Chapter 5 Destination Development Policies (Destination Management)

1. DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT POLICIES

2. Presented By:
Md. Shaifullar Rabbi
BBA & MBA (Major inTHM,FBS,DU)
Coordinator & Lecturer
Dept. ofTourism & Hospitality Management
Daffodil Institute of IT(NU)

3. DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT
Destination development is any activity that increases and improves the quality
of a visitor’s destination. To make tourism a vibrant, healthy, and manageable
component of the local economy, communities need to craft and implement
tourism management strategies that are local, authentic, and desirable. From
large to small and rural to resort, every community can benefit from destination
development. Destinations have developed thoroughly since the 1960's through
promotion and popularity.
Destination development Issues:
Improves the visitor experience, leading to increased spending and tax
revenues
Diversifies and strengthens urban and suburban economies
Enhances the recreation and support service infrastructure in emerging, rural
tourism destinations
Increases support services, capacity and visitor season for developed gateway
communities.

4. DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT – THE POWER OF ATTRACTION
As we have seen in recent years, when it
comes to creating appealing and
successful holiday destinations, tourists are
increasingly sophisticated and are seeking
more than just a great stand-alone hotel. In
keeping ahead of the competition, long-
term plans must balance economics and
market demand with a clearly defined
vision that can be delivered in coherent
phases. One of the fundamental challenges
of successful destination development is
the requirement to positively align the
desires and ambitions of a broad cross-
section of public and private stakeholder
groups; from local planners and
environmental groups to bar owners, taxi
drivers, retailers, hotel manager,
restauranteurs, residents and tourists.

5. Today, a destination should not only be a place where people want
to visit, but also one in which people aspire to live in order to create
an appealing vibrant ambience. Developing an amenity provision
that looks beyond the built product is where a destination can
flourish. These amenities should include:
Built attractions – these are elements that are often created to help ignite
interest and encourage people to visit the destination, e.g. spas, golf courses,
country clubs, theme parks and entertainment.
The natural assets – these often come ‘free’ with every site. They can be
views, woodland, water bodies, iconic structurers, landmarks, or other features.
Taking good care of these and maximizing their potential can help to create a
unique and memorable sense of place.
Soft programming – this is the most flexible type of amenity, providing a
rolling program of events, functions and courses that can be adapted to
accommodate the ever-changing interests and habits of tourists.

6. BALANCED DEVELOPMENT
To achieve a well-balanced and
sustainable development it is
important to acknowledge the roles
played by individual amenities and
components within a destination.
While some, such as beaches and
restaurants, look great on the front
cover of a brochure or social media,
others, such as retail or restaurants,
are typically less aesthetically
pleasing, but will drive forward the
financial performance of a
destination. A successful destination
requires a combination of those that
have a strong intrinsic appeal and
those that essentially help to drive the
cash flow of the development.

7. DIVERSIFY YOUR MARKETS
While historically
destinations were
often associated
with a narrow end-
user market,
diversifying the
product offer can
create a destination
that appeals to a
broader mix of
visitors and provides
the
opportunity to overl
ay peaks of deman
d in one market with
troughs in another.

8. SUSTAINABILITY AND A SENSE OF PLACE
Creating a sustainable
destination essentially
comes down to giving
consideration to the
environment and the local
community. Protecting the
local environment and
providing employment to
local people is an important
part of ‘giving back’ to the
community. While at the
same time, ensuring a
positive ambience for
visitors when they explore
the wider area
helps to Safeguard the long
term commercial viability of
a destination.

9. EFFECTIVE MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Within a competitive market
context, effective marketing
and communications of a
destination are essential to
establish awareness of the
offer and maintain its market
position. Creating a marketing
strategy for the overall
destination, and gaining the
buy-in of the diverse mix of
stakeholder groups involved in
the delivery of the concept
vision may be challenging,
but collaboration is key for a
destination to punch above its
weight and draw worldwide
attention.

