourism destinations and stakeholders around the world have taken action to implement policies, rules and behavioral requirements, based around the concept of more sustainable tourism in those destinations

However, what several sources point out is that there’s been no significant progress on sustainable tourism in general

A lack of financial resources (in the form of financial investment and funding), and organisation/collaboration between stakeholders, are a few of the leading reasons for this

So, there can be various challenges when implementing sustainable tourism practices

Potential Corporate Incentive For More Sustainable Tourism

On a positive note, results from other industries shows that investing in sustainability can have a number of benefits for companies and brands. 

So, sustainable tourism may have corporate incentive in some instances.

Sustainability in business in general has it’s own potential pros and cons to consider

What Is Sustainable Tourism?

Stakeholders include but aren’t limited to travellers/tourists, locals and local communities (their rights, and their culture and customs), tourism workers, tourism companies and tourism industry businesses, third parties, the government, the environment, and animals and wildlife.

What Does Tourism Include?

Tourism involves everything from leaving the house to returning to the house, when sightseeing, travelling or going on holiday.

It involves both domestic and international tourism.

It includes but isn’t limited to specific things like:

– Travel and transport like cars and planes

– Accomodation

– And, any activity (or production and consumption) that is undertaken on the way to, from, or at a tourism destination (or destinations)

The Economic Importance Of The Tourism Industry

Number Of People That Travel Each Year

Billions of people travel every year.

In 2016, more than 1.2 billion people travelled as tourists internationally, and another 6 billion people travelled domestically (1millionwomen.com.au)

Economic Contribution Of Tourism Industry

Tourism as an industry plays an important role in the world economy in terms of total revenue, employment, income, and projected growth. In some countries, tourism is the largest industry in the economy.

Employment in tourism might be in the hundreds of millions worldwide.

Contributed revenue might be in the trillions worldwide.

A few stats that illustrate this are:

From traveller.com.au: ‘[tourism is a] $US8.8 billion industry [that] sustains 319 million jobs [or] 10 per cent of all the jobs in the world (traveller.com.au)

It generates more than $2.1tn in annual revenues (theguardian.com)

Tourism provides both local and external employment, and puts money in the pockets of local citizens and governments (though admittedly, not all of this money always stays in the local economy)

[Tourist arrivals are also only expected to increase in the future, making tourism one of the fastest growing industries in the world] (theboar.org)

[The tourism industry is expected to grow] by an estimated 4% on average annually in the next 10 years.

Impact Of Recent World Events on Tourism

COVID has had an economic impact on tourism.

Variables like border restrictions and entry requirements might impact the tourism industry in the future too.

Potential Pros & Cons Of Sustainable Tourism 

– Places a focus on both short term and long term needs and wants, as opposed to just the short term

– Places a balanced focus on the economic, environmental (including environmental degradation, and resource management) and social aspects of tourism, instead of just the profit motive or individual wants

– More travellers are becoming aware of sustainable tourism, and the potential impact of purchasing from companies with sustainable practices

– Some tourism destinations already have sustainability practices in places

– … the business case for sustainability and corporate responsibility in tourism is growing stronger year-on-year [with several benefits for businesses, but also for consumers that give their money to them] (weforum.org)

– Progress on sustainable tourism right now, according to several reports, is not significant

– Some argue that sustainable tourism overall has significant challenges and limitations which impact how sustainable tourism can end up being in the future 

– Sustainable tourism means different things to different people, which can make it hard to collaborate or consolidate on any one indicator

– Sustainable tourism as an issue happens at many different geographic points, and not just in one place or activity.

This can make it much harder to gather data on, track, and address compared to other issues.

It can also make collaboration and organisation more challenging

– Right now, there might not be enough resources, funding and data collection committed to addressing sustainable tourism (from governments, and private funding sources)

– A potential conflict of interest with sustainable tourism is incentivizing tourism related production and consumption (which flows to other areas of the economy), whilst also minimizing negative environmental and social impact.

It can be challenging to get this balance right.

– Sustainable tourism can be more expensive for travellers for the service or product offered, or because of requirements of the travel destination – this reduces how far a traveller’s disposable income can go, and can price out some lower income travellers

– Some argue that some approaches to sustainable tourism are flawed and question how effective they are – for example, decision makers should focus on how to reduce per capita impact, rather than outright trying to restrict the total number of visitors.

The same can be said when trying to achieve per tourist yields for economic objectives

– Technology like the internet has made it easier for the consumer to drive prices down with price comparisons between competing travel providers.

