About sustainable tourism

When it comes to preserving the environment, sustainable tourism is a major issue. Tourism is the world’s largest industry. Its impact for good or bad on the environment is tremendous. Many resorts that were once popular have now become seldomly visited wastelands. This is because the very tourism that exploited the human and natural resources has also destroyed them and as a result, the resorts have lost their popularity.

Tourism, to explore nature and different cultures, has been in existence since time immemorial. Yet, the widespread concern that tourism could have a negative impact on a locale is recent. As environmental awareness increased, so did the steps that tourist were willing to take to preserve and to positively affect the area that they were visiting. The general agreement is that sustainable tourism began in earnest in the 1970's under the label of ecotourism. Still, some organizations such as the Field Studies Council in the United Kingdom, have been providing Eco-tours since 1943 and tours of Spain for nearly 20 years.

Inappropriate tourism developments and practices degrade habitats and landscapes, deplete natural resources, and generate waste and pollution. Ecotourism, as defined by the International Tourism Society, is responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well being of local people. This includes improved planning, management, marketing, and regulation; and ensuring equitable distribution of benefits to all stakeholders. But does this definition go far enough? What about the tourist?

If ecotourism is ever to overtake the senseless destruction of the world's natural areas, it certainly has to develop at a much faster pace. We hope that our website helps to demonstrate to the tourism industry that ecotourism can be more profitable than mainstream tourism. It is this potential for profit that has the greatest ability to cause the most profound changes. Or is there more to it than a simple commercial incentive? And are we making a mistake when we talk about ecotourism as being synonymous with sustainable tourism? Can sustainable tourism come in other shapes and sizes?

At face value, the definition of ecotourism given above makes sense, and the financial incentive for commercial organisations to invest in ecotourism also makes sense. But the passion for and the soul behind ecotourism is missing. This is the passion and the soul that are required to turn what might be good ecotourism into great ecotourism, into a genuinely sustainable ecotourism. And by focussing our attention on ecotourism, we are ignoring alternative forms of sustainable tourism that focus on themes such as health, culture, history and agriculture. The following text goes a step further and sheds some light on how we envisage the passion for and the soul of ecotourism.

So what is Ecotourism? Let's start by looking at what it is not: Think about the sorts of tourism development which are most often promoted. Images of luxury cruises, package deals and crowded resorts spring to mind. Remember how it felt to join the hordes of holiday makers, crowding into hotels and restaurants where the staff was as stressed as yourself. There is a yawning gap between the restful break you had envisioned and the tension built up around crowded accommodations, high prices pitched at tourists, and perhaps a growing unease that the locals may wish you would go home. Underlying the more tangible contradictions between travel industry promises and on the ground experiences lies a vast extractive industry which is built upon an outmoded industrial mindset. For all the promises that touristic development will bring jobs and income to the local hosts, the conventional tourism model provides jobs mostly at the lowest paid services end of the scale, locks up land and other natural resources needed by local inhabitants for their own livelihoods, and takes most of the profits back out of the system to be deposited in distant banks. To top it off, having succumbed to the hype about getting up close and personal with an exotic culture, you now feel as though you are viewing it all from the isolation of an observation booth. You are "the tourist".

So what's a better alternative? What if tourists started to think of themselves as visitors and guests, rather than consumers? What if the local people you have decided to visit controlled the terms, and especially the scale of tourism develpment? What if profits stayed within the community, diversifying into a range of social and ecological investments which genuinely improved the quality of life for the community? You might stay in a B&B, eat at the same places as the local residents, take day hikes into nearby parks and wild areas, or take in aspects of the local culture. But these would be more likely to be the sorts of events attended by your hosts as well, than set up for the consumption of tourists. You would return home feeling as though you had actually come to know the place, and made some new friends in the process. This is the heart of the ecotourism concept: Promoting travel that helps sustain local populations and encourages conservation while broadening the mind and enlivening the soul.

Genuinely sustainable tourism is tourism in which the needs of the tourist and tourism industry are met alongside the local population and environmental needs. So instead of frowning on luxury cruises, we could develop another mindset, e.g. cruise ships and charter boats are a great way to explore our world whilst being very friendly to our marine environment, and what we do once we reach the shores of other civilisations depends very much on whether we are treated as tourists or welcomed as guests, and whether we decide to behave as tourists or as guests.

What kinds of tourism are sustainable?

Please note that the definitions below are not mutually exclusive, i.e. the definitions are subjective, according to local differences and nuances in meaning, and hence varying degrees of overlap exist between definitions.

Adventure tourism : Adventure tourism is a form of tourism involving exploration or travel to remote areas, where the traveller should expect the unexpected. Adventure tourism typically involves travelling into remote and inaccessible areas. Some popular examples are river rafting, backpacking (also tramping or trekking in some countries) and river trekking (a combination of trekking and climbing and sometimes swimming along the river).

Ecotourism : Ecotourism is a form of tourism that occurs in natural areas and integrates the local socio-cultural identity with ecosystem considerations. It promotes a sustainable ecosystem through a participatory environmental management processes involving all stakeholders.

Health tourism : Health tourism is a form of tourism involving activities that deliberately promote good health. Examples of health tourism include visiting exercise or meditation centers or resorts that provide health services or specialize in vegetarian food. Such visits are typically of a specified duration, such as 3, 5 or 7 days.

Agro tourism : Agro tourism is a form of tourism in agricultural areas such as orchards, agro forestry farms, herbal farms and animal farms, which have been prepared in some way for the tourists. More importantly, tourists gain experience in farming activities such as working with animals or harvesting crops, usually under the supervision of a farm guide. Lectures describing the operation of the farm may also be given.

Cultural tourism : Cultural tourism is a form of tourism that allows tourists to admire and learn about local culture and traditions. The local community participates in the management of this form of tourism, which is based on the principle of conserving local culture and the environment. Examples of culture-based tourism include visiting royal palaces or experiencing local life in a hill-tribe village.

Heritage tourism : Heritage tourism encompasses a number of diverse dimensions such as: handicrafts, language, festivals and events, gastronomy, art and music, architecture, historic sites, heritage resources, working environments / technology, religion, education, dress and 'sense of place'.

Every kind of existing tourism operation can become Sustainable Tourism if tourism managers take responsibility for the destination's socio-cultural and natural environment.

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