10. HOW GOVERNMENTS CAN PROMOTE TOURISM
Tourism makes a substantial contribution to a
country GDP. Many countries have found innovative
ways to earn foreign currency by marketing their
tourist destinations abroad. To make increase
tourism a country has to invest in infrastructure and
provide a conducive environment for tourists. These
efforts take time, but the payoff is worth it.
Security
Infrastructure
Conservation
Marketing and Advertising
Expanding Airline outreach
Foreign Languages
Education on the benefits of Tourism
Clean Cities
Digital Influencers
Investor support

11. TOURISM INVESTMENT SUPPORT
For instance, the lending and funding program for:
• Accommodation projects (hotels, resorts, furnished apartments).
• Travel and tourism agencies, tourist guides, tour operators and tourism events
and exhibitions operators.
• Heritage and antiquities projects (heritage buildings, museums, handicraft and
commemorative gifts centers).
• Entertainment and sport projects (amusement cities, equestrian and diving
centers, skating rinks, and cruise boats).
• Agro tourism and eco-tourism projects (environmental inns, rural rest houses,
resorts and desert camps).
• Popular restaurants and cafes in tourism and heritage sites that need financing.
• Rehabilitation and development of roadside rest houses.
• Training and educational projects in addition to tourism and crafts institutes.

12. INVESTOR SUPPORT
assistance to find investment opportunities in Queensland
information about tourism investment opportunities in
Queensland
facilitation of meetings with tourism product developers
site visits to explore investment opportunities
introductions to local companies and service providers
invitations to tourism investment events
connections with local, Queensland and Australian
government agencies to help establish new projects

13. BARRIERS TO INVESTMENT
The investment environment is primarily a function of government
policy. While business practices can also impact the attractiveness of
a potential investment destination, those practices are permitted or
prohibited by government policy. Policies that directly and indirectly
impact tourism planning, financing, regulation, and promotion define
the viability of a proposed investment project. Some of the most
common investment climate-related barriers include:
Insufficient information available to analyze opportunities
Political stability
Government support (or lack thereof) for tourism and tourism-
related investment is also critical
Legal and Regulatory Transparency

14. BEHIND-THE-BORDER” BARRIERS TO INVESTMENT
The barriers come in many forms from excessive regulation, unclear property
rights, and poor legal systems to a lack of appropriate laws that foster
competition. All these barriers have a deleterious effect on investment and
impede growth through one of three channels.
• They can unnecessarily increase costs, making businesses less profitable and
therefore less attractive for investment. Examples would be excessive
regulation, complex licensing procedures, and poor infrastructure such as
inadequate roads that increase transport costs.
• Barriers can increase risk that chills the incentive to invest. Examples would be
unclear property rights, poor contract enforcement, and the uncertainty of
government policy and its enforcement.
• Barriers can limit business competition that, while perhaps helping a favored
few firms obtain monopoly status, increases costs for other firms, impeding their
competitiveness and stifling innovation.

15. INVESTMENT COMPETITIVENESS
As discussed, The
World Economic
Forum’s (WEF) Travel
& Tourism
Competitiveness
Report (2011)
specifically
highlights investment
as a key indicator of
competitiveness in
travel and tourism. It
ranks 139 countries
based on an
assessment of three
tourism-specific
measures and 14
sub-measures.

16. OVERCOMING COMMON BARRIERS
Overcoming investment barriers is a complex, long-term task, typically beyond
the reach of individual investors. The most reasonable approach investors and
project promoters can take to overcome investment barriers involves
• Understanding which major barriers their project will likely face.
• Identifying tools to mitigate those barriers, e.g., political risk insurance.
• A realistic assessment of whether or not a project has a reasonable chance of
being implemented with the time and resources available.
• The odds of being able, through negotiation, to overcome specific barriers,
e.g., the terms of a concessions agreement or ownership requirements. This
process begins with a discussion with government officials related to the
specific barrier and with other investors who have attempted to overcome
similar barriers.

