Evolution of Sustainable and Responsible Tourism: A Study on the Role of UNWTO

Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
Evolution of Sustainable and responsible tourism.......................................................................3
Role, Functions and Mission of leading global organisation......................................................3
LO2..................................................................................................................................................3
Purpose and principle of tourist planning and development to minimise adverse effect on
tourism.........................................................................................................................................3
Process of tourism development and planning and challenges and problems associated with it 5
LO3..................................................................................................................................................7
Impact of tourism activity from economic, social, cultural and environmental perspective.......7
Principle of sustainability implemented by specific destination to meet stakeholder
requirement and expectation........................................................................................................8
LO4..................................................................................................................................................9
Development and management of sustainability in a range of tourist destinations worldwide. .9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Tourism can be defined as an act in which individual spends time away from home in
pursuit of recreational, relaxation and pleasure. This is also a commercial activity in which
commercial organisation operates holidays and visit places of their interest. Increasing tourism
activity has required that tourism become sustainable and responsible in order to avoid negative
impact of tourism to maximum possible level. Sustainable tourism can be defined as tourism
taking complete account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts,
addressing the needs of tourists, the industry, and environment and for host communities.
Responsible tourism is concerned with making better places for people to leave in and better
places to visit. This report will discuss about sustainable and responsible tourism and destination
management. Destination management is consists of coordinated management of all the elements
that make up a tourism destination. Organisation carry out all these activities and one such
organisation is UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism organsation).
LO1
Evolution of Sustainable and responsible tourism
Sustainable tourism covers several elements in it and these are related to current as well
as future economic, social and environmental impact of tourism and addressing the needs of host
country and tourist (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2018). The practices for sustainable tourism are in
evolution and as tourism has evolved these sustainability practices have also evolved. From the
year 1980 this concept has evolved to great extent. First call for responsibilities were made in
late 1980s, the call was made for suppliers of tourism and government. In this government were
required to play important role in sustainability of tourism in their country and destinations. In
this evolution first definition of the responsible tourism was developed the definition for
sustainable and responsible tourist was ‘all forms of tourism which respect to host natural, built
and cultural environments and interest of all parties concerned.’ This definition also generated
criticism in form of superficial and inadequate. In 1996 one national government embraced
responsible tourism and this generated concrete principle for responsible tourism. In 2002
responsible tourism manual was developed and along with this first conference on responsible

tourism was also held. This was followed by expanded definition of responsible and sustainable
tourism and principle guiding responsible tourism. This also born international centre of
responsible tourism. In mid 2000s guideline and code of conduct were developed for responsible
tourism, these are known as practical ways to make a difference, guideline for responsible tourist
and traveller and responsible travel handbook (He, He and Xu, 2018). This also gave rise to
practice in which responsible tourism becomes a marketing tool and profitability enhancer. This
was followed by practice that communities and tourist take part in ensuring and creating
responsible tourism.
Role, Functions and Mission of leading global organisation
UNWTO as an international organisation for tourist management plays several roles and
carry out functions in ensuring sustainable and responsible tourism. The roles and functions of
UNWTO are;
Educating tourist about responsible and sustainable tourism- This is the role of UNWTO
that it educate its tourist about their responsibilities towards people, environment and
sustainability of the host community they are visiting. Along with this, also provide tourist with
conservative resources for ensuring both responsibility of them and sustainability of tourism.
Protecting local economy- Local economy and community both are important for every tourist
destination in their sustainability. UNWTO requires to protect local economy and communities.
This is simple and possible by using local taxi, guides, eating at local restaurants and staying in
locally owned and staffed accommodation for tourists. This will ensure their responsibility for
local communities and they can contribute in sustaining local economy by keeping the profit to
the community.
Maximising social impact on customers- This means that visitors are educated about the
culture and values of the host countries and tour destination (Mathew and Thankachan, 2019).
This also gets maximised when they are educated about local culture and customs.
Mission of UNWTO
‘UNWTO experts leadership for successful tourism worldwide. It consensuates and
promotes framework for actions in tourism through its public private relationships’.