Sustainable tourism is not working: academic

Freya Hig­gins-Des­bio­lles, Seni­or Lec­turer in Tour­ism, Uni­ver­sity of South Aus­tralia, asserts that “eco­nom­ic growth trumps envir­on­ment­al lim­its, so sus­tain­ab­il­ity remains elusive”.

She cites Brit­ish envir­on­ment­al act­iv­ist George Mon­bi­ot’s cri­ti­cism that “sus­tain­able devel­op­ment” has morph­ed into “sus­tained growth” and that little resolve exists to go bey­ond rhetoric.

Most people who have trav­elled, and prac­tic­ally every­one who works in tour­ism, would be able to think of examples of tour­ism des­tin­a­tions that have become vic­tims of their suc­cess by los­ing at least some of the qual­it­ies that made them attract­ive to trav­el­lers in the first place.

Examples cited by Hig­gins-Des­bio­lles include Venice, whose res­id­ents have accused tour­ists of “des­troy­ing their city”; Bar­celona, whose gov­ern­ment has passed legis­la­tion to lim­it new tour­ist accom­mod­a­tion due to sim­il­ar con­cerns of cit­izens; and the Galapa­gos, whose mass tour­ism industry is threat­en­ing its main attrac­tion, the icon­ic wildlife.

“Iron­ic­ally, tour­ists even want to tour Ant­arc­tica to see its pristine envir­on­ment before it dis­ap­pears (“last-chance tour­ism”),” she writes. “This is des­pite their impacts con­trib­ut­ing to glob­al warm­ing and threat­en­ing this last wild place.”

Nev­er­the­less, Hig­gins-Des­bio­lles is hope­ful: “In a world in which grow­ing pop­u­la­tions with end­less con­sumer demands are pit­ted against a fra­gile envir­on­ment” the tour­ism industry can be “made more sustainable”.

She pro­poses sev­er­al measures:

1. Gov­ern­ments must imple­ment policies that foster sus­tain­able devel­op­ment by over­com­ing the growth fetish.
2. Con­sumers should be edu­cated for respons­ible travel choices.
3. Loc­al com­munit­ies must have the right to par­ti­cip­ate in tour­ism decision-mak­ing, includ­ing if and how tour­ism proceeds.
4. Tour­ism work­ers must have their rights respec­ted and offered decent conditions.
5. The industry itself needs to assume great­er respons­ib­il­ity, sub­mit­ting to loc­al tax regimes and reg­u­la­tions. (The “Good Tour­ism” Blog would add that the industry needs to self-reg­u­late to pre-empt reg­u­la­tions, and even to pro­pose sens­ible policy to ensure sustainability.)
6. Non-gov­ern­ment­al organ­isa­tions should be free to report on the abuses of tourism.

“Har­ness­ing these essen­tial stake­hold­ers in a rig­or­ous agenda for sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, rather than sus­tain­ing tour­ism, would make the UN’s “year” more mean­ing­ful,” con­cludes the author.

Full art­icle at The Con­ver­sa­tion.