Some Devils, A Few Details and a Couple of Dilemmas in the Search for Sustainable Tourism
Stephen F. McCoolProfessor Emeritus
Department of Society and ConservationCollege of Forestry and Conservation
The University of Montana
Presentation to Department of Tourism, Recreation, and Sport ManagementUniversity of Florida18 April 2011
Modified for Internet 18 Oct 2011
International Tourism—Rapidly Growing
Actual and Forecasted International Arrivals
Source: World Tourism Organization
Global Forces Influencing Sustainable Tourism
Population Dynamics
Technology
Governance
Public Values Decision
Making Economic Restructuri
ng
Climate Change
Increased ContentiousnessGreater Volatility
Higher Stakes
Sustainability—Some Basic Assumptions
Human Impacts Care about the Future
From: Pearce, 1994
Some Devils
Tourism business fragmented
Some Devils
Predictable,Linear,Understandable,Stable
Dynamic,Impossible,Complex,Ever-Changing
Balancing the Economic, Social and Environmental?
Or a Question of Integrating Them?
Tourism industry is fragmented,Vertically,Horizontally,Functionally
But achieving this ideal requires Cooperation,Coordination,Collaboration
How we do this impacts our success
Namche Bazaar: An Example of Sustainable Tourism?
Caters to trekkers Small scale
development Many teahouses How much is enough?
A Few Details
A Few Details
A Few DetailsUnderlying Principle Defining Sustainable Tourism?
A Few Details
Much more difficult than expected
Not Just Difficult, but More Difficult
A Few DetailsMeasuring Success
Visitor Volume Indicators
Visitor Volume (in millions)2 Q4 2010 20.8 +5.1%
Air Visitor Component (in millions) (52.7% of total)2 Q4 2010 10.9 +7.0%
Non-Air Visitor Component (millions) (47.3% of total)2 Q4 2010 9.8 +3.0%
YTD Visitor Volume (in millions)2 Q1-Q4 2010 82.6 +2.1%
YTD Air Visitor Component (in millions) (51.8% of total)2 Q1-Q4 2010 42.8 +3.1%
YTD Non-Air Visitor Component (in millions) (48.2% of total)2 Q1-Q4 2010 39.8 +1.1%
In-state Pleasure Trips by Residents (in millions) Q4 2010 2.8 -30.7%
Percent of In-State Pleasure Trips Taken by Residents Q4 2010 33.5 +0.6 pp
Economic Impact Indicators
Tourism/Recreation Taxable Sales (in billions)2 Jan-11 5.6 +12.8%
YTD Tourism/Recreation Taxable Sales (in billions)2 Jan-Dec-10 60.9 +0.1%
YTD Tax Collections from Tourism/Recreation Retail Sales (in billions)2 Jan-Dec-10 3.7 +0.1%
Rental Car Surcharge (in millions) Dec-10 9.2 +9.5%
YTD Rental Car Surcharge (in millions) Jan-Dec-10 119.9 +5.9%
Bed Tax Collections ($ millions) 2 Oct-10 31.2 +9.4%
YTD Bed Tax Collections($ millions) Jan-Oct-10 412.0 +5.3%
Direct Travel-Related Employment (thousands) 2 Dec-10 982.0 +3.3%
YTD Direct Travel-Related Employment (in thousands) 2
Jan-Dec-10 961.6 -0.7%
Inputs?Outputs?
What is the Purpose?
From Visit Florida Website
A Few Details
Entrepreneurial
Institutional
Individual
Building capacities
Building professional competency increases potential ….
But does it guarantee enhanced performance?
A Couple of Dilemmas
Intra-generational vs. Inter-generational Equity Economic growth and opportunity vs.
maintenance of culture Scale and problem displacement
A Couple of Dilemmas
A Couple of Dilemmas
Intra-generational vs. Inter-generational Equity
A Couple of DilemmasEconomic growth and opportunity vs. maintenance of culture
A Couple of Dilemmas
Scale and Problem Displacement
Illusion of Sustainability
Capacity to Deal with Displaced Problems
Kruger National Park: From Game Reserve to Sustainable Tourism?
Reinventing Sustainable Tourism
Requires a Change in Our Thinking
What has an iceberg got to do with sustainable tourism?
Adapted from Senge (2008)
Sustainable Tourism
Messy problem, clumsy solution
Confusing ends with means
Thinking about futures Selecting desirable
ones Building consensus
Sustainable Tourism—What do we Mean?
Framing the question
What should tourism sustain?
Who benefits from sustainable tourism?
Role of science?
What should tourism sustain? Quality of life? Heritage? Economic opportunity?
What are the appropriate or acceptable conditions?
Who Gets to Make the Decisions?
Sustainability as a redistribution of power
Who represents the future?
How to maintain options when preferences are unknown?
Conclusions
In danger of becoming a Guiding Fiction Framing of sustainable tourism
How to make tourism sustainable? How to reduce impacts? What should tourism sustain?
Diving deeper Tourism is a complex adaptive system
Thank You