Sustainable Development and Sustainable Tourism: Concepts and Implications

Sustainable Development Concept

Theme 1. Sustainable Development and Sustainable Tourism 1.1. Sustainable Development concept The most well-knowned definition of sustainable development is the one provided by World Commission on Environment and Development, Knowned as Brundtland Commission since it was chaired by the Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, in 1987. In its report Our Common Future, this Commission defines Sustainable Development as the one that allows satisfying the present needs without compromising the capacity of next offsprings to satisfy theirs.

Sustainable Development refers to the process by which economic, social, environmental and cultural diversity needs of actual generations are satisfied without risking future generations could also satisfy them.

The need of a sustainable development derives from the existence of limited natural resources (fresh water, minerals, soil nutrients ... ) that could exhaust besides a growing economic activity that could cause serious environmental problems at a local and goblal scale that could even be irreversible.

Derived from natural resources limits there could emerge three rules:

1. Renewable resources should not be used at a rate greater than its regeneration one.
2. Non-renewable resources should not be used at a speed greater than the necessary to be replaced by a renewable resource.
3. Polluting wastes should not be produced at a rate greater than the one that allow to recycle or neutralize them or be assimilated by the environment.

Sustainable development concept is associated to the idea that a limit to economic growth could exist. In the absence of technological change, economic growth means that a greater quantity of the limited resources are used, resources that cannot increase given that the Earth is a close system.

Concern about how economic growth and natural resources and environment interact is not new.

Malthus's Predictions on Food Supply

Two hundred years ago, English economist Thomas Robert Malthus alerted that food supply would end being insufficient. More recently, at the beginning of seventies years of last century, 1an influential report Limits to Growth, elaborated in the called Club of Rome framework, predicted the depletion of resources in a few years.

Malthus Malthus predicted that food supply would end being insufficient. He indicated that the growth of population would overcome food supply growth and he concluded that a fatal food scarcity would exist in future.

Malthus pointed out that statistics showed a population that grew in a geometric way but food supply did it in an arithmetic way. He assured that the observed poverty in England in that age agreed him and that agrarian sector was not able to feed the growing population.

Their remarks were right; nowadays there is malnutrition in parts of world population. Nevertheless price of food has been decreasing through time. Malthus did not foresee the big increments in agrarian productivity.

The Club of Rome and Limits to Growth

The Club of Rome. Limits to Growth In the called Club of Rome framework, an influential report (Limits to Growth) was made that predicted the depletion of resources in a few years. In fact, according to this report, population should be now decreasing due to food and other resources scarcity.

Twenty years later, a new version of that survey appeared. The new report was called "Beyond the limits: global collapse or a sustainable future" and also showed a catastrophic future for humankind in case of maintaining trends in consumption and production. One important difference between both reports is that the second postponed in a few years the collapse although this must be producing in some aspects nowadays.

These reports predictions were based in simulations of several models in which world economy was simulated including a great quantity of relationships between ecological and economic systems. These relationships showed limits to the use of resources. They fixed an area for agrarian production, they included an upper limit to the use of non-renewable resources and to ecological systems capacity to assimilate production and consumption wastes (it is supposed that capacity to assimilate diminishes as emissions and wastes increase).

The most important conclusion of the first report was that the limits to growth would be reached in XX century. Uncontrolled growth would have a fatal impact in world economies and populations. The second report modified a bit these catastrophic predictions after introducing 2some changes to the model. Nevertheless, major conclusion was the same: unless trends were modified world would soon reach its growth limit in agrarian, industrial and energy production.

