User:Nostalgia071/sandbox/Emergence of Sustainable Tourism and Impacts

Introduction

The global development of tourism flows after the end of World War II and its growth have shaped the pattern of international tourism. The movement of tourism phenomena has generated impacts; the environmental impact was the earlier physical effect of tourism activities followed by social and cultural dimensions. The term sustainable development was thereafter introduced and has become the issue of public awareness.

Learning Outcomes At the end of this unit, the students should be able to: 1.	describe the growth and geographical diffusion of international tourism since World War II. 2.	explain impacts of tourism movement before the recognition of sustainable tourism. 3.	indicate meetings that brought sustainable development concept in public awareness and recognition, and their documents. 4.	describe the definition, concept and objectives of sustainability and sustainable tourism.

Scope of Contents 1.	Global tourism in the post-World War II era and impacts 1.1	 International tourist arrival in the post-World War II era 1.2	 Pattern of geographical diffusion 1.3	 Global tourism movement and awareness of impacts 2.	Reviews of sustainable development milestones 2.1	 Rio Earth Summit 2.2	 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development 2.3	 Agenda 21 3.	Defining sustainability, sustainable tourism, concepts and objectives 3.1	Sustainability 3.2	 Sustainable development 3.3	 Sustainable tourism 4.	Unit Conclusion 5.	Exercise

1.	Global tourism in the post-World War II era and impacts 1.1	International tourist arrival in the post-World War II era International tourism started to grow after the World War II. There were occurrences of social and economic changes. Salaries and wages steadily increased resulting more disposable income to spend on leisure pursuits. The amount of leisure time also went up whereas the working week decreased in terms of numbers of hours required at work, and the length of the annual holiday increased. The development of road and car industry was another factor of more travels and accesses to recreation activities due to a rapid rise in car ownership, particularly in North America in the 1950s and Western Europe during the late 1950s and early 1960s (Mason, 2008). The development of aircraft and airline industry was a real drive of growth in international travel, in which passengers could fly longer distance to overseas destination. These set the remarkable phenomenon of expanded global tourism industry, meaning that there had been increasingly international travel both with the continent and across the continents. The tourism statistic reported by destination around the world in the post-World War II era, compiled by the World Tourism Organization (WTO) (now is UNWTO) during 1950- 2004 shows an increasing trend of tourist arrivals during that time. The number grew from approximately 25 million in 1950 to 1,087 million in 2013 (UNWTO). Geographically, the rapid growth of the modern-day tourism took off in the 1950s and 1960s in North America and in Northern, Western and parts of Southern Europe. The development of tourism movement started in 1950 has made tourism as one of the world’s largest industries at the beginning of the 21st century. Global tourism has induced direct jobs and direct contribution to global cumulative GDP (growth domestic product, or the value of all goods and services produced within a given country in a given year). There have also been indirect effects such as the portion of oil and automotive industries that are consumed by tourism. Historically, there were 195 million global jobs representing 7.6 percent of total employment, and this contributed US$ 3.5 trillion of economic value (GDP), representing 10.2 percent of total global GDP (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2003-2004). It can be seen that an overall global tourism pattern since 1950 has been growing almost interruptedly. However, there was stagnation in the early 1980s, which was associated with a severe global economic recession, which was partly caused by the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that sparked a second round of oil price increases (Slaying the Dragon of Debt, n.d.). Later, there were other actual declines such as an aftershock of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the USA, yet the situation was recovered in 2002 to a growth rate of 2.7 per cent making global tourism stronger again.

1.2	Pattern of geographical diffusion The pattern of geographical diffusion in global tourism refers to the pattern that shows a spread or an expansion of travel across the world in relation with the geography since 1950. This diffusion can be categorized into 3 stages, according to Weaver (2006), shown in Figure 1.1.

