Article by Meenakshi Varandani,
Sustainable Production and Consumption Caucus
[to be published in Our Planet, April]

Perhaps in the future we will not need to add labels like “sustainable” and “environmental” to differentiate between ‘desirable’ and ‘prevalent’ practices and products - since profitability would also mean responsible production and consumption.  Today, however, we still need to ask the right questions to determine what is sustainable - assuming sustainability is the collective goal of the tourism industry.  Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries and has the responsibility to take leadership in sustainability.

Fortunately tourism’s profitability and longevity depend on “authenticity”, “clean environment”, and “safe conditions” of a destination - all of which are components of sustainability.  Unsustainability results in adverse environmental, economic, and social impacts such as: unplanned growth, deteriorated environment, loss of wildlife habitat and biodiversity, inflated property values, and exported economic benefits.  Typically, planning and development environmental impact analysis explore alternatives.  Present tourism development programs assume tourism is the sole economic development option.  Some experts justify by saying that the adverse impacts are inevitable, thus increasing the risk of tourism being exploitative.  This may be avoided by conducting a ‘community tourism assessment’ before developing a tourism program.

Social impacts are most visible at locations with indigenous populations.  Partly the destination’s popularity is due to the indigenous people’s “authenticity”.  However that very popularity becomes one of the biggest threats to the authenticity.  Simulation - an option, is usually not so popular, nor desired.  New money invariably transforms the pace of growth leading to infusion of foreign cultures. Who should decide this transformation pace?  Tourism assessment would have to follow an appropriate educational program to develop community skills to take informed decisions.  Could development wait till the necessary supports are in place?

Voluntary Codes and Guidelines
The voluntary codes and guidelines for sustainable tourism must go beyond the local regulations which deal with urban design controls, pollution control, and such. Achieving poorly defined ‘low impact’ thresholds for sustainable tourism are not sufficient. Sustainable tourism guidelines should address the issues of education and outreach, appropriate community development, reinvesting profits into natural habitat and wildlife protection, social impacts and heritage conservation programs, infrastructure development, using alternate energy, rain water harvesting, and waste management. Demonstrating high compliance with existing requirements, while not meeting sustainable tourism guidelines misleads people.

Supportive Roles
The government, private sector, media, consumers, NGOs, and host communities - need to adopt supportive roles in the processes.  The government policy makers at the highest level must initiate tourism programs in conjunction with community development.  They have to shepherd the various governing agencies to work together.  Other key roles include: facilitating informed community decision making, developing guidelines, creating information dissemination systems, and developing supporting infrastructure.

Businesses and industry are expected to act responsibly in good faith.  To be taken seriously for their voluntary initiatives, they would have to follow guidelines and ensure: transparency, local community stakeholders’ involvement, accountability, clearly stated environmental and social objectives to be met within specific time frames, adoption of appropriate indicators, bench-marking, monitoring and measuring effectiveness, independent verification, and adequate reporting.  Their sponsorship is essential for consumer awareness, training guides, steering advertisements to reflect the sustainable tourism guidelines.

There is a growing segment of tourists seeking to contribute to the environment, and understanding the heritage of an area.  Consumer sets the demand and thus the need for consumer awareness.  Information provided directly by visitors to a credible consumer reporting organization can be an effective monitoring tool to help ensure accountability.

NGOs are a tremendous resource to facilitate visioning processes, conduct community tourism assessment, and provide independent verification.  Their opinion may play a big part in the perceived credibility of initiatives.

The host communities must participate as stakeholders in the decision making.  They need to establish which resources can and can not be shared, with whom, and when - all along ensuring the upkeep and maintenance of their environment as per the guidelines.  They have to define the image of their destination, to target tourism segment compatible with their needs.

Clearly, for sustainable tourism - limits for visitation and acceptable change have to be set. Issues need to be resolved or revisited, simultaneously with the phased development of a healthy and responsible tourism industry.