This drives down the available money for these companies to invest in sustainability, and also makes higher priced sustainable tourism look less desirable

Potential Pros & Cons Of Regular Tourism (Conventional, & Mass Tourism)

– Tourists and travellers are free to pursue their own individual wants and needs (contributes to happiness and satisfaction, and a range of other personal benefits)

– Companies and other stakeholders who receive economic benefits from tourism are free to pursue their own wants and needs

– There’s a significant positive impact on the economy from regular tourism – in terms of revenue and GDP generated and contributed, number of people employed and receiving an income, and flow on economic stimulus, development (especially from domestic and international investment) and opportunity in tourism affected areas

– No emphasis on protecting the environment and ecosystems from a certain level of degradation.

Overcrowding/congestion, saturation, mass tourism and lax regulations can lead to more stress being placed on the environment in one area

– Environmental issues that may get worse as a result of unsustainable tourism might include greenhouse gas emissions, hard waste generation, different forms of waste pollution – air pollution, water pollution, hard waste pollution, habitat destruction, and impact on local wildlife

– No emphasis on managing resources sustainably (especially scarce resources) – which can lead to resource shortages or price increases and volatility for resources for locals.

Water and land tend to be scarce in some countries – the question has to be asked if committing these types of resources towards tourism is the best use of these resources.

Hotels in particular can be big users of water and electricity

– Further to the above point, basic services and cost of living can be impacted for locals.

When more homeowners are offering their homes to travellers for increased nightly prices, this can put a housing and renting squeeze on locals who may not have as much affordable housing available.

Land, food, water, housing, transport/fuel and infrastructure are all used and consumed in tourism related activities

– No emphasis on the social and cultural rights and needs of the local population and communities

– There’s no guarantee that money spent on tourism stays within the local area where a popular tourism destination is – there’s some reports that up to 80% of the money spent in some areas leaks out of the local economy.

This is called leakage and could be argued as a strong point against modern models of tourism in some areas.

The tourism in this case could be benefitting external parties that don’t have to deal with the negative impact the tourism is having on the local area.

On the topic of keeping wealth within local communities – ‘… often as little as 5-10% of the money tourists spend remains in the destinations they visit’ (weforum.org)

– Who the money goes to is also in question – some sources indicate that it’s mostly large transnational companies that reap the financial rewards from more commercialized tourism, and not a wider range of more independent parties

– [Even when jobs are created for] local people, they [can be] entry level and low paying with limited opportunities for upward mobility (weforum.org)

– The more commoditized and competitive tourism products and services become, the more they result in lower margins for tourism businesses – negating some of the economic benefits.

There’s also only so many products and services that can be offered in some places, leading to saturation and hard caps on how many people can make money

– As an area developments, existing natural environments and habitats can be cleared to make way for buildings and infrastructure

– Some new developments are poorly designed or constructed, and end up a long term liability or detractor in the area

– Governments can spend taxpayers money to get tourists to their countries and cities to reap the economic rewards from tourism, but there can little accountability and responsibility for the true long term impact of mass tourism or unregulated tourism.

The same can be said for developers and decisions makers who are profiting upfront, without dealing with the potential true costs and long term costs

– Third party industries like media and online content and influencers help promote travel with no accountability for the end result

– Local and indigenous communities can sometimes be displaced by new development

– External companies and stakeholders can get access to prime real estate over locals

– Large-scale tourism [can lead to] the quality of life and the quality of the visitor experience [to] deteriorate (weforum.org)

– Tourism can be heavily commercialized, and because it’s becoming cheaper to travel and more accessible, some argue that some tourists’ attitudes towards travel and tourist destinations can be that they don’t value them as much, or treat them with as much respect

– Mass tourism can lead to a worse experience for the tourist, but also a worse daily life for locals

How To Make Tourism More Sustainable – Examples Of Sustainable Tourism Practices

The following are a list of practices that might each make tourism more sustainable collectively, and for individuals:

– Local communities might take on more accountability to put in place regulations, guidelines, barriers to entry, and plans that help protect and preserve their local communities and areas.

Effort and resources would also have to be put into enforcing these regulations, guidelines and plans too

– The tourism industry and tourism companies might take on greater responsibility to ‘pay into, or, invest into’ the destinations they frequent the most to help maintain them

– Consumers have to take on some responsibility to reward sustainable tourism service providers.

For example, they might support businesses that don’t exploit animals or let animals suffer in the name of tourism

They might choose ethical or humane businesses, such as ethical elephant sanctuaries

There may be a higher cost for these services

– Since impact and accountability is shared by various stakeholders, there needs to be more collaboration, possibly through private, public and community partnerships.

