Presented to the seventh meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-7) in New York, April 1999

Prepared in December 1998, by IFN
Edited by Manfred Pils, International Friends of Nature
in cooperation with
Herbert Brückner, President International Friends of Nature
Christian Baumgartner, Institut für Integrativen Tourismus
Peter Glauser, Naturfreunde Schweiz

 Contents

1. Introduction
2. Tourism in a Global Conflict of Interest
3. Tourism and Sustainability: A Win-Win Strategy
4. An Analysis of Global Developments in Tourism and an Assessment of the Potential Dangers
• 4.1 The General Development of the Tourist Market
• 4.2 The Consequences for Tourist Regions
• 4.3 Excursus: Insufficient Statistical Data on Tourist Activities
5. The Dimensions of a Sustainability Strategy in Tourism
6. Guidelines for a Sustainability Strategy in Tourism
7. Measures and Demands
• Global Level
• Regional and National Level

1. Introduction

Thus, the International Friends of Nature welcome that the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD) has put this topic on the agenda for its 1999 annual conference. As an international association focusing on tourism, environment and regional development, we should like to contribute to the discussion.
 
In the past few years, the term "sustainable tourism" has found its way into the debate. In view of a globally interlinked economy and complex relations between individual spheres of life and business, it is problematic to use the term "sustainability" for single, isolated economic fields or limited geographic areas. For this reason, this text will use the term "sustainability strategies" in tourism and other fields.
 
In the past few years, many conferences, studies and institutions have dealt with the topic tourism and sustainability. A number of principles or catalogues for the implementation of sustainable development in tourism were developed or adopted and published. However, what we are lacking is a concrete balance sheet listing the impacts of tourism on the environment, human society or economic prosperity. It is necessary to draw up such a balance sheet to be able to set priorities and take specific measures. The data required for such a balance sheet are still insufficient and only allow for uncertain conclusions on the global impact and effects of tourism. In this document for the CSD, the International Friends of Nature have tried to prepare a global analysis supported by the specific data available, and to draw from it conclusions as to the requirements and measures for a sustainability strategy in tourism pertaining to individual players at global and national level.
 

2. Tourism in a Global Conflict of Interest

However, these figures should not make us forget that more than 75% of all travels still take place within the triad composed of the United States, Europe and Japan exclusively. And what is more, the dramatic increase of tourist activities in the Third World is also mainly due to holidaymakers from the triad. Nationals from third-world countries hardly play any role in the international tourist market. The roots of tourism, i.e. holidaymakers and their needs, as well as the majority of resources for investment into tourist facilities are thus almost exclusively located in the Northern industrialised countries.

Tourism fulfils important tasks as a counterbalance to every-day life in the industrial societies. Its most significant task is recreation, a counterweight to the monotony and burdens of the working life in nature, recreational facilities, sports or entertainment. Education, learning or new experiences also make for such counterbalancing functions.

From the perspective of the inhabitants of Northern industrialised nationals, tourism and leisure-time are spheres of life one is socially entitled to. At the Sofia meeting of 1985, the World Tourism Organization (WTO) phrased it along the following lines: "The right of the individual to recreation and leisure-time, reasonable limits to working hours, periodic paid leave and freedom of movement without borders within the framework of law is generally recognized." From the perspective of billions of people living in the Third World, the right to holidays and leisure-time is simply luxury because they can hardly survive on what their daily work provides them with.

This conflict of interests must be taken into consideration when tourism and sustainability are discussed and negotiated on at a global level. The International Friends of Nature think that measures to safeguard sustainability in tourism must be taken at the roots of tourism activities, i.e. in the Northern industrialised nationals, in consumer behaviour, and in the context of investments into tourism within the framework of development aid.
 

3. Tourism and Sustainability: A Win-Win Strategy

1. For this reason, tourism depends on the preservation of nature and landscapes, the conservation, cultivation and creation of cultural values or the positive attitude of the local population towards tourism.
2. It may result in a transfer of money from richer to poorer regions and thus create jobs as well as contribute to the maintenance or creation of public infrastructure and hence to an improvement of the quality of life.
3. It may slow down the rate of rural exodus and indirectly support agriculture in peripheral regions, as e.g. regional products and commodities are used.
4. It may lead to careful changes in traditional societies and a better understanding between people and regions.

