Sustainable Tourism Development in Qatar: Need for Planning and Analysis

This presentation discusses the need for planning and analysis for sustainable tourism development in Qatar. It covers the concept of sustainability in tourism, factors that may hinder sustainable tourism development, and the different stages in planning for sustainability. The presentation emphasizes the importance of interdependence of society, economy, and the natural environment in achieving sustainable tourism.

Sustainable Tourism
Development
Based on
Qatar

Qatar Tourism
In Qatar, major stakeholders are the developers,
travellers, government, operators, management,
shareholders, employees and private as well as public
sector.
Sustainable tourism planning can benefit Qatar in
economic, social and environmental perspective.
Many wonderful people of so many different nationalities
were part of life. Qataris are very friendly, respectful,
hospitable and generous in time, spirit and every way

Task 3
Understand the need for planning for sustainable tourism
P 3.1 Justifying the introduction of the concept of sustainability in tourism
development in Qatar
Sustainability tourism takes full account of recent and future social, economic and environmental
influences and it addresses the needs of the travellers, the desires of the tourism industry and the
environment along with host communities.
Edgell (2016) supported this by saying tourism industry is committed to creating a low impact on local
culture, environment while assisting to generate better future employment for the local people.
The positive side of tourism is to determine the development of positive experience for the common and
local people, travellers and tourism agencies along with hospitality sector.
All eyes now on Qatar at World Travel Market as Qatar have been taking the strategy of sustainable
tourism. UNWTO praised Qatar for taking right initiative on sustainable tourism development and Qatar

Brundtland Report (1987)
Brundtland Report (1987) stated about intergenerational equity as it is the
sum of all needs which are essential for economic growth and equity is
encouraged for the citizen participation (Sustainabletourism.net 2018).
This report identified the development of human resource through poverty
reduction, wealth redistribution, gender equality and environmental conservation.
In addition, this report provided mandate of strengthening international
cooperation on developing the environment and to propose a new form of
cooperation.
Sustainable development must meet the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs also (Sher
et al. 2015). Therefore, the concept of ‘needs’ is essential and this should be
given.

Triple Bottom Line concept
Triple Bottom Line is the framework that expands the concept of major three
performances of the sustainable organisation.
The triple bottom line comprises economic, social equity and environmental factors.
The triple bottom line can also be stated as ‘people, profit and planet' (Cheng and
Wu 2015).
While acquiring a profit is the clearest objective of maintaining a business,
numerous organisations are additionally grasping the objectives of dealing with
human resources and the planet.
Human resources (people) are the social value main concern. From a social
viewpoint, it's tied in with treating workers well and being dynamic in the community.
Organisations with the planet implies currently seeking after green strategies that

World Travel and Tourism Council
(WTTC)
Sustainable Development Goals set the direction
towards continuing the global sustained economic
growth. Sustainable consumption and production are
needed in tourism and it aims to improve the
organisations, especially transnational and large
organisations to adopt the sustainable practices and in
order to integrate the sustainability information (Hall
and Lew 2018).

P 3.2 Analysing factors that may hinder
sustainable tourism development in Qatar
The growth of tourism industry in Qatar slowed in
2015-16, it has been observing substantive growth
in the year 2017. Almost 4 million tourists visited in
2017 and it increases almost 4%.
Mainly terrorism and the factors of Muslim centric
areas are the reasons behind the fewer tourists'
attraction of Qatar.
However, some of the basic factors create a
hindrance for the sustainable tourism development.
Monthly arrival in Qatar

Contd…
Lack of awareness:
Many local communities are not aware of the
advantages of the sustainable tourism. Many of
the local communities exploit the natural
resources that could be a good help to increase
the tourism business. Sustainable tourism could
provide economic benefits to the society related
to the foreign exchange earnings.
Sustainable tourism could provide the good
government revenues and creation of
employment opportunity. Qatar can make
awareness among the local communities to
increase the profitability of keeping consideration
The infrastructure required:
Qatar has been making the strategic geographic
location by connecting the routes so that the
travellers could easily reach from one place to
another.
Qatar Government is trying to develop the policy
and infrastructural quality so that Qatar can position
itself in the world-class tourism destination (Page
and Connell 2016).
Qatar Tourism Authority ha
s started the cruise and ships. Qatar has allowed the

Contd…
Lack of coordination:
The stakeholders of the tourism industry need to
coordinate with the government bodies.
Lack of coordination among the government bodies
and the tourism stakeholders can create an issue.
The programmes and policies of sustainable
tourism can be ineffective if the coordination may
result in failure. Qatar Tourism Authority has made
a partnership with private organisations to meet
the objectives of sustainable tourism.
Low profit and high cost:
Qatar government has been facing the cost of
implementation of the sustainable
programmes as it involves a heavy cost.
The government may incur the heavy
expenditure. After that, Qatar Government
may impose a tax to return the expenses.
The increased burden of tax may lower the
numbers of tourists and it can create a high
cost for the stakeholders of tourism as well
(Swarbrooke 2017).

Contd…
Economic priority:
In most of the famous tourist spots, the common people and stakeholders of the tourism
mainly provide importance towards economic development. Therefore, they show less
significance towards the sustainability (Weaver 2016).
In case of the developing economy, their only aim is to gain economic priority.
Their main focus is to gain the large numbers of tourists and it can hinder the concept of
sustainable tourism.
Qatar offers a range of authentic experience including museum, public arts, galleries,
archaeological sites, towers and forts. These places need to focus on sustainability before
they interest the city tours itineraries.

P 3.3 Analysing different stages in planning for sustainability in reference
to Qatar
Objective:
It is the first stage towards sustainability and government authorities do planning and set the
objectives of sustainability at this stage. Purpose of ensuring the objective is to opt for
sustainable development. Qatar Tourism Authority sets the objectives of the sustainable tourism
through partnership with public and private stakeholders. QTA sets goal to achieve the diverse
tourism industry to attract the investment for the development of tourism industry in Qatar.
Sustainability principle is interdependence of society, economy and the natural environment
(Hall and Lew 2018). Citizenship is associated with the rights and responsibilities, participation.
Eco-efficiencies and risk reduction:
In this stage, the authority makes the policies and identifies the impact of the operation. The
authorities try to reduce costs by the process of eco-efficiencies. The actions are taken to
reduce energy, waste and through the process of development of green building practices.
Qatar Tourism Authority identifies the sustainability threats to climate impact chemicals and
labour issues.

Contd…
Competitive advantage:
The plan of the sustainability needs to work out in order to gain the competitive advantage. The tourism
stakeholders need to integrate the sustainability of the corporate strategy. They can use the
sustainability in order to inspire the performance development and new services or products. The
hospitality organisations and stakeholders of the tourism can collaborate with the suppliers in order to
make it sustainable. Tourism stakeholders can develop and produce sustainability report with metrics
(Harris et al. 2012).
Reinvention and regeneration:
By using the strategy of sustainability, it will be feasible to accomplish the plan and policy. The
stakeholders can reinvest in economic, environment and social capital. It helps to determine the unique
contribution to solve the issue. In this stage, QTA can identify the serious sustainable issue that could be
addressed through core-competencies.

Reference List
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Swarbrooke, J. 2017. Sustainable Tourism Management. Oxford: CABI Publishing.
Vanhove, N., 2017. The Economics of Tourism Destinations: Theory and Practice. Routledge.
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fact-checking/qatars-tourism-industry.html [Accessed 28 Apr. 2018].
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