17. 1. Private Sector Orientation: Engaging the tourism industry through private sector organizations is
a key step to develop sustainable and productive small and medium tourism enterprises.
Governments can improve enabling conditions with industry by accomplishing some of the
following tasks:
• Tourism promotion organizations, resource management agencies, and destination
management organizations should link tourism products more closely with marketing and
communications strategies.
• Encourage corporate social responsibility that uses triple bottom line reporting, environmental
management systems, and certification within both larger firms and smaller firms. It is essential
to educate and engage SMEs and provide concrete measuring and evaluation performance
metrics.
• Engage international development institutions such as multilateral and bilateral cooperation
agencies and development finance institutions to inform, educate, and work together within the
tourism industry to integrate sustainability into policies and management practices.
• Promote internationally recognized standards for sustainable tourism to monitor tourism
operations and management such as Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria .
• Achieve economies of scale through clustering. Clustering strengthens backward and forward
linkages in tourism value chains and drives sustainability in the entire industry. By involving
tourism enterprises in clusters economies of scales, technological and organizational know
how, and higher market share can be achieved.

18. 2. Destination Planning and Development: It is critical to include goals
for environmental sustainability in a destination’s development
strategy. Refer to Unit 9 regarding destination management, for more
information about carrying capacity and sustainable tourism
promotion.
3. Fiscal and Government Investment Policies: Creating a sustainable
tourism industry requires policies that
• Encourage investment sustainability and promote sustainable use of
natural resources.
• Define and commit critical government green economy investments
in protected areas, cultural assets, water and waste infrastructure.
• Use tax policy to encourage investment in sustainable tourism
activities.
• Provide clear price signals to orient investment in water, electricity,
and waste management services.

19. 4. Finance and Investment: Poor understanding of the benefits of
sustainable investing is a major obstacle in many countries.
Approaches to overcoming this challenge include
• Private sector awareness programs and policy coordination to
improve understanding of sustainable investing
• Promoting external funding, including FDI, private equity and
portfolio investment aligned with sustainable financing strategies to
supplement local and regional funds for local tourism development
• Adoption of rules, regulations, standards, and certifications that
promote sustainable investment, and discourage investments that
harm the environment, through
• Voluntary standards o Zoning laws and environmental impact
analysis
• Tax incentives that support sustainable investment
• Fees and levies that more fully reflect the true cost of unsustainable investments

23. A NEW PARADIGM FOR TOURISM
The Pre COVID 19 Paradigm for tourism centered on a number of key assumptions:
• Tourism would continue to grow (apart from some minor blips) indefinitely
• Tourism would become increasingly democratic and affordable to a larger number of people in
both the developed world and the developing world
• Tourism and hospitality businesses could operate on the basis of high volume and low yield.
Apart from a few business collapses, most tourism businesses would be viable
• Tourism was regarded as a desirable industry by governments all over the world as a means to
advance national economies, infrastructure and create employment
• Countries around the world would do what they could to facilitate international tourism and
ease entry restrictions for international arrivals
• The world was shrinking and tourism was a means to bring the world closer together
• Travel and events is an essential part of conducting business and education.

24. ECOTOURISM
Sustains the well-being of the local
people, and involves interpretation
and education” (TIES, 2015).
Education is meant to be inclusive of
both staff and guests. Ecotourism is
catering for tourists wishing to
experience the natural environment
without damaging it or disturbing its
habitats. It is a form
of tourism involving
responsible travel to natural areas,
conserving the environment, and
improving the well-being of the local
people. Its purpose may be to
educate the traveler, to provide
funds for ecological conservation, to
directly benefit the economic
development and political
empowerment of local communities,
or to foster respect for different
cultures and for human rights.

25. PRINCIPLES OF ECOTOURISM
Ecotourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel.
This means that those who implement, participate in and market ecotourism
activities should adopt the following ecotourism principles:
• Minimize physical, social, behavioral, and psychological impacts.
• Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect.
• Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts.
• Provide direct financial benefits for conservation.
• Generate financial benefits for both local people and private industry.
• Deliver memorable interpretative experiences to visitors that help raise
sensitivity to host countries’ political, environmental, and social climates.
• Design, construct and operate low-impact facilities.
• Recognize the rights and spiritual beliefs of the Indigenous People in your
community and work in partnership with them to create empowerment.