4. An Analysis of Global Developments in Tourism and an Assessment of the Potential Dangers

4.1. The General Development of the Tourist Market

The reasons for the dramatic growth of the tourist market are diverse: a higher standard of living in the industrial nations, more leisure-time and longer holidays, improved and less costly means of transport. Moreover, the share of certain groups which traditionally enjoy travelling and can be considered mobile is rising steadily: senior citizens, single persons and households without children.

Unfortunately, trends towards less ecologically sound types of travelling and tourism can be clearly identified in the general development of tourism:

1. The market for long-distance travels is growing. In 1995, 25% of all trips were to overseas destinations, and this percentage is to rise to 32% by 2020.
2. The number of air trips to cities, even if they are less than 800 km away, is rising overproportionately.
3. In general, the duration of tourist stays can be observed to become shorter, which can be explained by the fact that people tend towards main holidays that are one week shorter than previously, and by growing numbers of weekend trips. At the same time, the number of trips per year is growing slightly.
4. The car has kept its predominant position as the means of transport used most in tourism: in the Alps alone, an annual 100 million tourists arrive by car! Even when departing by air, many travellers hire a car at their destination to cover distances there.
5. Sports which are harmful to nature are on the increase: golf, rafting, skiing (artificial snow), helicopter skiing, engine-driven water sports, coral-reef diving.
6. There is a clear trend towards mass tourist attractions, such as theme and entertainment parks welcoming between 1 and 15 million visitors per year.

4.2. The Consequences for Tourist Regions

4.2.1. Tourism spells Traffic: An Increase in Traffic-Related Pollution in Terms of Emissions and Noise

 90% of the energy which a tourist consumes on average is used for arrival and departure. This alone goes to show that traffic is central to tourism and thus to traffic-related impacts. In 1990, civil aviation consumed roughly 176 million tons of kerosene - which was about 6% of global oil consumption - causing 550 million tons of CO2 emissions. Tourism accounts for 50% of air transport. As consumption is specially high at take-off and landing, the emission rates in short-distance trips are particularly high. After all, as much as 40% of all air journeys cover distances of less than 800 km.

 Means of transport for trips to tourist destinations 1996
 

On road	61%
By air	21%
By train	15%
By ship	3%

 

In this context, it is shocking to see that public transport facilities are increasingly reduced in peripheral regions, which practically forces tourists to use private passenger cars. This policy of austerity in public transport is complemented by the generous expansion of road networks and parking areas. Large-scale tourist attractions with more than 5 million visitors per year generate specially high volumes of traffic, which has repercussions on surrounding areas within distances of several hundred kilometres.

The consequences of such tourism-related increase in the traffic volume are as follows:

1. rising emissions along the main transport routes, including the damage to nature, climate and people that goes with these
2. growing noise pollution to the detriment of the people living around airports, along transport routes, as well as in tourist areas
3. more need for surface areas to be used for roads and parking lots or regional airports in tourist regions, increasingly breaking up integrated biotopes
4. congested motorways and roads, delayed flights during holiday seasons

While demand in international tourism is rising, the number of destinations and global capacities is rising even faster by comparison. It cannot be overlooked that tourism is already partially suffering from overcapacities. For example, the European tourist industry has suffered some losses due to growing international competition in the past few years. If we do not succeed in coming to grips with the problem in the next few years, further problems can be expected in the tourist industry. At any rate, stepped-up global competition in tourism can already be observed, and it favours ecologically and socially dubious tendencies towards concentration because only large-scale enterprises and companies can gain a high profile in a global market or are in a position to cut down on costs.

The direct impact of this competition is found in the relative concentration of tourism in the traditional mass tourism areas, the thinning out of peripheral regions and the deterioration of the Third World's market position.

