Introduction
The emergence and maintenance of tourism as a dynamic rather than a static industry depends in large measure upon the adoption of a strategic approach to planning and development. The success of such an approach is largely dependent upon a systematic and structured analysis of the broad environmental factors affecting tourism demand as an essential part of the planning process. Ecotourism, tourism in support of sustainable development, tourism as a cultural expression of both hosts and guests, tourism as a reflection of ‘political correctness,’ are all considerations that go far beyond the traditional parameters of money, time and infrastructure.
Although tourism is generally regarded as less destructive to the environment than most other industries, nevertheless, its sheer size and widespread presence has already created negative physical and social environmental damage. Further-ing the concept of sustainable development, Murphy and Price (Chapter 9) relates the notion that an inexorable relationship exists between the economy and the environment. Tourism’s interest in sustainable development is logical given that it is one industry that sells the environment, both physical and human as its product. The authors contend that the integrity and continuity of these products have become by necessity a major concern of the industry . They suggest that what is now needed in tourism research and policy is a greater effort to link the acad-emic and government interests in pursuing more sustainable tourism develop-ment with those front-line industry practitioners and the most important client, the tourist.
Some national governments such as Canada have changed their views on eco-nomic development and environmental protection, viewing them as mutually supporting rather than mutually exclusive. Such a perspective suggests that sus-tainable development can indeed be compatible with business objectives, and pro-vided the appropriate safeguards, the tourism industry can continue to grow and prosper as a private business within these new parameters.
Large-scale tourism is a fact of life and the problems caused by, and associated with tourism need to be ameliorated as soon as possible. Although sustainable
tourism remains an ongoing concept, nevertheless the journey toward the goal of sustainability is vital for economic, ecological and socio-cultural well-being.
The tourism lifecycle concept and the carrying capacity concept are interrelated in a manner that is both dynamic and dependent. The life cycle concept suggests that destination areas change over time, and progress through stages from intro-duction to decline. Although different disciplines have various meanings for it, carrying capacity embodies the idea that there is a limit to use, after which point negative effects occur.
Williams and Gill(Chapter 10) point out that like other economic enterprises, tourism is widely recognized as a change agent. With sound management, it holds the potential for being a low user of scarce resources as well as being a sustain-able industry. The authors point out that effective carrying capacity management is central to tourism’s continued growth and popularity. However, as a more prac-tical and viable alternative to the concept of carrying capacity management, the chapter recommends the application of growth management planning approaches for addressing development issues in tourism destinations.
A number of tourism carrying capacity management perspectives, issues and concepts are presented. However, carrying capacity management’s traditional focus on attempting to determine explicit use limits has made it a particularly dif-ficult tool for use in a tourism management context due to too many limiting factors that hamper its use. Research suggests that traditional approaches to carrying capacity management have met with limited success in application. This is primarily due to unrealistic expectations, untenable assumptions, inappropri-ate value judgments and insufficient legal support systems.
On the other hand, in a growth management system context carrying capacity is linked to ‘desired conditions’ that best meet the goals of the area being managed.
Community involvement in establishing desirable conditions is the single most important element of growth management. The focus of growth management shifts from past concerns over establishing use limits, to issues of identifying envi-ronmental, social and economic conditions desired by a community, and the creation of growth management strategies for managing tourism growth toward these ends.
Standards are documents that establish a basis, example or principle to conform to, which are linked to uniform units of measurement. Standards may be either compulsory (e.g., enforced through legislation) or voluntary Font (Chapter 11) dis-cusses the development of sustainability standards from local efforts to make busi-ness improvements to becoming part of the suite of governance and regulatory tools of the global tourism industry. The proposition set forth in the chapter is that standard setting and certification are valuable tools to help bring stakeholders together.
The process of setting standards and ensuring these are met is known as confor-mity assessment, and provides the context to outline the development and use of sustainable tourism standards. Certification is a process whose aim is to help raise industry standards and is a policy tool to make voluntary improvements under five aspects: equity, effectiveness, efficiency, credibility and integration. The author defines each aspect and provides specific examples as applied to actual locations.
In the development of tourism strategies and policies, responsible authorities must consider the views of a number of stakeholders including industry, residents, 164 Global Tourism
special interest groups representing the environment and community, as well as tourists themselves. Getz and Timur (Chapter 12) examine the applicability and usefulness of stakeholder theory for developing sustainable tourism strategies and policies. Attention is given to the need for balanced input among the various stakeholder groups, including the issues of their identification, legitimization, involvement and conflict resolution.
A number of stakeholder theories are presented including a taxonomy includ-ing normative, instrumental and descriptive theories. Stakeholder theory has been applied as planning and management tools. The stakeholder framework has been applied in conjunction with the destination life cycle of tourist destina-tions in order to analyze stakeholder attitudes toward tourism and sustainable development.
The authors describe how stakeholder theory has been applied to sustainable tourism development, then they suggest a method of balancing the conflicting
‘voices,’ i.e., economic, environmental, social and cultural objectives. They suggest that creating a more participative decision-making and strategic policy-making process is the key to the stakeholder management approach.
In many developed world countries, major battles are taking place between con-servationists and the tourism industry. Concon-servationists argue for greater envi-ronmental protection and dramatic restrictions on tourism growth. The tourism industry on the other hand seeks to upgrade and develop new facilities. They argue that it is wrong to deny businesses profits and to restrict access to tourists seeking to enjoy beautiful and accessible outdoor recreation areas throughout the world.
Should the environment have priority over humans? Hudson and Miller (Chapter 13) explore the relationship between ethics and sustainable tourism and consider how an understanding of the ethical approaches of future tourism offi-cials can benefit their ability to effectively manage the industry in the future.
The authors conclude that highly developed countries are likely to experience greater pressure to assign rights to nature as residents are more affluent and there-fore become more concerned with aesthetic issues. However, the movement for environmental protection is unlikely to proceed in less developed countries where issues of survival are more pressing. A shift to the assignments of rights of exis-tence to nature can only come about when people are sufficiently comfortable with their own existence and do not feel threatened by, or suffer from nature being promoted.
Changing directions: Planning and development issues 165