While studying Sustainable Tourism. It was one of the first things I wrote for the course, so please be gentle...
Sustainable Tourism SolutionsCan tourism current tourism development practices continue unabated, or are there alternatives that need to be looked into? Ecotourism and socially responsible travel are part of a growing trend called sustainable tourism. This alternative to mass tourism requires managing all resources so that social, economic, and aesthetic needs are met while simultaneously maintaining cultural integrity, fundamental ecological processes and biological diversity.
The motivations behind developing countries seeking to have a tourism industry are to earn money, attract foreign exchange and the creation of employment. Tourism can influence the development in developing countries by various different means. By looking at the financial multiplier effect of income generated by the tourist expenditure and leakage of tourist money, we can reach a better understanding of the processes that can make or break tourist destinations. We’ll also have a look at how the formal and informal tourism sectors variously affect these two different impacts on the host economies and a possible alternative to mass tourism, which incurs large leakage of money from the host country which in turn will hold back the development for some local communities.
As these revenues that developing nations strive to achieve through tourism enter the host country’s economy it re-circulates many times and results in a cumulative economic impact that is greater than the original amount of tourist expenditure and this is referred to as the multiplier effect. Multipliers are methods which attempt to measure the impact of tourist spending as it recirculates within the host countries economy. This spending is initially on payment for goods and services by tourists such as hotel accommodation, food, transport, and souvenirs; this is known as a direct effect. The indirect effect is when the provider of these services spends their cash received on wages, supplies, and taxes. The induced effect is further spending by the recipients of the direct and indirect effects on goods and services for their own use, for example rent and food bought by hotel employees.
Leakage refers to the purchase of imported goods and services by tourists and to the imports of services and supplies by hotels and other tourism businesses or organisations, such as expatriot staff, to the repatriation of profits by foreign owners of hotels and other services, and many other sources. The levels of such leakages are significant, and can be as high as 70%, because it reflects the economic power that Transnational Companies, which control the three main branches of the industry, hold in comparison with local communities and local governments. Through their centralized purchasing procedures which obstruct local managers from buying locally, for example. Such transnational corporations are:; hotel chains, airlines, travel agents/tour operators.
Often the reason for the requirement of and reliance on imported goods and staff is the inability of the agricultural and manufacturing sectors of some developing countries to guarantee the quality and supply of inputs to the tourist sector and staff. For example, highly trained and experienced chefs for five star hotels frequently have to be brought in from overseas.
Another reason “high quality" tourism, i.e. top end formal or mass tourism, can result in increased leakage in some cases, despite the higher income it may generate, is because it requires the provision of very high quality and high priced imported goods. A further reason mass/formal tourism could have higher potential for leakage in comparison to alternative/informal tourism is because the informal tourists tend to value and consume local resources as part of the tourism experience.
The problem with low leakage tourism is that it can also connect to low income tourism which would result in lower total income for the economy. It is therefore necessary for the host country to try to define a leakage break-even point and then to choose the type most suitable for their potential destination. Whatever the decision, the fact remains that, for any destination, the greater the leakage, the smaller the multiplier effect.
There appears to be a need to formulate an alternative strategy of tourism development in developing countries so that the dependency on the developed countries does not continue to result in the subordination of national economic autonomy through the core-periphery relationship. This is sometimes a result of, in the absence of strong government control, international tourism organisations and transnational corporations developing and perpetuating a hierarchical element to tourism development which has also been described in some circles as “neo colonialism”.
To break this down, there are different types of tourists and different types of tourism suppliers which can be described as the formal and informal sectors.