Large-scale enterprises and stronger regions prevail in the competition among operators and destinations. We are observing that operations become ever larger while bed-and-breakfast operations and smaller enterprises are driven out of the market. Mass tourism areas strongly expand their tourist infrastructures (e.g. transport facilities, roads, golf courses, artificial snow). In addition, large-scale tourist attractions such as adventure worlds and theme parks are established, increasingly polluting the surrounding regions.

Tourist regions join forces to organise common marketing activities so as to address certain target groups in a more effective way. Hotels become part of international hotel chains because overheads for marketing or purchasing can be reduced that way.

At the same time, tour operators are also undergoing a process of concentration as companies merge and thus obtain more dominant market positions. Such dominant positions of tour operators can have unfavourable consequences for regions because the operators will try to force their contracting partners to charge lower prices, thus putting the regions under pressure. Many environmental investments needed could be foregone because there is pressure to keep prices low.

1. Saalbach-Hinterglemm, a winter sports resort with 2,952 inhabitants, offers 16,952 beds in tourist accommodations.
2. Davos, with 11,400 inhabitants, offers 23,905 beds for tourists.
3. In the Alps, there are 9,620 transport facilities (in A alone: 3,126; F: 3,022; CH: 1,711; I: 1,621; SLO: 201).
4. In France, 20 resorts handle 30% of all French winter sports tourism (total number of beds in tourist accommodations: 500,000).

At the same time that these concentration tendencies take place, the competitiveness of tourism in peripheral regions is waning. In Europe, the decline of agriculture has resulted in intensive rural exodus and commuting. Reduced agricultural management jeopardises the traditional farming landscape and rural tourism, which needs a minimum of infrastructure: landscape, paths, inns, shops, banks, post offices and a public transport network. In the Alpine region, many pilot projects are underway to improve local tourism - especially in combination with marketing farming produce - but these regions continue to suffer from the general market development. Even if tourism is directed towards sustainability, it will not be able to survive if minimum requirements, such as a range of functioning public transport connections, are not met. This has serious implications for the natural landscape of the regions because tourism is a considerable source of additional income e.g. enabling farmers to stay on their farms and preserve the landscape. For a long time, tourism had been a way of striking a balance between urban and rural areas. Under the conditions of a global tourism market, it becomes ever more difficult to continue striking such a balance.

4.2.4. Increasing Economic Dependency of the Third World

In their strategies, many third-world countries consider the tourist sector a source of income which gives rise to hopes for economic prosperity and foreign exchange brought in by tourists. The Third World is undergoing tremendous re-orientation as local governments and the World Bank as well as other global financial mechanisms work together. Giant tourist projects including the road, airports or dams needed, are emerging in Thailand, Burma, Laos or Southern China. Traditional businesses vanish, and the dependency of the Third World on selling raw materials is now threatening to be replaced by dependency on tourism. In some countries, the tourist industry already accounts for 30% of the GNP, in distant regions or on islands, the rate may even reach 90%.

The economic usefulness of such developments for the countries concerned remains open to doubt. According to a World Bank study, 55% of earnings from tourism in the Third World go back to the industrialised countries or the urban centres of the developing countries. On small islands, many commodities required to maintain the Western standards demanded by tourists in catering, accommodation or leisure-time facilities must be imported which accounts for a considerable foreign-exchange drain. Especially luxury tourism needs commodities and infrastructures which cannot be produced in the respective countries.

Since large hotels are usually owned by international chains or foreign companies, profits are ploughed back to the countries where these companies are domiciled. The liberalisation of global trade and services under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which entered into force in 1995, will also undermine the options individual countries have to control the tourist industry and its profits at national level.

The tourist sector is largely characterised by seasonal dependencies, and jeopardised by political instability, natural disasters or epidemic diseases. Moreover, it is clear that it also depends on the business cycle in the source countries. Any monostructural orientation on tourism thus means preparing the ground for crises in the years to follow. Large international companies, such as air carriers, hotel chains and tour operators, are in constant search of new destinations and may thus decisively influence the fate of a tourist region in a positive or negative way.

