1 Sustainable Tourism Development: Is Achieving Balance an Impossible Dream? Dr. Steve Burr Director, Institute for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism College.

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Sustainable Tourism Development:

Is Achieving Balance an Impossible Dream?

Dr. Steve BurrDirector, Institute for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism

College of Natural ResourcesUtah State University

Presentation for REDTT Annual Meeting 2000Socorro, New Mexico

October 17, 2000

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Utah State University’s Institute for Outdoor

Recreation and Tourism

In 1998, Utah State Legislature approved Senate Bill 35.

To provide continuing funding to Utah State University...

To establish and support an interdisciplinary program of research, extension, and teaching...

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A Better Understanding...

To better understand the relationships between:

• outdoor recreation and tourism;

• natural resources management;

• community economic vitality;

• quality of life issues for the citizens of Utah.

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The Mission of the Institute

The Institute for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism (IORT) conducts a program of research, extension, and teaching for the benefit of the people of Utah, our country, and the world, directed at improving our understanding of the relationships between outdoor recreation and tourism, natural resources management, community economic vitality, and quality of life.

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Sustainable Tourism Development: Is Achieving Balance an Impossible Dream?

Tourism • Economic Impact• As a Development Industry

Sustainability and Sustainable Development• “Ideal” and “Reality”• Goal or Process?

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Sustainable Tourism Development• Criteria• Tenets• Operationalizing• Problems and Obstacles• Best Chances for Success

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Tourism...the world’s biggest industry?

Tourism accounts for 10% of global gross domestic product.

Estimated that tourism employs up to 10% of the world’s workforce.

(World Tourism Organization, 1999)

Statistics from Utah Division of Travel Development

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Utah Tourism at a Glance--1999

Tourism is among Utah’s “Top 5” economic activities. (manufacturing, trade, services, government)

$4.2 billion in traveler spending for Utah’s economy

Over 7% of Utah’s Gross State Product


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$336 million generated in state and local taxes

$158 per Utah resident generated by out-of-state tourists

These taxes help pay for services and infrastructure that residents enjoy.


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119,500 total jobs in travel and tourism related industries• 67,000 direct jobs• 52,500 indirect and induced jobs

11.4% of total non-agricultural employment

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True for New Mexico too!

“Tourism is one of the most successful industries in the state, generating more than $3 billion in revenues each year and creating more than 50,000 jobs statewide.”

From “Impact--Making a Difference, Rural Economic Development Through Tourism” November

1999

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Tourism as a Development Industry

Tourism relies on the development and utilization of natural, historical, cultural, and human resources in the local environment as tourist attractions and destinations.

Creates recreational uses for natural and human-made amenity resources and converts these into income producing assets.

(Siehl 1990; Willits 1992)

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Tourism DevelopmentEconomic Benefits versus Potential Costs

Economic Benefits, but Potential Costs to the Environment and Local Society

Potentially Exploitive Tendency

Being Approached with a Sense of Caution

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Tourism DevelopmentEconomic Benefits versus Potential Costs

“Ill-conceived and poorly planned tourism development can erode the very qualities of the natural and human environments that attract visitors in the first place.” (Inskeep, 1991)

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Sustainability and Sustainable Development

Concept of “sustainability” recently associated with tourism development initiatives and efforts. (French, 1992; Long & Nuckolls, 1992)

“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987)

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Sustainable Development

All development paths that are either environmentally benign or beneficial.

Tied to sustainable use-- careful and sensitive economic development is possible without degrading or depleting natural resources needed by present and future generations.

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Meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Promotes intergenerational responsibility.

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Sustainable Tourism Development

Involves management of all resources in such a way that “economic, social, and aesthetic needs [are fulfilled] while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity, and life support systems.” (Inskeep, 1991)

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“Remains viable over an indefinite period and does not degrade nor alter the environment (human and physical) in which it exists to such a degree that it prohibits the successful development and well-being of other activities and processes.” (Butler, 1993)


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Should follow ethical principles that “respect the culture and environment of the host area, the economy and traditional way of life, the indigenous behavior, and the local leadership and political patterns.” (Cronin, 1990)

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Interest in “protecting, using carefully and benefiting the human and cultural, as well as the natural heritage of an area, implying active participation and leadership by local people, organizations, and government.” (Inskeep, 1991)

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Can Tourism Development Really Be Sustainable?

