Can Tourism Be Sustainable En the 21st Century

Tourism is the world’s largest industry with nature-based ecotourism seeing rapid growth since its initial arrival in the 1980s. It is estimated by the World Tourism Organisation that nature tourism generates 7% of all international travel expenditure (Lindberg, 1997) and this figure will have increased rapidly over recent years. It’s increase in popularity is due to a number of factors; tourists becoming increasingly bored of the typical sun, sea and sand holiday’s, the increase in global awareness or environmental issues such as global

Making tourism more sustainable is not just about controlling and managing the negative impacts of the industry. Tourism is in a very special position to benefit local communities, economically and socially, and to raise awareness and support for conservation of the environment.

Tourism plays a significant role in sustainable development and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) wish to encourage all countries to make sure that their policies and actions for its development and management fully embrace the principles of sustainability. Likewise, policies to promote sustainable development should take full account of the opportunities offered by tourism. Various international conventions and declarations have put forward principles and guidelines for sustainable tourism and the importance of tourism and its sustainability was underlined at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. Many countries declare that they are pursuing, or wish to pursue, policies for ‘sustainable tourism’. Despite this interest, there remains a degree of uncertainty over the scope and priorities for making tourism more sustainable and only partial appreciation of how to put this into practice (Making Tourism More Sustainable, 2005).

Sustainable development is the economic development that is conducted with depleting natural resources and also the development of tourism that meets the needs of the present without compromising future generation’s ability to meet their own needs (WCED, 1987). Sustainable tourism refers to the practices, policies and programs that is considered to reach the expectations of the tourist with not natural resources management but also the communities that are affected by tourism (UNEP, 2011). Sustainable tourism should maintain a level of tourist satisfaction as well as their expectations. Taking the opportunity to raise awareness to them about sustainable issues and promote sustainable practices amongst them (UNWTO,

When it comes to the topic of ecotourism, most of us will readily agree that it is a less harmful alternative to mass-tourism and that it promotes responsible and low-impact travel to areas where flora, fauna and cultural heritage are the primary drawing power. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of what the impact of ecotourism actually is and what its long-term consequences are. Whereas some are convinced that ecotourism provides the basis for sustainable development, particularly in places that suffer from exploitation and excessive resources’ usage, and that could only improve the general conditions of the local people, others maintain that we are still far from true ecotourism, for many are those in the

Tourism plays a vital role in economic development in most countries around the world. The industry has not only direct economic impact, but also significant indirect and influential impacts. There is agreement among experts that the travel and tourism sector is the fastest growing of global economy. According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, international tourism receipts surpass US$ 1 trillion in 2011, growing about 3.8%up from 2010 (WTO, 2012).

Ecotourism has been growing rapidly over the last decades. Yet, while ecotourism has the potential to create positive environmental and social impacts, it can unfortunately be as damaging as mass tourism if not done properly.

One of the larger issues at hand in the world today is ecotourism. Ecotourism allows people to visit areas around the world that have experienced little to no human impact such as pollution, traffic, and other types of invasive expansion. It revolves

The Travel and Tourism industry is still one of the largest single businesses in world commerce and its importance is widely recognized. The tourism industry is now one of the largest sectors earning foreign exchange. In the face of many benefits, many countries have started assigning due weight age to the tourism industry in their national development agenda. Tourism is an industry that operates on a massively broad scale: it embraces activities ranging from the smallest sea-side hotel; to air-lines, multi-national hotel chains and major international tour operators. Originally, non-traditional industries such as tourism emerged as a solution to strike a balance between ecology and industry

The System of National Accounts does not include the tourism as a traditional sector; consequently it is very rare that countries produce appropriate national statistics on the energy demand or emissions clearly resulting from tourism. Just recently researchers started to study energy consumption by tourist activities and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to the anthropogenic component of global warming.

This research report has been written based on the information found on peer reviewed journals, articles, textbook, and Internet sources. This paper carefully reviews three current trends that affect today’s resorts and how resorts are responding to these newly brought up trends to be marketable. However, this paper does not cover estimation of sustainability for each trends and possible new trends that are becoming popular as there are improvements made in various areas in the world. If required, extended research can be done on the effect of trends on economy status of countries and forecast of tourism in the future.

What is sustainable tourism? According to the World Tourism Organization (2005), sustainable tourism means, “It 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.” There are several destinations that are focusing on sustainable tourism. In the United States, Disney is starting to realize they can make a difference by switching to a more sustainable environment. On the other hand, internationally in Costa Rica, at Rainforest Adventures, they have developed sustainable practices for their guests to get involved with.

Tourists are environmental consumers and thus, the tourism industry axiomatically requires natural environment and human quality. In the broadest sense, environmental issues and social responsibility practices are academic and hence, are unrelated to business interests. As a result, the study aims to measure the awareness level of tour operations and ascertains the current practices that have enabled practical, positive, and professional pressure for the development of sustainability in the tourism industry. Tour operators are business entities combining two or more services of travel (sightseeing, transport, catering, accommodation, and entertainment among others) thereafter sell them through agencies of travel or to consumers directly as a package tour. In essence, a tour operator becomes an intermediary who brings both buyers and sellers together with the aim of expanding the market size through the creation of markets where they did not exist, and or ensure the existing markets work efficiently (Cooper et al. 1998, p.189). This study aims at recognizing the plan of their programs, which has enabled the tour operators to remain profitable despite the existing competition in the sector. Undifferentiated products and small margins particularly the mass marketers characterize the British tour operators. Furthermore, operators like Thomson, Airtours, and First Choice dominate the market although the trend is moving towards oligopoly.

Retention of Visitor spending: The key to achieving economic sustainability for tourism in (i.e. California and Giants Causeway) is maximising the economic retention of tourist spending in your local economy. The sustainable tourism businesses need to develop strategies that are capable of meeting the long-term economic needs and aspirations of the local community. If the communities are engaged by tourism organisations as stakeholders in tourism, and economic partners in the tourism industry, this will actively support local tourism businesses. Tourism is a rapidly growing industry and has far-reaching economic and environmental impact across the destinations; hence, if tourism is an important source of local employment and a significant

Unquestionably, Hong Kong is a blessed land where possesses prosperity and most of the elements of being a world class cosmopolitan which has successfully attracted visitors over years, especially from the mainland by emphasising our world-class shopping, dining and other urban attractions (Lam, H., 2004). Despite the flourishing scene of the tourism industry, the volatile tourist markets and growing competition from Southeast Asian countries and neighbouring destinations have posed new challenges to Hong Kong’s tourism industry.