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Sustainable Tourism

What Is Your Understanding Of The Concepts Of Sustainable Tourism?

The substantial changes being experienced in the nature of tourism today and the recognition of the inter-personal relationship that exists between tourism and the natural environment have given birth to new ways to maintain and sustain tourism development. The unpredictable nature of tourism development especially in this age has evoked great concerns on the social, cultural and environmental impacts of tourism on the international levels and at national levels too (Weaver, 2012:1035). There seems to be a conflict between the target groups and policy enforcing bodies enforcing tourism sustainability.  To resolve problems such as the deration of our environment and the social milieu, there is an increase in tourism traffic and therefore questioning the most appropriate development strategies to use in achieving the desired sustainability in the right way.

The main problem in sustaining tourism is developed by the socio-cultural pollution incidents being experienced in most countries. The drive for sustainable tourism is based on the economic benefits of tourism (Stănciulescu & Diaconescu, 2015: 290).We ought to understand that the environment too has its impacts to the social life and sustainability. For tourism to achieve the mandated sustainability levels, it is advisable that it collaborates with other economic sectors that are natural and culturally highlighted to the complexities of sustaining tourism. The need for sustainable tourism has been accessed as a valuable long-term approach that will help renew the natural resources. This process involves working towards achieving long-term goals for both the natural and human resources to ensure that tourism does not lead to the loss of our cultural environment but will rather be a source of mutual enrichment. Note that sustainable tourism will contribute largely to the well-being of the environment and at the same time maintain harmony within the environment since it entails preserving and conserving tourist resources and destinations. This means that everyone must participate in preserving national heritage and conserving the natural environment.

What Is Your Understanding Of The Concept Of Sustainable Mass Tourism?

Personally, I would link sustainable mass tourism to seasonality. This is because in the first place mass tourism is influenced by the holidays or special occasions. Tourism has become a forceful industry in our markets making significant changes most of which have positive and negative impacts on the socio-economic perspectives of our country. Note that the development of tourism and its sustainability is very important to the economy of a country and especially in the less developed countries since it increases their foreign exchange earnings and at the same time generates employment.  To sustain and maintain mass tourism, the assigned government bodies should join forces, regulate the number of tourists getting to a particular tourist destination per day, and make a timetable that must be followed to the latter by groups touring the destinations. This will make sure that mass tourists do not exploit and destroy the natural and human resources they are visiting. In terms of security, mass tourism is sustainable through the provision of more infrastructure like surrounding tourist sites with gates and fences to make sure that mass groups do not tamper with the sites. Due to mass tourism, sustaining tourism has become hard for many nations and most of them have not been able to sustain their natural heritage.

Mass tourism may lead to pollution problems in future and sustaining it could be the only solution right now. However, sustainable mass tourism is something that has been in our heads for decades now and received lots of criticism and debates. This kind of tourism is considered a bad type of tourism but with further developments, there is a probability that it will become sustainable. Sustainable mass tourism today is simply an ideology whose success is not applied in the tourism industry. Sustainable mass tourism must be discussed from a different point of view for it to be achieved by tourism industries (Steeles, 1993:10).

Do You Think Sustainable Mass Tourism Is An Appropriate Concept For Future Positioning Of Destinations?

Sustainable mass tourism is a future development that is basically focused on planning on how to regulate the mechanism of mass tourism to protect the natural heritage from the threats of serious damage but precautions should be taken when dealing with this kind of sustainability to make sure that no group feels offended by the regulation put in place. For example if we take the case of Monteverde Cloud Forest which is found in Costa Rica.  We will realize that there have been a significant increase in its popularity among tourists from different parts of the world to the extent that the management has decided to increase the entrance fee to reduce the number of mass tourist coming to visit the place (Fennell & Ebert, 2004:461). There have also been limits on the number of people entering as well as restrictions on the marked trails. Conserving tourism resources has been a great problem for most developing countries although they have realized that they need to come up with solutions that will enable them sustain their natural heritage. Mass tourism sustainability may be hard to sustain bit large scale tourism development may be used to enhance tourism for groups and provide alternatives for the highly populated areas. Mass tourism is based on the consumption of packaged foods and other products and so because of the inability to sustain mass tourism; the other product to suit the needs of the tourists will substitute one products. What we now need to do to secure the future for tourism destinations is to develop new ideas that will involve travel consciousness and seek alternatives for mass tourism. The hosts should not let natural resources to be exploited by mass tourists but instead protect these resources as their sacred areas that mist be celebrated for their uniqueness. This way mass tourist will respect the places and sustain them for future (Gossling, 1999:320).

Apply The Terms ‘Sustainable Tourism’ And ‘Sustainable Mass Tourism’ To Your Case Study Location To Demonstrate Their Application.

My case study location will be the New Zealand tourism industry, which has decided to set up new strategies to maintain and sustain tourism and mass tourism. It is noted that New Zealand is fully prepared to embrace sustainable tourism in all its tourism sectors by setting bold goals aimed at sustaining the future in tourism (Saveriades, 2000:156). First mass tourism in Zealand is experienced in the coastal and mountainous regions where groups of tourists love visiting. Caring and sustaining these resources is part of managing the culture and the natural heritage by building an environment that is clean and safe for the natural habitat. I strongly believe that New Zealand is capable of achieving a tourism industry that well sustained and environmentally sustainable. Apart from that, the sector will be economically and culturally diverse and sustainable too. The industry has the opportunity to create a tourist experience that will not be treasured by the tourists but also inspirational to them. This way it will be easier for mass tourists to sustain and maintain the resources when they visit the tourist destinations. The overall sustainability of the tourism industry will be the center of the tourism success in the country and economy as well (Nejati, Mohamed, & Omar, 2015:114).

Keeping in mind that tourism is a great contributor to the economy of New Zealand, sustainable mass tourism will ensure that more income is generated and employment created. The environmental work of sustaining the tourism industry goes beyond sustaining the natural resources and ventures into restoring the environment by eradicating the use of pesticides on lands and other harmful chemicals. The environment sustaining organizations together with the tourism industries have joined forces in balancing the society, economy and environment. They make sure that all the aspects contributing to mass tourism are catered for and the masses re well organized and disciplined. The industry is even thinking of adopting a Green Globe program that aims at promoting social and environment sustainability. By embarking on such moves, it will be much easier for the industry to sustain the resources and at the same time boost the economy of the country through tourism and creation of employment. The government has also taken a lead in sustaining tourism in New Zealand through successful pilot programs dabbed at sustaining mass tourism and tourism al large (McKercher, 1993:136).