4.2.5. Serious Socio-Cultural Impacts and Violations of Human Rights

It is especially in the developing countries that tourism, sponsored by capital from the industrial states, has serious impacts on the social system of the regions concerned. Traditional branches of the economy and occupations in farming and fishery disappear, they come to be replaced by underpaid and unqualified jobs in tourist facilities. It is not rare that people inhabiting entire stretches of land or coastline are expropriated for the benefit of investors who build hotels, holiday villages or other facilities. Rivers and bays polluted by effluents jeopardise fishing, one of the main sources of income for the local population.

As a result of uprooting, cases of alcohol abuse and crime among the population become ever more frequent. What is worst, however, is the growing incidence of child labour and prostitution in some countries. On the basis of case studies, the International Labour Organization (ILO) assumes that about 13 to 19 million children and young people world-wide work in tourism. Conditions in the booming sex industry of Thailand and the Philippines are slavery-like.
 
 

In 1998, 506 years after the discovery of America, the Indians of Honduras put Christopher Columbus on trial for genocide, pilfering and theft. On October 11, 1998, 1,000 Honduran Indians prevented tourists from entering Maya sights to protest against Columbus.

In Europe, tourism is also leaving its marks on local societies. Here, too, centres of the tourist industry witness a decline in traditional crafts which come to be replaced by seasonal jobs in the tourism-related service sector. Cases of alcohol abuse are rising, too. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the purchasing power of tourists causes prices for commodities, services, rents and real estate to go up. As a consequence, the indigenous population is forced to move to conurbations because they cannot afford the high costs of living.

Another problem is that policymakers in tourism deliberately and increasingly want to accommodate the wishes of tourists for an idyllic setting, tradition etc. The majority of tourists want to stay in a four-star hotel, expecting an infrastructure that guarantees full mobility and a maximum of entertainment. At the same time, they want a historical village structure with traditional festivities, old farmhouses, low traffic and calm. A tendency towards turning whole regions into museums debases entire villages and their inhabitants, turning them, and even their animals, into players on a stage pretending that the idylls of former days are still alive.

Further social costs threaten to arise from the declining soil management in uphill areas. While forests and meadows were cultivated in former times, with the farmers thus considerably contributing to protection from avalanches and landslides, such protection of roads and built environment now requires expensive technical measures instead.

4.2.6. Ecological Impacts

Wherever tourist activities are strongly concentrated, excess exploitation of the landscape results in significant damage to nature. Coastline areas (islands, coastline waters, coral reefs, lagoons, mangrove forests, bays and dunes), high mountain zones, wetlands (bogs, rivers and lakes), forests (rainforests, Alpine protective forests) as well as the coastlines in the Arctic and Antarctica are specially endangered. Dangers are manifold:

1. loss of biodiversity due to destruction of habitats: draining of wetlands, blowing up of coral reefs, damming coastlines and rivers, clearance of forests and irrigation of dry areas.
2. sealing of surfaces by construction of roads, parking lots, breaking up integrated biotopes
3. loss of biodiversity due to the decline of small-scale landscape management in uphill farming
4. building of ski slopes with snowing equipment, soil compression by preparation of tracks
5. waste dumps and pollution of waters by effluents
6. direct environmental impacts of polluting sports: gorge climbing, powerboating, water scooters, golf (use of fertilisers, pesticides and irrigation), helicopter skiing or simply too many tourists. Even leisure-time activities which are per se unproblematic, such as hiking, cycling, climbing, ski tours or rafting may have a negative impact if too many people practise them or if they are practised at the wrong time in the wrong area.
7. excessive consumption of resources, e.g. wood in the Himalayas, or water in dry zones.

4.3. Excursus: Insufficient Statistical Data on Tourist Activities

For example, we know that

1. pollution due to air transport is increasing overproportionately, especially pollution caused by short-distance journeys;
2. the water consumption of tourists is much higher than that of the local population, and that water has become significantly scarce in many Southern regions, on islands and in the Third World;
3. 90 % of energy consumption (and thus of emissions) is due to the arrival and departure of tourists.

