thesis about eco tourism

Advertisement

Impact of tourism development upon environmental sustainability: a suggested framework for sustainable ecotourism

• Research Article
• Published: 19 August 2022
• Volume 30 , pages 5917–5930, ( 2023 )

Cite this article

• Qadar Bakhsh Baloch 1 ,
• Syed Naseeb Shah 1 ,
• Nadeem Iqbal 2 ,
• Muhammad Sheeraz 3 ,
• Muhammad Asadullah 4 ,
• Sourath Mahar 5 &
• Asia Umar Khan 6  

61k Accesses

106 Citations

6 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

The empirical research investigated the relationship between tourism development and environmental suitability to propose a framework for sustainable ecotourism. The framework suggested a balance between business and environmental interests in maintaining an ecological system with the moderating help of government support and policy interventions. The study population encompasses tourism stakeholders, including tourists, representatives from local communities, members of civil administration, hoteliers, and tour operators serving the areas. A total of 650 questionnaires were distributed to respondents, along with a brief description of key study variables to develop a better understanding. After verifying the instrument’s reliability and validity, data analysis was conducted via hierarchical regression. The study findings revealed that a substantial number of people perceive socio-economic benefits, including employment and business openings, infrastructure development from tourism development, and growth. However, the state of the natural and environmental capital was found to be gradually degrading. Alongside the social environment, social vulnerability is reported due to the overutilization of land, intrusion from external cultures, and pollution in air and water due to traffic congestion, accumulation of solid waste, sewage, and carbon emissions. The study suggested a model framework for the development of sustained ecotourism, including supportive government policy interventions to ensure effective conservation of environmental and natural resources without compromising the economic viability and social well-beings of the locals. Furthermore, the variables and the constructs researched can be replicated to other destinations to seek valuable inputs for sustainable destination management elsewhere.

Similar content being viewed by others

Balancing tourism and conservation: analysing the sustainability of tourism in the city of Naples through citizen perspectives

Sustainable Tourism Indicators in Cities

Ecotourism as a Core of Sustainability in Tourism

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

Tourism is a vibrant force that stimulates travel to explore nature, adventures, wonders, and societies, discover cultures, meet people, interact with values, and experience new traditions and events. Tourism development attracts tourists to a particular destination to develop and sustain a tourism industry. Moreover, environmental sustainability is the future-based conscious effort aimed at conserving socio-cultural heritage and preserving natural resources to protect environmental ecosystems through supporting people’s health and economic well-being. Environment sustainability can be reflected in clean and green natural landscaping, thriving biodiversity, virgin sea beaches, long stretches of desert steppes, socio-cultural values, and archeological heritage that epitomize tourists’ degree of motivation and willingness of the local community to welcome the visitors. In this context, tourism growth and environmental sustainability are considered interdependent constructs; therefore, the increase in tourism development and tourists’ arrivals directly affects the quality of sustained and green tourism (Azam et al. 2018 ; Hassan et al.  2020 ; Sun et al. 2021 ).

According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries, contributing more than 10% to the global GDP (UNWTO 2017; Mikayilov et al. 2019 ). Twenty-five million international tourists in 1950 grew to 166 million in 1970, reaching 1.442 billion in 2018 and projected to be 1.8 billion by 2030. Mobilizing such a substantial human tourist’s mass is most likely to trickle environmental pollution along with its positive effects on employment, wealth creation, and the economy. The local pollution at tourist destinations may include air emissions, noise, solid waste, littering, sewage, oil and chemicals, architectural/visual pollution, heating, car use, and many more. In addition, an uncontrolled, overcrowded, and ill-planned tourist population has substantial adverse effects on the quality of the environment. It results in the over-consumption of natural resources, degradation of service quality, and an exponential increase in wastage and pollution. Furthermore, tourism arrivals beyond capacity bring problems rather than a blessing, such as leaving behind soil erosion, attrition of natural resources, accumulation of waste and air pollution, and endangering biodiversity, decomposition of socio-cultural habitats, and virginity of land and sea (Kostić et al. 2016 ; Shaheen et al. 2019 ; Andlib and Salcedo-Castro  2021 ).

Tourism growth and environmental pollution have been witnessed around the globe in different regions. The ASEAN countries referred to as heaven for air pollution, climate change, and global warming are experiencing economic tourism and pollution (Azam et al. 2018 ; Guzel and Okumus 2020 ). In China, more than fifty-eight major Chinese tourism destinations are inviting immediate policy measures to mitigate air pollution and improve environmental sustainability (Zhang et al. 2020 ). Similarly, Singapore, being a top-visited country, is facing negative ecological footprints and calling for a trade-off between tourism development and environmental sustainability (Khoi et al. 2021 ). The prior studies established that international tourism and the tourism-led growth surge tourists’ arrival, energy consumption, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions, and air pollution resultantly cause climate change (Aslan et al. 2021 ). South Asian countries, more specifically Sri Lanka and Pakistan, are on the verge of tourism growth and environmental pollution compared to other countries (Chishti et al. 2020 ; Tiwari et al. 2021 ).

Pakistan is acknowledged in the tourism world because of its magnificent mountains with the densest concentration of high peaks in the world, scenic beauty of Neelum Valley, Murree, Chitral, and swat Valleys’, Kaghan, Naran, Hunza, Gilgit Baltistan (Baloch 2007 ), sacred shrines of Sikhism, archeological sites of the Gandhara and Indus Valley civilizations such as Mohenjo-Daro, Taxila including pre-Islamic Kalasha community (Baloch and Rehman 2015 ). In addition, Pakistan’s hospitable and multicultural society offers rich traditions, customs, and festivals for the tourists to explore, commemorate, cherish, and enjoy. Pakistan’s geographical and socio-cultural environment represents its resource and an opportunity (Baloch and Rehman 2015 ); therefore, Pakistan is looking to capitalize on it as a promising source of the foreign reserve to compensate for its mounting trade deficit (Baloch et al. 2020 ).

Tourism expansion has been established as a very deleterious ecological cost vis-à-vis the socio-economic benefits it passes to the host communities (Pulido-Fernández et al. 2019 ; Simo-Kengne 2022 ). In this context, the research is motivated to investigate the relationships between Pakistan’s tourism development activities and environmental sustainability. Drawing from the arguments of Pulido-Fernández et al. ( 2019 ) and Simo-Kengne ( 2022 ), it is feared that Pakistan’s ongoing determination to tourism development is likely to cause environmental degradation in two ways. Firstly, the tourism infrastructure developmental process would consume natural resources in the form of air and water pollution, loss of nature, and biodiversity. Secondly, the proliferation of tourism-related energy-consuming activities harms the environment by adding CO 2  emissions (Andlib and Saceldo-Castro 2021 ; Chien et al. 2021a ). Therefore, to tape this tourism-rich potential without compromising the sustainability of the natural and socio-cultural environment in the area, there is a dire need to develop Pakistan’s tourism areas into environment-friendly destinations.

Against the backdrop of a widening level of trade deficit, Pakistan’s rich tourism potential is being perceived as an immediate alternative for earning revenue to compensate for the current account gap. However, the developing large-scale tourism industry is considered a threat to deforestation, and air and water pollution, endangering biodiversity trading on resilient ecological credentials. The research study attempts to find an all-inclusive and comprehensive answer to the socio-ecological environmental concerns of tourism development and growth. Therefore, the research investigates the relationship between tourism development and its environmental sustainability to suggest a model framework for the development and growth of Sustainable Ecotourism in Pakistan along with its most visited destinations.

Literature review

• Tourism development and growth

Tourism is considered a force of sound as it benefits travelers and communities in urban and suburban areas. Tourism development is the process of forming and sustaining a business for a particular or mix of segments of tourists’ as per their motivation in a particular area or at a specific destination. Primarily, tourism development refers to the all-encompassing process of planning, pursuing, and executing strategies to establish, develop, promote, and encourage tourism in a particular area or destination (Mandić et al. 2018 ; Ratnasari et al. 2020 ). A tourism destination may serve as a single motivation for a group of tourists or a mix of purposes, i.e., natural tourism, socio-cultural or religious tourism, adventure or business tourism, or a combination of two or more. Andlib and Salcedo-Castro ( 2021 ), drawing from an analysis approach, contended that tourism destinations in Pakistan offer a mix of promising and negative consequences concerning their socio-economic and environmental impressions on the host community. The promising socio-economic impacts for the local community are perceived in the form of employment and business opportunities, improved standard of living, and infrastructural development in the area. The adverse environmental outcomes include overcrowding, traffic congestion, air and noise pollution, environmental degradation, and encroachment of landscaping for the local community and the tourists. An extensive review of the literature exercise suggests the following benefits that the local community and the tourists accrue from the tour are as follows:

Generate revenue and monetary support for people and the community through local arts and culture commercialization.

Improve local resource infrastructure and quality of life, including employment generation and access to improved civic facilities.

Help to create awareness and understanding of different ethnic cultures, social values, and traditions, connecting them and preserving cultures.

Rehabilitate and conserve socio-cultural and historical heritage, including archeological and natural sites.

Establishment of natural parks, protracted areas, and scenic beauty spots.

Conservation of nature, biodiversity, and endangered species with control over animal poaching.

Improved water and air quality through afforestation, littering control, land and soil conservation, and recycling of used water and waste.