Stage 1: between and within the more developed countries Initially, after the World War II there was an increase in discretionary income and time among population within Europe, North America and Australia/ New Zealand, all which were the developed countries. This situation resulted in that there were more interests in traveling both within and between these more developed countries (MDCs). These were later joined by Japan and the so-called Asian ‘tigers’ of South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong. In 2003, travel among the MDCs accounted for more than 70 percent of all international tourism traffic, or about 500 million tourist trips. Moreover eight of the top ten destination countries in terms of total stayover visitors in that year were MDCs (for example France, Spain, USA, Italy, UK, Austria, Germany and Canada), while just two (China and Mexico) were less developed countries (LDCs). Stage 2: from more developed to less developed countries In the second stage, which gained momentum during the 1960s, tourists from the MDCs, or ‘North’, travelled in significant numbers to LDC destinations, or ‘South’. Longitudinal demand/ supply relationships evolved as North American tourists came to dominate Caribbean basin ‘sunlust’ destinations and Europeans accounted for most visitors to the emerging destinations of the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean basins. Developing countries such as Barbados, Bahamas, Antigua, Fiji, Cyprus, the Maldives and Seychelles, as a result underwent a rapid transition toward a position of dependency on the tourism sector. By the early 2000s approximately 25 percent of international tourist traffic consisted of travelers from MDCs visiting LDCs primarily with the purpose of seeking for pleasure. Stage 3: between and within the less developed countries The third and most recent stage of global tourism diffusion results from the emergence of a significant middle class within the less developed world and involves its travel between and within the LDCs as well as to the more developed world. Examples of this phenomenon, which accounts for about 5 per cent of all international tourism, includes the movement of Indian tourists to Kenya, Brazilians to Uruguay, Malaysians to Thailand, Kuwaitis and other Arabs to Australia and Venezuelans to the USA. Among this market, China was put on view as one of the most dramatic emerging market in this latest stage in this travel diffusion pattern. Figure 1.2 shows the origin of international tourists to China in 1999. As a result of rising incomes and rapid internationalization of the Chinese economy, the Chinese people started to have an increasing level of interest to travel abroad, plus the national policy motivating its people to travel (Guo, 2002).

This geographical expansion throughout the world has induced higher growth of numbers of tourist arrivals and visitations. Thereafter the issue of tourism sustainability became universal.

1.3	Global tourism movement and awareness of impacts Tourism is considered the industry that brings foreign currency to countries and induces development of related industries and infrastructure. Conventional tourism focuses on building satisfaction to mass tourist market, and tourism is viewed as the driver for economic boost. By this way of viewpoint, tourism activities have been operated with less concern about social, cultural and environmental aspect. In 1972, there was a movement in Europe and America about negative impacts from tourism as well as from the industries on the environment and nature. A conference in Stockholm, Sweden was held, in which a group of 27 experts articulated the links between environment and development and brought the issue of the environmental impacts to the forum. In the same year, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) was established with the mission “to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations” (The United Nations Environment Programme). There were also other important movements that signaled higher degree of concern on the world environment. For example, in 1983 the UN General Assembly created the World Commission on Environment and Development which was later known as the Brundtland Commission. The Brundtland Report published by the Commission in 1987 provided significance of all definitions of sustainable development, that “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development Our Common Future, United Nations, 1987). The report emphasizes not only the protection of environment but also the concerns of global environmental changes and higher needs challenged by high urban growth phenomenon. In 1992, the UN Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED), called “the Rio Earth Summit” held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

2.	Reviews of sustainable development milestones

2.1	Rio Earth Summit The Rio Earth Summit or the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) by the United Nations was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. The conference was the largest conference that time that gathered 114 heads of states, 10,000 representatives from 178 countries, and 1,400 non- governmental organizations. The Rio Earth Summit was the main conference about world environment and climate change phenomenon and impacts. The awareness of this phenomenon had been arising and discussions. The main content of the conference is about environmental impacts, climate change and biological diversity, and how to use the world’s resource effectively and sustainably, known as sustainable development. The documents from this conference are such as Rio Declaration on Environmental and Development and Agenda 21.

2.2	Rio Declaration on Environment and Development The Rio Declaration is a short document as an agreement from the Rio Earth Summit, which consists of 27 principles defining the rights and responsibilities of states. The intention of writing this declaration is to guide future sustainable development around the world. Some of the principles also mention with regards to the third generation’s rights. This means that since 1992, the world representatives were very much concerned about the future generations or “us” today in terms of how to sustain the world’s resources for us as the third generation. The summary of all 27 principles in the declaration gives essentials to how the humans who use the world’s resources can help together to reduce environmental problems and crises, how to make sure that the world population in each country can have certain rules, regulations, laws and legislation for sustainable development and build their capacity for sustainable development, how to do planning with public participation, how to reduce poverty, reduce unsustainable consumption and pattern of production that gives no concern on sustainability. Moreover, the declaration also mentions about women, indigenous group of people, people under oppression, and youth, and their roles in participating in and sharing ideas about sustainable development, especially youth group who will be the future generation. Finally, the declaration ends with the vision of how to bring peace and harmony to the world, and the cooperation of people from different states and countries.

2.3	Agenda 21 Agenda 21 is a comprehensive blueprint of action in all areas of sustainable development that can be used for all over the world. It can be used for national and local levels by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment can occur. The number “21” refers to an agenda for the 21st Century. Agenda 21 was established and agreed by more than 178 Governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil in 1992. Agenda 21 consists of 40 chapters within 4 main sections. Section I can be summarized that it is directed toward fighting with poverty especially for developing countries, changing consumption patterns, promoting health, achieving a more sustainable population and sustainable settlement in decision making. Section II can be summarized that it focuses on the issues of atmospheric protection such as the reduction of deforestation, protecting environments, conservation of biological diversity, controlling of pollution and management of biotechnology and radioactive wastes. Section III can be summarized that it gives importance to the roles of children, youth, women, NGOs, local authorizes, business and workers and strengthening the role of indigenous people and their community, and farmers. Section IV can be summarized that it talks more about the implementation in terms of science, technology transfer, education, international institutions and financial mechanisms. Students can read full document in United Nations Conference on Environment & Development Rio de Janerio, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992 AGENDA 21. After the Rio Earth Summit that produced the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the Agenda 21, there were other conferences organized in awareness and movement, and produced more declarations and plans of implementations in regards to sustainable development.

