Tourism Development Issues Research Articles

Environmental governance for sustainable tourism development: Collaborative networks and organisation building in the Antalya tourism region

For more than two decades the attainment of sustainable environmental quality and the protection of environmental assets have been at the forefront of central policy issues in global tourism development. Recently, it has been argued that collaborative and associative forms of governance among tourism companies and other related agents are growing in importance in the drive for sustainable and environmentally sensitive tourism. Despite the increasing number of debates on the role of networking on tourism they are not well supported by empirical studies, and still far from explain how such networks can contribute to the sustainable development of territories. This paper aims to contribute to previous literature by analysing together governance networks and literature on sustainable development, and by providing empirical findings that highlight the importance of governance networks in sustainable tourism development, the importance of different scales of collaborative governance networks and the role of organisation building for environmentally sustainable tourism development in Antalya. The paper offers analytical findings on the networks of environmental governance among different types of tourism organisations based on a company-level survey, which reveals an increase in local collaboration and self-help networking based on local concerns and endogenous dynamics among the different actors in tourism. Unfortunately, the findings show that environmental motivations fall far behind economic considerations in networking practices.

The residents' reactions to sustainable tourism development in the Red Sea coast of Egypt

The issues of tourism development and sustainability are now at the forefront of much tourism research to find new solutions to tourism resources management and destination problems. However, despite the value of such attention in the possible improvement of destination management and the development of more sustainable forms of tourism, the concepts have remained relatively poor when they are critically analysed from a public policy perspective. This paper aims to explain the attitudes of the local Red Sea citizens towards the socioeconomic indicators of tourism development. To achieve the research objectives, data have been collected through 133 questionnaires that were distributed among the local Red Sea citizens. The results revealed that tourism development has positive impacts on the Red Sea region from the viewpoints of the local people. The tourism development policies in the Red Sea should concentrate on tourism projects that fulfil the requirements of sustainable tourism development to guarantee a positive reaction toward tourism development. To maximise the benefits of tourism development in the Red Sea, it is essential to create local cultural consciousness for the importance of concentrating on sustainability requirements/criteria in the future.

Sustainable Tourisw Development: Issues and Strategies for Development in India with Special Reference to the State of Uttaranchal

The state of Uttaranchal is bestowed with immense tourism potential and the following article briefs about Brundtland Commission report and critically examines the sustainable tourism development issues of the state. This article also suggests a sustainable tourism implementation strategy for the state of Uttaranchal. Case studies of Nandadevi National Park, Valley of Flowers, Gomukh/Gangotri Glacier are also presented for a diagnostic discussion.

Contemporary tendencies in development of sacred tourism in Bulgaria

The aim of this paper is to determine the main issues of the development of sacred tourism in Bulgaria as well as to make suggestions for its contemporary advance. This paper elaborates on the historic roots of the earliest forms of sacred tourism. It notes the global experience in the definition of this specific type of tourism, as well as the lack of regulation in the contemporary Bulgarian legislation. As far as Bulgaria is concerned, the paper elaborates on most of the existing reasons for the development of this specialized type of tourism as well as the experience which number of Bulgarian foundations bring. Most organizations aim at popularizing the Bulgarian Orthodox Christian culture and at organizing activities such as pilgrimages and educational trips. The paper analyses the main issues of tourism development in Bulgaria. The given suggestions are in respect to the establishment of an integrated tourism product, which would be the key for a successful development of this specific type of tourism. The paper suggest that a national strategy must be implemented and supported by the efforts of the government, the religious institutions, non-profit sector, businesses, municipalities, and local tourism councils. All this could lead to the broad establishment of an adequate, up to the standards of contemporary requirements tourism product, which would set Bulgaria as a competitive destination for sacred tourism.

Environmental Justice and Environmental Equity in Tourism: Missing Links to Sustainability

This paper argues for incorporating an environmental justice framework into sustainable tourism and ecotourism. Such a framework provides important directions and guidance for addressing injustices related to human–environmental relationships, particularly with respect to disadvantaged, low-income and minority communities. Issue areas include environmental equity, environmental discrimination and environmental racism. Drawing from the environmental justice literature, this paper first clarifies key concepts associated with environmental justice. This is followed by an examination of issues in tourism development that clearly relate to environmental justice (even though the term itself may not have been used). An analytical framework for addressing environmental justice and equity in tourism studies is proposed, incorporating environmental justice concepts and dimensions of procedural and distributive justice. Several theoretical areas that offer potential for developing this bridge between tourism and environmental justice are presented. The discussion opens new avenues for better incorporating justice and equity into ecotourism and sustainable tourism development and research.