Tourism and hospitality business incorporates various business activities such as travel and transportation through the air or other modes of travel, lodging, messing, restaurants, and tourism destinations (Szpilko 2017 ; Bakhriddinovna and Qizi 2020 ). A tourist’s tourism experience is aimed at leisure, experiencing adventure, learning the culture or history of a particular area or ethnic entity, traveling for business or health, education, or religious purposes. The chain of activities adds value to the Tourism experience. Every activity contributes toward economic stimulation, job creation, revenue generation, and tourism development encompassing infrastructure for all activities involved in the tourism process. Tourism growth expresses the number of arrivals and the time of their stay/trips over a period of time. Tourism growth is measured through the interplay between tourists’ arrivals, tourism receipts, and travel time duration (Song et al. 2010 ; Arifin et al. 2019 ). The following factors drive the degree and level of tourism development and growth:

Environmental factors include scenic beauty, green spaces, snowy mountains, towering peaks, good climate and weather, the interconnectivity of destination, quality of infrastructure, etc.

Socio-economic factors: the distinctiveness of community, uniqueness of culture and social values, hospitality and adaptability, accessibility, accommodation, facilities and amenities, cost-effectiveness, price index, and enabling business environment.

Historical, cultural, and religious factors include historical and cultural heritage, religious sites, and cultural values and experiences.

The tourism development process and its different dynamics revolve around the nature of tourism planned for a particular destination or area, which can be specified as ecotourism, sustainable tourism, green tourism or regenerative tourism, etc. Ecotourism is “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education” (Cheia, 2013 ; TIES, 2015). According to the World Conservation Union (IUCN), ecotourism involves “ Environmentally responsible travel to natural areas, to enjoy and appreciate nature (and accompanying cultural features, both past, and present) that promote conservation, have a low visitor impact and provide for beneficially active socio-economic involvement of local peoples ”. Moreover, Blangy and Wood ( 1993 ) defined it as “ responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people ” (p. 32). The concept of ecotourism is grounded upon a well-defined set of principles including “environmental conservation and education, cultural preservation and experience, and economic benefits” (Cobbinah 2015 ; De Grosbois and Fennell 2021 ).

Ecotourism minimizes tourism’s impact on the tourism resources of a specific destination, including lessening physical, social, interactive, and psychosomatic impacts. Ecotourism is also about demonstrating a positive and responsible attitude from the tourists and hosts toward protecting and preserving all components of the environmental ecosystem. Ecotourism reflects a purpose-oriented mindset, responsible for creating and delivering value for the destination with a high degree of kindliness for local environmental, political, or social issues. Ecotourism generally differs from mass tourism because of its following features (Liang et al. 2018 ; Ding and Cao 2019 ; Confente and Scarpi 2021 ):

Conscientious behavior focuses on the low impact on the environment.

Sensitivity and warmth for local cultures, values, and biodiversity.

Supporting the sustenance of efforts for the conservation of local resources.

Sharing and delivering tourism benefits to the local communities.

Local participation as a tourism stakeholder in the decision-making process.

Educating the tourist and locals about the sensitivity and care of the environment because tourism without proper arrangement can endanger the ecosystems and indigenous cultures and lead to significant ecological degradation.

Sustainability aims to recognize all impacts of tourism, minimize the adverse impacts, and maximize the encouraging ones. Sustainable tourism involves sustainable practices to maintain viable support for the ecology of the tourism environment in and around the destination. Sustainable tourism is natural resource-based tourism that resembles ecotourism and focuses on creating travel openings with marginal impact and encouraging learning about nature having a low impact, conservation, and valuable consideration for the local community’s well-being (Fennell 2001 & 2020 ; Butowski 2021 ). On the other hand, ecotourism inspires tourists to learn and care about the environment and effectively participate in the conservation of nature and cultural activities. Therefore, ecotourism is inclusive of sustainable tourism, whereas the focus of sustainable tourism includes the following responsibilities:

Caring, protecting, and conserving the environment, natural capital, biodiversity, and wildlife.

Delivering socio-economic welfare for the people living in and around tourists' destinations.

Identifying, rehabilitating, conserving, and promoting cultural and historical heritage for visitors learning experiences.

Bringing tourists and local groups together for shared benefits.

Creating wide-ranging and reachable opportunities for tourists.

Environment and sustainability of ecosystem

The term “environment” is all-inclusive of all the natural, organic living, inorganic, and non-natural things. The environment also denotes the interface among all breathing species with the natural resources and other constituents of the environment. Humans’ activities are mainly responsible for environmental damage as people and nations have contemplated modifying the environment to suit their expediencies. Deforestation, overpopulation, exhaustion of natural capital, and accumulation of solid waste and sewage are the major human activities that result in polluted air and water, acid rain, amplified carbon dioxide levels, depletion of the ozone, climate change, global warming, extermination of species, etc. A clean, green, and hygienic fit environment has clean air, clean water, clean energy, and moderate temperature for the healthy living of humans, animals, and biodiversity as nature is destined for them by their creatures. Maintaining and sustaining a clean environment is indispensable for human and biodiversity existence, fostering growth and development for conducting business and creating wealth. The environment can be sustained through conservation, preservation, and appropriate management to provide clean air, water, and food safe from toxic contamination, waste, and sewage disposal, saving endangered species and land conservation.

The globalization process, known for building socio-economic partnerships across countries, is also charged with encouraging environmental degradation through the over-consumption of natural resources and energy consumption, deforestation, land erosion, and weakening (Adebayo and Kirikkaleli 2021 ; Sun et al. 2021 ). Chien et al. ( 2021b ), while studying the causality of environmental degradation in Pakistan, empirically confirmed the existence of a significant connection between CO 2  emissions and GDP growth, renewable energy, technological innovation, and globalization. However, Chien et al. ( 2021a ) suggested using solar energy as a source of economic intervention to control CO 2  emissions and improve environmental quality in China. The danger of air pollution is hard to escape as microscopic air pollutants pierce through the human respiratory and cardiovascular system, injuring the lungs, heart, and brain. Ill-planned and uncontrolled human activities negatively affect ecosystems, causing climate change, ocean acidification, melting glaciers, habitation loss, eutrophication, air pollution, contaminants, and extinction of endangered species ( Albrich et al. 2020 ) .

Humans have a more significant effect on their physical environment in numerous ways, such as pollution, contamination, overpopulation, deforestation, burning fossil fuels and driving to soil erosion, polluting air and water quality, climate change, etc. UNO Agenda for 2030 “Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) mirrors the common premise that a healthy environment and human health are interlaced as integral to the satisfaction of fundamental human rights, i.e., right to life, well-being, food, water and sanitation, quality of life and biodiversity to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages (SDG3)—which includes air quality that is dependent upon terrestrial ecosystems (SDG15), oceans (SDG14), cities (SDG11), water, cleanliness, and hygiene (SDG6) (Swain 2018 ; Opoku 2019 ; Scharlemann et al. 2020 ). The UNEP stated that 58% of diarrhea cases in developing economies is due to the non-provision of clean water and inadequate sanitation facilities resulting in 3.5 million deaths globally (Desai 2016 ; Ekins and Gupta 2019 ).

Climate change overwhelmingly alters ecosystems’ ability to moderate life-threatening happenings, such as maintaining water quality, regulating water flows, unbalancing the temporal weather and maintaining glaciers, displacing or extinction biodiversity, wildfire, and drought (Zhu et al. 2019 ; Marengo et al. 2021 ). Research studies advocate that exposure to natural environments is correlated with mental health, and proximity to green space is associated with lowering stress and minimizing depression and anxiety (Noordzij et al. 2020 ; Slater et al. 2020 ; Callaghan et al. 2021 ). Furthermore, the Ecosystem is affected by pollution, over-exploitation of natural resources, climate change, invasive and displacing species, etc. Hence, providing clean air and water, hygienic places, and green spaces enriches the quality of life: condensed mortality, healthier value-added productivity, and is vital to maintaining mental health. On the other hand, climate change aggravates environment-related health hazards through adverse deviations to terrestrial ecology, oceans, biodiversity, and access to fresh and clean water.

Tourism development denotes all activities linked with creating and processing facilities providing services for the tourists on and around a destination. Infrastructure development is vital for developing a tourism destination to advance tourists’ living conditions and preserve natural and cultural heritage by constructing new tourist facilities, the destinations administrative and supporting echelons, including community living, etc. Development for tourism infrastructure and land use often burdens natural capital through over-consumption, leading to soil erosion, augmented pollution, loss of natural habitats, and endangered species. Development of tourism infrastructure and construction work has profound implications on environmental degradation, reduction in green spaces, deforestation, solid waste and sewage, overutilization of air and water, emission of CO 2 and other gases contributing to air and water pollution, climate change, loss and displacement of biodiversity, and the degradation of ecosystems. These negative consequences of tourism development result in many problems for the tourists and the indigenous people in the foreseeable future (Azam et al. 2018 ; Hoang et al. 2020 ).