A minimum number of indicators will be needed for a better assessment of the impact of tourism on the environment, and the orders of magnitude involved:

1. number of visitor beds per inhabitant and per square kilometre of surface area

operations sizes of tourist facilities
2. number of visitors of tourist facilities and regions (including day-trippers), broken down according to activities,
3. breakdown of visitor and overnight stay numbers in time so that peak loads can be identified

breakdown of visitor numbers according to surface area so that tendencies towards concentration can be identified
4. regional distribution of surface area utilised for tourist facilities (golf courses, ski slopes etc.) in
5. comparison with total surface area and number of users
6. means of transport and distance travelled per visitor

5. The Dimensions of a Sustainability Strategy in Tourism

1. Ecological dimension: Intact natural surroundings and habitats are and remain a pre-requisite for tourism. This requires strategies for the conservation of resources and the reduction of emissions. Tourism must make a contribution to the preservation, protection and revival of the ecosystem on our planet.
2. Economic dimension; Tourism must be embedded a cross-sectoral, regionally specific, networked economy and make the maximum contribution to regional added value.
3. Socio-cultural dimension: Tourism development and planning must enable self-determined cultural dynamism in regions and contribute to social satisfaction. Tourists are visitors to the regions, regions are not museums. Regions are first and foremost areas for living in and not mainly service providers for tourism. Positive contributions to the working and living conditions in the region are rightly expected (e.g. job structures, infrastructure).
4. Institutional dimension: Human beings are at the centre as they shape tourism policies; tourism policies must encompass the participation and inclusion of all those concerned. In all planning activities, a bottom-up approach must be taken.
5. Global dimension: Tourism has "distant impacts" - tourists travel from their homes to destinations, they may consume goods which are not produced at the destination, investors in tourist facilities may have their seats far from the destination. There is responsibility on the part of the source areas and of regional and global institutions for what happens in tourism, and this must be increasingly focused on.
6. Individual dimension: Consumer habits have great influence on tourism activities. To implement sustainability in tourism, we also need to develop a travelling culture that is oriented on sustainability.

6. Guidelines for a Sustainability Strategy in Tourism

1. Respect for human rights as the supreme goal, even though they may not have been sufficiently implemented in national legislation: no forced labour, no displacement, no child prostitution, no child labour.
2. Observation of international minimum standards in working hours, rest hours, entitlement to leave, remuneration and workers' protection, even though they may not have sufficiently been implemented in national legislation.
3. Observation of WHO health regulations (e.g. in air and water pollution) even though they may not have sufficiently been implemented in national legislation.
4. Observation of all legal requirements imposed on the relevant projects and measures.
5. Strategic environmental, area and social impact assessments for large-scale projects in tourism (more than 100 visitor beds or more than 1,000 day trippers) as well as for tourist development plans which determine and check in particular the ecological absorption capacity of the region, the extent to which the population suffers from noise, traffic, or emissions, and the impact on the regional economy.
6. No projects and measures which endanger the water supply of the region, no projects that bring a high volume of traffic to zones that have hitherto been calm, no projects which generally consume a lot of energy.
7. No projects and measures which overload the local transport infrastructure or the waste disposal infrastructure (effluents, refuse etc.) or which entail unpurified waste waters being disposed in nature or uncontrolled waste dumps.
8. No tourist projects in regions which already depend on tourism to more than 50%.
9. No major projects if there is no public transport link.
10. A contribution to the preservation of managed and natural landscapes, no destruction of rare biotopes or existing protected areas.
11. Contractually agreed consideration and appropriate payment for the use of local resources (e.g. land, water, soil) and safeguards for checks into the use of such resources by indigenous institutions.
12. Preference to projects that bring long-term holidaymakers to the region, no subsidies for projects which only attract day trippers.
13. Preference to multi-season concepts.
14. Measures to minimise the consumption of water, energy and other resources, utilisation of environmentally sound technologies to save water and energy.
15. Use of renewable energy sources and reduction of non-renewable energy sources in accordance with local conditions.
16. To protect local economic, social, cultural and ecological interests, all local authorities, social partners and associations in the civil society (NGOs) concerned by decisions which have far-reaching impacts (e.g. infrastructure measures or major projects) must be involved in the process early on. Appropriate structures for co-operation and participation must be created and proven.
17. Advancement of local specialities and strong points of regions in the tourist project (as regards the content of the attractions and the use of resources).
18. Advancement of the integration of local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and what they can do for tourist projects (e.g. local agriculture, crafts, trades, family inns) and involvement of local investors, as well as local suppliers in the construction and ongoing operation (e.g. supply with local products) of the project.
19. Use of existing buildings (e.g. disused buildings), local construction materials and architectural styles.
20. No projects which offer all tourist services, such as accommodation, catering, entertainment and leisure-time activities, in one house or on the same grounds so that there is no relation with the local economy, culture etc.
21. Creation of jobs for the local population and offers of training courses for qualified positions in the tourist projects concerned, especially for women and underprivileged groups or minorities. Establishment of working-hours schemes that are suited for women or part-time farmers.
22. Fair pay for the labour force
23. Safeguards for access to the tourist facilities also for the local population.
24. Precautions for the dismantling or conversion of the project in case of declining attractiveness.