26. BENEFITS OF ECOTOURISM
Ecotourism is tourism which is conducted responsibly to conserve the environment and sustain the
well-being of local people.Its benefits include:
• Building environmental awareness.
• Providing direct financial benefits for conservation.
• Providing financial benefits and empowerment for local people.
• Respecting local culture.
• Supporting human rights and democratic movementssuch as:
• conservation of biological diversity and cultural diversity through ecosystem protection.
• promotion of sustainable use of biodiversity, by providing jobs to local populations.
• sharing of all socio-economic benefits with local communities and indigenous peoples by having
their informed consent and participation in the management of ecotourism enterprises.
• tourism to unspoiled natural resources, with minimal impact on the environment being a primary
concern.
• minimization of tourism's own environmental impact.
• affordability and lack of waste in the form of luxury.
• local culture, flora, and fauna being the main attractions.
• local people, who benefit from this form of tourism economically, and often more than mass tourism.

28. TYPES OF ECOTOURISM
There are several types of
ecotourism. This is an
evolving sector of
sustainable travel though,
and no two trips are the
same. Specific companies
and charities often
organize ecotourism trips
for ethical travelers. There
are some ways in which
you can embark on
ecotourism trips by yourself
too.
1- Agro tourism
2- Community tourism
3- Eco trekking trips

29. AGRO TOURISM
Agro tourism is a type
of sustainable tourism
that puts you in the
heart of rural farming
communities. These
are communities who
may be struggling
with difficult
conditions. They tend
to live off the land
and, as an
ecotourism, you could
be helping out with
farming activities. This
type of ecotourism is
a fantastic way to get
an in-depth
understanding of how
more fragile
communities live and
how to help them.

30. COMMUNITY TOURISM
Many communities in
disadvantaged nations are
suffering. The onslaught of
modernization is changing
their way they live. As
industrialization, often by
foreign companies, takes
over local resources and
threatens livelihoods, local
communities are in need
of help. Turning your
ecotourism trip into a
volunteer trip allows you to
help these communities.
Voluntary work includes
building much-needed
facilities, learning about
their culture, and
spreading awareness.

31. ADVENTURE TOURISM
Tropical rainforests
make up around
6% of the planet's
surface but they
house over half the
world's land-based
species. These
extraordinary
forests, full of
wildlife and plants,
help fight climate
change too. Sadly,
millions of hectares
are being
destroyed each
year with
catastrophic
consequences.

32. WHAT IS GREEN TOURISM?
Green tourism, a form
of ecotourism, is low-
impact tourism with an
eye toward protecting
the environment and
culture of an area. The
United Nations has set up
certain criteria for
ecotourism, but green
tourism can cover a
wide range of standards
and conditions, from fully
compliant to less stressful
on the environment than
standard tourism. There
are many opportunities
for green travel
available worldwide.

33. FARM TOURISM
Farm tourism, agro-tourism
are different names for one
type of activity that is
directly related to agriculture
and began to develop in the
1960s. in France (in the 1980s
he experienced a real
boom; now there are about
1 million agritourists who go
to farms). Farm tourism and
agro-tourism are included in
such a broader concept as
rural tourism. According to S.
Medlik’s dictionary, “rural
tourism is a type of tourism
for recreation concentrated
on rural territories”.
Agritourist is also tourism for
recreation, but involves
active use of the farm and is
implemented in 2 forms – in
the form of rental of premises
with the services of tourists
within the farm or
accommodation with self-
service in the territory, which
is the property of the farm.

34. WHY FARM TOURISM?
In a country where the
average age of
farmers is 57, where
rice is still the main
farm produce and the
income is low, where
most produce are
highly seasonal,
where there are
limited areas for
families to visit and
enjoy nature—farm
tourism is a refreshing
new addition to the list
of tourism products
that generates added
income to the farmers.

35. RURAL TOURISM
UNWTO understands Rural Tourism as "a type of tourism activity in which the visitor’s
experience is related to a wide range of products generally linked to nature-based
activities, agriculture, rural lifestyle / culture, angling and sightseeing.
• Rural Tourism activities take place in non-urban (rural) areas with the following
characteristics:
• I) low population density
• ii) landscape and land-use dominated by agriculture and forestry and
• iii) traditional social structure and lifestyle".
The Council of Europe employed the term ‘rural area ‘to denote the following
characteristics; A stretch of inland or coastal countryside, including small towns and
villages, where the main part of the area is used for:
•
• Agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, and fisheries.
• Economic and cultural activities of country-dwellers.
• Non-urban recreation and leisure areas or nature reserves.
• Other purposes such as housing.