A report published by UNEP titled “Infrastructure for climate action” has suggested governments introduce sustainable infrastructure as the prevailing one is responsible for causing 79% of all greenhouse gas emissions in struggling climate change, alleviation, and adaptation efforts. Sustainable infrastructure signifies that structures’ planning, construction, and functioning do not weaken the social, economic, and ecological systems (UNEP 2021 ; Krampe 2021 ). Sustainable infrastructure is the only solution that ensures societies, nature, and the environment flourish together. Therefore, Sustainable Ecotourism supports adapting pro-environment and nature-based climate change strategies that help resilient biodiversity and ecosystem to impact climate change. The proposed strategy is to focus on the conservation and restoration of ecosystems to combat climate hazards, fluctuating rainfalls, soil erosion, temperature variations, floods, and extreme wind storms (Niedziółka 2014 ; Setini 2021 )

Pakistan’s tourism infrastructure suffered a colossal amount of damage during the earthquake of October 8, 2005, which left widespread demolition and destruction to its human, economic assets, and infrastructure networks, especially in Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's tourism areas. The tourism-related infrastructure, including hotels, destination facilities of social service delivery and commerce, water channels, and communications networks, were either drained or virtually destroyed. The destruction in the aftermath of the earthquake was further added by the war against terror in tourism-hit areas, resulting in the redundancy of tourists and tourism facilities for a long time (Akbar et al. 2017 ; Zakaria and Ahmed 2019 ). The tourism revival activities during the post-earth quack, post-terrorism scenario, and COVID-19 period called for various entrepreneurial activities, including the construction of infrastructure, hotels, road networks, community living, etc. Development and reconstruction of the livelihood and hospitality infrastructure through entrepreneurship were undertaken intensively through a public-private partnership from national and international findings (Qamar and Baloch 2017 ; Sadiq 2021 ; Dogar et al. 2021 ).

The revival and reinvigoration of infrastructure in tourism areas were backed up by extensive deforestation, use of local green land, rebuilding of the road network, displacement of biodiversity, and overtaxing the consumption of water and other natural resources. The deforestation, extensive use of green land, and over-consumption of water and other natural resources have depleted the tourism value of the area on the one hand and degraded the environment on the other. However, it was the focused rehabilitation activities of earthquake and Pakistan’s Government’s socio-environment conservation strategy of the Billion Trees plantation program in the province, including dominating tourism areas. The afforestation and loss of green tops are being reclaimed through these efforts, and the tourism environment is soon expected to regenerate (Qamar and Baloch 2017 ; Rauf et al. 2019 ; Siddiqui and Siddiqui 2019 ).

Government support and policy interventions

Tourism generates wide-ranging benefits for the economy, community, and people. Tourism contributes to the economy through revenue generation and shares responsibility with the Government to alleviate poverty alleviation, create opportunities for job placements, protect environments, and conserve natural ecosystems and biodiversity. It is assumed that if the tourism industry is left to its own, it will most likely prefer its business interests over environments or biodiversity. Governments, custodians of the life and well-being of their subjects, are directly responsible for providing a clean environment, nature, and Ecosystem. Therefore, national and local governments are responsible for preparing and implementing tourism development plans and enforcing values and standards for tourism development in conformity with the prerequisites of environmental sustainability. Through institutional governance, governments help tourism development by providing financial and budgetary support, regulatory framework, land, physical resources, infrastructure, etc. Provision and facilitation for Sustainability of Ecotourism and conservation of environment and biodiversity are dependent upon Government-supported interventions as follows:

The regulatory framework for setting up tourism-related entrepreneurship and quality standards can support ecotourism and prevent environmental degradation on any account.

Provision of budgetary support for ecosystem conservation and regeneration of bio-diversity-related projects.

Plan, rehabilitate if needed, promote conservation and protection of socio-cultural, historic, antique, and natural endowments in coordination with other public and private agencies, and deal with the defaulters, if any.

Promoting and undertaking afforestation alongside land conservation and discouraging deforestation, soil erosion, accumulation of solid waste, littering, and any direct or indirect loss or threat to biodiversity.

Setting restrictions for over-tourism beyond capacity and quality standards for transportation, restaurants, hotels, food and drinking water, etc.

Placing enforcement mechanism necessary to ensure application of the regulatory framework and quality standards applicable along with all activities inclusive to the Ecotourism value chain.

Theoretical support and hypothesis development

According to the social disruption theory, rapidly expanding societies usually experience a period of widespread crisis and a loss of their conventional routines and attitudes. The crisis impacts people whose mental health, worldviews, behavioral patterns, and social networks may all be impacted (Çalişkan and Özer 2021 ). According to the social disruption theory, fast community change brought on by population growth will result in a variety of social issues that are signs of a generally disorganized community (Smith et al. 2001 ). Because some types of tourism communities experience rapid expansion accompanied by intensive development and rapid social change over a relatively short period of time, they seem to be great settings for studying various postulations of the social disruption theory.

Place change and social disruption theory are closely connected. According to this assumption, when a community undergoes fast expansion, it tends to experience a generalized crisis that might culminate in several social issues as changes spread throughout the community and among individuals (Rasoolimanesh et al. 2019 ). Place change can result from fundamental community restructuring due to economic development, new class divides, and migration of both long-term and temporary people (Nelson 2001 ). Social unrest, though, is not enduring. Instead, it is transitory; societies gradually adjust to these changes (Deery et al.  2012 ).

The standard of living may initially deteriorate, but due to the adaptability of people and communities, they will gradually reinvigorate and strengthen themselves accordingly. Furthermore, the social disruption proposition reinforces one of the challenges in analyzing the effects of tourism, particularly in emerging nations, since it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the effects of tourism and the overall ongoing development (Park and Stokowski 2009 ) (Fig. 1 ).

Tourism development and growth significantly affect natural environment resources.

Tourism development and growth significantly affect environmental pollution.

Tourism development and growth significantly affect the physical ecosystem of the environment.

Tourism development and growth significantly affect the socio-cultural environment.

Tourism development and growth significantly affect the economic environment of people and the community.

Government policy and support significantly moderate the relationship between tourism development and growth and the environmental factors.

Conceptual framework

Methodology

The study aimed to investigate the association of tourism development and its impact on environmental factors. Therefore, a survey method was employed to collect data by including all the relevant people in the locality. The study is based on stakeholders’ opinions from Pakistan’s most visited tourist areas, including Murree, Swat, Chitral, Naran, Kaghan, Neelum Valley, Malam Jabba, Ayubia, and Nathia Gali. A total of 650 stakeholders were contacted from the above-mentioned tourist destinations through survey. The distribution of the sample is mentioned in Table 1 .

Using quantitative techniques, hierarchical linear regression analysis was employed to investigate the possible relationships between tourism growth and various dimensions of environmental sustainability. The results below reveal that tourism development translates into environmental deterioration, and the relationship between tourism and environmental sustainability is bidirectional.

Tourism growth and development were measured through a five-item scale. The environment was measured through 16 items combined scale with sub-dimensions; depletion of Natural Resources=3 items, Polluting Environment=3 items, Physical Effects on Ecosystem=4 items, Socio-Cultural Degradation=3 items, and Economic Environment=3-items. Similarly, our moderating variable, Government Interventions and Support, was measured using a 5-item scale. Table 2 below presents the details of the instruments.

Analysis and results

Data were analyzed using SPSS Version 26. It includes correlation, linear regression, and stepwise hierarchal regression analysis.

Table 3 above shows that our Tourism Growth and Development has significant and positive relationship with Polluting Environment ( r = 0.20**), Physical Effects on Ecosystem ( r = 0.19**), Depletion of Natural Resource ( r = 0.24**), Socio-Cultural Degradation ( r = 0.18**). However, Tourism Growth and Development has positive relationship with Economic Environment ( r = 0.29**) and Government Interventions and Support ( r = 0.13**).

Results of linear regression analysis at Table 4 above depict that tourism growth and development predicts 4.1% variance in Depletion of Natural Resources ( β = 0.20, p <0.01), 3.9% variance in pollution ( β = 0.19, p <0.01), 6% variance in Physical Effects on Ecosystem ( β = 0.24, p <0.01), 3.6% variance in Socio-Cultural Degradation ( β = 0.18, p <0.01), and 8.8% variance in Economic Environment ( β = 0.29, p <0.01).

The study analyzes the applied two-step hierarchal regression. In the first step, Tourism Growth and Government Interventions were treated as independent variables, and their significant impact was measured. In the second step, the interaction term Tourism and Growth× Government Interventions was added, and its impact was measured. The results suggest that Government Interventions and Support moderate the relationship between Tourism Growth and the Environmental variables (Table 5 ).

The study has reported unique findings regarding tourism and its environmental impacts. We found that tourism growth and development generate economic activity on the one hand. However, it has specific adverse environmental and socio-cultural outcomes on the other hand as well. Our study revealed that tourism growth and development predict a 4.1% variance in Depletion of Natural Resources ( β = 0.202*, p <0.01). This suggests that due to the expansion of tourism in the country, natural resources are continuously depleted to meet the needs of tourists. Studies also supported our findings and suggested that revival and reinvigoration of infrastructure in tourism areas were backed up by extensive deforestation, use of local green land, rebuilding of the road network, displacement of biodiversity, and overtaxing the consumption of water and other natural resources (Qamar and Baloch 2017 ; Sadiq 2021 ; Dogar et al. 2021 ). The prior studies are consistent with our hypothesis that “tourism development and growth significantly affect natural environment resources.”

We further found that tourism growth and development predict a 3.9% variance in pollution ( β = 0.198*, p <0.01), suggesting that tourism expansion may pollute the natural environment. Furthermore, recent national statistics depict that major human activities at local tourism destinations such as Kalam, Sawat, Muree, and Northern Areas have accumulated solid waste and sewage, resulting in polluted air and water. Further, research also suggests that the overflow of tourists to tourist destinations may adversely affect the environment due to human activities (Noordzij et al. 2020 ; Slater et al. 2020 ; Andlib and Salcedo-Castro  2021 ; Callaghan et al. 2021 ). Thus, it is safe to argue that the growth of tourism has a particularly detrimental effect on the environment. These findings also support our hypothesis, “Tourism development and growth significantly contribute to environmental pollution.”

