environment tourism and development
TRANSCRIPT
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Environment tourism and development As a prelude to the industrial fair Globe 90, held in Vancouver, Canada, earlier this year, a workshop was conducted in March 1990 to develop an agenda for action on Sustainable Tourism with a view to providing a ‘sustainable tourism strategy’ to be put forward as the tourism industry’s contribution to Globe 90. Jonathan Edwards of the Dorset Institute, UK, and Mario Banks, Manager of the Chamber of Commerce, Cayman islands, describe how the delegates arrived at a suitable agenda for economic, environmental and social sustainability.
A workshop in March 1990. consider-
ing ‘Sustainable tourism’. attracted a
diverse range of delegates from many
parts of the world. All were however,
directly involved with either the plan-
ning, development or delivery of
touristic products. Held in Xfalta it
was organized by the Centre for En-
vironmental Management and P!an-
ning (CEMP) of the University of
Aberdeen. Scotland, which has estab-
lished itself as one of the leading re-
search and training centres in the field
of Environmental Impact Assessment
and Auditing, with respect to develop-
ment scenarios worldwide. The
Foundation for International Studies,
Malta. Dorset Institute and Globe 90
collaborated in the organization and
the workshop which also received sup-
port from WTO. UNESCO, UNEP
and WHO.
Part of the impetus for this meeting
came from the Canadian govern-
ment’s decision to host Globe 90, a
major industry/environment fair and
conference in late iLlarch 1990. Tour-
ism was one of the streams being
considered and one of the outcomes of
the &lalta workshop was the provision
of .first draft’ sustainable tourism
strategies to go forward to this confer-
ence.
Sustainability was introduced as the
theme by a series of keynote introduc-
tory papers which drew on experi-
ences from North America, the Carih-
bean, the Far East and Europe. In-
evitably terms such as ‘green‘ and
‘alternative’ were used as were the
approaches of ‘integrated planning’,
‘community preparation’, ‘community
involvement’ and ‘equity’. This latter
term, which did not translate that easi-
ly, \vas defined by Linda Cronin of
266
Tourism Canada as meaning. ‘full ac-
cess to economic. social and environ-
mental continuity and opportunity’.
At the end of the introductory sessions
few would have disagreed in principal
with Arthur Spiegler’s Austrian es-
perience which led him to define sus-
tainable tourism as ‘forms of tourism
that support the ecological balance
which is the basis of the beauty and
the features of a given, mostly cultural
landscape’. Many of the introductory
papers, while recognizing the poten-
tial to influence the development of
‘new’ tourism products and destina-
tions, were more concerned with the
problem of modifying existing and tra-
ditional tourism products and regions
to relocate them on a sustainable
basis. The philosophical basis of this
approach was well expressed in papers
by Emanuel de Kadt, read in his abs-
ence, and James Stark from the Cana-
dian Centre for Responsible Tourism.
Following on from this introduction
the workshop followed a pattern
whereby group seminars followed
each of the four theme specific ses-
sions:
economic, physical and human en-
vironments;
institutional and technical environ-
ments;
tourism in the Mediterranean; and
case studies.
During these workshop seminars the
presentations, which drew attention to
situations and practices from North
America, Saudi Arabia, Yugoslavia.
Greece, Portugal, Denmark. the UK.
Turkey. Africa and Mediterranean is-
lands including appropriately. XIalta.
formed the basis of comparatix.e dis-
cussions. Each of the three groups
were asked to work towards the pro-
duction of an ‘agenda for action’ for
sustainable tourism development.
There was widespread agreement
that these seminars. bringing together
perspectives and experiences from
many locations and cultures. at diffe-
rent stages in the development of their
tourism industries were of great value
to all participants. iLIore than once
prescriptions of, carrying capacity me-
asures, or host-guest ratios. or plan-
ning frameworks, would be put for-
ward only to bring the response ‘We
do all that and it doesn’t work’.
The difficulties of these groups com-
ing to clear resolutions \vas prohabl>
best illustrated in the responses to
various sites seen on an all too brief
tour of the main island of I\;Lalta.
Whereas there was almost total unani-
mity as to what \verc unsuccessful
examples of tourism development.
there was far less agreement as to
what had the potential to operate SIIY
tainably to the satisfaction of all.
(Those who know the Island will
appreciate the delight and amazement
which resulted from a brief stop at
‘Popeye’s village’.)
The varying composition of the
three discussion groups \vas clearI>
reflected in their final presentations as
each in turn suggested WAS in which
economic, environmental and social
sustainability might both he under-
stood, developed and manaped for an
industry that is characterized by its
dynamism in providing for clients
whose demands change rapidly. The
ideas that came for\vard tariecl from
philosophical academic models
attempting to establish valid
approaches to the synthesis of sustnin-
able tourism to more practical inte-
grated regional planning evaluation
and auditing schemes which recog-
nized the need to in\.olve. inform and
educate, not only the owner, em-
ployee and resident, hut also the visi-
tor. The participation of a number of
delegates whose principal interests
and experience lay in marketing tour-
ism products, ensured that those plan-
ning approaches did not lose sight of
the practicality of ‘no tourists no tour-
ism’.