The formal sector is characterised as having:• International standard hotels (often offering 'all inclusive" holidays)
• High capital investment costs
• High leakage in the form of; profit transfers, imported food and construction materials
• Little integration into local economies
The informal sector consists mainly of:• Hawkers and street vendors
• Bemo/ojek/rickshaw operators
• Small locally owned accommodation, bars and restaurants
• Local markets and shops
The two of these sectors often interact but the formal sector is closely related to mass tourism. Each entity in the informal sector is conducted with very limited capital and is labour intensive, yet produces high profits and increase the multiplier effect for the economy. Although there seems to be a lot of benefit to be gained from encouraging the informal sector, it appears that tourism plans in developing countries often either ignore it entirely or try to eliminate the participation of the informal sector in satisfying the needs of tourists and often only consider the path of formal tourism development. This is typically because of the government of the host country's confidence in neoliberalism, market led growth and economic liberalisation, and, more specifically, the encouragement of foreign investment.
However, there are possible solutions to leakage problems. These include integrating the local communities and promoting ‘alternative tourism’ (AT). Alternative tourism is a form of tourism that advocates an approach which is opposite, or an alternative, to mass tourism. The philosophy behind encouraging alternative tourism is to not concentrate on “economic and technical” necessities alone, although they are very important, but to also consider and emphasise the demand for an unspoiled environment and consideration of the needs of local people. Alternative tourism can be defined as a generic term that includes a whole range of tourism prefixes such as eco-, independent, responsible, green, backpacker and so forth. All of which profess to offer a more benign alternative to conventional mass tourism, or formal tourism, in certain types of destinations.
Below are six alternatives to formal/mass tourism which could be used by the host state and communities to take advantage of AT and help to minimise the leakage of tourism revenue and increase the multiplier effect.
These are:• Large-scale tourism enterprises owned and controlled by the state
• Large-scale tourism enterprises owned and controlled by national private capital
• Medium-scale tourism enterprises controlled by local companies and individuals
• Small and medium scale tourism enterprises organised as co-operatives at the village or community level
• Small-scale tourism enterprises organised as individual or family concerns
• Organised by individuals and families as a supplement to simple commodity production.
A good example of how Small-scale tourism enterprises in the informal sector can work to the benefit of local communities is to look at ‘homestays’ or ‘losmen’ in Bali. They require a relatively low initial capital outlay and this type of business is potentially accessible to any family with a spare room, or the space to build one, for small rooms and the lack of hot water (although this is less common now, as most losmen have hot water) is generally acceptable to the existing clientèle (mainly backpackers). Another alternative, encouraged by the tourism planners in Bali, is for local owners to lease instead of selling their land to Developers.
Five ways that Alternative Tourism can satisfy the needs of the tourists, local people and the resource base in a “complementary rather than a competitive manner” and are therefore benefitial to all concerned:
1 There will be benefits for the individual or family: accommodation based in local homes will channel revenue directly to families. In addition, families will acquire managerial skills.
2 The local community will benefit; AT will generate direct revenue for community members, in addition to upgrading housing standards while avoiding huge public infrastructure expenses.
3 For the host country, AT will help avoid the leakage of tourism revenue outside the country. AT will also help prevent social tensions and may preserve local traditions.
4 For those in the industrialised generating country, AT is ideal for cost conscious travellers or for people who prefer close contacts with locals.
5 There will be benefits for international relations; AT may promote international-interregional-intercultural understanding.
There will always be a demand for mass tourism, because some people would prefer to focus on relaxing and having a good time ‘away from it all’ and not have to worry about arranging their itinerary, stay in accommodation that offers reasonable and sometimes considerable comfort and would rather hang out on the beach or bars rather than have to spend their time trying to achieve these goals. As this cannot be replaced by alternative tourism, it is better to consider reforming the worst aspects of mass tourism by looking at what alternative tourism has to offer. Even though sustainable tourism is not always perfect, it can make a difference, especially when tourism is becoming the largest industry in the world. At least, it can be available to the host communities to help them decide what kind of development they want to pursue. There is no such thing as zero impact tourism and many countries that promote and encourage mass tourism will not phase it out because there are now too many stake holders. Alternative tourism can be a solution to some of the problems created by mass tourism, if it is set up and managed carefully, instead of a replacement for mass tourism; they can and should learn from each other.
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