The results reported that tourism growth and development predict a 6% variance in Physical Effects on the Ecosystem ( β = 0.245*, p <0.01). Studies have reported that deforestation and alteration in species’ natural environment for tourism facilities construction may adversely affect environmental health (Kuvan, 2010 ; Azam et al. 2018 ; Hoang et al. 2020 ; Andlib and Salcedo-Castro  2021 ). During post-terrorism and post-Covid-19 times in Pakistan, millions of local tourists moved to popular tourist destinations that required new infrastructure to accommodate these tourists. Consequently, colossal deforestation and other detrimental human activities have negatively affected ecosystem. These findings also support our hypothesis that tourism development and growth significantly affect the physical ecosystem of the environment.

The study reported a total of 3.6% variance in socio-cultural degradation ( β = 0.189*, p <0.01) due to tourism growth and development. These findings suggest that tourism’s growth and development may lead the inhabitants to imitate the foreign tourists regarding their living standards, which may endanger their traditional culture. Thus, our hypothesis that “tourism development and growth significantly affect the socio-cultural environment” is confirmed.

Further, it was found that tourism growth and development predict an 8.8% variance in the economic environment ( β = 0.297*, p <0.01). It is established from the literature that tourism growth and development generate economic activity in the country. Development projects such as the construction of infrastructure, hotels, and road networks generate economic activity to facilitate international and indigenous tourists, positively affecting the community’s living standard (Baloch et al. 2020 ). Thus, our hypothesis, “tourism development and growth significantly affect economic environment of people and community,” is confirmed.

Due to tourism growth and development, our study reported a 1.8% variance in Government Support and Interventions ( β = .133*, p <0.01). However, more recently, the Government of Pakistan has devised specific interventions that may help curb the adverse impacts of detrimental environmental factors. For example, developmental schemes such as the Billion Trees Plantation drive and Road-Infrastructure Network Development under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor initiative may prove moderators to curb the negative impacts of tourism growth on the environment (Qamar and Baloch 2017 ; Rauf et al. 2019 ; Siddiqui and Siddiqui 2019 ). Therefore, the hypothesis, Government policy and support, significantly moderates the relationship between tourism development and growth with the environment is confirmed based on these findings.

Suggested model for ecotourism framework

Through its detailed review of existing literature, prevailing tourism policies, and empirical inputs from the stakeholders’ perspectives, the study has identified a wide range of obstacles limiting the development and growth of ecotourism in Pakistan. The study suggests National Tourism Management authorities carefully invest in ecotourism destination’s planning and development in coordination with the environment development agency. The suggested model for ecotourism framework is initially meant for the tourism destinations specifically designated for ecotourism. However, selected points can also be extended to the quality management parameters set for the National Parks, Conservation and Protracted Areas, Museums, National or International event sites, etc. The national tourism authorities are to lay particular emphasis in their forthcoming National Tourism Policy on the development and promotion of Sustainable Ecotourism having, with focus on the following key areas:

Identify and classify four to five ecotourism destinations, including ecotourism-centered activities of value chains for priority development, which are administratively possible within budgetary constraints. However, the development plan shall consider the integral benefits of other developmental schemes such as the Billion Trees Plantation drive, Road-Infrastructure Network Development under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor initiative, International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN) programs in the area.

While staying within the alignment of UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) calling for ‘environmental sustainability’ and the development vision of each designated destination, the Tourists Management System shall take into cognizance of issues like managing capacity of the place, quality parameters for the conservation of the environment, and allowable activities thereof.

Identify degenerated destinations of religious, socio-cultural, or historical significance for their rehabilitation under the Regenerated tourism program.

Tourism Destinations that have been over-consumed and exhausted (e.g., Murree, Galiaat, Naran, Malam Jabba) because of over-tourism shall be planned for their reclamation through regenerated tourism. However, to facilitate the success of the regeneration of their tourism potential following is to be catered for:

To deflect the tourist pressure upon these destinations, the potential tourists from nearby cities and metropolitan areas be provided with nearby alternative destinations for leisure tourism as stay-tourism sites.

To prevent the environment from air pollution, the traffic load on the destination be curtailed through an effective traffic management strategy, provision of off-destination parking for combustion engine vehicles, and encouraging electric driven or hybrid vehicles for nearby parking.

Provision of clean drinking water through public infiltration plants, public toilets, solid waste carriers, and recycling of sewage and used water is recommended in the most visited areas of the destination.

Signposting at appropriate places, giving social messages encouraging to maintain cleanliness, avoid littering, ensure nature conservation, and humility toward biodiversity.

Develop all-inclusive, comprehensive execution plans to expedite the investments for the sustainable ecotourism, encouraging public–private cooperation, community involvement, and infrastructure mapping guaranteeing environmental conservation and safeguards.

Develop and place on the ground an all-inclusive program of capacity building for sustainable ecotourism, regenerative and green tourism services.

Develop and launch Pakistan tourism profile and Sustaining Ecotourism obligatory framework “to promote tourism on the one hand and nurture conscious ecological behavior among the potential tourists of the area”.

In order to fetch local ownership for the ecotourism center developments, all efforts shall be made to share the socio-economic benefits integral to the development scheme with the local population for community development.

As part of the destination management planning, identify complementary value chains and livelihood activities that could be developed as part of the overall ecotourism destination package.

Governments at all levels and the tourism Development and Promotion Agencies Network in Pakistan shall join hands to chalk out and, with a strict enforcement mechanism, a “Regulatory Framework for Ecotourism Friendly Destination” to sustain the efforts and policies undertaken in this regard on the one hand and generate responsible behavior from the tourism stakeholders on the other. Some of the suggestive points could be:

Setting new quality standards facilitating the promotion of ecotourism and environmental sustainability through acts of various bodies operating in the Ecotourism value chain, such as:

Revision of Private hotels Management Act (1976) and Tourists Operators Act (1976) alongside introduction and promulgation of a new “Tourism Destination Management Act” incorporating new quality standards as of today.

Promulgating laws to make all new construction/development projects responsible from any agency in the area, incorporating quality standards needed for environmental sustainability, and promoting ecotourism.

Set measures for the preservation of the local biodiversity and preservation of endangered species, including seeking support from internationally active environment conservation agencies, declaring local hunting illegal, introducing licensing programs for hunting of certain selected animals/ birds on the payment of a handsome amount to be used for the welfare of the local community.

Create awareness programs against deforestation, land conservation, and biodiversity, and maintain cleanliness, inculcating a culture of respecting and enjoying nature instead of spoiling it.

Conclusion, implications, and limitations of the study

The study premise was based on the contention that sustenance of ecotourism focuses on the economic viability of the business interests alongside the conservation and preservation of natural ecosystems, including ethical fairness to the socio-cultural environment of the host community. Ecotourism is a phenomenon that contributes to environmental sustainability through well-planned and careful destination management capable of balancing conflicting interests of business growth and environmental sustainability. Tourism-environment paradox suggests that the sustainability and survival of both are dependent upon the flourishing mode of each other. Quality of environment and sustainability of bio-ecosystem stimulates tourists’ arrivals and over-tourism beyond capacity with irresponsible behavior from tourists negatively influencing the environment and harming the ecosystem of nature. Ecotourism is not inevitably sustainable unless it is economically sustainable and environmentally maintainable besides being socio-culturally acceptable. Socio-culturally intolerable ecotourism means the activity which does not benefit locals and their socio-cultural values. Hence, the study concludes that ecotourism has to positively interplay between economy, environment, and culture without compromising one over others. The pursuit of sustainable ecotourism is not an end in meeting the little comforts of the business interests but rather a means to end the sustainability issues created due to ill-conceived tourism development and unmanageable growth.

Practical implications

Drawing from the findings and conclusions of the research, the study extends the following practical implications for effectively managing the process of tourism development and environmental sustainability in line with the dictates of the philosophy behind ecotourism:

Paradoxically tourism necessitates ecological capitals as primary ingredients for the creation of tourism experiences on the one hand. However, it is also contingent upon the conservation and preservation of ecological integrity on the other. The study suggests that unbalancing this “resource paradox” results in the harshness and tenacity of adversarial climate change, natural calamities, environmental pollution, and endangered biodiversity.

The research findings and the suggested framework for ecotourism imply that sustainable ecotourism principles-based planning is mandatory for destination management to assure effective trade-off between the business interests’ sustainability of the environmental ecosystem.

Tourism development and growth shall be steered through ecotourism principles as its sustainable model offers enduring social, environmental and economic, ecological integrity, and social and cultural benefits for the local community. Therefore, ecotourism is a recipe for preventing environmental degradation and guarantees sustainability of ecosystems nature and its biodiversity. Hence, ecotourism shall stand central priority focus for strategic management to nurture quality experiences from sustainable tourism.

To revive back the sustainability of the environment, in the areas where over-tourism has degraded the environment, schemes for regenerated tourism shall be immediately launched to mitigate the negative footprints on the sustainability of destinations, including reinforcing protracted conservation sites, biodiversity, and recouping endangered species, afforestation drives, recycling of water and solid waste, refurnishing of landscaping, preservation, and rehabilitation of cultural heritage and refurbishing of depleted infrastructure accordingly. Furthermore, to regenerate and sustain the tourism infrastructure of the destinations experiencing over-tourism, capacity building measures like capacity, recycling of water and solid waste, preventive measures to control air and water pollution, traffic control management, and spread of entertainment facilities shall be the focus of the regeneration plans.

The study implies that government authorities and policymakers have a special role in placing their moderating intervention in terms of policy guidelines, regulatory framework, and budgetary support, provision of inter-organizational synergy in planning and implementation of ecotourism strategies, protection of environmental resource base and conservation of natural and biological ecosystem, sustenance of socio-cultural value of local community over and above their economic and social well-being/quality life for the long run.

