The need to create sustainability in the tourism industry"

Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie

Published: 14th of March 2014

Introduction

The current business environment is such that is filled with uncertainty and uncertainty in this sense is a measure of the level of continued long-term success for the business. Basically, the business setting creating in the modern economy is different from what was obtainable in the past and the level of difference is measured on high level of internationalization of firms and globalization that has opened the economy wide and given numerous companies the fighting chance that they so desire. This means that the only way for profit is ensuring consistent returns in business revenue in order to bridge the gaps that might exist as a result of reduction due to competition.

Sustainability has been defined in numerous ways, but the general understanding is that it entails meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the chances of the future generation to meet their own needs. Such an understanding shells high level of significance in the tourism industry especially with numerous accounts of lost species and poor management that introduces the potential of the industry not being sustainable and the needs of the future generation to see these species with their own eyes not being meet.

As such, this is the background from which this paper is develop, which is to understand the concepts of sustainable development and sustainable management in the tourism industry and this concept will be built around the understanding that the tourism industry will be able to meet the needs of the present generation while not compromising the potentials of the future generation to meet that own needs. As such, the argument now becomes that “there is a need to create sustainability in the tourism industry” because it is the only way that the tourism needs of the present generation will be meet while that of the future generation will not be compromised. The arguments in support of the above statement will be presented in the body of the paper below, with a critical review on the pros and cons of such practices.

What is sustainable tourism?

Weaver (2006) is one of the numerous authors to have looked into understanding the need for sustainability in the tourism industry, and their notion is the same with what has been presented in the introduction above. While these authors defer in their view of what sustainability should be like in the tourism industry, with some of the authors focusing on the medical aspect, others on nature, others on leisure and hotel, the general consensus presented by these authors in the form of their definition.

The tourism industry basically involves the section of the economy that is concerned with enriching the wellbeing of humanity by making provisions for necessary supports in the form of leisure activities, and/or interesting features of a country that visitors do or don’ have in their own geographical area, and which they can make use of in order to enrich their life (Fennell 2003). Good examples come in the form of hotels, recreation centred, advanced hospitals, education and natural reserves. On that note, sustainability in the tourism industry means the way in which all these resources can be well managed and used to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the potentials of future generation to meet their own need (that is to have these resources towards enriching their own lives as well) (Weaver 2006).

Tourism planning: a sustainable approach

This section will start with defining the planning and tourism development that will be adopted for analysis, and it is based on the definition given by the World Tourism Organization (WTO, 1999) which make stated that it is very important that planning in the tourism industry be geared towards the reservation of socio-economic benefits to the society, paying particular attention to environmental protection and culture. Basically, the underlying notion presented in the definition is the need for the environment to be protected and the cultures of people living in the society be preserved through approaches that doesn’t endanger such resources.

The definition of planning can be presented as a method used in rationalizing decisions based on pre-set goals. On that note, the notion presented above is that tourism planning should be part of the tourism development model, in which planning of the absence of it will lead to a model in the tourism development. From a holistic approach, it has been considered needs to tourism industry and other parts of the economy to usher in a real focus on sustainability (Svensson and Wagner, 2011a, b; Dredge, 1999;Hunter, 1997; Pilgram, 1990; Høgevold and Svensson, 2012; Svensson and Wagner, 2011a, b; Dos Santos, 2011; Cambra-Fierro and Ruiz-Benı´tez, 2011; Høgevold, 2011). The notion presented by these literatures comes in the form of establishing a balance between economic, social and environmental views in which the ideology for establishing balance is such that tourism industry should be planned in a way that it is capable of returning significantly in the nation’s economy and towards the economic development of the country, preserving the environment in the course of its business activities that yields such returns in order to such returns to be consistent in long-term as the lack of preservation will mean that they will not be able to yield such returns because the resources will not be available anymore. Finally, preserving the cultural view of the society that they operate in by ensuring that their business practices is not such that contradicts with these social values of the society they operate in.

Complexity in the tourism industry

In a 2006, the Australian Tourism Industry presented an analysis of the tourism industry and one of the highlights in the paper comes in the form of complexity in the industry. In the analysis, it was noted that the industry is very complex as a result of different people that work in different sections for the purpose of providing tourism and hospitality services (Australian Tourism Industry 2006). The fact is that there are different sectors in the tourism industry, which can include the hotel segment, natural environment segments, entertainment, medical and education. The implication is that since these segments are different, there approach and activities are different as such they will have different roles to play in maintaining sustainability. For instance, the natural reserve segments are better positioned towards maintaining sustainability of the wildlife, while the entertainment segment are better positioned towards maintaining the social value of the society. As such, this difference creates a high level of complexity in terms of defining the expectations from each of these segments and what they are supposed to be. On that account, complexity can be argued to have negative influence on the level of sustainability established in the tourism industry and this is based on the underlying fact that they create a sense of difference in terms of what is expected of the people in the industry and how such expectations can be measured 

The need for sustainability in the tourism industry

There is no doubting the fact that the tourism industry play significant role in the economy of any given state, and role come sin form of both economic growth and creation of value for the products and services offered in the state. For instance, Hollywood is regarded across the world as the home of movies and this is because of the application of right strategies that have helped differentiate them with other countries and created high level of sustainability in terms of what is obtainable in the industry.