This involves the government, consumers, local communities, tourism workers, tourism companies and tourism industry businesses, and third parties

– Raise/promote greater awareness of sustainable tourism practices for travellers and businesses

– Travel during off peak

– Travel to smaller cities and towns, rural areas, and less crowded and less popular destinations

– Try to spend money with local, and/or small or independent companies and business owners compared to big commercial companies

– Limit the annual number of visitors, limit visitors based in impact per visitor numbers, limit large-scale development, charge visitor taxes and fees, or ban visitation altogether

– Number of tourist trips, and trip length can factor into tourist footprint

– The number of tourists going on a trip together can decrease the footprint of things such as transport and accomodation if they share rooms and vehicles

– Key issues that needs better a better approach are how to manage growing visitor numbers, address changing traveller expectations and shape and improve both visitor and host experiences (weforum.org)

– Better data collection, tracking and reporting on sustainability issues to do with tourism, and better funding and resource investment into this

– Limiting litter in the most popular tourism destinations

– Try to stay at accommodation with sustainable ratings

– Respect local cultures and traditions 

– Consider how to lower your tourism related resource usage, and environmental footprints

– Consider low impact trips to natural destinations likes lakes, and use canoes and bikes, over boats and vehicles, and leave these destination in the condition you found them in. Clean up the area after visiting, and don’t pollute whilst there.

How & Where Sustainable Tourism Practices Have Already Been Implemented

Weforum.org lists a number of popular travel destinations that have implemented sustainable practices related to tourism

A few examples are Cinque Terre, Zion National Park and Machu Picchu limiting the number of annual visitors

theconversation.com also notes how the climbing of Uluru in Australia was banned in 2019 out of respect for the region’s traditional owners 

The Current State Of Progress On Sustainable Tourism

In summary – several sources indicate that there is yet to be any significant progress on sustainability in tourism up until this point in time.

It’s possible that individual businesses might be offering sustainable tourism services, but, the tourism industry as a whole might not have implemented sustainable services as a standard, or made significant progress with making them standard.

From the information below, it’s clear that there might be clear issues such as better profits/returns, and other issues, that might need to be addressed in order for sustainable tourism to be more widely adopted.

Weforum.org perhaps indicates that as of 2017, sustainable tourism is not gaining a lot of momentum:

[As of 2017] 50% of World Heritage sites … [did] not have tourism management plans in place to prevent the negative impacts of tourism

– [Right now, there is no] single organization is achieving success at scale [and] the cumulative impact is significantly smaller than what is necessary and achievable 

– … like ecotourism, sustainable tourism has become virtually meaningless as it is often tied to cursory efforts, which are very limited, rather than organization-wide commitments, strategies, and actions

– … few tourism-related companies and destinations have integrated sustainability into their operational DNA [and] Even fewer are investing in protection [of] the destinations in which they conduct their business

– The problems posed by tourism are … growing so fast that we can’t address them (weforum.org)

Weforum.org also provides a summary of where the tourism industry might be at overall with implementing sustainability:

– Overall, the tourism sector’s commitment to sustainable development is decidedly weak [which stems from a need for growth, profit, short sighted planning and development, a need to make returns for shareholders, and politicians needing to get re-elected]

… This is surprising given that the business case for sustainability and corporate responsibility in tourism is growing stronger year-on-year [with several benefits for businesses, but also for consumers that give their money to them]

How Sustainable Can Tourism Really Become?

Some say that there is a certain % of the impact of tourism that is inevitable from the industry.

With this being the case, some argue that some level of negative tourism related impact is essentially locked in or impossible to avoid.

This is a similar sustainability principle to the potential limitations on resource efficiency with essential, non-substitutable resources . 

Even if there aren’t negative implications for certain activities, there might be limitations on how effective sustainability practices can be.

For example:

– You can’t control people’s’ desire and want to travel

– There’s only so many people you can fit on a plane (to average out a plane travel footprint per passenger)

– There’s only so many people you can fit in a vehicle (to average out a car travel footprint per passenger)

– There’s only so many people you can put in accomodation at a time (to average out things like shared electricity, water use, etc. that might be saved compared to two people staying in two separate rooms)

– Resource use and waste generation are inevitable

– Impact on the local community and local sites is also inevitable

– Even if you restrict travel to some sites, people may find alternate/new sites and overcrowd them

– Even if tourism plans and regulations are put in place, how are external factors like population growth or human overpopulation managed in the future?

– How do you decide who gets access to the most popular tourist spots in the world in the event tourist numbers are restricted to certain spots? If it becomes based on money, lower income travellers may miss out.

– Enforcing sustainable tourism is usually going to require increased expenditure and resources – and many cities and towns, or companies and travellers may not be able to afford these increased costs

– … the industry is based on a finite and limited supply of attractions, or accessible places rich in scenic beauty or culture (theguardian.com). Working from this starting place of scarcity, it’s hard to see how popular destination can get more sustainable

1. https://www.traveller.com.au/ethical-travel-20-issues-every-traveller-needs-to-be-across-h1ho3w

2. https://theboar.org/2020/02/sustainable-tourism/

3. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/the-growth-paradox-can-tourism-ever-be-sustainable/

4. https://theconversation.com/why-we-are-banning-tourists-from-climbing-uluru-86755

5. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/six-reasons-mass-tourism-unsustainable

6. https://www.1millionwomen.com.au/blog/sustainable-tourism-not-working-heres-how-we-can-change/

7. https://visit.org/blog/en/what-is-sustainable-tourism/

8. https://sustainabletourism.net/

9. https://theconversation.com/sustainable-tourism-is-not-working-heres-how-we-can-change-that-76018

10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_tourism

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Tourism; Pros and Cons, Facts and Environmental Impact.