The study also implies that public and private policymakers lay down threshold criteria for responsible travel and tourism standards for destination management and its related supply chain. The laid criterion would facilitate management in nurturing “responsible behavior” to plan, protect, conserve, preserve, and sustain natural and cultural resources and responsible socio-economic development without compromising the sustainability of the environment and long-term well-being of the hoist community. The deep-seated adherence to social responsibility protocols by the tourism supply chain network can significantly increase the capacity of tourism destinations and improve the conscious awareness of green consumers along the tourism supply chain. Furthermore, the consciously responsible behavior among stakeholders and legislatures can strike a needed balance between the business interests and environments in favor of sustainability of socio-cultural, economic, and natural capital.

The study elucidates that responsible behavior necessitates purpose-built eco-friendly infrastructure and policy parameters to support the sustainability of environments across destinations. The strategic planning aligned with the sustainability-focused objectives dictates the need for artistic, innovative, and talented people and quality intuitions in harnessing quality tourism services and responsible tourism behavior. Furthermore, the study encourages community involvement in the developmental process, enactment of structural policies, preservation of socio-cultural heritage, and conservation of natural biodiversity as it would foster emotional bondage between the people of the host community and the tourism undertakings. Therefore, community and value chain managers shall collaborate to maximize the perceived benefits of responsible tourism while developing cultural exchanges and planning opportunities for leisure and tourism.

Regulatory measures help offset negative impacts; for instance, controls on the number of tourist activities and movement of visitors within protected areas can limit impacts on the ecosystem and help maintain the integrity and vitality of the site. Limits should be established after an in-depth analysis of the maximum sustainable visitor capacity. Furthermore, the variables and the constructs researched can be replicated to other destinations to seek valuable inputs for sustainable destination management elsewhere.

Study limitation

Besides the functional, practical applications, the study has some limitations. Besides having integral disadvantages of cross-sectional research, the respondents selected for the study were visitors on peak days with the highest tourist arrivals, thereby having experiences of a higher degree of environmental pollution and natural disorder. Furthermore, the research is limited to stakeholders’ perspectives instead of any scientifically generated data or mathematical or econometric model.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Abasyn University, Peshawar, Pakistan

Qadar Bakhsh Baloch & Syed Naseeb Shah

Air University School of Management, Air University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Nadeem Iqbal

Department of Commerce, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan

Muhammad Sheeraz

IBA, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan

Muhammad Asadullah

University of Sialkot, Sialkot, Pakistan

Sourath Mahar

Islamia College University Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan

Asia Umar Khan

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

QBB: conceptualization, methodology, writing—original draft. SNS: data curation and supervision. NI: visualization, editing, proofreading. MS: review and editing. MA: review and editing. SM: editing, data curation. AUK: review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nadeem Iqbal .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. We also declare that we do not have human participants, data, or tissue.

Consent for publication

We do not have any person’s data in any form.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Arshian Sharif

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Baloch, Q.B., Shah, S.N., Iqbal, N. et al. Impact of tourism development upon environmental sustainability: a suggested framework for sustainable ecotourism. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30 , 5917–5930 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22496-w

Download citation

Received : 14 December 2021

Accepted : 08 August 2022

Published : 19 August 2022

Issue Date : January 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22496-w

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Environmental sustainability and degradation
• Natural environment
• Ecosystem and biodiversity
• Ecotourism framework
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

• < Previous

Home > SCRIPPS > SCRIPPS_STUDENT > SCRIPPS_THESES > 1464

Scripps Senior Theses

Paraisong nawala: exploring sustainable ecotourism in the philippines.

Samantha Barrios Yu , Scripps College Follow

Graduation Year

Document type.

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Environmental Analysis

Char Miller

Marc Los Huertos

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont .

Rights Information

© 2019 Samantha Yu

Ecotourism, environmentally responsible travel to natural areas, is a growing industry that has the ability to bring invaluable tourism revenue to countries with flourishing natural environments. The Philippines has the potential to be an ecotourism hotspot, and if implemented correctly, ecotourism could enable the alleviation of poverty in the Philippines as well as contribute to the conservation of the Philippines’ natural resources. By examining three destinations in the Philippines and their ecotourism viability as well as the challenges that these areas face, this thesis explores how the Philippines can benefit greatly from well implemented sustainable ecotourism strategies. Management of ecotourism in the Philippines is currently fragmented and many stressors inhibit successful implementation, including the high rates of poverty and corruption that the country faces. The Philippines is also extremely vulnerable to the effects of the impending climate crisis, which further exacerbate environmental issues in the country and threaten the developing country’s growth. Looking at other countries in Southeast Asia and how they manage over-abundance of tourists can help develop a framework of how the Philippines can change the way they view and engage with tourism.

Recommended Citation

Yu, Samantha Barrios, "Paraisong Nawala: Exploring Sustainable Ecotourism in the Philippines" (2020). Scripps Senior Theses . 1464. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1464

Since February 28, 2020

Included in

Environmental Studies Commons

Advanced Search

• Notify me via email or RSS
• Colleges, Universities, and Library
• Schools, Programs, and Departments
• Disciplines

Author Corner

• Faculty Submission
• Student Submission
• Policies and Guidelines

Useful Links

• Claremont Colleges Library
• Claremont Colleges Digital Library

Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement

Privacy Copyright

Eco-Tourism and its Architecture: A Methodological Framework for Assessing Progress towards Sustainable Development

This thesis proposes a composite framework for the evaluation of the environmental impact of tourism development on host destinations. In this study, the environmental impact of tourism is considered as a social-ecological phenomenon that can be categorized into the two aspects of natural and social-cultural impacts. Ecotourism is introduced as a type of sustainable tourism in that its policies and principles for development are based on conservation of environmental heritage (including natural and cultural heritage) via engagement of local people and communities in the tourism development process. The proposed composite framework arises from the integration of an ecological and a cultural framework for the sustainable development of tourism. This framework places the conservation of natural resources as the main ecological outcome for eco-tourism. The proposed framework uses the ecological footprint (EF) of the main tourism activities and services (including transportation, food and accommodation services) as the ecological indicator for evaluation of ecotourism development to ensure it is ecologically compatible. Ecological footprint (EF) is a way of measuring environmental impact. It assumes that everything needed for living, including all energy, goods and services can be obtained from land, and that any wastes produced can be absorbed by land (Wackernagel and Rees, 1996:9). Because land productivity varies considerably around the world the average global productivity is the normal measure, and this is called global hectares (gha). The ecological footprint of a product or activity produced/ consumed and conducted by a defined group of people can be measured through the following equation:  EF (gha) = Lifecycle energy use of a given group of people (product and activity pro-duced or conducted) Gigajoules (GJ) / carrying capacity of the Earth (GJ/gha).  The above equation determines the area required to produce resources and to absorb pollutants like carbon dioxide generated in the lifecycle energy use of the product or activity through using fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas). Through using an ecological perspective, this thesis views culture as a system that links a group of people or a community to their surroundings through their use of local mate-rials and energies, and the production and consumption of products from these. The proposed framework determines the main cultural outcomes for ecotourism development such as conservation of heritage and making the host people aware of their cultural values. In addition, it introduces related activities such as social events, conservation of heritage and producing and consuming local products as contributive activities for achieving the outcomes stated above. Furthermore it investigates and refines a number of indicators that can be used as tools for evaluation of the cultural footprint of the development of ecotourism. Within these, local gross domestic product (GDP) as a social-economic indicator arising from tourism activities is also considered. This thesis concludes by presenting a case study of ‘The Otago Central Rail Trail’ (OCRT) as an example of ecotourism. The OCRT was introduced in the New Zealand Tourism Strategy (NZTS) for 2015 as a successful model for community-based development of sustainable tourism. The investigation reviews the impacts of the OCRT on natural and cultural heritage by using the framework developed in the thesis and its related ecological and cultural indicators. Through using the proposed holistic framework and the model for sustainable development of ecotourism, this thesis finds that, influenced by the development of the OCRT, many cultural heritage items including 60 bridges, 3 tunnels, and 78 buildings (used as OCRT accommodation services) have been refurbished. The restoration of this heritage can be considered as a policy that contributes to awareness of OCRT residents of their cultural heritage and identity. Likewise, as a part of the educational process related to ecotourism, this also makes an opportunity for OCRT visitors to learn about the cultural values of their host people. As shown in Table 5.84, in 2011, the total EF of 11,788 OCRT visitors including the EFs of the four categories of transportation, food, accommodation and activities is 1,617 gha (0.138 gha /visitor). In comparison with the EF of 0.03 gha/ visitor for sustainable tourism (see Table 5.86), the overshoot portion of the EF of the OCRT is equivalent to (0.138 – 0.03) 0.108 gha/ visitor. Likewise the total overshoot EF of 11,788 OCRT visitors is (11,788 visitors × 0.108 gha) 1,273 gha (see Table 5.86). This overshoot EF of the OCRT indicates that although the project has already been considered as a successful sustainable tourism project, still needs to reduce its total EF by 1,273 gha to be environmentally sustainable. As determined in Chapter 5 (see Table 5.88), the overshoot portion of the OCRT is calculated as 127,310.4 GJ/year. Since the costs to generate 1 GJ of overshoot energy use through using renewable energy sources (in this case wind + solar) is NZ$ 19.8, consequently the total cost to generate the overshoot energy use of the OCRT through using the latter systems (wind + solar) is equivalent to (127,310.4 GJ × NZ$ 19.8) NZ$ 2,720,746. Table 5.90 shows that in 2011, the total GDP of the OCRT is NZ$ 6,245,289 This means the total cost that must be spent to generate the overshoot portion of the OCRT energy use in a sustainable way (NZ$ 2,720,746) is 43.6% of its total GDP (NZ$ 6,245,289). Consequently the sustainable portion of the GDP (GDPs) of the OCRT is (NZ$ 6,245,289 – NZ$ 2, 720,746) NZ$ 3,524,543. The results of this thesis demonstrate that using local products (e.g. home prepared foods) as a sustainable cultural behavior not only contributes to the ability of the host destinations located along the OCRT (such as Naseby and Cromwell, used as further case studies) to present their cultural products, but also contributes to reduce the environmental impacts and increase the economic outcomes of the OCRT. For example, producing 17% (13,346.4 kg) of the total of 65165.05 kg consumed food as home prepared food reduces by 5.5% the ecological footprint related to the food consumed by OCRT visitors. As determined in Chapters 5 and 6, in three case studies, producing home prepared food contributes in a sustainable way to the increasing of the economic outcomes by about NZ$3.5 / kg of food produced. This thesis indicates that in all three case studies, using refurbished buildings as accommodation services, which is considered as an activity that contributes to preserving the cultural identity of the host destinations also contributes to reducing of environmental impacts and increasing the economic outcomes related to OCRT. For example in OCRT using 12.9% of bed space as refurbished buildings reduces by14.5% (7.3gha) the total 50.5 gha ecological footprint of accommodation services compared with when all accommodation buildings are assumed as new buildings. Chapters 5 and 6 determine that in OCRT using 21,378 m2 of refurbished buildings as accommodation services (12.9% of total bed spaces) increases by 5% the sustainable portion of GDP related to accommodation services. In Naseby also using refurbished buildings as accommodation services has the same sustainable ecological, cultural and economic outcomes as for the OCRT as a whole. The framework indicates the use of open air areas as being a cultural-ecological indicator for evaluation of architecture as being sustainable. Through using the framework, it is determined that using open air areas including balconies and verandas as part of OCRT accommodation buildings exerts environmentally friendly influences on the host destination. For instance in OCRT using 387 square meters of veranda and balcony as part of the 80,356m2 accommodation buildings decreases by 1.5% the total ecological footprint (50.5gha) of buildings used as accommodation services in OCRT. The thesis results demonstrate that an architecture that will contribute to sustainable development through ecotourism has a cultural footprint area in which the architecture contributes to the host societies knowing and preserving their cultural identity, capitals and heritages. Simultaneously, it contributes to reducing the environmental impacts and increasing the economic outcomes of the host societies through ecotourism. This thesis determines that since all ecological, cultural and economic characteristics of sustainable architecture are linked together, a strategy to develop sustainable architecture is successful when it considers the linkage between all of these profiles and influences that they exert on each other.

