Being Green, Responsible and Sustainable Tourism, what does it mean?

Sustainable development is often mistaken or wrongly used by companies when part of their businesses can be characterized as having a low impact on the environment. Indeed, sustainability is rather a business model.

Sustainable tourism in its purest sense is an industry committed to making a low impact on the natural environment and local culture, while helping to generate income and employment for locals.

Global economists forecast continuing international tourism growth, ranging between three and six percent annually, depending on the location. As one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industries, this continuous growth will place great stress on maintaining biologically diverse habitats and indigenous cultures, which are often used to support mass tourism. Tourists who promote sustainable tourism are sensitive to these dangers and seek to protect tourist destinations, which in turn protect the tourism industry. Sustainable tourism can reduce the impact of tourism activities in many ways, including:

• Informing themselves of the culture, politics, and economy of the communities visited
• Anticipating and respecting local cultures’ expectations and assumptions
• Contributing to intercultural understanding and tolerance
• Supporting the integrity of local cultures by assisting businesses that conserve cultural heritage and traditional values
• Supporting local economies by purchasing local goods and participating in small, local businesses
• Conserving resources by seeking out businesses that are environmentally conscious, and by using the least possible amount of non-renewable resources

Increasingly, destinations and tourism operations are endorsing and following “responsible tourism” as a pathway towards sustainable tourism. Responsible tourism and sustainable tourism have an identical goal, that of sustainable development. The pillars of responsible tourism are therefore the same as those of sustainable tourism – environmental integrity, social justice and economic development. The major difference between the two is that, in responsible tourism, individuals, organisations and businesses are asked to take responsibility for their actions and the impacts of their actions. The emphasis on responsibility in responsible tourism means that everyone involved in tourism – government, product owners and operators, transport operators, community services, NGO’s and CBO’s, tourists, local communities, industry associations – are responsible for achieving the goals of responsible tourism.

Sustainable tourism helps maintain the natural environment.

Responsible Tourism can be regarded as a movement. It is more than a form of tourism since it represents an approach to involve all sectors in the tourism industry , be that tourists, businesses, local people at a destination and other tourism stakeholders. It emphasises that all stakeholders are responsible for the kind of tourism they develop or engage in. Whilst different groups will perceive responsibility in different ways, the shared understanding is that responsible tourism should entail an improvement in tourism. Tourism should become ‘better’ as a result of the responsible tourism approach.

Within the notion of betterment resides the acknowledgement that conflicting interests need to be balanced. However, the objective is to create better places for people to live in and to visit. Importantly, there is no blueprint for responsible tourism: what is deemed responsible may differ depending on places and cultures.

“Responsible Tourism is an aspiration that can be realised in different ways in different originating markets and in the diverse destinations of the world” (Goodwin, 2002).

Focusing in particular on businesses, according to the Cape Town Declaration on

Responsible Tourism, it will have the following characteristics:

1.   Minimises negative economic, environmental, and social impacts;

2.   Generates greater economic benefits for local people and enhances the well-being of  the host communities, improves working conditions and access to the industry;

3.   Involves local people in decisions that affect their lives and life chances;

4.   Makes positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage  and to the maintenance of the world’s diversity;

5.   Provides more enjoyable experiences for tourists through more meaningful connections with local people, and a greater understanding of local cultural, social and environmental issues;

6.   Culturally sensitive, supporting respect between tourists and hosts and building local pride and confidence.