Why is sustainable tourism important, and what does it entail?

The four pillars of sustainable tourism are socioeconomic, cultural, environmental, and sustainable management.
By addressing the demands of its natural surroundings and the local communities, sustainable tourism takes into account its current and future effects on the economy, society, and environment. This is accomplished through managing tourism-related activities in a way that preserves natural ecosystems and wildlife, offering visitors only genuine experiences that don’t appropriate or misrepresent the region’s history and culture, or directly boosting the socioeconomic standing of the local community by providing jobs and training.

Travel destinations and organizations are starting to pay attention to sustainability as well as the direct and indirect repercussions of people’s behavior. For instance, the New Zealand Tourism Sustainability Commitment seeks to have all New Zealand tourism establishments committed to sustainability by 2025, and since 2017, visitors to the island nation of Palau have been obliged to sign an environmental commitment upon arrival.

When tourism businesses are able to satisfy the demands of visitors while minimizing their negative effects on the environment and creating long-term jobs for residents, they are deemed highly sustainable. When sustainable tourism is managed well, it may meet existing demands without sacrificing future ones by fostering great experiences for visitors, locals, and the sector as a whole.

Sustainability: What Is It?

Fundamentally, sustainability is about striking a balance between the resources that present and future generations will require to survive and our ability to enjoy the advantages of the environment, society, and economy. Though more recent definitions of sustainability emphasize finding ways to prevent depleting natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance and the quality of both human communities and the environment, sustainability principles historically tended to tilt toward commerce.

What Constitutes Sustainable Tourism?

For sustainable tourism to be successful, all sectors and stakeholders—including tourists, governments, host communities, and tourism businesses—must work together. This is because tourism both influences and is impacted by a wide range of various activities and industries.

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), the international standard for sustainable travel and tourism, and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the United Nations organization in charge of promoting sustainable tourism, share a similar understanding of what constitutes sustainable tourism. According to them, environmentally friendly travel should utilize resources as efficiently as possible while promoting intercultural understanding, protecting biodiversity and natural heritage, and honoring host communities’ sociocultural traditions. In terms of the economy, it should also guarantee sustainable operations over the long run that will benefit all parties involved, whether that means assisting in the reduction of poverty, offering social services, or giving locals steady jobs.

The GSTC has created a set of standards to provide a shared vocabulary for environmentally conscious travel and tourism. In addition to being used to identify sustainable enterprises and destinations, these standards can be utilized to assist in developing sustainable policies for corporations and governmental bodies. The global baseline criteria are divided into four categories: socioeconomic effect, cultural impact, environmental impact, and sustainable management.

Travel Advice:

Travelers want to learn more about becoming environmentally conscious travelers and where to locate sustainably managed travel locations and lodging might check out the GSTC.

Environment 

The cornerstone of sustainable tourism is the preservation of natural areas. According to data made public by the World Tourism Organization, CO2 emissions related to tourism are expected to rise by 25% by 2030. Transport-related emissions from long-haul international travel were predicted to increase by 45% by 2030, accounting for 5% of all man-made emissions in 2016.

The effects of tourism on the environment extend beyond carbon emissions. Unsustainable tourism management can lead to waste issues, land loss or soil erosion, the loss of natural habitats, and stress endangered species.2 These locations typically have limited resources, and the unfavorable effects can exacerbate the devastation of the environment that the industry depends on.

To be considered sustainable, industries and travel destinations need to contribute to resource conservation, pollution reduction, biodiversity preservation, and the preservation of significant ecosystems. Appropriate resource management, waste management, and emissions control are critical to achieving this. For instance, in Zanzibar, visitors use fifteen times as much water per night as locals do, and in Bali, tourism uses up sixty-five percent of the available water resources.

Purchasing decisions made by tour operators, hotels, and restaurants regarding the usage of locally produced suppliers and products is another aspect of environmentally conscious, sustainable tourism. How do they dispose of things and handle food waste? Offering paper straws rather than plastic ones is one easy way to significantly reduce an organization’s harmful pollution footprint.