• by Ahsen Soomro

Table of Contents Show

1. wealth generation, 2. the progression of a country, 3. creation of jobs, 4. unity among different societies, 5. conservation, 6. improves geographical identity worldwide, 7. damage to the environment by tourists, 8. exploitation of local culture, 9. non-compliance of tourists, 10. lack of job security/seasonal only, 11. confined to service jobs, 12. unequal infrastructure growth, 13. foreign business owners, 14. neglecting of other sectors, 5+ fun facts on tourism, environmental damage, invasive organisms, negative impact on wildlife, loss of natural resources, challenging stereotypes, gaining cultural sensitivity, authentic experience of cultures.

Tourism is the department or an organization that facilitates people to allow them to visit or spend vacations at places they like.

Tourism is one of the most important industries in any country. It is a large contributor to the economy of a country as it can provide revenue throughout the year. Tourism helps in keeping the employment rate of countries stable as several job opportunities are created due to the tourism industry.

Sometimes, tourism can be a major source of foreign income for the country. This is like Maldives where 40% of the economy is generated from the Tourism industry.

This transaction doesn’t only facilitate the vacation or relaxation of tourists visiting these regions, but also helps to provide a better livelihood to everyone involved in the tourism sector.

Developed countries like USA and UK have greatly benefitted from medical tourism. Medical tourism involves people travelling to developed countries to get treatments unavailable in their home country. These are usually people from developing countries with sub-standard health care. You can also call them a medical tourist !

However, even with the great number of benefits of tourism, there are several drawbacks to it. These disadvantages are sometimes ignored by the tourism sector of that country as their sole purpose becomes profit. We must consider all aspects of tourism which include environmental responsibilities, profit and sustainability.

Today, we will look at some of the Pros and Cons of Tourism;

Advantages of Tourism

One of the major advantages of Tourism is a constant flow of cash. It is very important not just for the economy of the country as a whole but for all those working in the tourism sectors.

Commercial and private airlines operating from these countries tend to make a ton of revenue as people from around the world fly to a tourist attraction. Hotels and guest homes in the hospitality industry make a constant income as travelers flood hotel lobbies looking for a place to stay. This makes sure hotels make money throughout the year.

These small sectors, that come under the umbrella of tourism help to generate money for the country throughout the year. This cash flow is even more essential for small, developing, and third world nations as for some of them the tourist sector might be the biggest contributor to their local economy.

As wealth influx starts in the country, it helps the government to procure necessary funds for development and progression of the country. The tourism sector gives security and stability to the economy of the nation, preventing it from tanking in times of crisis.

The government also gets necessary funds to carry out large scale infrastructure projects like restaurants, hotels, casinos and theater which may further improve the tourism sector, providing more places for travelers to stay and more activities to indulge in. This will help to generate further cash influx.

Other than that, this wealth can also be used to improve the infrastructure of the country. This includes building roads, rail roads, better hospitals and education centers for natives as well as the tourists.

Tourism has provided various jobs to people who were previously unemployed. The natives gifted with constant stable jobs have greatly improved their livelihood ( there is a possible catch to this, I’ve explained in the cons ).

These jobs include working in areas such as hotels, restaurants, bars, casinos, theatres, zoos, parks, entertainment facilities, and more. Some of those you might remember from your last trip, especially the travel agent who booked your tickets or the tour operator who ensured that your trip went smooth or the captain of your cruise ship in the Caribbean. They work relentlessly, away from their families, to make sure you enjoy your vacations.

This has also led to the overall reduction of unemployment in the country, thus reducing burden on the government.

Did you know? 1 in 10 jobs are supported by Tourism industry across the world!

The unique feature of tourism is that it helps to create unity among people from different countries, cultures, backgrounds, traditions, and ethnicities who are all visiting to have some fun.

It allows people to learn different histories, traditions, cultures, diets, and lifestyles of the nations they are visiting. This helps to create understanding and oneness among people which can have a long-lasting impact socially.

Cross-cultural connections are developed as the natives interact with the tourists and may lead to further large-scale collaborations as well!

The main star of attraction for tourists visiting a country is its historical sites and landscapes, particularly the landmarks of the country. These landmarks may be in the form of churches, mosques, cathedrals, monuments, buildings, skyscrapers, beaches, amusement parks, and other attractions to say the least.