7. Measures and Demands

7.1. Global Level

1. The CSD should call upon all Member States to integrate all relevant international legal standards (human rights, WHO and ILO) into their national legislations and to apply these accordingly. International information campaign should sensitise consumers to sex tourism, child labour and the exploitation of workers, thus supporting the implementation of these standards.
2. The CSD should call upon all Member States to ensure to a sufficient extent that environmental concerns and social aspects are considered under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
3. The CSD should adopt Guidelines for a Sustainability Strategy in Tourism (item 6) and recommend to the Member States the implementation of these guidelines.
4. The CSD should call upon the Member States and the relevant international institutions to review the criteria used in decisions to grant development aid for projects and apply the Guidelines for a Sustainability Strategy in Tourism (item 6) in the granting of loans for tourist projects by the World Bank, the IMF or other international financial institutions.
5. The CSD should, in co-operation with the Member States, the World Tourism Organization (WTO/OMT) as well as the international associations of the tourist industry, develop a Code of Conduct for private tourist businesses based on the Guidelines for a Sustainability Strategy in Tourism.
6. The CSD should, in co-operation with the Member States, the World Tourism Organization (WTO/OMT) as well as the international associations of the tourist industry, develop a quality mark based on the Guidelines for a Sustainability Strategy in Tourism to further environmentally and socially sound offers in a targeted way and to give consumers guidance in this respect.
7. The CSD should call upon all relevant international organisations and institutions to develop methods and means for the realistic reflection of external environmental and social costs at regional level.
8. The CSD should call upon the Member States to implement the taxation of airplane fuel within the ICAO for the benefit of true costing, and to reduce subsidies for air transport.
9. The CSD should call upon the relevant international organisations to develop, in co-operation with the UN Member States, common and uniform statistical methods and indicators which give a realistic picture of world-wide travelling and leisure-time patterns and make it possible to draw up a balance sheet of tourism-related external environmental costs (item 4.3.).
10. The CSD should call upon the relevant international organisations and institutions to create, in co-operation with the Member States, international trade union organisations and tourism associations, as well as non-governmental organisations, open networks for the purpose of information and research on tourism and sustainability.
11. The CSD should call upon the relevant international organisations and institutions to establish, in co-operation with the Member States, international trade union organisations and tourism associations, as well as non-governmental organisations, appropriate training courses and workshops on tourism and sustainability, in particular for local and national decision-makers.
12. The CSD should call upon the relevant international organisations and institutions to collect, evaluate and disseminate, in co-operation with the Member States, international trade union organisations and tourism associations, as well as non-governmental organisations, existing regional and global activities for the promotion of tourism that supports sustainability (best practices).
13. The CSD should call upon the Member States and all relevant international organisations to develop programmes which are suited to remove distortions in tourist flows, to reduce peak loads during high seasons and distribute chances to generate income over the whole year.

7.2. Regional and National Level