3.	Defining sustainability, sustainable development, sustainable tourism, concepts and objectives 3.1	Sustainability Sustainability is derived from the Latin sustinere (tenere = to hold; sus = up). Sustainability is the capacity to endure (Wikipedia.org/sustainability). Sustainability can be defined in various dimensions. When we talk about sustainability for humans, it refers to the long- term maintenance of responsibility for environmental, economic, and social dimensions. The term suggests that it is a must that humans are those groups who must take care of all the mentioned dimensions (environmental, economic, and social) in this world to be “sustainable”, applying responsible management of resource use. Moreover, sustainability can be defined for ecology in that how biological system can remain diverse and productive over time. The concept of sustainability became widely recognized since the 1980s and it has been used in the sense of human sustainability on planet Earth. Moreover, the term “sustainability” is often used with other concepts such as sustainable development, sustainable planning, and sustainable tourism. 3.2	Sustainable development Sustainable development is defined as the “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development Our Common Future, United Nations, 1987, p. 37). This means that actions of developing nowadays must concern not only the present generation, but they must be also done with concerns of the needs of the future generation. The concept of sustainable development relates to economic terms in that how human needs can be met in using the worlds’ resources while protecting the environment and preserving the resources for the future use.

3.3	Sustainable tourism World Tourism Organization (WTO) defines sustainable tourism as “tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities” (World Tourism Organization, 2005). Sustainable tourism is tourism that concerns on every current and future aspect of economic, social and environmental impacts that can be occurred from tourism activities, while it needs to address the needs of all stakeholders in tourism industry from tourists, visitors, business sectors, environment and host communities or those who are the owners of destinations. WTO also took the definition of sustainable development from the Brundtland Report as its basis, to define sustainable tourism development in Euro-Mediterranean Conference on Tourism and Sustainable Development in 1993. It is that “sustainable tourism development meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future. It is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social, and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity, and life support systems” (International Forum on Sustainable Development of Tourism and Innovation, 2014). From the definition of sustainable tourism above, we can operationalize the idea by producing the principles of sustainable tourism. There are 4 pillars of sustainability including: economic, ecological, cultural, and community sustainability. (1)	Economic sustainability- that is profitable in both the immediate and long term (2)	Ecological sustainability- development that is compatible with the maintenance of essential ecological processes, biological diversity and biological resources (3)	Cultural sustainability- increase people’s control over their lives and is compatible with the culture and values of those affected and strengthens the community identity (4)	Local sustainability- that is designed to benefit local communities and generate/retain income in those communities

From the 4 pillars above, it can be summarized that sustainable tourism development should: (1)	Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural resources and heritage, and biodiversity. (2)	Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and tolerance. (3)	Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation (World Tourism Organization, 2005).

4. Unit Conclusion This unit introduced the global development of travel and tourism industry, and its impacts mostly to the global environment. The conventional tourism created more negative impacts to the world environment. Thereafter the international movements in recognition of sustainability, sustainable development and sustainable tourism were driven from the past until present. Finally there are many documents of declarations and agreements formulated as the conceptual and operational guidelines for the world’s countries to implement, in promising the tourism development in the present and future will be carried out with concerns of social, economic and environmental sustainability for the next generation.

5. Exercise 5.1 Questions for revision 1.	How did the growth of international travel become the factor of environmental impacts? 2.	Indicate important conferences about sustainable development and explain how they were significant to the occurrence of sustainable tourism concept. 3.	What is Agenda 21 and how does it play a role in sustainability? 4.	What is sustainable tourism? 5.	What are the 4 pillars of sustainability?

5.2 Group discussion Students do cooperative learning: 1.	Students separate in group. 2.	Lecturer gives the following topic for each group to discuss “How has COVID-19 affected the sustainability of the tourism   industry?” 3.	Each group of students discuss on the given topic in order to share idea by classifying their explanation into points, with some examples to support their explanation. 4.	After the discussion, each group arranges a small oral presentation. The group representative can write important points on the white board so that everybody in the class can follow easily. 5.	Lecturer concludes the lesson.

5.3	Home assignment Students are assigned to write the summary of sustainable development milestones and the definition of sustainable tourism by reviewing from various websites and summarizing in their own words.