Copyright Date

Date of award, rights license, degree discipline, degree grantor, degree level, degree name, victoria university of wellington item type, victoria university of wellington school, usage metrics.

• Other built environment and design not elsewhere classified

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Eco-Tourism Resorts: A Case Study of Best Practices at the Hamanasi Resort in Belize Part of the Hospitality Administration and Management Commons

Related Papers

Rachel Dodds

This case study is part of a United Nations Green Economy and Trade Report

Stephen Lee

Farhan Suhaimi

Debora Tonazzini

This report undertakes a systematic review of the main sub-sectors of maritime and coastal tourism around world marine regions. It identifies the main actors and stakeholders, key concepts and policies, good practices, socio-economic benefits and negative impacts. It also review the (lack of) tourism governance and propose recommendations for integrated environmental planning and sustainable management of blue tourism at global and regional level.

Awangku Hassanal Bahar Pengiran Bagul

Historically Digitized

Marion Joppe , Rachel Dodds

Amanda Stronza

The effort to set sustainability standards for ecotourism has focused primarily on the private sector since the late 1980s. The process of introducing standards for ecotourism development was steady in the 1990s with guidelines developed for nature tour operators (TIES, 1993), ecolodges (Mehta et al., 2002) and marine ecotourism (Halpenny, 2002; see also Stonich, Chapter 4, this volume).

Although a single definition of ecotourism remains elusive, the majority of definitions include a few primary elements. It is generally agreed that ecotourism involves responsible travel to natural areas, a positive contribution to conservation and a positive contribution to local communities. In addition, one of the basic tenets of ecotourism is to engender in the tourist a greater understanding of the importance of conservation and increase the tourist's ecological literacy (Goodwin, 1996).

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

RELATED PAPERS

Lawrence Pratt

Αrion Bay Santorini

Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management David Publishing

Steve Noakes

Natalya Brown

Rachel Dodds , Marion Joppe

Minasu Michael Agosu

Soultana Tania Kapiki

Ramon B A Alampay

C. Michael Hall , Natasha Dayal

Ebrima Ceesay

Calling to Account - Image and Ethics in Corporate Accountability in Tourism

Swathi Seshadri

FATIMA LOPEZ

Nuray Tetik

The 6th International Scientific Conference "Business and Management 2010". Selected papers

Tatjana Tambovceva

Ishmael Mensah

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Tourism Organisation (WTO)

Manoa Malani

Hospitality and Tourism Management Association of Nigeria

Opemipo A Ijose

bhubbles carranza

Inga Pakalniskyte

Tourism and Hospitality Research

Dennis Conway

E-Journal of Tourism

Nining Yuniati

Encyclopedia of Tourism

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

B.Arch Thesis: Eco-Tourist Hub of KHONOMA Village, By Shanjo A. Kithan, ITM University-Gwalior

• August 17, 2019

Follow ArchitectureLive! Channel on WhatsApp

Eco-tourism is one such activities which provide a solution by creating awareness and concern for the environment among both the tourist and local people of the region.

Also, the local skills could be developed and explored. The traditional and indigenous knowledge, along with scientific development can be explored.

Eco tourism Hub by itself, which talks about the tourism aspects of the context, creating a cultural Hub point which gives a platform for the villagers as well as the essence of the vernacular for the tourist.

The brief of the concept is to design an eco-tourism hub for the region of KHONOMA (Asia’s first green village) and the proximity near the region. Keeping in mind the local traditions, culture, art and Architecture .The design brief put an emphasis on the articulation of said traditions and their interpretation in modern times without losing the essence of the vernacularity.

KHONOMA is an Angami Naga village located about 20 km west from the state Capital, Kohima, Nagaland. The terrain of the village is hilly, ranging from gentle slopes to steep and rugged hillsides. The hills are covered with lush forestland, rich in various species of flora and fauna.

HORNBILL International Festival which is being celebrated for 10 days every year near this proximity which also creates a benchmark of this village.

This thesis talks about vernacular settlement which can achieve sustainability through planning, orientation, materials and architectural practices evolved from long time due to the socioeconomic, climatic and environmental factors of the Region

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

•To create an opportunity to the local people as well as for the tourist to get the essence of the context, keeping alive the essence of the context. •To design a better vision for tomorrow by keeping the Essence of the local regional context.

•Reprioritize the usage of the site based on the needs of the site demands. •To make the space a centre of public interaction and activities that reflects the people of the region.

•To engage the people by creating a hub in the village where they can learn, educate and understand each other. •To make use of the site’s assets in terms of creating a landmark for the urban fabric of Kohima people as well.

DESIGN BRIEF + PROGRAMME

The village of Khonoma (Asia’s first green village). As being said that the context of the site is a tourist spot and as the tourism is increasing each year people from around the world are travelling to see this beautiful village and the plus point is that there are many Tourism near the village which clearly states that there is a need for Eco-Tourism Hub in this arena.

Eco tourism is one such activities which will create an activities for the region. The local People gets the opportunity to expose their skills their economy to the tourist, which can create an important part of the hub.

The site will be developed with different types of components: 1. Weekly markets for the villagers, craft shops, Exhibition shops: where the villagers can get exposed and increase their growth of the economy. The market will run only on the basis of once in a week where they can sell all their organic crops or vegetables.

2. Museum: To reflect their culture, tradition and religion also to promote their legacy.

3. Workshop activities: where the tourist can educate the villagers and spread awareness and learn from one another.

The villagers can showcase their skills and even export their talents.

4. Accommodation unit for the tourist people: A home stay feeling accommodation unit for the tourist.

5.Library: It will provide a better exposure for the young generation of the surrounding villages.

6. O.A.T: Cultural program and festival season of recreational space.

DESIGN CONCEPT /APPROACH

The main challenge of design was a Site, which is having area of 92268sq.m. and facing NORTH To EAST direction also having contour difference of 40 meter. Main approach is to analyse with the existing contour and play with the levels. The existing site having contour along the river stream and the bridge is the only approach to the site.

Considering all the challenges, the design was to make ‘imperfect’ spaces with organic dynamism like villages.

With the start of the design development every space and area of the site were divided from part to whole. where every part of the space were defined according the use of the function like the open weekly market ,food stall ,craft shop ,museum ,library, OAT, Workshop area and the Accommodation unit which were segregated from each other but it was connected according to the function and use of the space.

Every function of the spaces were connected as per the user’s inferences. The general restaurant was at the core of the main area, the open market area was segregated totally from those main activities like the library, museum, workshop area, OAT and the Museum.

Although they are two different things we sense their interrelationship and emotional bond. Something very organic yet dynamic to be expressed by the site. The environment to be very vernacular with use of the roof of MORUNG style keeping alive the essence of the Region.

The Morung (or the traditional community house) at Khonoma Village. Acting as an educational institution, A Morung is where youngsters would gain their first few lessons of cultural & traditional knowledge through folk music, dance, folk tales and oral traditions. During the time of war, they were also used as used as a guard-house.