It fell to Barry Sadler. as one of
those providing a link ber\veen this
TOURISM MANAGEMENT September 1990
meeting and the Globe 90 conference.
to synthesize an ‘agenda for action’
with regard to sustainable tourism de-
velopment. Sustainable tourism dr-
velopment wax. he suggested. a model
of socioeconomic activity and a re-
sponse to landscape stewardship. It
can be seen as a ‘niche function’ of
landscape systems fitting into and giv-
ing expression to the regional halance
bet\veen man and nature. However.
he warned it was not a specific mix of
physical/land-use assets and opportu-
nities, rather it must be given policy
definition and direction in different
countries and locations. He nent on to
emphasize the need to characterize
the problem. to be able to state clearly
the elements of - strategy. vision,
goals. principles and instruments
which result in sustainable tourism
development. In addition he recom-
mended that it would be valuable to
Lvork to\vard a checklist of incentives
and constraints exemplified b> ex-
isting examples, possibly further re-
fined by an in-depth case study of a
clearly defined location.
These ideas were taken forward. b)
Barry Sadler and Brian Clark from
CELIP. to the Globe 90 mfcting in
Vancouver. 3s part of a continuing
process of appl!lny to tourism the
idea5 of sustainabilitv and alternative
development scenar;os. Lvhich have
for instance. been put for\\ard b>
David Pearce anal his colleagues at
The London Environmental Econo-
mics Centre at University College.
London.
For further details of presentations
made to the Malta bvorkshop contact
Sandra Ralston. Conference and
Training klanaper, CEbtP. 23 St
Machar Drive. Old Aberdeen XB3
IRL’ and for reports of the Globe 90
conference contact Lynda Cronin.
Director Tourism Policy. Government
of Canada. 35 Queen Street Ottawa.
Canada. KlA OHS.
Jonathan Edwards Department of Tourism
Dorset Institute Poole UK
and Mario Banks Chamber of Commerce
Cayman Islands West Indies
Does tourism promote world peace? John Ap, a graduate student, and Turgut Var, Professor of Tourism, in the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University, have carried out an exploratory survey of Australian and North American tourism professionals to examine their perceptions of tourism as a promoter of world peace. They also looked at perceptions of the general benefits of tourism and sought to identify common parameters which quantify a social impact of tourism. The study found that tourism is viewed as an economic activity of positive impact which can be considered as a common parameter, but tourism is not seen as a significant contributor to world peace.
Amon the positive benefits attri-
buted to the social and cultural effects
of tourism are the promotion of good-
will. understanding and peace among
people of different nations.’ The role
of tourism as an ambassador and
vehicles of international understand-
ing and peace has been recognized by
international bodies such as the Un-
ited Nations. In 1960, the World
Tourism Conference in Manila de-
clared that ‘world tourism can be a
vital force for world peace ‘_ While there is general recognition
of the contribution of tourism towards
world peace. there has been little
research on this subject. D’Amore
and Jafari provided the first substan-
tial collection of literature on this
topic for the First Global Conference:
Tourism - A \‘ital Force for Peace
held in Vancouver. Canada and this
has sparked considerable interest on
the relationship between tourism and
peace.’ World peace is an intangible
attribute and the impact of tourism on
world peace is a difficult concept to
quantify. However. if the tourism
TOURISM MANAGEMENT September 1990
industry and its supporters are to
maintain credibility and continue to
espouse -orId peace a5 one of the
positive attributes of .tourism.
atrempts to measure its impact \vill be
necessary.
The literature on the perceived im-
pacts of tourism forms a basis upon
which one can begin to develop oper-
ational measures to identify the rela-
tionship between tourism and world
peace.’ People’s perceptions must be
investigated to ascertain if there are
any \vhich may facilitate a better
description of this relationship. In
support of this approach Liu. Sheldon
and Var indicated that cross national
comparisons appear useful in identify-
ing common parameters and estab-
lishing norms in terms of ‘perceptual
differences in the attitudes of people.’
The goals of this exploratory study are
(I) to examine the perceptions of
tourism professionals from two de-
\-eloped countries towards the extent
to which they perceive that tourism
promotes world peace. an d the gener-
al benefits of tourism. and (1) to
identify common parameters and mea-
sures kvhich quantify a social impact of
tourism.
3Iethodology
This study is part of an international
research effort which was principalI)
administered to university and college
students, and involved measuring
perceptions towards the benefits of
tourism (social. economic and physic-
al). The study was conducted in June
19%.
A survey instrument consisting of a
questionnaire form with 1.7 items \vas
administered to the participants (see
Appendix). The first 15 items on the
questionnaire used a five point Likert-
type scale to solicit an indication of
agreement (or disagreement) with a
statement of belief about the rela-
tionship between tourism and a par-
ticular type of benefit or cost. State-
ments used in the questionnaire were
penerated from a review of the litera-
ture. review by some faculty and
gaduate tourism students at two uni-
versities in the USA, and from a pilot
test on students. Most of the state-
ments were positively bvorded but a
267