This means it becomes the government’s utmost priority to conserve these sites, for the tourism industry to be sustainable.

The government carries out regular maintenance of such areas and rules are placed concerned with damaging or vandalism of the property in order to protect these spots. Once these areas become a part of the tourism sector, they are no less than a cash generator for the country.

Tourists often go back home and praise about the vacation that they had. Every person that goes back home brags to at-least 10 more people about the wonderful vacation they had, usually through social media. This allows more people to know more about the country and helps it earn its name and make a place for itself on the map!

Increased recognition leads to further foreign investment and development, followed with increased tourism activity in the area.

Major Cons of Tourism

When it comes to tourism thousands of people may visit, even millions in some spots. This high influx of tourists can lead to immense environmental destruction, especially in destinations where tourists are more prone to visit.

This environmental burden is not solely due to the high influx of tourists, but it is associated with various other factors working together to bring environmental harm.

These factors include increased presence and use of cars, buses, trains, and other vehicles which may raise carbon emissions. A large number of flights at the airport could become a large contributor of air pollution as well.

Tourists can cause a lot of land pollution; as they throw a massive amount of garbage and waste, which is mostly non-biodegradable, leading to a massive number of landfills. All these activities may combine to greatly impact the environment of the region.

Soil erosion, Different kinds of Pollution , habitat loss and destruction as well as forest fires are just some of the environmental effects of tourism.

If these regions are not conserved and taken care of properly, they will lose their natural essence and subsequently be abandoned by tourists. This can lead to permanent damage of the natural tourist attractions!

Fortunately, we have been observing a rise in demand of sustainable tourism. We’ll be discussing that very soon.

Some countries, seeing the vast amount of tourists coming in their country to observe their unorthodox lifestyle and traditions, begin to commercialize their culture. It can be in the form of souvenirs. Usually, the natives are not offended by this.

However, in some regions this can be considered an outright disgrace and mocking of their culture. This is especially true for the regions where locals consider their culture to be their identity. Commercializing may result in people just wearing costumes and exhibiting traditions just to entertain tourists. Observing that the governments are using their culture as a tool for profiteering can cause them to feel sad and ridiculed by their nation.

Sometimes, tourists do not honor cultures and traditions of countries/regions they visit. They may break certain rules and unspoken codes of conduct to which the locals have very high regard. Tourists get drunk in public and do horrendous acts at times. This creates certain hatred among the locals for the incoming tourists.

Racist remarks by tourists and the socioeconomic gap between the tourists and the natives may further exacerbate the issue. The tourists may consider themselves in much higher regard than the natives. Such thoughts may provoke the tourists to act wildly and unlawfully, and sometimes even end up mocking the nation.

Look at it this way; if you go to a friend’s house, you don’t outright break stuff at his home or start shouting remarks to his/her family. You respectfully meet your friend and have a good time, in good spirits. That’s the way you should treat natives when you’re visiting another country, because you’re visiting their home !

Although we did mention that tourism leads to an increase in the employment rate; sometimes these jobs can be seasonal depending on the region and hence, cannot be a dependable income throughout the year. This is more concerning in countries that have specific durations and seasons of high influx of tourists from around the world. These seasonal jobs, hence, offer minimal job security and employees can be left without a proper pension or insurance.

Although tourism generates jobs for locals, most of these jobs are confined to service industry with minimal wages. These low-wage and minimum-skill workers have little ambition to promotion and getting higher up the chain.

Massive income generated from tourism offers countries to build upon infrastructure of the tourist destination only. Sadly, the countries do not use the revenue generated from this infrastructure to build and develop other regions which require maintenance and development.

The wealth generated from tourism is put back into tourism-related things and regions that desperately need improvement are constantly neglected. The locals who don’t live in tourist-economy regions are neglected which leads to imbalance of infrastructure development.

Sometimes most of the places which are heavily infiltrated by tourists are owned by foreign businesses. This means most of the profits and money coming into the country are being used by foreigners thereby causing significant loss of local businesses.

Local industries miss out on the primary source of income that is required for them to stay afloat and to grow. This can lead to businesses going bankrupt and losing, overall damaging the country’s economy.

Countries see that tourist is the major source of income for them, tend to ignore other various sectors upon which they are built. This leads to nations neglecting these sectors, thus causing a loss of income, jobs, and growth amongst these sectors. The country aims to put all of its resources in one basket which is the tourism industry, will leaving all others behind for them to crumble and diminish.

This over-reliance on a specific sector for the stability of the nations can sometimes cause a massive impact, especially during times of war, political instability, or natural disasters as it will be led to the long term closure of the tourism of those countries due to unrest. This can eventually drain the country down as its only resource which is tourism is no longer function, and it didn’t have any other sector nor did they built any other sector in a way for them to become sustainable in times of economic crisis.

