Sustainable and Responsible Tourism: Understanding the Difference

ONLINE EXAM

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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