Design used the symbolism of that area through Morung.

VERNACULAR OF THE REGION

1.Use of the materials 2.local Materials, local skills, local technique 3.Keeping alive the essence of the village. 4. Implementing new technique design in terms of architectural thoughts, spaces, functions and purpose of the area. 5. New modern technologies design without losing the essence of the region

shanjo A Kithan

• B.Arch Thesis

13 Responses

I want detail sheet on mail for reffrence

Please contact if you were able to get through.I want to refer the report for my thesis as well.

Did you got the details?

I want study report of your thesis for reference

I want to know how to contact you for more details

Hey I loved your Concept, if possible could you share your Area statement or a list of requirements? it would be of great help to my thesis tooo!!!

can i please get your thesis report for reference.

Can I get your thesis report for reference please.

can I also have your details for my thesis.thank you

Can I get your thesis report for reference please

Please share the details that would be great help for my thesis

can you please describe which all case studies you reffered for the same

I have some doubts regarding concept sheet can you please clear my doubts

Share your comments Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Beyond Design: Challenges and Opportunities in the Indian Architectural Profession

Vinod Gupta, of Opus Indigo Studio reflects on the evolution and challenges of the Indian architectural profession, emphasizing the need for architects to reclaim responsibilities beyond design to revitalize the industry’s trajectory.

The Proposed Broadcasting Services Bill: What Does it Mean for Digital Freedom in India’s Architectural Discourse 

Imagine an India where your Instagram critique of a new skyscraper could land you in hot water. Is the new Broadcasting Services Bill for regulation or a digital gag order in disguise?

Carbon-Neutral Modular Permanent Defense for the Indian Army, by R+D Studio

The 2 Engineer Regiment of the Chinar Corps, Indian Army, engaged R+D Studio to design and implement Carbon-Neutral Modular Permanent Defense in Jammu & Kashmir, with the goal of improving the situation. 

The Blue Bucket of Democracy: Parliament’s Newest Art Installation Holds Water

The blue bucket at the new parliament building hailed as the Government’s avant-garde art installation of the year.

“Our role begins when people approach us, identifying something as their heritage and wanting help to preserve it, promote it, or extend its life.” – Sonal Mithal 

The second conversation of “Architectural Heritage in India” series with Dr. Sonal Mithal focuses on the challenges in architectural heritage conservation, emphasising the need to balance preservation with development, involve communities, and make heritage accessible and relevant to contemporary needs.

Baiyyappanahalli Train Station, Bengaluru, by Studio Symbiosis

The design for Baiyappanahalli Train Station, Bengaluru, by Studio Symbiosis, reflects ‘Garden City’ identity of Bengaluru while integrating modern transport facilities and green landscapes.

A Conversation on Crafts, Sustainability, and Luxury Hospitality with Ayush Kasliwal, Geetanjali Kasliwal, and Manvendra Singh Shekhawat 

Luxury hospitality and sustainability are often seen as opposing concepts. But Suryagarh and Narendra Bhawan oppose this dichotomy. Deepika Srivastava explores this dynamic in a conversation with Ayush and Geetanjali Kasliwal, and Manvendra Singh Shekhawat.

Ideas in your inbox

Alive perspectives.

Stay inspired. Curious.

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy

© ArchitectureLive! 2024

WE ARE HIRING /

ArchitectureLive! is hiring for various roles, starting from senior editors, content writers, research associates, graphic designer and more..

• My Shodhganga
• Receive email updates
• Edit Profile

Shodhganga : a reservoir of Indian theses @ INFLIBNET

• Shodhganga@INFLIBNET
• Kakatiya University, Warangal
• Department of History

Items in Shodhganga are licensed under Creative Commons Licence Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

89 Ecotourism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best ecotourism topic ideas & essay examples, 🥇 most interesting ecotourism topics to write about, 💡 good research topics about ecotourism, ❓ ecotourism questions.

• Trends in Ecotourism Ecotourism is defined as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people”.
• Ecotourism and Voluntourism Strategies and Recommendations The stakeholders such as WARF, ecotourists, voluntourists and the local communities are concerned with the environmental conservation and generation of revenue from the preservation activities which involve conservation of the natural habitat and the wild […]
• Exploring Environmental Issues: Marine Ecotourism For marine ecotourism to succeed, it must thrive in a manner that accommodates the needs of both the current and future generations and safeguards the natural environment.
• Ecotourism vs Cultural Voyeurism: Protection of Local Communities and Cultures Moreover, cultural voyeurism can be attributed to the practices of international companies that do not attach much importance to the lives of indigenous people. Nevertheless, it is important to mention that the inflow of tourists […]
• Ecotourism in Tropical Biome: Preserving New Zealand Description of Proposal: “Preserving New Zealand” is an adventurous and inspiring tour designed to introduce the participants to the unusual flora and fauna of Fiordland the largest National Park of New Zealand.
• Types of Tourism and Ecotourism in Peru Therefore, travelers gain an understanding of the natural, cultural, and ethnographic features of the terrain; thus, contributing to the preservation of the continuity of ecosystems and creating the economic setting for the development and maintenance […]
• Eco-Tourism Activities in New Zealand The project entailed adventurous tours organised with a motive of introducing the participants to the variety of flora and fauna found in the Fiordland of New Zealand.
• Tourism: Eco, Sports, Culture, Space When tourism is mentioned, many people have the notion that one has to go to a foreign country for a couple of weeks to relax and enjoy the scenery.
• Ecotourism in Mauritius: How to Have an Eco-Friendly Holiday In addition to this, the Mauritius business community has reinvested part of the proceeds from the sector into the Mauritius economy thereby fostering the country’s economy.
• Ecotourism Industry Organization The environment is the combination of all living and non-living components on the earth and on the universe as a whole.
• Eco-Tourism and Eco-Cities The main reason cited for the support of sustainable development is the impact it has on the environment and the communities nearby.
• Fairmont the Palm Hotel Eco-Tourism Adoption The uniqueness of the above analysis contributes to the existing body of knowledge regarding the cost of implementing eco-tourism, plus the environmental impact of the growth of the tourism industry on the environment.
• Eco and Cultural Tourism: Extraordinary Experience and Untouched Natural Environment Water which is the source of all forms of life must be used sustainably and thus to be considered an eco friendly resort, water pollution should be unheard of within the resort and water recycling […]
• The Role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in Tourism Marketing The connection between tourism and indigenous is that the tourism industry must include traditional ecological knowledge because it will help to enhance their tourism products and increase benefits to the local community. The links will […]
• Eco Tourism and Hospitality Industry The aim of this research is to provide the theoretical aspects that govern eco tourism with an aim of increasing conservation of the environment as well as increasing the participation of the local communities.
• Ecotourism Resort at the Amazon: Amazon Eco-Tourist Resort The objectives of the Amazon Resort will include: Maintaining the natural ecology of the Amazon Providing visitors with service worth their fee Mission The mission of the Amazon Eco Resort will be to offer eco […]
• Economic Tourism in Australia When the number of foreign tourists is high the government can increase the exchange of currency so as to gain from the tourists at lower taxes on some products mostly used by the inhabitants what […]
• Alleviating Poverty Through Ecotourism: Monarch Butterfly Reserve of Mexico
• Aspects Regarding the Romanian Certification in Ecotourism Destinations
• Tourism and China’s Development: Policies, Regional Economic Growth and Ecotourism
• The Relationships Between Buddhism and Ecotourism
• Capturing Tourists’ Preferences for the Management of Community-Based Ecotourism
• Challenges For Romanian Ecotourism Destinations
• Community-Based Ecotourism: Its Socio-Economic Impacts at Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, Ghana
• Conservation, Ecotourism, Poverty, and Income Inequality
• Community-Based Ecotourism: Livelihood Adaptation Strategy for Kampong Speu Province, Cambodia
• Developing Ecotourism for the Survival of Sea Turtles
• Community-Based Ecotourism Management: Case of a Cooperative in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico
• Economic, Educational, and Conservation Benefits of Sea Turtle-Based Ecotourism
• Ecotourism and Archaeotourism: Controversy vs Objectivity
• Economic, Environmental, and Sustainability Indicators of Ecotourism in Mexico
• Ecotourism and Economic Growth in the Galapagos: An Island Economy-Wide Analysis
• Effective Environmental Impact Management Through Ecotourism
• Ecotourism and Economic Incentives: An Empirical Approach
• The Relationship Between Sustainability and ‘Ecotourism’
• Ecotourism and Its Impact on the United Arab Emirates
• Households’ Assets Dynamics and Ecotourism Choices in the Western Highlands of Cameroon
• Ecotourism and the Development of Indigenous Communities: Good, Bad, and Ugly
• Implementation of Strategies Based on the Ecotourism Products
• Ecotourism and the Economy: Case Study of Mara & Amboseli in Kenya
• Integrated Communications Marketing Plan For Ecotourism
• Ecotourism and the Modern Development of the Larnaca
• Koh Chang Ecotourism: SWOT Analysis
• Ecotourism: Brazil vs. Costa Rica Comparative Analysis
• Larnaca’s Ecotourism and Its Development in Modern Days
• Ecotourism Demand and Differential Pricing of National Park Access in Costa Rica
• Management Control Systems Within Sustainable Ecotourism: A Study of Belitung
• Ecotourism Experiences Promoting Conservation and Changing Economic Values
• Responsible Environmental Behavior Intention of Travelers on Ecotourism Sites
• Ecotourism for Community Development: Stakeholder’s Perspective in Great Himalayan National Park
• Rural and Ecotourism Development in Scope of Bulgarian Tourism
• Ecotourism Involves Responsible Traveling Tourism
• Preferences for Ecotourism Alternatives on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation
• Ecotourism, Tourism, and Development in Mexico
• Case for the Redistribution of Ecotourism Gains in Kenya
• The Development and Management of Ecotourism
• The Relationship Between Common Management and Ecotourism Development
• What Is the Difference Between Alternative Tourism and Ecotourism?
• Does China’s Ecotourism Reflect the Country’s Economic Growth?
• Where Is Ecotourism Most Popular?
• What Are the Challenges for Romanian Ecotourism Destinations?
• What Is the Socio-Economic Impact of Ecotourism in Ghana?
• What Are the Economic Indicators of the Sustainability of Ecotourism in Mexico?
• What Is the Difference Between Tourism and Ecotourism?
• How Does the Economy of the Galapagos Islands Depend on Ecotourism?
• What Is the Impact of Ecotourism on the United Arab Emirates?
• How Does Ecotourism Impact the African Economy and Environment?
• What Is the Definition and Concept of Ecotourism?
• How Big Is the Demand for Ecotourism?
• What Are the Benefits of Ecotourism to the Environment and Society?
• What Are the Contributions of Tourism to Economic Development?
• What Are the Trends in the Development of Ecotourism in Mexico?
• What Are the Environmental Impacts of Ecotourism?
• What Are the Ecological Consequences of Ecotourism?
• What Is the Relationship Between Sustainable Development and Ecotourism?
• Is Ecotourism a Hospitality Trend?
• How Can Ecotourism Help You Have a Positive Experience?
• What Is the Role of Ecotourism in the Implementation of Sustainable Tourism Development?
• What Is the Marketing Plan for the Integration of Ecotourism?
• Is Organic Farming a Part of Ecotourism?
• Why Is the Responsible Environmental Behavior of Travelers So Important for Ecotourism?
• What Are the Main Priorities of Rural Tourism and Ecotourism in Romania?
• What Are the Role, Goals and Consequences of Ecotourism?
• How Did Ecotourism Become Popular?
• What Are the Economic, Educational and Environmental Benefits of Ecotourism?
• Which Country Is Best Known for Ecotourism?
• What Is the Concept of Ecotourism in the Context of Nature Conservation?
• Climate Change Titles
• Environment Research Topics
• Fishing Research Topics
• Environmental Sustainability Essay Ideas
• Hunting Questions
• Expedition Ideas
• Tourism Management Questions
• Wildlife Ideas
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, September 26). 89 Ecotourism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/ecotourism-essay-topics/

