Sustainable Development : A New Market Niche

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,

As defined by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), tourism comprises the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business, and other purposes. Key concepts of sustainable development and sustainable tourism, values and ethics of sustainable tourism and the needs of sustainability in all form of tourism shall be discussed in this essay.

The WTO (2001), however, defines sustainability in tourism literature as ‘Development that meets the needs of the today’s tourists and the host region while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future.’ It is envisaged as leading to the management of all resources in such a way that economic, social, and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecology processes, biological diversity and life support system.

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

In developing countries, many citizens define development as having a quality of life and surviving (citation 19:17). In contrast, societies in western countries often view development as a constant growth in technology, which often has negative impacts on the environment. As a result, the concept of sustainable development has been created to express new methods of evolving as a society without doing any damage to the environment (citation). In order to have economic gains in a country that practices sustainable development, it will be necessary for conservationists to promote tourism. For example, tourists often stay in resorts in Africa to admire wild predators, such as lions (citation). Although the development of resorts may have negative impacts on the environment, tourists contribute large amounts of money to the local communities. Additionally, trophy hunting serves as a reasonable form of sustainable development in countries where citizens are threatened by large predators. For example, in Tanzania, inhabitants have experienced falling victim to lion attacks (citation). Trophy hunting serves as a major form of development in Tanzania because individuals associate a numerical value with large animals (citation). This will result in an increased concern for the populations of these animals, which will promote conservation

Sustainable development is very important to our human being, meanwhile, it is one of the most significant developments for a company. The meaning of sustainable development is a “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Strange and Bayley, 2008, P24). Sustainable development actually is a synthesis that trying to find the way which can most benefit our current generation and future generation, thus, we have to consider the 3 pillars which are society, environment and economy because they are the three main aspects of human development. For example, we need an appropriate planet for us to stay and raise the food firstly, and in order to maintain equity and stability of the society, we have to balance work, culture and others which are related to people. Also, since these three pillars are interconnected, the economic pillar is very important,

The discussion on ecotourism and its essence has led to over eighty different definitions of the topic (Fennell, 2008). However, one of the most used and comprehensive definitions is reported by Weaver (ibidem). It describes ecotourism as “a form of tourism that fosters” awareness, education and enjoyment of the natural environment and the local values in a sustainable way (Weaver, 2001a:15). Hence, ecotourism, while thriving for profitability, aims to promote education and cultural awareness of destinations without compromising their ecosystems. Eco-tourists demand for more authentic and meaningful forms of travel and; according to Orams (1996) (in Weaver, 2001a), they can be classified in two different categories: hard and soft ones. The hard eco-tourists believe in “radical” self-commitment with their destination, in order to ameliorate the natural environment (give back something) through “not-mediated” (Weaver, 2001b:106), challenging physical activities immersed in the site’s nature (ibidem). However, the soft visitors have shallower levels of commitment to the environment than hard eco-tourists. Indeed, while hard eco-visitors tend to organise independently (where high competence and time availability are required and low level of services expected on-site), soft ones rely on eco-tour-operators to organise less physically demanding tours (tab. 1.1a) (ibidem).

This report is all about the eco-tourism business in South Africa. The chosen business is wild life experience park in which different activities are included like wild life safari, eco-friendly boating, whale and dolphin watching. In the wild life experience park the species are protected because the different species are placed at different part of the jungle. This report demonstrate the brief knowledge about the eco-tourism, Sustainable eco-tourism, sustainable practices, Impact are minimized by the practices and how effective are their policies and procedure in reducing the impact.

Tourism has been seen to be having some negative impact on the coral reefs. However, the involvement of human activity contributes to the economy of a country thus supporting lives of the individual. The coastal region is an important component in the sustainable of the economy. The ability of tourist to pay for a room to view the coral reefs is good enough in sustaining livelihoods of many individuals. According to the article on tourism on the Red Sea, it indicates that tourist contributes up to $32 million to the economy using the island of Bonaire in the Netherlands (Hawkins & Roberts, 1994). There should much involvement of the sustainable tourist development that involves careful development and planning. This tourism should be able to bring sustainable development. There have been some initiatives to bring powerful backing that will overcome the temptation of short-term financing gain in the booming industry of tourism. There must be some restrictions that should be put in place to ensure there is no doubt in the growth of the reefs.

The tourism sector has undoubtedly become one of the globe’s foremost drivers of economic development, sustainability and progress. This is because its rate of growth, links to other economic sectors as well as dependence on a relatively unblemished natural environment puts it into an inimitable position from an economic sustainability and development perspective. In the same breath, tourism has been singled out as one of the key sectors that can play a leading role in the world’s transition to an inclusive green economy characterized by low carbon release. Strategic shifts in tourism practices have the potential of yielding major benefits capable of stimulating change towards better sustainability not only in the tourism industry but in

Moreover, tourism and the environment are balancing sectors in terms of vision and goals. The environment is the right climate for sustainable tourism development, and sustainable tourism focuses on environmental planning. Perhaps the most important element on which eco-tourism is based is not to disturb the ecological balance resulting from human actions, which are represented by the behavior of tourists in the case of ecotourism and the pollution it may cause. In addition, natural areas form the basis for ecotourism from marine tourism and land tourism, and recent studies have shown that eco-tourism generates direct financial resources. What is more, the main objective of ecotourism is to promote and improve the standards of living of the local community (Kuhdairi, 2012)

Planning and development are both extremely important factors within the tourism industry and can have both positive and negative effects on the environment, local communities and tourist destinations. “Destination planning aims to limit the negative impacts of cultural tourism upon the history and lifestyles of the local community. An understanding of sustainable tourist development allows for the development of culture without loss of its authentic identity” (Maidment. T. 2012). This statement discusses the importance of planning to avoid having any negative impacts on environments and communities. Because the effects of tourism are so severe to destinations, many natural and cultural resources have been destroyed, therefore tourism planning is vital to preserve and maintain these places for future generations.