Graphic 1: Trends in Limits to Growth Report

Graphic 1. Trends recovered in Limits to Growth report Resources / Food per capita Popullation Pollution Ind. product per capita 1900 2100

Graphic 2: Trends in Beyond the Limits Report

Graphic 2. Trends recovered in Beyond the limits report 1900 2100 Meadows, 1992, p. 133 World Oil: Duncan & Youngquist, 1998 World prod. 1999 Popullation without collapse 11 Natural resources Produc .. Popullation with collapse Life expectancy 5 Foods Popullation Pollution .. Industrial product 3Critics with these reports pointed out that they failed in their predictions because models used ignored many important economic mechanisms. According to the critics, models especially failed in not including substitution possibilities. Surely, the increment in the consumption of determined goods or its scarcity would make their price to increase what would reduce their consumption. Substitute goods would be demanded and high prices would induce technology development. For example, when oil price would increase, its demand would reduce and other energy sources would turn more attractive. These basic relationships between supply and demand have not been taken into account.

Other economic factors can be introduced to explain the deviation between predictions and reality as higher income can change demand patterns. As people enrich the kind of goods demanded can change. Home and cultural services and other goods and services that use less material (raw material) demand tend to increase. Greater income also allows the development of more efficient recycling systems extending the period of exploitation of a non renewable resource. Finally, environmental quality demand also increments when income does.

Sustainable Tourism Concept

1.2. Sustainable Tourism concept Sustainable tourism is defined by the UN Environment Program and UN World Tourism Organization as tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.

Sustainable tourism development guidelines and management practices are applicable to all forms of tourism in all types of destinations, including mass tourism and the various niche tourism segments. Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic, and socio- cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability.

Thus, sustainable tourism should:

1. Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity.
2. Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and tolerance.
3. Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income- earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation.

So, the main objective is to maintain over time, generating profitability but preserving natural resources that support it and respecting and involving people. This responds to the three components of sustainability:

Environmental: sustainable tourism has to cooperate in protecting and preserving the environment on which depends and develops. Economic: sustainable tourism must be profitable to be feasible. No business man will stand up for sustainability if its firm does not survive. Social: sustainable tourism must help to strengthen relationship, experience exchange and enrichment between visitors and hosts.

Sustainable tourism development requires the informed participation of all relevant stakeholders, as well as strong political leadership to ensure wide participation and consensus building. Achieving sustainable tourism is a continuous process and it requires constant monitoring of impacts, introducing the necessary preventive or corrective measures whenever necessary.

Sustainable tourism should also maintain a high level of tourist satisfaction and ensure a meaningful experience to the tourists, raising their awareness about sustainability issues and promoting sustainable tourism practices amongst them.

So, we could say that sustainable tourism is an economic model designed to:

• improve the quality of life for people that works and live in the tourist destination
• provide a higher quality experience for the visitors
• maintain the environment quality, something necessary for visitors and local population
• attain greater tourist economic profitability for host community
• assure the achievement of benefits by tourist entrepreneurs 5There are some fundamental questions that sustainable tourism should fulfill:

1. Thrifty use of resources since they are not infinite and can exhaust. So, they have to be efficiently used in all economic sectors, including tourism.
2. Avoid excessive consumption and waste generation.
3. Maintenance of biological diversity, preserving ecosystems, species and gene, that is to say, all the natural richness.
4. Careful planning of tourism.
5. Support local economy. Support of local economy and local people satisfaction is important for the triumph of tourism and its maintenance over time.
6. Involve the local population. Local community should participate in tourist decisions that affect them.
7. Specific staff training since they are important for sustainability.
8. Responsible marketing aimed at promoting the destiny but showing what the tourist is really going to meet.
9. Encouragement in research to put new ideas into practice that help the sector to be more sustainable.

Priority Areas for Sustainable Tourism

We could mention ten priority areas in which tourist sector should focus to increase sustainability:

1. Reduce, reuse and recycle of waste.
2. Energy efficiency.
3. Proper management of drinking water.
4. Proper management of sewage water.
5. Proper management of hazardous substances.
6. More sustainable transport.
7. Proper planning and management of tourism.
8. Involve staff, clients and local communities in environmental issues.
9. Designing for sustainability.
10. Establishment of collaboration agreements for achievement of sustainable development. 6