• Tourism is responsible for 5% of the Global GDP!
• China stays as the world’s top tourism spender, spending more than 260 Billion Dollars!
• Global tourism industry being the largest industry contributes more than 7.5 trillion dollars in the world economy.
• Almost 10% of world’s jobs are sourced from Tourism Industry.
• Tourists spend the most cash in Dubai. Around 28.5 Billion dollars yearly!
• Osaka in Japan is emerging as the hottest tourist spot in the world.

Negative Environmental Impacts of Tourism

The government may choose to put the wealth generated from tourism into preservation of the environment. However, tourism still goes on to put sufficient burden on the natural resources of our planet and prompts over-consumption of natural resources in regions with already limited resources.

Once tourism becomes unsustainable, the surrounding environment starts to deteriorate. Tourism has a wide impact on the air quality, vegetation, water supply, wildlife, and the natural ecosystems of the region.

Most of the tourist activities have a negative impact on ecosystems.  These include fishing, hiking, and snorkeling; all of which tend to affect and deplete the local scenery.

To run a tropical golf course for tourists requires water that can feed up to 60,000 locals. There is a trail in the Himalayas known as “the toilet paper trail” which shows how much damage tourism has caused to the environment.

Once there is an influx of tourists to a common destination, there is an overuse of transportation systems which heavily contributes to pollution (Mainly air pollution). Tourism accounts for 60% of air travel worldwide, and flying one mile in a plane can produce 53 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Even travelers conscious of hurting the environment also cause a negative impact. Tourists that travel to natural sites located remotely, tend to cause damage to natural ecosystems they come to see.

The increased human presence on many geographical regions can alter the number of native plants in the region and introduce non native species in those areas.

Even species brought in as pets into the country are sometime released into the wild and could bring havoc upon the ecosystem if they turned out to be invasive species.

Human intervention and presence can disrupt food webs, ecological communities, and harm keystone species in an area. Others take an active approach and hunt foreign animals as a tourist activity. They can also damage the natural habitat of native wildlife by engaging with it. All of these contribute to wildlife endangerment and extinction.

Tourism can shrink the natural resources by causing over-consumption. This is particularly damaging in areas with food and water scarcity.

This may also lead to hatred among the locals for tourists who use up the limited water supply for luxuries. A natural resource like water could be used to fill up Jacuzzis at a 5-star hotel but could much better be used in feeding a child who suffers from dehydration.

Cultural Benefits of Traveling

When you get to visit another country and observe their culture, you get the opportunity to be exposed to unfamiliar perspectives and traditions and gain a more broad, much informed, and kinder view of the locals and places you encounter.

Perceptions and stereotypes might be replaced by first hand view of the people by the tourists themselves.

People get to see traditions and learn manners of different cultures. Manners and etiquette tourists may not have practiced in their native countries.

Pointing with your index fingers at the indigenous people, showing excessive skin, wearing shoes indoors, and making noises may be considered rude in some places.

So it is important to do a little bit of research on the local customs and traditions before visiting so you can try to avoid being offensive or inappropriate.

It can be a wonderful way to experience the insights of a different culture through the experience of traditions, rituals, festivals, celebrations, and rites. It gives the visitor a chance to understand the cultural heritage of a region much more deeply.

Tourism has its benefits to the economy but the environmental component of tourism shouldn’t be ignored. Think about that the next time you book your tickets. We are also working on reducing your environmental footprint when you travel…Can’t reveal more. Stay tuned!

For now I’d like to leave this picture for you to ponder about Eco-tourism.

Ahsen Soomro

My love for nature is not newfound. I have lived on the countryside for over a decade of my life where I realized how human activities impacted the environment. Later during my stint in medical school, I realized that many of our health concerns originate from neglecting our environmental responsibilities and this was just not sustainable in the long run. Raising awareness, not locally but globally, was the mission. This led to the foundation of EnvironmentBuddy!

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Pros and Cons of Tourism

Be it Niagara Falls, The Grand Canyon, or the Amazon Rainforest, these places have numerous reasons to attract tourists every year. Tourists love to visit such spots looking for fun, amusement, and even finding peace of mind. Tourism has turned into a thriving industry in many countries. Governments and local communities reap the benefits of tourism in many different ways. But those advantages come with certain risks as well. However, like everything else, there are pros and cons of tourism . You should be taking a closer look at the good and the bad of tourism before you set a vacation schedule alone or with your friends and families.

What are the Pros of Tourism?

In 2021, tourism to Grand Canyon National Park made a significant contribution of $710 million to the local economy, reports National Park Service.

