Destination Management and Sustainability

Abstract

The paper provides a perspective on how tourism can be made more sustainable keeping in mind the ecological principals. It explores the 4 M’s-Management of Resources, Monetary Aspect, Manpower and Marketing model by taking a holistic view of the ecosystem and draws the constructs from the UNEP and WTO’s (2005) guide to policy makers that provide a framework for the various stakeholders. Management of resources include ‘resource efficiency’ and ‘environment purity’ while monetary aspect includes ‘economic viability’ leading to ‘community wellbeing.’ The manpower aspect looks at both the employees and the visitors. For employees tourism would be a means of poverty alleviation for visitors tourism would be looked into from the aspect of cultural richness, biological diversity and physical resources. Keeping in mind this framework the paper explores the consumer’s feelings and draws their attitude towards participation in and evaluation of tourist destinations employing these practicesThe global economic scenario in the last few years has been a matter of concern for all economies. One industry that continues to show positive growth in spite of the recessionary trends worldwide is tourism industry. It contributed (‘direct, indirect and induced impact’) USD 6.6 trillion to the world GDP (i.e., 9% of ‘total economy GDP’), provided 260 million jobs (i.e., 1 in 11 jobs) and USD 1.2 trillion in exports (i.e., 5% of world exports)(World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), 2013). ‘According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, international tourism receipts hit a new record in 2012, reaching an estimated US$ 1075 billion (euro 837 billion) worldwide, up 4% in real terms, from US$ 1042 billion (euro 749 billion) in 2011.’ The export earnings stood at ‘US$ 219 billion in 2012, bringing total receipts generated by international tourism to US$ 1.3 trillion.’ Thailand and India were the top two ‘emerging economy destinations’ that reported the ‘highest receipts growth’ at 25% and 22% respectively (UNWTO, 2013b). This robust growth in tourism was sustained in the first four months of the year 2013 when an extra 12 million tourists traveled worldwide (total tourists traveling were 298 million) in comparison to the same period during 2012 when the total tourists traveling were 286 million (UNWTO, 2013c). According to ‘UNWTO SecretaryGeneral, Taleb Rifai “…Tourism is thus one of the pillars that should be supported by governments around the world as part of the solution to stimulatingeconomic growth,”’ (UNWTO, 2013a). This is further corroborated by the fact that the ‘direct contribution to world GDP is set to grow by 4.4% on an average per year over the next ten years’ from 2013-2023. By 2023 ‘Travel and Tourism’s total contribution will account for 10% GDP and 1 in 10 jobs’ (WTTC, 2013).