Sustainability in Tourism
Tourism is one the fastest growing sector worldwide especially in developing countries. The sector provides livelihood to a lot of people thus helping in reviving an economy. However because of this development there is one part that suffers - Environment. Issues like ecological degradation, loss of cultural heritage are coming up lately. Sustainable tourism addresses this by making travel eco-friendly calling it as nature based tourism. This travel can be of various types- leisure holidays, business travel and conferences etc. Thus sustainable tourism is often elaborated as “tourism that takes care of traveller, local people, cultural heritage and the environment”. It argues for a responsible way of enjoying without
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Sustainability in tourism is based upon 3 dimensions economic, socio-cultural and environmental. According to WTO, Sustainability in Tourism is meeting the needs of today’s tourist and at the same time maintaining and protecting nature and tourist destinations, and increasing the prospects of sustainability in future. Sustainability is extremely important because the growth of Tourism industry is dependent on management of economic, ecological and aesthetic constraints and social compatibility, and at the same time maintaining biodiversity, retaining cultural integrity and developing a system that supports …show more content…
Emerging economies like India is targeting on service sector and Service sector contributes to 57% of Indian GDP. Tourism is an essential Service industry and according to Eco India, 2008, tourism contributes to 10.7% of World 's GDP and employs 260 million people all over the world. The presence of tourism industry is essential for all economies and that’s one more important reason why Sustainability is important in tourism industry.
The principles of sustainability enlist following six statements for tourism industry:
1. To hold the environmental resources in trust for future generations and the responsibility to pass to future generations
2. Successful development of tourism is directly dependent on environment and without a beautiful environment, this industry will not flourish
3. Greater the attraction of a place, greater will be the number of tourists visiting that place and greater will the chances of diminishing its attractiveness
4. It is a necessary part of tourism business of all sizes to work in hand in hand for the development of tourism business catering to the needs of current and future