There has been a rise in businesses that advocate for carbon offsetting recently. Carbon offsetting is a technique used to offset greenhouse gas emissions by canceling out emissions in another location. Similar to the notion that carbon offsetting shouldn’t be the main objective, reducing or reusing should come before recycling. The goal of sustainable tourist sectors is always to minimize emissions and make up for any that cannot be avoided.

Sustainable tourism that is well-managed also has the ability to offer substitutes for need-based occupations and actions like poaching. Residents frequently, and particularly in developing nations, resort to ecologically hazardous behaviors as a result of poverty and other social problems. For instance, an uncontrolled rise in visitors made it more challenging to stop poaching at India’s Periyar Tiger Reserve. As a result, 85 former poachers were converted into reserve gamekeepers through an ecodevelopment initiative designed to create jobs for the community. The group of gamekeepers is now safeguarding the area rather than abusing it, and they have created a number of tourism packages under the direction of the reserve’s management personnel. It has been discovered that employment in ethical wildlife tourism offers greater financial rewards compared to illicit labor.

Travel Advice:

Since planes use more fuel the more times they take off, flying nonstop and staying longer at one location can help reduce CO2 emissions.

Local Culture and Residents

Contributing to the preservation, enhancement, and protection of regional landmarks and customs is one of the most significant—yet often ignored—aspects of sustainable tourism. These comprise not only “intangible heritage,” such traditional art forms or ceremonial dances, but also regions of historical, archaeological, or cultural significance.

When a location serves as a tourist destination, it’s critical that access for locals isn’t hampered by the visitors. For instance, certain travel agencies design community-based initiatives that provide citizens with the opportunity to visit tourist destinations with cultural significance inside their own nations. Through the “Children in the Wilderness” program, Wilderness Safaris teaches young people in rural Africa the value of conserving wildlife and provides them with important tools for developing their leadership. Travels purchased with Responsible Travel support the company’s “Trip for a Trip” initiative, which plans day trips for underprivileged children who reside close to well-known tourist spots but have never had the chance to go.

Organizations that promote sustainable tourism collaborate with local communities to ensure that visitors’ experiences include a variety of local cultural expressions and are accurately portrayed. In order to provide tourists with a useful (and accurate) image of the place, they work with locals to interpret sites in a way that is culturally suitable. The idea is to make visitors appreciate the importance of the place and feel compelled to protect it.

Since 1997, Bhutan, a small landlocked nation in South Asia, has imposed an all-inclusive tax on foreign visitors ($200 per day during the off-season and $250 per day during the high season).6 In this way, the government is able to limit tourism to specific regions and to local entrepreneurs only, ensuring that the nation’s most valuable natural resources won’t be exploited.
Travel Advice:

Adding volunteer work to your holiday is a fantastic opportunity to have a deeper understanding of the local way of life while also making a positive impact on your host town. Through a locally managed charity or non-profit, you can also arrange a vacation that is mostly focused on volunteer work (but make sure that the job isn’t stealing employment options away from residents).

Economy
Making a business case for sustainable tourism is not hard, particularly if one considers a destination to be a commodity. Consider the preservation of an environment, tourist attraction, or cultural site as an investment. Sustainable tourism will make the most use of corporate resources while maintaining a healthy environment and happy locals. This is particularly true in areas where citizens are more inclined to complain to the sector if they believe it is treating tourists better than locals.

Reducing dependency on natural resources not only saves money over time, but research indicates that contemporary tourists are more willing to engage in eco-friendly travel. According to Booking.com research from 2019, 73% of travelers said they would rather stay at an eco-friendly hotel than a conventional one, and 72% said that people should travel sustainably in order to protect future generations.

Travel Advice:
Always consider the source of your mementos and whether the purchase directly supports the local economy. Consider choosing locally created mementos that are manufactured by craftsmen.

The Role of Tourists
For nine years running, the growth of the travel and tourist industries alone has exceeded the growth of the global economy as a whole. Travel and tourism contributed $9.6 trillion to the global GDP and created 333 million employment prior to the pandemic (or one in every four new jobs globally).8

Sustainable travel expenditures assist in paying employees’ salaries, which in turn support the local economy through taxes. Unknowingly supporting harmful or unsustainable behaviors that don’t improve the community’s future, travelers support those who underpay or mistreat their workforce. Similar to this, a hotel that disregards its ecological imprint can include constructing infrastructure near areas where animals breed or adding to an excessive amount of pollutants. The same is true of attractions, as places that are managed sustainably—like nature preserves—often use their income to fund conservation and scientific initiatives.