1. Economic Boost

Tourism is a significant contributor to the economy of a country. By attracting tourists, nations can create sustainable revenue streams, generate job opportunities, and boost growth across several sectors. According to a report by NPS, the park welcomed approximately 4.5 million visitors to the Grand Canyon, spending an estimated $710 million in the surrounding gateway regions.

2. Cultural Exchange

Travel can bring people together and provide a unique opportunity to share ideas and experiences. Travelers often have an open mind about different cultures and customs, so they are eager to explore new places. This type of exchange can break down cultural barriers between countries by allowing each party to understand the other's culture better. This exchange of cultural values can be counted as one of the major advantages of tourism.

3. Environmental Conservation

All natural heritages are tourist spots, and people come to admire the view. One of the significant advantages of tourism is that it can help protect and preserve the environment. Local governments can invest the revenue generated by tourism for the betterment of environmentally sensitive regions and areas with fragile ecosystems.

4. Improved Infrastructure is Among the Pros of Tourism

With the influx of tourists, countries can consider upgrading their infrastructure to accommodate visitors' needs. This includes constructing new airports, roads, accommodations, and public facilities such as parks and museums. This positive change can be felt both by the tourists and the inhabitants.

5. Global Recognition

Tourism is an essential part of many countries economies, and it can also provide significant global recognition for the destination. A well-designed tourism strategy that attracts a high volume of international visitors can bring in foreign money, create jobs, and help to develop infrastructure. It also raises awareness about an area, leading to increased interest from the rest of the world.

What are the Cons of Tourism?

Besides the positive changes, tourism also has its share of downsides. Most of the cons of the tourism industry are associated with the misuse of natural resources. Some of the other problems with tourism include:

1. Environmental Damage

Tourism can lead to environmental damage in many ways. For example, it can impact water resources through increased water and wastewater production demand. It can also add to pollution by generating emissions from transportation as visitors travel around the area. Additionally, tourists may increase pressure on local land resources, leading to deforestation and loss of habitats for native species.

2. Displaced Communities

Tourism often brings economic benefits to local communities. Still, when done in a way that does not consider the local community's needs and aspirations, it can cause displacement. Communities may be displaced from their traditional lands or homes, pushing them away from the resources they need for subsistence. This can be particularly detrimental if these resources are already scarce or difficult to access.

3. Cultural Erosion

Cultural Erosion is one of the most dreaded cons of tourism. A tourist destination with a distinct local culture is prone to changes due to the influx of tourists. The more tourism activities are higher the chances of community displacement.

This phenomenon is often compounded by the fact that many tourists come from cultures very different to those of the local community, and their presence can lead to a sudden change in cultural values. This rapid transition can significantly damage a community as its members may no longer feel represented or respected.

4. Economic Dependence

The COVID-19 pandemic best explains how tourism can suddenly burden an economy. As the pandemic wiped out all income for many countries' businesses, many had to rely heavily on government support and bailouts as their primary sources of revenue. This has resulted in rising debts due to emergency aid distributions and other fiscal measures associated with relief during this crisis.

5. Overcrowding

Visiting a particular area can harm the environment and local culture as tourism grows. One of the main disadvantages of tourism is overcrowding, which can strain resources, increase pollution, and damage natural habitats.

Overcrowding can decrease the quality of life for residents, as tourists take up public space and resources. It can also affect the health and safety of visitors who may be exposed to increased levels of crime or air pollution.

Conclusion on the Pros and Cons of Tourism

The pros and cons of tourism are complex if you evaluate them thoroughly. It is easy to see that people benefit from increased access to new cultures, experiences, and destinations.

On the other hand, there are real risks associated with tourist activities like over-tourism and the destruction of natural spaces. Therefore, it's up to individuals to assess these impacts on their own terms. It's up to every citizen to become responsible travelers who understand tourism's positive and negative effects.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the cons of tourism.

Tourism frequently exerts excessive strain on natural resources due to overconsumption, particularly in areas with limited resources. It places immense pressure on local land utilization, resulting in soil erosion, heightened pollution levels, loss of natural habitats, and increased jeopardy for endangered species.

What are the pros of tourism?

It fosters job creation, bolsters the local economy, facilitates infrastructure development, preserves the natural environment and cultural heritage, and works towards alleviating poverty and inequality.

What are the social benefits of tourism?

Tourism brings forth numerous social benefits, showcasing its positive impacts on society. These encompass the preservation of local culture and heritage, the fostering of vibrant communities, the provision of essential social services, the promotion of cultural and artistic commerce, the revitalization of customs and art forms, as well as the safeguarding of our precious heritage.

Who does tourism help?

Tourists contribute to the local economy by spending their money, leading to job creation and economic growth. This support is particularly crucial for small businesses, which often struggle to generate substantial profits.