Challenges of Tourism in a Dynamic Island Destination: The Case of Cuba

Shifting political and economic structures have put Cuban tourism on a fluctuating course of economic development. With the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba has turned again to tourism – an economic partner reminiscent of the pre-revolutionary era – to generate foreign exchange and stimulate investment The study analyses tourism in a non-market economy by examining Cuba's historic relationship with tourism. A literature review clusters Cuban tourism development issues and a destination audit and visitors' satisfaction survey evaluates Cuba's tourism product and key service issues. The rise of Cuban tourism is associated with a thriving black market, supply shortages, absent employee incentives, poor quality service delivery, resident apartheid, prostitution and telecommunication shortfalls. Regardless of these problems, Cuba maintains an exotic appeal due to its natural and cultural resources, its politics and its people. The case study raises questions regarding Cuba's long-term viability as a non-market economy in a competitive global and service-minded marketplace.

The Practical Application of Sustainable Tourism Development Principles: A Case Study of Creating Innovative Place-Making Tourism Strategies

The Blackstone Valley is working to create a sustainable, resilient, visitor destination using whole place-making techniques. The Blackstone Valley Tourism Council applies leadership and commitment to innovative sustainable geotourism principles. The Tourism Council fulfills the vision of sustainable tourism through its Sustainable Tourism Planning and Development Laboratory (STPDL). The Laboratory's purpose is to share the Tourism Council's experience in developing planned sustainable tourism with tourism leaders and community stakeholders seeking to develop viable destinations. The STPDL presents a learning initiative that prepares decision makers and shapers to thoughtfully develop and regenerate their communities using sustainable tourism principles. In the formation of the Laboratory mission, certain sustainable tourism development issues stood out as significant and needing prompt attention by practitioners. In response, the Laboratory has developed and continues to develop a series of robust symposiums, conferences, and programmes to link the Laboratory's work to the thirst for sound tourism development knowledge.

Canal-side highway in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam – Issues of urban cultural conservation and tourism development

Since the city’s founding back in 1698 on the old Khmer city of Prei Nokor, rivers and canals have always been Ho Chi Minh City’s (HCMC’s) primary means of transportation. Despite the decline of the utilization of the city’s abundant waterways due to the increasing development of modern aerial services and more convenient roads, the HCMC’s canal-based urban form, with its water-based socio-economic structures that include port-boat-market activities and canal handcraft villages, still processes a rich cultural and religious diversity that dates back to the history of the city itself. Currently, developments in the city’s transportation systems are having a damaging impact on the canals’ cultural background. Rather than being recognized as a significant cultural asset that identifies the city, the canal system has been physically reorganized as the city’s drainage system and valued as only a supplementary landscape element; canal communities have been evicted, and canal built fabric has been removed due to recent canal-side transportation developments. To revitalize the urban cultural identity that is possessed by the canal system and to enrich it as a contemporary valuable layer in the city’s dynamic regional development, it is critical to implement cultural conservation and tourism in the development of canal-side transportation and supplementary projects in the canal vicinity.

Perceptions and adaptation strategies of the tourism industry to climate change: the case of Finnish nature-based tourism entrepreneurs

Climate change-related processes have emerged as major issues in tourism development and management, particularly with respect to nature-based tourism, which is seen as especially vulnerable and is the sector of the industry that is the main focus of this study. The aim of the paper is to identify the perceptions and adaptation strategies of Finnish nature-based tourism entrepreneurs on climate change. The case study was conducted by interviewing nature-based tourism entrepreneurs in northern Finland and the Finnish Lake District, south east Finland. In general, the entrepreneurs were aware of the issue of global climate change. However, half of the interviewees did not believe that the phenomenon actually exists and will influence the region's tourism industry in the future. The scepticism towards the climate change may explain the fact that there were almost no adaptation strategies. However, other adaptation mechanisms were used to cope with the 'normal' weather variation and market changes.

Tourism development: issues for a vulnerable industry

This book takes a multidisciplinary look at various hot issues in present day tourism development, including studying how global the industry has become; new forms of travel like space tourism; new trends in marketing and promotion. It also deals with the threats posed to tourism development by wars, global terrorism, and epidemics and concludes with an optimistic view of the industry's resilience.

Book Review: Contemporary Issues in Tourism Development(Series: Routledge Advances in Tourism)

Book Review: Contemporary Issues in Tourism Development(Series: Routledge Advances in Tourism)

A Comparison of the Views of Involved versus Noninvolved Citizens on Quality of Life and Tourism Development Issues

Rural communities seeking to improve the quality of life for their residents often turn to tourism as a means to improve their economic position. The sustainability of any economic development plan is dependent on community organizations that are actively trying to control and shape their quality of life within their community. This study reveals that involved residents evaluate their quality of life higher than do the noninvolved residents. Even though the results indicated that there are no statistically significant differences in how involved versus noninvolved citizens evaluate the potential impacts of tourism, differences in the support each group indicated for the development of cultural tourism infrastructure were identified. The views of the involved citizens are important to decision makers because the involved citizens are the ones most likely to influence public policy.

