Sustainable and Responsible Tourism: Understanding the Difference

This article discusses the difference between sustainable and responsible tourism and their impact on the environment and community. It explores the roles of organizations like WTO, WTTC, and GSTC in promoting sustainable tourism. The article also highlights the evolution of sustainable tourism and the increased awareness among industry actors.

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1. Sustainable and Responsible tourism both are considered as alternative kinds of
tourism which aims to minimize the negative effects of tourism on the environment and
the community but these can’t be used interchangeably. The main aim of sustainable
tourism is making positive social, economic and political impacts on the host destinations
while the responsible tourism helps in fostering the same. The sustainable tourism
depends on the action of the political leaders and the stakeholders who mainly focuses on
improving the industry by introducing stable employment, redistributing profit fairly,
alleviating poverty and implementing the measures of social protection (Jamal and
Camargo, 2018). This is not a one-time practice but a continued integration to the
tourism. Responsible tourism deals in the action of the individual actors and the ways in
which small businesses, visitors and residents make interaction with the destination.
When the person choose to travel responsibly and is eager to adhere to all the business
practices which are responsible then it helps in fostering the positive and responsible
interaction between the host destination and the tourist industry (Navarro, 2017). The
sustainable tourism focuses on making the best use of the environmental resources for
conserving the biodiversity and natural heritage and the responsible tourism is taking the
responsibility to make the tourism sustainable.
2. The major evolution which can be seen in the responsible and sustainable tourism is the
increased awareness and the sensitization of all the actors involved in it. This was
observed by the data which supports the responsibility by the tourism industry. In the
earlier times, sustainable tourism was considered as patchy, flawed and sometimes
disjointed. But there is a rapid advancement in the sustainable tourism industry by
applying the sustainable principles to the practice by making use of projects of the small
eco-tourisms. Many issues were raised like conserving the resources, costs distribution
among the stakeholders and many more. But then with the advancement, sustainable
tourism not only meets the needs of the tourists and the host destinations but also gives
various opportunities for the viable future (Amat-Montesinos, 2017). It now manages all
the resources in order to meet the needs economically, aesthetically and socially along
with maintaining the ecological processes, cultural integrity, life support systems and the
biological diversity. It mainly focuses on addressing the negative impacts of tourism and
maintains its long term viability. Development does not only deal with the growth but
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also the realization of the social and economical needs to be fulfilled, changing of the
quality, removing the existing product etc. Now, the sustainable tourism is able to meet
up all the issues which were raised in the earlier times.
3. WTO (World Tourism Organisation)
Role: The main role played by WTO is creating the intercultural awareness and personal
friendships, improving the international understanding and contributing peace in the
world, stimulating and developing the public private sector partnerships, focussing on the
destination development etc.
Function: Its functions include making the tourism smarter, more competitive, creating
more and more jobs, building resilience and promoting seamless and safe travel,
harnessing the unique potential of tourism (Kala and et.al., 2017).
Mission: The mission of WTO is to promote the sustainable, responsible and universally
accessible tourism by acknowledging the challenges which are faced by the tourism and
helps in identifying the ability of the sector to overcome them and drives positive change
which also includes the opportunities which are offered by responsible tourism.
WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council)
Role: The main role of WTTC is working to raise awareness of tourism and travel as one
of the largest industries, advocating the partnerships between the private and public
sectors and delivering the results which match the economic, regional and local needs.
Function: It sets the strategic priorities to identify the issues which restrict the
development of sector, generates the climate of understanding the significance of travel
and tourism (Shavkatovich, 2018).
Mission: Its mission is to devote to the higher knowledge pursuit in the field of tourism
and to disseminate to the diverse audience and maximizing the sustainable and inclusive
growth of the tourism sector.
GSTC (Global Sustainable Tourism Council):
Role: It ensures that the best practices of sustainable tourism are adapted and
implemented in the industry and for this it also delivers the training to the practitioners
and the managers.
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Function: It manages the criteria and the sustainable tourism and travel standards and
also provides the international accreditation of the certification bodies of sustainable
tourism (Bristow and Jenkins, 2018).
Mission: Its mission is to be the change agent in the sustainable tourism and travel world
by promoting the understanding, knowledge and demand for the practices of sustainable
tourism.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Amat-Montesinos, X., 2017. Landscape and heritage of the transhumance in Spain. Challenges
for a sustainable and responsible tourism.
Bristow, R.S. and Jenkins, I., 2018. Restaurant assessment of local food and the Global
Sustainable Tourism criteria. European Journal of Tourism Research, 18, pp.120-132.
Jamal, T. and Camargo, B.A., 2018. Tourism governance and policy: Whither justice?. Tourism
management perspectives. 25. pp.205-208.
Kala, N. and et.al., 2017. The world tourism organization for countering terrorist threats. JE Asia
& Int'l L.. 10. p.549.
Navarro, G., 2017. Sustainable and responsible tourism: analysis of the international normative
and conventional landscape under the criteria of ethics and social responsibility of
organizations (RSO). Estudios Turísticos, (211/212), pp.9-31.
Shavkatovich, R.S., 2018. The role of tourism industry in the world economy. Economics, (1
(33)).
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