Tourism: industry as a partner for sustainable development

This paper argues that travel and tourism has the potential to reduce the conflict between economic, social and environmental objectives and deliver development in a sustainable way.

The scale of travel and tourism’s contribution to the global economy and its potential for enabling sustainable developmentare becoming more evident. The challenge is to move from the existing ad hoc approach, to one that can integrate the current social, economic and environmental programmes, funds and initiatives, and evolve new patterns of managing travel and tourismbusinesses in a more systematic and dynamic way. The inevitable transition to sustainable development strategies gives the travel andtourism industry an opportunity to confirm itself as a solution, rather than a contributor to the economical, social and environmentalchallenges facing the future.

One of the main barriers to achieving this goal in the past has been the inherent fragmentation of the industry, and the relative fragility of viable operating margins, especially for the small and medium-sized enterprises that make up most of the industry. This has indirectly led to a deficiency of accountability both by the private and public sectors. This lack of responsibility towards travel and tourism is leading, at an ever-increasing rate, to an eventual environmental, economic and cultural crisis. In order to avert this crisis all stakeholders including, the public and private sectors, NGOs, trade unions and consumers need to begin to co-operate to make travel and tourism work for everyone.

Governments are only just beginning to take a more decisive role in developing sustainable, economically successful tourism. But, strong partnerships by all stakeholders will bring valuable networking processes, workable policies and logical planning and development, transforming travel and tourism’s sometimes negative environmental image to one of sustainability and stewardship. [adapted from author]