SUSTAINABLE TOURISM FOR DEVELOPMENT

         Sustainable Tourism for Development

As per the reports by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), in the year 2013, receipts in destination worldwide from the expenditures conducted by the tourists on accommodations, food, clothing etc. fetched a whopping USD 1159 billion and the good news is that these figures are bound to undergo huge increments of up to 5 percent per year in the upcoming years. All in all, on an average the international tourism generates around USD 1.4 trillion in export earning everywhere. In the United States of America alone there has been an increase of 6.9 percent in the tourism receipts from 2014-15, while other hotspot tourists’ destinations such as Thailand and India registered a record 16 and 17.3 percent increment respectively in the receipt of their tourism.

All the aforementioned figures veraciously portray the huge success attained by the tourism departments around the world. With more income flow in the developing countries as well as the generation of sophisticated transportation amenities, these figures are surely constrained to soar high. But just as many other things, tourism too cast a huge influence on the environmental issues. To have a small dekko at this facet, let me tell you that aviation alone constitutes for 55 percent of transportation of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases. Now when tourists travel to a different destination, they use the energy, fossil fuel etc. of that place, coalescing to form a huge chain of environmental effect. That’s why according to reports by the year 2050; tourism sector would alone be the sole sector responsible for 40 percent of global carbon emissions. The main causes of such a rapid and horrendous change would be aviation, deforestation (to create lands for tourists to take stay around the tourist destinations) and industrialisation in various places powered by their tourism sector. One horrifying example is that of Mount Everest. At the base camps situated on the mountain, 12,000 pounds of human waste is generated by around 70,000 visitors who visit the mountain annually and unfortunately since there is no service provided to dispose of the waste, the waste is accumulated on the mountain and this has been going on for years.  

Hence, tourism, notwithstanding being a humongous income generator, is also transmuting itself to pose a grave danger to the climate and environment.

Owing to such issue, today we face an impending need to do something in order to tackle this serious trouble. Since we can’t and mustn’t stop tourism in any way and we can also not dare to assault our much-degraded environment anymore; we must resort to finding a method to fillip our tourism as well as environment simultaneously and here comes the role of SUSTAINABLE TOURISM.

Sustainable tourism is, in fact, a new aspect of sustainable development which focuses on using our resources judiciously so that the coming generations can use them, thus enforcing the belief that “we don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” Keeping in mind that we need to pay our dues back; sustainable tourism is a must for this technologically advanced century.

To know more about sustainable tourism, first, we need to have a clear understanding of the stakeholders in sustainable tourism.

The foremost stakeholders would be the ethnic communities of the different tourist destinations around the world. They can range from tribal communities to developed societies, depending on the financial status of the area being visited.

The next in line is the government. It is the government of the nation that manages the influx of tourists and hence conducts all the activities regarding the tourism from arranging things on a national base to publicity of various places that would try to elevate the interest of the coming tourists.

NGOs (Non-Government Organisation) too play an indispensable role in this issue. Bishnoi community in India and Moscone Center , San Francisco, USA (who have a wonderful recycling and solar power plant) are just a few examples of organizations who are working to ensure the safety and health the places near them and this in itself is conducive to sustainable tourism. Such organizations largely help the tourists in the area by informing them about the necessary things about the area and also restrain them from anyhow disturbing the serenity of their places.

Now as we know about the stakeholders, now is the time to have a pensive look at the sustainable tourism and its principles.

After the Rio conference of the year 1992 regarding issues and development, a major upheaval in the United Nations policy came up in the year 2012 in Rio again (Rio+20 summit)when UN assembled to talk on the sensitive issue of sustainable development. Sustainable tourism is also a brainchild of this convention only and the convention mapped out some serious ways in order to boost sustainable tourism.