37. The OECD states rural tourism should be:
• Located in rural areas.
• Functionally rural, built upon the rural world’s special features; small-
scale enterprises, open space, contact with nature and the natural
world, heritage, traditional societies, and traditional practices.
• Rural in scale – both in terms of building and settlements – and
therefore, small scale.
• Traditional in character, growing slowly and organically, and
connected with local families.
• Sustainable – in the sense that its development should help sustain
the special rural character of an area, and in the sense that its
development should be sustainability in its use of resources.
• Of many different kinds, representing the complex pattern of the
rural environment, economy, and history.

38. PRINCIPLES
• Minimize impact of rapid urban
development.
• Build environmental and cultural
awareness and respect
• Provide positive experiences for both
visitors and hosts
• Provide direct financial benefit for
conservation
• Provide financial benefits and
empowerment for local people
• Raise sensitivity to host countries'
political, environmental, and social
climate.

39. IMPORTANCE AND BENEFITS OF RURAL TOURISM
Some importance and benefits of rural tourism are following as:
• Provides a source of new, alternative or supplementary income and employment in
rural areas.
• Rural tourism spurs infrastructure development in rural areas.
• Help to reduce gender and other social power
• Encourage collective community
• Reinvigorate local culture.
• Instill the sense of local pride, self-esteem, and identity
• Contribution to conservation and protection.
• Increase the living standards of the local community.
• Assists refurbishment and re-use of abandoned properties.
• Provide opportunities for retaining population in areas that might otherwise experience
depopulation.
• Enable areas to be repopulated.

40. RURAL TOURISM ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
Some important issues and challenges of rural tourism are following as:
• Economic Leakages
• Local price inflation
• Distort local employment structure
• Seasonal patterns of demands
• Manufacture or distort local ‘culture’ for commodification and
staged authenticity
• Destroy indigenous culture
• Natural habitat destruction of rural wildlife
• Littering, emission and other forms of pollution
• Congestion

41. CHARACTERISTICS OF RURAL TOURISM
Some characteristics features of
rural tourism are following as:
• Seasonality
• Fragmentation
• External market needed
• Co-operation needed between
internal and external market
• Role of women
• Economic role: side income for
farmers and other
entrepreneurs in the rural area.

42. SOFT TOURISM
The concept of soft tourism encompasses
environmental and social compatibility,
optimum wealth creation, and a "new culture
of travel". The term has become the
buzzword for a change of values in tourism,
which has been demanded and is already
being implemented to some extent. Resulting
from the criticism of mass tourism (hard
tourism) and its negative ecological, social,
cultural and economic impact on popular
destinations in Europe but also in the Third
World, the call for "soft tourism" began to be
heard towards the end of the 1970s in the
social and tourism policy debate: its aims are
qualitative, not quantitative sectoral growth,
and quality of life instead of quality of
consumption for holiday-makers and
travelers.

43. ALTERNATIVE TOURISM
Alternative
tourism combines tourist
products or individual tourist
services, different from mass
tourism by means of supply,
organization and
the human
resources involved. Other
examples of different terms
include "intelligent" or
"motivated tourism.” In
addition, "anti-tourism" or
"participative tourism" are
some others. That was just
to name few of them.

44. FORMS OF ALTERNATIVE TOURISM
1. Active tourism
• hiking
• trekking
• biking
• adventure tourism
• snowshoeing
• ski mountaineering
• rafting
• diving
• caving
• climbing
• horseback riding
2. Explore and encounter travel
• historical places
• archeological sites
• foreign communities
• foreign cultures
• rural tourism
• ecotourism
• cultural and historical heritage
• wine
• traditional cuisine
• ethnography
• traditional music
• handicrafts

45. FORMS OF ALTERNATIVE TOURISM
3.Committed tourism
• voluntary service
overseas
• aid and assistance
• archeological digs
• international work
camps
• justice
• solidarity tourism
• religion

47. WHAT IS HERITAGE TOURISM?
Heritage Tourism is a branch
of tourism oriented towards
the cultural heritage of the
location where tourism is
occurring. The National Trust for
Historic Preservation in the United
States defines heritage tourism as
“travelling to experience the
places and activities that
authentically represent the stories
and people of the past,” and
cultural heritage tourism is
defined as “travelling to
experience the places and
activities that authentically
represent the stories and people
of the past and present.”

