Sustainable tourism: Research and reality

Abstract

Social and environmental impacts, responses and indicators are reviewed for the mainstream tourism sector worldwide, in five categories: population, peace, prosperity, pollution and protection. Of the ~5000 relevant publications, very few attempt to evaluate the entire global tourism sector in terms which reflect global research in sustainable development. The industry is not yet close to sustainability. The main driver for improvement is regulation rather than market measures. Some tourism advocates still use political approaches to avoid environmental restrictions, and to gain access to public natural resources. Future research priorities include: the role of tourism in expansion of protected areas; improvement in environmental accounting techniques; and the effects of individual perceptions of responsibility in addressing climate change.

Integrating Cultural Heritage into Contemporary Life The Perspective of Local Communities: The Case of Arcadia, Greece

“…At the same time, local and foreign investments are encouraged and infrastructure and services are improved (Andriotis, 2004;Bachleitner and Zins, 1999;Besculides et al 2002;Brunt and Courtney, 1999;Buckley, 2012;Bujosa and Rossello, 2007;Esu and Arrey, 2009;Ko and Stewart, 2002;OECD, 2009;Sdrali and Chazapi, 2007;Tomljenovic, 2002;Turker and Ozturk, 2013).…”

“…Cultural tourism can contribute to the local economic regeneration and prosperity along with collateral benefits on the environmental and social level (Konsola, 1993;Polo and Frias, 2010;Tomljenovic, 2002;Tsartas, 2003), generating new job opportunities for the host population as well (Andriotis, 2004;Buckley, 2012;Bujosa and Rossello, 2007;Harrill, 2004;Ko and Stewart, 2002;OECD, 2009;Sdrali and Chazapi, 2007). Therefore, tourism is seen in such a way that the satisfaction of economic, social and aesthetic needs cannot disturb or threaten the cultural integrity, the biological diversity or the natural ecosystem but rather preserve them (Palaskas et al 2006).…”

Putting social impact assessment to the test as a method for implementing responsible tourism practice

“…Whilst recognizing that the imprecision of these concepts has political advantages in that it "allows many different interests to sit at a common table with the potential for exchange of views and, hopefully, learning" (Wall and Mathieson, 2006:292), critics feel that that this imprecision reduces its scientific validity and hampers its application as an analytical and practical tool (Buckley, 2012;Wall and Mathieson, 2006;Wheeller, 1991Wheeller, , 1993.One critic of sustainable tourism is Harold Goodwin, a founder of the responsible tourism approach, who argued that: "sustainable development lacks definition and measurable indicators to determine whether or not tourism is being successfully managed towards sustainability by government. Lip service is paid to the concept: it is used to generate work for consultants and NGOs, to bolster the reputation of companies and governments, but rarely are the outcomes measured or reported … The concept appears to be operative and is often used to secure resources and support, but in practice the principles are not applied, the concept is inoperative, the objectives are not achieved.…”

“…This ad hoc approach and the associated techniques for managing sustainability are criticised for a preoccupation with the environment at the expense of socio-economic issues (Buckley, 2012;Font and Harris 2004;Font, 2013;Leslie, 2012;Tearfund, 2001). Mowforth and Munt (2009: 200) observe that the tourism industry perceives sustainability in a very narrow and efficiency-focussed way where "social, cultural, distributional effects may be more difficult to measure, but they could not be much further from consideration than they are at present".…”

“…Whilst encouraging progress within the tourism sector has been made over the last decade in terms of implementing environmental management systems (EMS) Vanclay, 2012, 2007;Dodds and Joppe, 2005), the systematic management of the social impacts of tourism activities lags far behind (Blackstock et al, 2008;Buckley, 2012;Font et al, 2012;Mihalic, 2014;Mowforth and Munt, 2009). The view taken here is that the debate on the social impacts of tourism needs to shift to developing what can be done in practice to embed the management of these social impacts into the existing planning, product development and operational processes of the key tourism stakeholders, such as local government, local communities and private sector tour operators and travel agents.…”