Some of the key guidelines were to notify the tourists about the different ins and outs of the places that they are going to visit. This would include information about local beliefs, ethnicity of the place and also about the culture and economics about the communities in their destination; asking them to support the entity and integrity of the local communities involved, to make purchases only from businesses which guarantee no environment degradation; to use least possible amount of the non-renewable resources and above all to be environmentally cautious. 

It’s much tractable to talk about these things but when it comes to their execution, it’s a pretty formidable task to apply the things into action. The biggest problems that we face originate in the developing nations especially in Africa and Asia. The indigenous people have to pay a brutal price for the sake of tourism. For example, in the year 1996, 5200 residents of the city of Pagan, Myanmar were forcibly displaced in order to create space for the “Visit Myanmar Year’. One significant case is of our nation also. After the 2006 tsunami Southern India, Thailand and Sri Lanka earmarked the traditional lands of the tribes for tourism which led to the displacement of millions of people. One more significant case in the African continent is of Maasai tribes.

These communities are completely battered down by such relocation and to add injury to insult they are not even paid their rehabilitation money to a satisfactory extent. Due to the red tapes and rampant corruption, tainted officials suck out the money meant for these needy people and at last, they are just left out to live a life of misery and agony.

One more serious issue is that of illegal profit-making. Nowadays sustainability has actually become an oxymoron as well as an ostentatious concern. Various corporate activities covertly extort out the land which is the birthright of the indigenous tribes or population and in the court of law, the voices of these people are subverted in the name of sustainability and conservation of environment. These companies then erect lavish hotels etc. on the acquired land and benefit immensely through tourism.

Coastal tourism has also led to much concern. Destruction of water species near the coast as well as the displacement of the tribal groups in the coastal regions, is also a big issue that needs to be addressed in an exigent manner. The Great Barrier Reef in Australia which is currently in a much severe condition holds tourism as one of the culprits behind its current scenario. Though tourism can be attributed to around USD 1.52 billion income but it has also left no stone unturned in disturbing the natural makeup of the reef. Fragile corals are broken by reef walking, dropped anchors or by boats dropping fuel and other sorts of pollution. Even the number of people in the water with the associated run-off of sweat and suntan lotions may well have a negative impact on the fragile reef environment.

The world has tried to develop the issue of sustainable tourism so as to lessen the harm that it afflicts to environment by attaching the sustainable tourism with the development strategy. By merging up the principles of sustainable development in their development strategy for the area, by compensating all the tribes to the best extent, by decreasing the government’s dependence on corporate sector, to deal with these specifically precious areas, we can surely lessen out the damage. There has been the promotion of sustainable tourism practices surrounding the management of tourist locations by locals or the community. This form of tourism is based on the premise that the people living next to a resource are the ones best suited to protecting it. This means that the tourism activities and businesses are developed and operated by local community members, and certainly with their consent and support. Sustainable tourism typically involves the conservation of resources that are capitalized upon for tourism purposes. Locals run the businesses and are responsible for promoting the conservation messages to protect their environment.

Community-based sustainable tourism (CBST) associates the success of the sustainability of the ecotourism location to the management practices of the communities who are directly or indirectly dependent on the location for their livelihoods. A salient feature of CBST is that local knowledge is usually utilized alongside wide general frameworks of ecotourism business models. This allows the participation of locals at the management level and typically allows a more intimate understanding of the environment.

The use of local knowledge also means an easier entry level into a tourism industry for locals whose jobs or livelihoods are affected by the use of their environment as tourism locations. Environmentally sustainable development crucially depends on the presence of local support for a project.  It has also been noted that in order for success projects must provide direct benefits for the local community.

These methods are surely going to fetch respite for the displaced communities as well as the environment but still, much work needs to be done since we can never compromise with the security of our environment and mother earth.

Albeit we stand on the frontiers of this great 21^st century of technological advancements but surely we can’t snub asunder our environment because if there is no environment, there can be no civilisation in the world and sustaining the environment would eventually mean sustaining the human race. Now the decision lies on our shoulders.

JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT

JAI MA BHARTI