"89 Ecotourism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." IvyPanda , 26 Sept. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/ecotourism-essay-topics/.

IvyPanda . (2023) '89 Ecotourism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples'. 26 September.

IvyPanda . 2023. "89 Ecotourism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." September 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/ecotourism-essay-topics/.

1. IvyPanda . "89 Ecotourism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." September 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/ecotourism-essay-topics/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "89 Ecotourism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." September 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/ecotourism-essay-topics/.

• Student Services Online
• Class search
• Student email
• Change my password
• MyCDES+ (job board)
• Course outlines
• Learning essentials
• Libraries and Learning Services
• Forms, policies and guidelines
• Campus Card
• Enrol in courses
• Postgraduate students
• Summer school
• AskAuckland
• Student Hubs
• Student IT Hub
• Student Health and Counselling
• Harassment, bullying, sexual assault and other violence
• Complaints and incidents
• Career Development and Employability Services (CDES)
• Ratonga Hauātanga Tauira | Student Disability Services (SDS)
• Rainbow support
• Covid-19 information for our community
• Emergency information
• Report concerns, incidents and hazards
• Health and safety topics
• Staff email
• Staff intranet
• ResearchHub
• PeopleSoft HR
• Forms register
• Careers at the University
• Education Office
• Early childhood centres
• University Calendar
• Opportunities
• Update your details
• Make a donation
• Publications
• Photo galleries
• Video and audio
• Career services
• Virtual Book Club
• Library services
• Alumni benefits
• Office contact details
• Alumni and friends on social media
• No events scheduled for today You have no more events scheduled for today
• Next event:
• Show {0} earlier events Show {0} earlier event
• Event_Time Event_Name Event_Description
• My Library Account
• Change Password
• Edit Profile
• My GPA Grade Point Average About your GPA GPA not available Why can't I see my GPA?
• My Progress
• Points Required Completed points My Progress Progress not available All done!
• Student hubs
• Health and counselling
• All support
• Health, safety and well-being

Breadcrumbs List.

• News and opinion

Can we rethink tourism sustainably?

5 August 2024

Business School , Doctoral , Business and economy , Sustainable impact

Is sustainable tourism achievable or just a lofty ideal? Doctoral candidate and Three Minute Thesis finalist Claire Beach is exploring the complexities of the tourism industry in her research.

The following is an edited excerpt of a  95bFM Ready Steady Learn  interview with Business School doctoral candidate and Three Minute Thesis finalist Claire Beach whose research explores sustainability in tourism.

Tourism is an important industry for New Zealand, can we do it sustainability?

A big issue is what actually is sustainable tourism? There’s debate about whether it can even exist and does that term work because it’s an oxymoron. Many people think the only way to manage things is not to travel.

I think New Zealand’s biggest obstacle is its reliance on private vehicles. When backpackers and other international tourists come here and look for ways to move around the country, the options aren’t great.

We don’t have really good, affordable ways to travel around. And I think tourists are often surprised because New Zealand has this ‘100 percent pure’ campaign and this clean green image. I definitely think there needs to be a lot of development of the train routes, buses, etc.

What conversations are happening around how to do tourism differently?

Some travellers try slow tourism, where they try to stay in one place longer. Others look for locations that have activities on site.

Right before Covid, there was a no-flying movement, and many people were committing to not flying for a year or more.

People also look to companies like Byway (a flight-free travel platform that creates travel packages away from the traditional tourist trails). Others put together peripheral-type trips to avoid heavily touristed areas and go to ‘destination dupes’ to enjoy similar experiences without overcrowding and infrastructure pressures.

What role do consumers’ expectations play in shaping sustainability practices in the tourism industry?

Tonnes. As tourists, we often want highly personalised experiences and a sense of novelty. But this makes sustainability very difficult. And the more bespoke and experiential we get, the less sustainable we will probably be; you might see someone posting their helicopter trip into Fox Glacier on Instagram for example.

As consumers, we also need to consider why we need to travel so much. For example, do you need a better work-life balance? If you created a happier life, might you take fewer trips in a year?

What challenges do businesses face when transitioning to more sustainable practices in the tourism industry?

The biggest hurdle is understanding what we’re actually talking about because the language of sustainability is very vague. And that was kind of intentional.

The 1987 Brundtland Report, a key document in tourism, was created so that all nations at different points of the journey could use the same language. But this meant that there were some misunderstandings. For example, someone might be talking about sustainable tourism, but they’re specifically talking about economic sustainability. This creates confusion, especially for consumers.

Businesses with front-of-house staff also face challenges. Many sustainability-related decisions are made at the top, by the manager. However, employees are tasked with sharing these eco goals with the consumers, which can sometimes cause tension.

What sort of tensions arise?

To give an example, I used to work at a campground, and one of its key selling points in eco-tourism was that it was off grid. However, this meant that it was hard to get a hot shower, and guests would complain.

As employees, we were left to explain that if you’re trying to do good for the environment, you need to regulate water usage. So, shorter showers and less propane mean you may not be as warm as you would like. These are the trade-offs businesses have to face in terms of what the customer wants and sustainability goals.

How do competing sustainability goals create tensions within the tourism industry?

Regarding the shower example, that company had to balance its economic sustainability with attracting consumers and customer satisfaction while also pursuing its environmental goals of water conservation and energy conservation.

If you imagine the three goals of sustainability—environmental, economic, and social—located on different points of a triangle, the further you move towards one, the further away you are from the others. This pull in different directions is the tension that we see and experience.

How can tourism firms measure the success of their sustainability initiatives?

It’s really hard, and it depends on the type of business. For example, a bike company, where they move your luggage around for you while you ride one of the great trails, they’re going to be measuring things like impact on the trails, the fuel required to move the luggage and the shuttles back and forth.

But then a marine wildlife watching company is going to be talking about grey waste and how to get rid of it in a sustainable manner, how they control invasive species in the water, etc.

It’s complex, and many firms in New Zealand lack the skills or resources to dedicate to it. So, we need to see government and industry-driven initiatives pool resources.

Is there anything in the works?

There’s quite a bit of movement. For example, the New Zealand Tourism Sustainability Commitment includes 12 commitments for individual businesses to work towards.

Firms who signed this commitment are supposed to establish and create some sort of plan to help them work towards this. But when you look into it further, they’re still debating what should be measured and how things should be measured; how do we actually compare a boat company to a bicycle company?

What can businesses do to ensure that their sustainability efforts are perceived as genuine?

I think radical transparency is fantastic. As consumers, as humans, we’re all pretty forgiving when we’re honest about what we’re trying to do.

Companies I particularly favour will have at least one or two pages on their website saying we’ve tried this, but it turns out it didn’t work, and now we’re trying this. And they’re very open to this being a long-term process.

I wouldn’t solely trust certifications. There are several certifications in the industry, which is fantastic for consumers, but I think we should look more at how companies communicate. Are they telling you what they’re doing and why they’re doing it?

Media contact:

Sophie Boladeras, media adviser M: 022 4600 388 E: sophie.boladeras@auckland.ac.nz