Just like a every other industry in the segment of any given economy, the tourism industry plays a significant role in employment, job creation, entrepreneurship, economic growth, preservation of culture and values of the society and most important preservation of the natural wonders that such an economy is blessed with. As such, there is a need for sustainability to be created in order to sustain these features discussed above. There is a new theoretical model on tourism development and it is based on understanding the best approaches that can be adopted in order to ensure sustainability in this industry, and numerous researches such as Clarke (1997), Crouch and Ritchie (1999), Godfrey (1998), Genest and Legg (2003), Ritchie and Crouch (2000, 2003), Mihlac (2000), Valls (2004), Vera and Ivars (2003), Pardellas and Padı´n (2005), Mazaro (2007) and the efforts of theWTO(2000, 2004),have been in support of this new model by suggesting that there is a need to adopt the model of sustainability in interpreting the complexity of the tourism industry, which will be based on defining new values and not just aim at reducing the environmental impact, but also seeking development in parameters that on their own seek to meet the needs of the communities, tourist and those who operate business in the tourism industry within a sustainability criteria.

As such, the argument above is based on the understanding that there is a need to ensure sustainability in the tourism industry because the industry plays significant role in the economy. When sustainability is ensure, the inflow of tourist will be ensured as well and this will mean a subsequent increase in the level of sales within the industry, demand for tourist related products and services, sustainable employment and a subsequent move towards a sustainable economy. Sustainability in the tourism means numerous benefit to the economy, the people who operate in it and the tourists that make use of the services. A more significant importance comes in the form that it would allow the future generation to witness these good gifts of nature as presented above and it call for the need to reserve these natural wonders in its natural state.

Institutions involved in sustainability in the tourism industry

In order to ensure that the sustainability as discussed above is achieved in the tourism industry, a number of agencies have a role to play towards such. The most significant comes in the form of government. Since the government is responsible for enacting and executing rules in the country, they are better positioned to ensure sustainability in the industry by defining ways activities in the industry will be run, measurement for such and the consequences for not abiding with the set standards. The government are basically the right people to defining the approach to sustainability because the benefits of such is most significant to the government considering the discussions above that sustainability plays significant role in economic growth of the nation.

Besides the government, other agencies exist in the different sectors of the tourism industry and these agencies are responsible for ensuring sustainability in the system. One of the is the wildlife conservation agency, which is an agency established in numerous states for the purpose of conserving wild lives and they come in the form of either zoo or game reserves. These agency adopt the necessary steps to ensure that endangered species are given the right environment to rebreed and survive again in order to advance their species and make them available for the future generation.

Another agency comes in the form of natural water and aquatic life conservation agency. Just like the wild life, this agency is responsible for conserving the species in the aquatic system, as well as conserving natural water resources in order to ensure that they don’t run out of availability in the future. There are also other agencies that come in the form of hospitality and tourism, which are focused with regulating the services provided for tourists in the state. All these agencies work either independently or dependently towards achieving the absolute goal of sustainability in the tourism industry.

Conclusion and recommendation

From the above discussion, a number of discoveries appear in the form importance of sustainability in the tourism industry. The paper has identified the tourism industry as having a significant role to play in the development of the economy, preservation of social value and the protection of the environment. This role comes in the form that they employee people in the economy, attract tourist, promote the values of the country through tourism, and support entrepreneurship. As such, if sustainability is ensured, all these features will be in the system and this will mean a subsequent increase in development of the economy.

In any case, the paper pointed out a number of issues that hinder the potential of sustainability be created in this industry and these issues have been linked to be outcomes of the complexity in the industry. As a result of the differences in terms of functionality and market segment, maintaining sustainability is hardened because these segments don’t have a clear definition of their expected contribution towards making such possible.

However, the paper has been also been successful in highlighting a number of agencies of which the government tops the list, which can enhance sustainability in the system. These agencies have the right tool towards making such success achievable based on the underlying fact that they understand this industry and are well positioned to communicate the need as well as enact the laws that will ensure sustainability. On that note, it is recommended that these agencies should exercise their will and power, and create a sustainable tourism industry, with the benefit being that they will be able to ensure sustainable economic development in the country.