Sustainable Development in Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure

This essay will attempt to critically analyse the current thinking on sustainability in the vast and ever changing industries of hospitality, tourism and leisure. It will look at these industries from a local, national and international perspective, whilst also making reference to the role of public, private partnerships (PPP) and of community involvement and participation in the development process. There are many different definitions on sustainability, but the following is widely used by many of the leading industry experts:
“Tourism which is economically viable but does not destroy the resources on which the future of tourism will depend, notably the physical environment and the social fabric of the host community” (Swarbrooke, 1999:13)
Sustainability at a local level can focus on the host-guest relationship. The hosts are usually referred to as either the communities or destination effected, where as the guests can be grouped by the three broad tourist typologies; interactional models, cognitive-normative models and pure marketing approaches (Aramberri, 2001). At a local level, tourism can be sustainable as it can provide positive impacts such as local employment, improvement in local infrastructure and protection and enhancement of local amenities. However, tourism is not always considered sustainable when considering the physical environment and the effects such as wear and tear, erosion and overflowing carrying capacity. Not only is it the physical impacts that can affect sustainability to tourism at a local level, but also the relationships between hosts and guests. Sometimes hostility can arise between the two groups if some tourists are disrespectful to the local area, and also high volumes of congestion can cause friction. Although tourism can create jobs at a local level, often they are low paid jobs.
At a national level sustainability will depend on the form of tourism and the area that it is engaged in. For example, many popular rural sites such as National Parks are at high risk from the high volume of people who visit at peak times.
“Well over 100 million visitors visit the UK’s National Parks each year, the Peak District being the most popular with over 22 million visitors – claimed to be the most visited National Park in the world, after Mount Fuji in Japan.” (Holloway, 2002:361)
This has led to many leading researches concluding that tourism is not sustainable at a national level because these areas become overused, resulting in negative impacts such as eroded footpaths, which affect the grass and plants causing them to die. Attempts to make areas such as this more sustainable may include limiting numbers who visit and improving educational information to raise awareness and respect to the area (Fennell, 2003).
Where as at an international level, sustainability is an even more controversial subject. For example, world heritage sites such as Kakadu, Australia, have important and rare cultural aspects, which could be lost with the amount of visitors they receive. On the other hand, visitors can bring in money, which could help with protection of the site and bring more benefits to the aboriginal community. However, conservation can be expensive and more conflicts can occur between the local community and the tourists. The danger is that tourism potential could take over the historic value of the area. The Great Barrier Reef is also considered a fragile resource, which can be easily damaged by divers and snorkelers. Just touching or standing on the coral can kill it and many tourists break pieces off to take as souvenirs (Holloway, 2002).
As mentioned earlier, sustainability has a close relationship with the environment. Many companies have therefore developed statements, which highlight their own environmental policies. Things such as pollution, excess waste, deforestation, and erosion are all common environmental issues associated with sustainability and lead to the question of is tourism sustainable. This has led to tools for sustainability such as the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). An EIA is an assessment of positive and negative impacts of a specific development used in the planning control system. This may be used by developments such as ski resorts, holiday parks and other larger tourism resorts (Page et al, 2002). However EIAs are only applicable to those who are considering new developments, and are not used for existing resorts that effect the environment.
Sustainability is also closely linked with that of social issues. This may include the amount of crime, the health of hosts and guests, language, religion and tourist perceptions. When the tourists enter the local area, they make contact with the locals, and therefore adopt the culture and become guests of the area. But they may not necessarily realise particular local customs and traditions, this means the guests could easily offend the locals without even realising. This influx of tourists can lead to hostility and also an increase of crime, as tourists can become an easy target for those trying to exploit the tourists for their money (Page et al, 2002). The following diagram can highlight the impacts of tourism on the host community as tourism develops further.
Economic impacts are another major tourism effect. Tourists will spend their money on a wide range of goods/services including accommodation, transport, food, and entertainment. This will bring added benefits to the local area and community, but a full assessment of economic impacts must acknowledge the aspects of ‘indirect and induced effects’, ‘leakages of expenditure out of the local economy’ and ‘displacement and opportunity costs’ (Cooper et al, 1998). The indirect effect is the generation of organisations buying goods and services from other organisations within the local community (e.g. hotels purchasing food from suppliers). During direct and indirect forms of expenditure, income will accrue to local residents in wages, distributed profit and rent. However this can leak out of the local economy when for example there is a shortage of skilled labour, which could then be imported from other countries. Finally, the displacement effect is known when one form of expenditure and economic activity is substituted for another (Cooper et al, 1998).
The tourism industry is dominated by private sector enterprises. Public bodies play a vital part in tourism planning and development, yet the majority of the tourism providers work in the commercial field. This means that there are many small and medium sized organisations operating in the industry of tourism each with their own goals and objectives, and each affecting the role of sustainability in some way. A major problem associated with the over-dependence on private sector operators is the potential to ignore tourisms impacts, as highlighted earlier while focusing on the profits (Youell, 1998). Therefore public sector organisations can try to ensure the interests of communities and society as the industry develops both on a domestic and international level.
When considering the role of private public partnerships, we can see how this has developed in the modern tourism industry. Deregulisation and privatisation is apparent as a smaller number of organisations are managing bigger attractions, showing the transfer of public sector attractions to private or voluntary sectors (Sharpley, 1999). Funding of these sites and organisations has shifted from government grants to visitor fees; the National Trust is an example of this.
A range of different stakeholders within the tourism industry also affects sustainability. The following table shows a brief table explaining their roles and characteristics.
It is also important to note that the role of the host community is vital in order to achieve a successful tourism development that is sustainable. This needs to be formed by consultation, to obtain local knowledge to the advantage of the developers and also to reduce conflict in a democratic fashion.
This essay has looked at sustainability to tourism at a local, national and international level and considered the impacts that occur. It has also addressed the stakeholders involved and how this influences sustainable development.
Attempting to ensure tourism is sustainable, has led to more awareness and alternative forms of tourism. Eco-tourism is an example of this, which aims to assist in the conservation and positive influence on local communities (Swarbrooke, 1999). But, it is often these ‘eco-based’ activities that are the most fragile and hence can become more damaged revealing a contradiction. This highlights why it is so difficult to conclude one way or the other if tourism is sustainable. Some may argue that in realistic terms, communities have little control over the development, so sustainability depends on the providers, participants, planning and management of how resources are conserved. However, as consumers we all have the power of choice; which means that we can ensure sustainable development in hospitality, tourism and leisure by choosing responsible cultural and environmental ways that in turn, would be provided by the marketers if these were what the consumer wanted.