Policy Endorsement

(the “Ideal”)

Policy Implementation

(the “Reality”)

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Is it possible to “prove” sustainability?

Difficult to “prove” sustainability

Easier to “prove” unsustainability

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SustainabilityAn “Ideal” Balance of Capacities

in Three Systems

Economic Environmental

Socio-Cultural

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SustainabilityAn “Ideal” Balance of Capacities

in Three Systems

Maximize Goal Achievement across the three systems at one and the same time through an Adaptive Process of Trade-Offs.

The more the three systems and goals converge, the more sustainable development becomes.

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The Reality

Political-Legal System

Economic

Environmental

Socio-Cultural

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The Reality


Economic

Socio-Cultural

Environmental

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The Reality


EconomicEnvironmental

Socio-Cultural

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The Reality

Not possible to maximize all goals at the same time through an adaptive process of trade-offs.

Conflict may exist between and among inter- and intra-system goals.

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The Reality

As a result of values, choices are made as to which goals are more valuable and which should receive higher priority.

As a result, different development strategies assign different priorities to the systems and their goals.

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The Reality

Process of trade-offs among goals must be adaptive since relative priorities assigned to various goals change over time.

Interactions among the different system goals change as the scale of the systems is extended from local to regional to national and to global.

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Concept of sustainable development provokes groups at different levels to set a wide spectrum of goals and then to reconcile them.

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“It is this reconciliation or trade-offs implicit in sustainable development that has inspired much useful work since the early 1980s… [amounting] to a new renaissance in thinking in social welfare and development issues.” (Holmberg & Sandbrook, 1992)

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Four Real Dilemmas or Disagreements

The world cannot go on making economic growth the unquestionable objective of development policy.

Factors that make up sustainable development differ from those involved in conventional economic development.

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Four Real Dilemmas or Disagreements

How do we answer the question for whom is development, and what is to be conserved by making it sustainable?

Relationship between sustainable development and democratic government.

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There is no “shortcut to sustainability!”

Patterns of sustainable development must be built from the bottom up, showing what can be achieved at local levels and then working to disseminate positive experiences. (Holmberg & Sandbrook, 1992)

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Sustainability Goal or Process?

Most often viewed as a goal, an end-point, a destination...

Instead, more of an ongoing process… taking more of a dynamic perspective

An on-going, adaptive learning process

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Sustainability Goal or Process?

“Transition to sustainability must involve harnessing science and technology to provide direction, examine alternative pathways, measure success--or lack of it--along the way, and produce information and incentives for changing course.” (National Research Council, National Academies, 1999)

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Today, most policy documents recognize and claim adherence to the principle of sustainable development… indicating its evolution into full-scale institutionalization. (Frazier, 1997)

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Major problem with sustainable development is its ambiguity and subsequent vulnerability to interpretation and employment on ideological grounds.

(Weaver & Lawton, 1999) “Ideal” of Policy Endorsement

versus “Reality” of Policy Implementation

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“Increased emphasis is being placed on those forms of tourism that are particularly sensitive to promoting and retaining the integrity of natural and socio-cultural environments.” (Swinnerton & Hinch, 1994)

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There must be a balance between “a degree or type of development that will bring economic and other benefits to a community and the point at which that development starts to feed on rather than sustain the very elements at its basis.” (Cronin, 1990)

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Criteria for Sustainable Development

Follow ethical principles

Involve the local population

Give the local population an element of control

Be undertaken with equity in mind

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Tenets of Sustainable Tourism Development

Low impact and small in scale Careful in progress Appropriate and sensitive to the local

natural and socio-cultural environment Readily integrated into the existing social

and economic life of the community

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Operationalizing Sustainable Tourism Development (STD)

Define goals of STD for a destination.

Establish appropriate planning and management framework.

Select relevant indicators from a candidate list of economic, environmental, and socio-cultural criteria.