48. CULTURAL TOURISM
Cultural tourism is a type
of tourism activity in which the
visitor’s essential motivation is to
learn, discover, experience and
consume the tangible and
intangible cultural
attractions/products in a tourism
destination. These
attractions/products relate to a
set of distinctive material,
intellectual, spiritual and
emotional features of a society
that encompasses arts and
architecture, historical and
cultural heritage, culinary
heritage, literature, music,
creative industries and the living
cultures with their lifestyles, value
systems, beliefs and traditions.

49. ETHNIC TOURISM
Ethnic tourism is
motivated by tourists’
search for exotic cultural
experiences through
interaction with distinctive
minority groups and the
desire of those groups to
use aspects of their
culture to create
economic opportunities.
It provides the chance for
tourists to experience
aspects of unique
cultures, landscapes, and
ways of life.

51. SENIOR CITIZEN TOURISM
Senior tourism aims at offering
travel and touring exposure to a
specific age group of tourists
those have retired from active
employment and have a lot of
leisure time in hand. The quality
of service provided by the tour
operators is a very important
criterion with close monitoring
and utmost care. Old age
makes the senior tourists
physically weak and vulnerable
to weather fluctuations, stress
and other hardships of tour that
the young people can withstand.

52. SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
The World Tourism Organization defines sustainable tourism as “tourism that takes full
account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts,
addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities".
Sustainable tourism means tourism which is economically viable but does not destroy
the resources on which the future of tourism will depend, notably the physical
environment and the social fabric of the host community. Sustainable tourism is the form
of tourism that meets the needs of tourists, the tourism industry, and host communities
today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
• According to The World Tourism Organization (WTO), sustainable tourism should:
• 1) Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in
tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to
conserve natural heritage and biodiversity.
• 2) Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and
living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to inter-cultural
understanding and tolerance.
• 3) Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits
to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed including stable employment and income-
earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to
poverty alleviation.

55. PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
Tourism Concern, 1991 in association with the Worldwide Fund for Nature(WWF)
gives 10 principles for sustainable tourism. These are following as:
• Using resources sustainably. The conservation and sustainable use of
resources- natural, social and cultural – is crucial and makes long-term
business sense.
• Reducing over-consumption and waste. Reduction of over-consumption and
waste avoids the costs of restoring long-term environmental damage and
contributes to the quality of tourism.
• Maintaining biodiversity. Maintaining and promoting natural, social and
cultural diversity is essential for long-term sustainable tourism and creates a
resilient base for the industry.
• Integrating tourism into planning. Tourism development which is integrated
into a national and local strategic planning framework and which undertake
environmental impact assessments increases the long-term viability of
tourism.

56. • Supporting local economies. Tourism that supports a wide range of local economic
activities and which takes environmental costs and values into account, both protects these
economies and avoids environmental damage.
• Involving local communities. The full involvement of local communities in the tourism sector
not only benefits them and the environment in general but also improves the quality of the
tourism experience.
• Consulting stakeholders and the public. Consulting between the tourism industry and local
communities, organizations and institutions are essential if they are to work alongside each
other and resolve potential conflicts of interest.
• Training staff. Staff training which integrates sustainable tourism into work practices, along
with recruitment of personnel at all levels, improves the quality of the tourism product.
• Marketing tourism responsibly. Marketing that provides tourists with the full and responsible
information increases respect for the natural, social and cultural environments of destination
areas and enhances customer satisfaction.
• Undertaking research. Ongoing research and monitoring by the industry using effective
data collection and analysis are essential to help solve problems and to bring benefits to
destinations, the industry, and consumers.