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China sends a probe to get samples from the less-explored far side of the moon

In this photo provided by China’s Xinhua News Agency, a Long March-5 rocket, carrying the Chang’e-6 spacecraft, blasts off from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Wenchang, south China’s Hainan Province, Friday, May 3, 2024. China on Friday launched a lunar probe to land on the far side of the moon and return with samples that could provide insights into differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side. (Guo Cheng/Xinhua via AP)

FILE - This photo provided on Jan. 12, 2019, by the China National Space Administration via Xinhua News Agency shows the lunar lander of the Chang’e-4 probe in a photo taken by the rover Yutu-2 on Jan. 11. China is preparing to launch a lunar probe Friday, May 3, 2024, that would land on the far side of the moon and return with samples that could provide insights into geological and other differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side. (China National Space Administration/Xinhua News Agency via AP, File)

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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China on Friday launched a lunar probe to land on the far side of the moon and return with samples that could provide insights into differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side.

It is the latest advance in China’s increasingly sophisticated space exploration program, which is now competing with the U.S., still the leader in space.

China also has a three-member crew on its own orbiting space station and aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030. Three Chinese lunar probe missions are planned over the next four years.

Free from exposure to Earth and other interference, the moon’s somewhat mysterious far side is ideal for radio astronomy and other scientific work. Because the far side never faces Earth, a relay satellite is needed to maintain communications.

The rocket carrying the Chang’e-6 lunar probe — named after the Chinese mythical moon goddess — lifted off Friday at 5:27 p.m. as planned from the Wenchang launch center on the island province of Hainan. About 35 minutes later it separated entirely from the massive Long March-5 rocket — China’s largest — that had slung it into space, as technicians monitoring the launch from ground control smiled and applauded.

Shortly afterward, launch mission commander Zhang Zuosheng took to a podium at the front of the room and said the launch had gone off exactly as planned and the spacecraft was on its set trajectory. “I declare this launch mission a complete success,” Zhang said to further applause.

The Philippine Space Agency issued a statement saying expected debris from the rocket launch was “projected to have fallen within the identified drop zones.”

China in 2021 was forced to defend its handling of a rocket booster that burned up over the Indian Ocean after the administrator of the American space agency and others accused Beijing of acting recklessly by allowing its rocket to fall to Earth seemingly uncontrolled after the mission.

Huge numbers of people crowded Hainan’s beaches to view the launch, which comes in the middle of China’s five-day May Day holiday. As with previous recent launches, the event was televised live by state broadcaster CCTV.

After orbiting the moon to reduce speed, the lander will separate from the spacecraft and within 48 hours of setting down it will begin drilling into the lunar surface and scooping up samples with its robotic arm. With the samples sealed in a container, it will then reconnect with the returner for the trip back to Earth. The entire mission is set to last 53 days.

China in 2020 returned samples from the moon’s near side, the first time anyone had done so since the former Soviet Union in 1976. Analysis of the samples found they contained water in tiny beads embedded in lunar dirt.

Also in the past week, three Chinese astronauts returned home from a six-month mission on the country’s orbiting space station after the arrival of its replacement crew.

China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely because of U.S. concerns over the Chinese military’s total control of the space program amid a sharpening competition in technology between the two geopolitical rivals. U.S. law bars almost all cooperation between the U.S. and Chinese space programs without explicit congressional approval.

Faced with such limitations, China has expanded cooperation with other countries and agencies. The latest mission carries scientific instruments from France, Italy and the European Space Agency in cooperation with Sweden. A small Pakistani satellite is also on board.

China’s ambitious space program aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030 , as well as bring back samples from Mars around the same year and launch three lunar probe missions over the next four years. The next is schedule for 2027.

Longer-term plans call for a permanent crewed base on the lunar surface, although those appear to remain in the conceptual phase.

China conducted its first crewed space mission in 2003, becoming the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to put a person into space using its own resources.

The three-module Tiangong, much smaller than the ISS, was launched in 2021 and completed 18 months later. It can accommodate up to six astronauts at a time and is mainly dedicated to scientific research. The crew will also install space debris protection equipment, carry out payload experiments, and beam science classes to students on Earth.

China has also said that it eventually plans to offer access to its space station to foreign astronauts and space tourists . With the ISS nearing the end of its useful life, China could eventually be the only country or corporation to maintain a crewed station in orbit.

The U.S. space program is believed to still hold a significant edge over China’s due to its spending, supply chains and capabilities.

The U.S. aims to put astronauts back on the lunar surface by 2026 at the earliest. This time, though, NASA is partnering with private companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, which will provide the landers for the astronauts.

They plan to land on the moon’s south pole where permanently shadowed craters are believed to be packed with frozen water.

This story has been corrected to reflect the correct date of next U.S. lunar crewed mission and the last time before 2020 that lunar samples were brought back.