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Candidate Sustainable Tourism Indicators

Environmental• Destruction or alteration of natural

habitat by tourism construction• Amount of litter associated with

tourism activities• Resource consumption associated

with tourism

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Economic• Revenues earned directly from

tourism• Proportion of destination employment

associated with tourism• Profitability of individual operations

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Socio-Cultural• Number of resident complaints

against tourism• Amount of crime directed against

tourists and the tourism industry• Number and condition of heritage

structures and sites• Integrity of the local culture

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Operationalizing Sustainable Tourism Development (STD)

Measure and monitor these indicators.

Periodically analyze and assess indicator performance.

Determine whether original goals are being achieved.

Implement remedial action, if necessary. (Weaver & Lawton, 1999)

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Problems Encountered in All of These Steps

Sustainable tourism development goals influenced by ideological considerations--lack of common ground often evident.

Assuming goal consensus, necessary to define temporal, spatial, political, and inter-sectoral parameters within which to assess sustainable tourism.

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All Problematic!

Long-term planning discouraged by short-term budget allocations.

A narrow, politically-defined spatial planning unit cannot take into account all the influences and effects affecting sustainability of the sector.

Tourism cannot be isolated from other resource uses.

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For Sustainability Indicators...

Potential number of indicators within any particular destination is enormous.

Strategically difficult to monitor more than a few.

No definitive guidelines available to inform destinations as to which ones are most important.

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For Sustainability Indicators...

Decision to include or exclude particular indicators is ultimately a subjective exercise, highly sensitive to context.

Little known about critical thresholds of sustainability that apply to each criterion, how they can be measured, and how often they should be monitored.

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Spatial and Temporal Discontinuities Between Cause

and Effect

Many of the impacts identified within a destination and/or within a specific time period actually have their causes in other areas or time periods.

Events within destinations may have consequences in other destinations and time periods.

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Many Obstacles to Achieving Sustainable Tourism Development

Is achieving STD even possible and/or worthwhile?• If no effort is made at all, unsustainable

outcomes are virtually guaranteed.• Sustainability indicators are just that, an

indication, rather than an absolute confirmation, of sustainability.

• New information on sustainable practices in tourism is continually being generated.

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Given All These Problems with STD...

It is more appropriate to describe destinations as being “indicative” of sustainable tourism development than to state they are definitely sustainable.

An accurate judgment as to sustainability is still too difficult to make.

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Focus on Achieving Equity and Balance

Sustainable tourism development is determined largely by what “stakeholders” want it to be.

An informed, open participatory process for decision-making

Creates empowerment and involvement

Cooperative and collaborative action

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Best Chances for Success

From professionals and volunteers working in tourism development.

Following an approach that focuses on the tenets of sustainable development in all development efforts and initiatives.

Facilitates resident involvement, participation in decision-making, and local control in development.

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Best Chances for Success

Cooperative interaction can create:• networks both within and outside the

community• roles for involved community members• shared experiences• opportunities for further community

development• contributions to the general quality of life

in a community

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Dr. Steve BurrAssociate Professor of Recreation Resources

Director, Institute for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Extension Specialist in Outdoor Recreation and Tourism

Institute for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Utah State University

5220 Old Main HillLogan, Utah 84322-5220Office: (435) 797-7094FAX: (435) 797-4040

E-mail: [email protected] Website under Interdisciplinary Programs at

www.cnr.usu.edu

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Planned and managed for the protection of the natural environment for future generations

Planned in an integrated manner with other economic sectors and social systems

Assessed on an ongoing basis to evaluate impacts and permit action to counter any negative effects

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Focus: Achieving Equity and Balance

Involves “mutual learning and adaptation among all concerned parties in the context of shared responsibility and equity.” (Nelson, 1993)

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Primary Environmental Care(PEC)

Local groups or communities organize themselves with varying degrees of outside support to apply their skills and knowledge for the care of their natural resources and environment while satisfying livelihood needs

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Three Goals:

• Economic goal of meeting and satisfying basic needs

• Environmental goal of protection and optimal utilization of the environment

• Social goal of empowering groups and communities

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Success of PEC is dependent on local groups and communities who can:

• Organize, participate, and influence development priorities;

• Access natural, human, and financial resources;

• Select and help develop productive and environmentally sensitive technologies.

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Outside institutions must empower the local community by way of political support and open access to information, and take an adaptive and flexible approach if resources are provided.

1 Sustainable Tourism Development: Is Achieving Balance an Impossible Dream? Dr. Steve Burr Director, Institute for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism College.

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