By designating 25.56% of its territory as either a national park, wildlife refuge, or reserve, Costa Rica was able to transform a dire deforestation catastrophe in the 1980s into a diversified tourism-based economy.

Travel Advice:

Consider how you would like visitors to your home town or nation to treat you while you are away.

Do You Travel in an Ecological Way?
Travelers that practice sustainability are aware that their visits leave an ecological and social legacy. consider locations, lodgings, and activities carefully. If you want to save money, consider locations that are closer to home or extend your stay. While on vacation, think about using more eco-friendly forms of transportation like walking, bicycling, or trains. Instead of focusing on big international chains, consider supporting family-run local businesses or tour operators. Choose a wildlife refuge over activities that hurt wildlife, including tiger petting and elephant riding. Better yet, join a beach clean-up or arrange for an hour or two of volunteer activity that piques your interest. By taking out what you bring in, not littering, and showing respect for the locals and their customs, you can leave natural environments exactly as you found them.

The majority of us go to see the world. Discovering novel cultures, customs, sights, sounds, and flavors is what makes travel so fulfilling. As tourists, it is our duty to make sure that these locations are preserved for upcoming generations of travelers as well as the communities that depend on them.

Sustainable Tourism Types

There are various facets to sustainable tourism, the majority of which are in opposition to more conventional mass tourism models that have a higher propensity to cause pollution, overtourism, environmental harm, cultural loss, and adverse economic effects.

Ecotourism
Ecotourism emphasizes environmentally conscious, conscientious vacation to unspoiled locations. Through responsible property management and the preservation or enhancement of neighboring natural protected areas, sustainable tourism organizations support and contribute to the protection of biodiversity (or regions of high biological value). This usually takes the form of money paid to conservation management, but it can also involve ensuring that infrastructure, tours, and other activities don’t disrupt natural ecosystems.

In agreement, interactions between free-roaming wildlife and humans should be non-intrusive and carefully controlled to prevent harm to the animals. Prioritize your travels to recognized rescue and rehabilitation facilities, like Costa Rica’s Jaguar Rescue Center, that rehabilitate, rehome, or release animals back into the wild.

Soft Tourism
Soft tourism can promote spending more time in particular locations, emphasize local experiences and languages, or both. Hard tourism, on the other hand, is characterized by brief trips, disregard for local customs, an excessive amount of selfies, and an overall air of superiority among tourists.

For instance, by encouraging soft tourism, several World Heritage Sites provide particular consideration to sustainability, protection, and preservation. The renowned Machu Picchu in Peru was once thought to be among the worst examples of overtourism worldwide, a term used to describe tourist destinations that have suffered from unfavorable consequences (such traffic or trash) as a result of an excessive number of visitors. The attraction has recently implemented damage control measures, such as mandating local guides be hired by hikers on the Inca Trail, putting specific dates and times on visitor tickets to prevent crowding, and outlawing single-use plastics altogether.

Travel Advice:

When visiting a place in between its high and low seasons, or its shoulder season, you can usually count on pleasant weather, affordable travel costs, and minimal crowds. This not only gives you more possibilities to fully experience a new location without adding to the overtourism problem, but it also boosts the local economy by bringing in money during a typically slow season.

Rural Tourism
Travel that occurs in non-urbanized locations, such as national parks, woods, nature reserves, and mountainous regions, is referred to as rural tourism. This can include hiking, WOOFing, and even camping and glamping. Because it often uses fewer natural resources, rural tourism is an excellent method to practice sustainable tourism.

Community Tourism
When tourists are invited to visit their own communities, this type of tourism is known as community-based tourism. It generally occurs in rural or developing nations and occasionally involves overnight stays. In addition to fostering connections and allowing visitors to learn in-depth information about the local species, environments, and traditional customs, this kind of tourism directly supports the host communities economically. Ecuador is a global leader in community tourism, providing distinctive lodging choices such as the Kichwa indigenous community-run Sani Lodge, which provides cultural experiences in a responsible manner within the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest.