Sustainability Intourism
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Sustainability in tourism is whereby organisations try to minimise the impact on the local culture as well as the environment, as they also focus on the development of potential employment for the local inhabitants/ residents. The focus of sustainability in tourism is to make sure that development brings significant benefits for local residents, tourism organisations, and tourists at large. Sustainability in tourism can sometimes be referred to as ecotourism. Tourism organisations can assist in the reduction of the impact of tourism on the environment by making contributions to intercultural patience and understanding. They can create awareness of the politics, economy, and cultures in the communities that are being toured; they can show respect for local cultures. Finally, they can carry out businesses that support and help sustain local cultures that are aware of the environment in order to conserve resources (Gossling, 2009).
Many organisations, especially in the private sector, started emphasising on sustainable tourism when they felt that little had been done since the UN Earth Summit was held in Rio in 1992. One of the reasons that resulted the failure of the implementation of the policy was that almost every organisation was expecting others to carry out their activities sustainably. They forgot the fact that when everyone is required to be responsible for the environment, it meant that everyone carrying out tourism businesses or involved in any way in tourism should be responsible, for example, the governments, transport providers, and tourism companies. Many conflicting interests may occur while carrying out sustainable tourism. However, people need to realise that sustainability aims at creating a better environment for people to reside in and for others to explore. There are no exact standards for sustainable tourism. What may be regarded as sustainable in one culture may be regarded unsustainable in a different place and culture (Edgell, 2006).
The strengths that organisations should look at while implementing sustainability policies in tourism are that a popular tourism destination should exist. There should be aspects of the environment and culture that are to be managed; the people managing tourism and culture should be knowledgeable; and finally, the staff in any organisation should be aware of the environment, and possess skills related to sustainable tourism. On the other hand, a sustainability policy could be weak if its current approaches are old. This would mean that the policy would have to be revised. Secondly, a sustainability policy would hardly work in an environment where the locals are not ready for change. It would also be hard to implement if the staff did not have enough knowledge and skills in the area. Finally, it would be difficult to implement if the tourists were difficult to manage (Edgell, 2006).
Let us look at a case study of sustainable tourism in France. Tourism is a significant activity in the said country for foreigners who tour the country, and for the French people who spend their vacations at home. Therefore, France has been a world class tourist destination since the 1990s, and it still was by the year 2009 with approximately 81.7 million tourists