Sustainable Tourism Development

Tourism is one of the world’s fastest growing industries and is a major source of income for many countries. Being a people-oriented industry, tourism also provides many jobs which have helped revitalize local economies. However, like other forms of development, tourism can also cause its share of problems, such as social dislocation, loss of cultural heritage, economic dependence and ecological degradation. Learning about the impacts of tourism has led many people to seek more responsible holidays. These include various forms of alternative or sustainable tourism such as: ‘nature-based tourism’, ‘ecotourism’ and ‘cultural tourism’. Sustainable tourism is becoming so popular that some say that what we presently call ‘alternative’ will be the ‘mainstream’ in a decade. All tourism activities of whatever motivation – holidays, business travel, conferences, adventure travel and ecotourism – need to be sustainable. Sustainable tourism is defined as “tourism that respects both local people and the traveler, cultural heritage and the environment”. It seeks to provide people with an exciting and educational holiday that is also of benefit to the people of the host country. Sustainable tourism is the concept of visiting a place as a tourist and trying to make only a positive impact on the environment, society and economy. A key aspect is respect for the people who call the location home, the culture and customs of the area, and the socio-economic system. While sustainable tourism is sometimes confused with ecotourism, ecotourism is actually only one aspect of sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism focuses on respect for an area’s cultures and customs. The concept is not to hide your own culture, but to try to absorb and understand the local way of life. The social aspect of sustainable tourism pays special attention to human rights and increasing the opportunities for all members of a society. While economic sustainability promotes the idea that tourism profits be kept within the local community, social sustainability deals with the distribution of these profits. The emphasis is on preventing the exploitation of one group of a society for the financial gain of another. While the majority of sustainable tourism’s aspects are focused on local sustainability, they should not overshadow the concept of tourist satisfaction. Many locations rely heavily on the tourism industry, so providing tourists with a rewarding experience is essential to economic success.