Policy - Planning and Development for Tourism

Question: Explain about Policy, Planning and Development for Tourism. Answer: Difference between sustainable development and sustainable tourism: In recent years, tourism has emerged as one of the fastest growing industries worldwide. I believe that sustainable tourism focuses on making minimum impact on the local culture and environment. There is no widely accepted concept related to sustainable tourism but majority of the definitions some common factors. I believe this has led to a greater focus on the sustainable tourism development. As per the article by Jamal and Camargo (2014), definition sustainable tourism focuses on three features including quality, continuity and balance. Therefore, I feel that sustainable tourism provides a superior of experience for the visitors as well as enhancing the quality of life for the community and also protecting the environment from the adverse impact of excessive tourism. Sustainable tourism also ensures the continuity of the culture and natural resources so that visitors can able to enjoy visiting this place in future as well. I also feel that sustainable tourism actually reduces the p ossibility negative impact due to the growth of the tourism industry. Sustainable tourism also ensures a balance between the need of the local community and tourism industry. On the other hand, sustainable development focuses on the economic development that is utilized without considering about the natural resources. For that reason, I believe that sustainable development only considers present economic condition of the society. In case of tourism industry, sustainable development actually creates adverse impact on the society. Particularly, it creates adverse affect the environment and culture of the host community. Thus, it actually reduces the possible future benefits that society can get with the development of the tourism industry. In fact, I think that sustainable development has induces governments of different economies to implement several planning and policies so that tourism development does not able to create too much adverse impact on the environmental and economical growth of the economy. Key issues related to sustainable development and sustainable tourism in contemporary tourism policy and planning: In present time, tourism industry has to consider several issues or factors at the time of developing policies and planning. For instance, excess number of tourist increases the consumption of energy for that particular community. Furthermore, I believe that the visitors that actually creates adverse impact on the sustainable tourism as they have wasted lot of water. I also feel that job creation for the local community is another factor that tourism industry has to consider at the time of developing sustainable tourism. I have found that many tourism organizations are recruiting people from outside community. For that reason, tourism industry has not able to provide the expected level of positive economic impact on the local community. For instance, many hotels in Melbourne area are utilizing people from all across the world. Therefore, tourism development has not able to create expected level of economic impact. Since, utilization of outside people in the tourism industry will not provide any help for the local community. I have also found that governments of different countries have implemented rules and regulation in order to ensure that both economical and environmental condition of the local community remains intact. I also think that collection of tax from the tourism organizations is another major issue that government has to face due to complex franchise, subsidiary system and joint venture. For instance, Singapore tourist industry collects high percentage of tax from the tourism industry. For that reason, I believe that economies will have to implement tourism planning and policy in such a way so that it can able to made maximum impact on the community. Therefore, it has induces the development of several policies and procedures so that tourism development can actually benefit the society. Challenges in attaining sustainable tourism in current society: Buckley (2012) mentioned that sustainable tourism development has to go through several challenges including the structure of public administration, national economic policy, over commercialization, structure of the international tourism system and environment. Structure of public administration is different in different countries. Therefore, I feel that many foreign tourists face difficulties in cope up with this new public administration structure. I have also identified that many time tourism organizations over commercialize a particular area. For instance, places like Paris, Bangkok, etc. often gets over populated by the tourists that eventually create adverse impact on the environmental condition. As a result, I believe that it actually increases the focus on the sustainable development but it reduces the possibility of sustainable tourism. I have found that over commercialization actually creates negative impact on the environment of a particular community. Furthermore, I belie ve that over commercialization on the existing culture of the particular place. I feel that over commercialization induces local people to interact with people coming from different culture. Therefore, it definitely affects the existing culture of the community. Structure of the international tourism system is another factor that can have impact on the sustainable tourism. For instance, well-defined structure for international tourism in Singapore has made huge amount of positive impact on the tourist development objectives. Many countries utilize different types of international tourism system that actually creates difficulties for the tourism companies at the time of influencing foreign people to visit a particular destination. I think that economic policy ensures the kind of economical benefit a particular tourist destination can provide for the development of the community. However, national economic policies vary with time and place. Therefore, it creates difficulties in attain ing sustainable tourism in current society. Impact of the term sustainable tourism imperative: Tourism development is necessary for the economic development of the communities. Therefore, I believe that every economy will have to utilize several techniques in order to attract tourists from all across the world. I feel that sustainable tourism is the best way to develop the tourism industry. Since, sustainable tourism consciously tries to create minimum adverse impact on the society. Therefore, it does not create too much impact on the environmental and cultural perspectives of the communities. In fact, I believe that sustainable tourism allows the community to utilize its culture for attracting the tourists from all over the world. Furthermore, sustainable tourism focuses on the improper utilization of the natural resources. For instance, sustainable tourism always tries to reduce the water waste at the minimum level so that it cannot affect the quality of life of the local peoples. On the other hand, I feel that sustainable tourism ensures that the government can actually abl e to collect fare amount of tax for the development of the society. In fact, sustainable tourism actually helps to formulate a proper structure for the development of the society. Conversely, I have found that excessive development of tourism can create immediate positive impact but will eventually affect the environment and culture of the community. Thus, sustainable tourism is imperative in the current society. References: Buckley, R., 2012. Sustainable tourism: Research and reality.Annals of Tourism Research,39(2), pp.528-546. Jamal, T. and Camargo, B.A., 2014. Sustainable tourism, justice and an ethic of care: Toward the just destination.Journal of Sustainable Tourism,22(1), pp.11-30.