Integrating the tourism industry: problems and strategies

This paper addresses two interrelated issues in tourism development: horizontal integration within tourism's component sectors and attempts at vertical integration between them. The paper employs a conceptual framework adapted from regulation theory, to assess the dynamics of these processes, particularly in relation to airlines and hotels. Through examining some of the most important examples of both horizontal and vertical integration, it indicates how these have influenced contemporary strategies in the component sectors. The paper goes on to illustrate how trends towards Fordist organization within airlines have conflicted with post-Fordist trends in hotel operations, to undermine attempts at vertical integration across the tourism industry.

Nature-based tourism on communal land: The Mavhulani experience

South Africa is experiencing a boom in nature-based tourism in which underdeveloped and previously marginalised homeland areas are not sharing. The aim of this article is to determine some of the crucial constraints which inhibit tourism in these areas, by exploring various tourism development issues based on insights gained from research undertaken at Mavhulani bush camp, a seemingly successful nature-based tourism development project. This venture is run on communal trust land in the former Venda homeland area.

Sustainable Tourism or Sustainable Development? Financial Crisis, Ecotourism, and the 'Amazing Thailand' Campaign

Although the issues of sustainable tourism and sustainable development are receiving increasing attention from tourists, government planners and scholars, few studies have examined their overlap, tensions and complex linkages in practice. In southern Thailand, the sustainability of tourism, defined as the ongoing growth and survival of the tourism industry, has compromised the ecological sustainability of key tourism destinations sites. The recent financial crisis has forced the Thai government to sacrifice long-term sustainability for the sake of quick, and desperately needed foreign exchange. The 'Amazing Thailand' promotional campaign, which aims to attract 17 million tourists over 1998 and 1999, promises to exacerbate further the environmental degradation of tourism destinations in southern Thailand by pushing for enhanced tourist numbers. Ironically, by changing the composition of tourist arrivals (and in particular, attracting more European and North American tourists) the currency devaluations associated with the Asian financial crisis may simultaneously boost demand for nature-based tourist activities in southern Thailand while also adding stress to ecologically deteriorating destinations.

Tourism development and sustainability issues in Central and South-Eastern Europe

In the limited number of analyses undertaken on tourism development and post-socialist processes of restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), most attention has been paid to the more advanced societies of Central Europe. By contrast, Europe's less developed and relatively unstable south-eastern corner, where tourism development issues may take on a different complexion, has been relatively neglected. Within this context, tourism's role in post-socialist restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe is examined, reflecting on issues of mass tourism and niche segregation. Rural tourism is examined as a vehicle for sustainable development in South-eastern Europe, and some of the paradoxes facing issues of sustainability in tourism development are examined in relation to recent development processes. With a dynamic mix of mass and niche markets to target, the potential of rural tourism development in South-eastern Europe continues to be constrained by regional instability.

Towards Sustainable Tourism Planning in New Zealand: Public Sector Planning Responses

This paper examines the concept of sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand and its relationship to the Resource Management Act. The paper considers the public sector planning responses towards tourism development issues within the context of New Zealand's Resource Management Act, and the ability of these organisations to respond to tourism issues. It argues that the absence of a national vision for tourism is a major constraint on achieving sustainable tourism options at the regional and local level because the Resource Management Act s principles of sustainable planning are not guided by any national policy or strategy. By using a postal questionnaire, the paper provides the first in-depth analysis of planners responses to tourism and their ability to integrate tourism into the planning process within New Zealand. The paper also expands the arguments initially developed by Dredge & Moore (1992) on the lack of integration in relation to tourism and planning.

Comment on Gilbert: Issues in appropriate rural tourism development for southern Ireland

(1995). Comment on Gilbert: Issues in appropriate rural tourism development for southern Ireland. Leisure Studies: Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 64-66.

Issues in appropriate rural tourism development for southern Ireland

Rural society in Europe has been undergoing far-reaching change, and the balance between its various functions has become much less secure. For this reason, an effort must be made to promote rural development of a kind which maintains, or indeed in some cases actually restores, the equilibrium without which the Community cannot prosper (Bulletin of the EC, Supplement 4/88). This article provides a discussion of the concepts of appropriate rural development with reference to Southern Ireland. It aims to help countryside planners understand more fully the complexity of the subject area in order to expedite the above goals of the EC and translate sustainability concepts into action.

Issues in Rural Community Tourism Development. Thomas D. Potts, Kenneth F. Backman, Muzaffer Uysal, and Sheila J. Backman. Visions in Leisure and Business, vol. 11, no. 1, Spring 1992, pp. 5-13. Appalachian Associates, 615 Pasteur Avenue, Bowling Green, OH 43402. $45 annual institutional subscription

Issues in Rural Community Tourism Development. Thomas D. Potts, Kenneth F. Backman, Muzaffer Uysal, and Sheila J. Backman. Visions in Leisure and Business, vol. 11, no. 1, Spring 1992, pp. 5-13. Appalachian Associates, 615 Pasteur Avenue, Bowling Green, OH 43402. $45 annual institutional subscription