57. THREE DIMENSIONS OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
Tourism has environmental, economic
and social impacts. Sustainable tourism is
about maximizing the impacts which are
positive and minimizing the negative
ones. It seems that the environmental
impacts are negative, the economic
effects positive, and the social impacts a
combination of both. However, it is also
important to recognize that there are
clear links between the three aspects of
tourism – the environmental, economic,
and social dimensions – and these are
below:
• Environmental
• Economic
• Social

58. ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSION
The Natural Resources: Tourism makes use of a range of natural resources, and in many cases,
the core attraction of a destination’s product may be natural resources such as clean air, land,
mineral waters, and the water in lakes and seas.
1.The Natural Environment: There are few natural landscape or wilderness areas left in the world.
Almost all natural landscapes have been affected to some extent by the actions of man through
the centuries. Tourism is only one industry or activity which changes landscapes. The natural
landscape represents the core of the tourism product in many areas including natural forests,
mountains, and regions which attract tourists because of their rivers and lakes.
2. The Farmed Environment: The farmed environment can cover a diverse range of agricultural
systems including agriculture landscapes, man-made forests, and fish farms.
3. Wildlife: Wildlife has a number of dimensions such as land-based mammals and reptiles, flora,
birds, insects, fish, and marine mammals. Tourism can clearly be very harmful to wildlife through
the destruction of habitats, affecting feeding habits, disrupting breeding patterns, fires in
woodlands and people picking rare plants.
4. The Build Environment: We also need to recognize that, in term of tourism, there are several
dimensions to the built environment such as individual buildings and structures, villages and
townscapes, transport infrastructure, dams, and reservoirs.

59. ECONOMIC DIMENSION
In the debate over sustainable tourism, the economic dimension is often given
relatively scant attention compared to the environmental issues. Tourism is an
economic phenomenon because:
• It is a major industry and foreign currency earner.
• It is the basis of the growth of many transnational corporations.
• It accounts for a significant proportion of the annual disposable income.
Economic Benefits of Tourism: Tourism contributes to the economy of a country in
various ways. Economic benefits of tourism are following as:
• Job creation
• Injection of income into the local economy through the multiplier effect
• Helping keep the local business viable
• Infrastructure development
• Attracts the foreign direct investments.

60. ECONOMIC COSTS OF TOURISM
There are many economic benefits of tourism as well
as costs. Economic costs of the tourism are following
as:
•Many jobs are low paid and seasonal
•Opportunity costs
•Congestion
•The need to invest in expensive infrastructure which
may only be required for part of the year
•Over-dependence on tourism makes the host
economy vulnerable.

61. SOCIAL DIMENSION
The social dimension of tourism has been given less attention in the sustainable
tourism debates, than the environmental impacts of tourism. This is because the
socio-cultural impacts of tourism usually occur slowly over time in an
unspectacular fashion. They are also largely invisible and intangible. The social
impact of tourism is usually permanent with little or no opportunity to reverse the
changes once it has taken place. There are a number of factors that determine
whether or not the balance of socio-cultural impacts will be positive or negative
in a particular location including:
• The strength and coherence of the local society and culture
• The nature of tourism in the resort
• The level of economic and social development of the host population in
relation to the tourists
• The measures were taken by the public sector in the destination to manage
tourism in ways which minimize the socio-cultural costs of tourism.

62. THE BENEFITS OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
There are some great benefits of sustainable tourism you
should consider.
• It has a Lower Ecological Impact
• It Allows Wildlife to Stay Wild
• Sustainable Tourism Keeps the Environment Clean
• It Supports Local Communities
• It Allows Travelers to be More Conscious of Their Choices

63. HOW TO BE A SUSTAINABLE TOURIST
Its good and all to know what sustainable tourism is, but what us
travelers need is some actionable steps to take. Here are some things
to keep in mind when visiting a new destination:
• Buy from local businesses (think souvenirs)
• Minimize your trash (don’t leave anything behind)
• Don’t disturb the wildlife
• Respect traditions and culture
• Eat locally (not at chain restaurants)
• Don’t exploit animals
• Travel by sustainable forms of transport (or walk)
• Stay at locally owned accommodation