Journal: Environmental Management and Sustainable Development, TOU320

This journal, a student's reflection on the TOU320 course, delves into environmental management and sustainable development within the tourism sector. It begins by establishing the importance of sustainability, referencing the Brundtland Report and the Triple Bottom Line of Business. The journal then explores the evolution of sustainable tourism, key indicators, and practical applications, including a trip to Tokyo. Week-by-week, the journal covers topics such as sustainable tourism, sustainability indicators, tools, and techniques, including direct and indirect management practices for protected areas and sustainable infrastructure development. The journal highlights the importance of balancing economic growth with environmental and social responsibility, focusing on the impact of tourism on local communities and the environment, emphasizing practical examples and real-world applications to foster a deeper understanding of the subject.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Environmental Management and Sustainable Development
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
Picture 1
Source: (Edgell Sr, 2016)
The World Commission on Environment and Development published by The United
Nations in 1987 noted that sustainable development should focus to meet the needs of the present
without compromising the needs of future generation.TOU320, what can be expected by me
from this subject? Sustainability is a common word now-a-days and business organizations and
industries seem to focus on the subject and include sustainability factors even while publishing
their annual reports. Business organizations and eminent business leaders across the globe talk a
lot about the Triple Bottom Line of Business- People, Profit and Planet. But I would like to
contemplate on the steps and methods of sustainability that are implemented in practice by
business organizations. In practice, do the business organizations really focus on creating long-
term value for stakeholders or they only focus on creating profit for shareholders? Are the young

2ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
generation really aware about the three pillars of sustainability- Social Responsibility, Economic
factors and Environmental protection? I attend the class of sustainability to increase my
knowledge about the subject. The lectures of each week of TOU320 not only increase my
theoretical knowledge related to sustainability, but also helps me gain practical insights on the
subject which I can implement in practice as a socially responsible citizen. The following pages
of my journal will reflect my week-by-week journey of learning about the subject. I welcome
you to join me through my journey of TOU320.

3ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
WEEK 1
Introduction to Sustainable Tourism
Picture 2
Source: (Edgell Sr, 2016)
From the lecture of this week, I learnt that from the details of international tourism
expenditure of the year 2015, China, USA, Germany, UK and France were the top countries
which spent maximum amount of money on tourism. China has spent $292 billion and USA has

4ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
spent $120 billion on tourism( Sharpley, 2015). The tourism sector evolved in the year 1970
with economic development and growth. In the 1980’s several environmental regulations were
imposed in the tourism sector. The social impacts of tourism were studied in 1990s and in the
year 2000, all these elements were managed to foster sustainability in the tourism sector. From
the lectures of this week, I was informed that sustainability in the tourism sector gained
momentum from the Brundtland Report of 1987, from the 1992 Earth Summit of Rio de Janerio,
from the Agenda 21 of 1995 and from WTO’s Making Tourism More Sustainable movement of
2005. In the year 1991, Innskeep concept of Sustainable Tourism was developed. This concept
fostered appropriate levels of vistor’s flow and equity in development. The management of
resources like natural habitats, history, culture, social interactions, and heritage are of paramount
importance to foster sustainability in tourism. Edgell suggested that sustainability in the tourism
sector should preserve culture, heritage and history of the local community. I learnt about
UNWTO and UNEP’s report on sustainable tourism in this week of lecture. Sustainable tourism
must cater to the needs of the environment, the visitors, the host community and the industry
(Briassoulis & Van der Straaten, 2013).The tourism industry is impacted by factors like global
warming and climate change. The weather conditions of the host country determine at the time
of the year when tourists will visit the host county and the length of stay of visitors and number
of visitors are also impacted by weather conditions. The transportation and accommodation of
tourists in the host country lead to the emission of greenhouse gases and adversely affect
tourism. Sustainability practices like the carrying capacity of the destination, the sustainable
economic growth, protection of environment and preservation of culture of the host country play
a vital role in fostering the long-term development of the tourism sector. Sustainable tourism can
be promoted by adopting business choices which will prevent damage and by rewarding good

5ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
management (Buckley, 2012). The development of tourism in a destination can be competitive
when tourism is sustainable not only ecologically and economically but culturally and politically.
In this week of lecture, I learn about Gapapagos Islands. The carrying capacity of these islands
was limited and thus restriction on number of visitors was imposed to conserve natural resources.
But the economy of Ecudaor was depressed and thus tourism was promoted beyond carrying
capacity of the region. This was the cause of environmental stress, fragile ecosystem and
endangered species. Thus, a balanced approach should be adopted towards sustainable tourism
(Sharpley, 2015).

6ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Week 2
Sustainability Indicators
From our reading of this week, I can contemplate that like all other sectors of industry,
tourism is also a sector that should contribute substantially towards sustainability. The presence
of tourists in the host country should not pose threat to the socio-cultural or natural environment
of the communities of the host country. Tourism should benefit the local communities and
environment of the host country. Tourism should boost the members of the host country
culturally and economically. However in many developing countries across the globe, the
models of tourism focus only on profitability and neglect the sustainability factors. In our
reading of this week, we had the opportunity to learn about indicators which are instruments that
are of paramount importance for planning, management and monitoring of the tourism sector
and to provide accurate information for decision making. These technical guidelines and manuals
are published by UNWTO’s Sustainable Development of Tourism Department to help tourist
destinations focus on sustainability factors. I have learnt from the lecture of this week that
sustainability indicators which emerged after the Rio Summit of 1992 help in risk management
in the tourism sector. Good indicators are essential for monitoring systems and illustrate the
changes related to policies and regulation and provide timely information to cope with the risks
associated with tourism development. Good indicators are generally volumetric and economic,
for instance, tourist arrival, tourism revenue and expenditure, overnight spent, accommodation
and capacities (Lozano-Oyola et al., 2012). Good indicators like information about tourist
arrival in peak season can help managers to develop sustainable tourism. In class we watched

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videos related to the Future of Tourism. In this video, we got to know how G Adventures adopts
policies that benefit the population of the host country and how the organization achieves social,
economical and ecological sustainability which help to increase customer base of the
organization. In this week I also got an opportunity to learn about indicators at different level
like national level, regional level, tourism groups and individual tourism business. I also got an
opportunity to learn about types of indicators like early warning indicators, current state of the
industry and management efforts, results and performance. We were also taught about
quantitative and qualitative indicators. Quantitative indicators are raw data like visitors numbers
per site, ratios like tourist: local and percentages like percentage change in visitors’ arrival.
Qualitative indicators are Category indices, normative indicators Nominal indicators (Yes/No
Indicators); Opinion based indicators (visitor satisfaction/local resident’s feelings towards
tourism). The indicators address socio-cultural issues of sustainability like attitudes of the host
community, awareness and involvement of community members, healthy, contingency planning,
and foot safety of tourists (Ngamsomsuke, Hwang & Huang, 2011). Tourism has various
economic benefits like it contributes to the economy of the host country by generating foreign
exchanges, tourism generates employment opportunities, leads to development of infrastructure
in host country and creates value for both tourists and host community. In class, we have
watched a video about the importance of tourism to the economy of New Mexico. From this
video, it can be contemplated that in Mexico, without tourism the unemployment rate would be
17% which is at present 7 %. The spending of 32 million visitors is $5.5 billion.
Tourism often leads to damage of the environment of the host country. I can contemplate
that the tourists are not educated about the culture of the host country; neither do they have
enough knowledge about the environment of the host country. Thus tourism sector must focus on

8ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
planning of energy management, waste management, sewage treatment, reducing pollution and
noise and preserving critical ecosystems and fragile sites which are endangered because popular
tourist destinations are overcrowded by tourists.
Figure: The European Tourism Indicator System
Source: (Goeldner & Ritchie, 2012)
The European Tourism Indicator System that was shown in class is very useful for
implementing sustainability factors while developing the tourism sector in Europe. Core

9ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
indicators can focus on destination management, create economic value and has social and
cultural impact. Supplementary indicators can focus on maritime and coastal tourism like
development of water quality, beaches, passengers and ports (Tanguay, Rajaonson & Therrien,
2013). Supplementary indicators should also focus on sustainable tourism policy like the
percentage of tourist destination with accessible tourism strategy should be determined, equality
and accessibility should be measured like the percentage of business that have a budget for
accessibility improvement should be assessed, transport impact should be reduced like there
should be availability of public transport.Resident survey, destination management survey and
enterprise survey play a pivotal role to provide information about transnational cultural routes.
Indicators should be concerned for environments of tourist destination and A Management
Response System can be used to improve the sustainability factors of the tourist destination
(Cohen et al., 2014).
Trip to Tokyo
In this week, we visited Tokyo which is a wonderful tourist destination. This place is
crowded and there is scarcity of land but the place is clean and truly cared by both locals and
tourists. There are recycle bins available in parks, public places and subway stations and tourists
can use these bins to deposit wastes. I learnt that as a visitor in Tokyo, I can foster sustainable
tourism by using public transportation like taxi. In department stores of Tokyo, I have noticed
that two levels of packaging is used, all items are wrapped and then placed in shopping bags. I
refused this extra level of packaging to promote sustainable tourism. The restaurants, museums,
parks and markets of Tokyo attract several tourists. The modern architectures, the Buddhist
temples and statues of robots really fascinated me.

10ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Picture 3
Source: (Edgell Sr, 2016)
My visit to Tokyo has made me practically aware of the sustainability factors of tourism that
every tourist should care for. I have learnt to respect the values of the host community that is the
residents of Tokyo from this trip. I have learnt to respect the culture and values of the host
community from my trip to Tokyo.

11ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Week 3
Tools & Techniques of Sustainability
In week 3 of TOU 320, we learnt about the tools and techniques of sustainability. We
learnt about protected areas of the tourism sector. Legal components are included in UNWTO &
UNEP for sustainable tourism in protected areas. I got a chance to contemplate on the visitors
management strategy which focuses on balancing the supply and demand, visitor behaviour
should be modified to there should be resistance while accessing parks and protected areas. In
this week, we got an opportunity to learn about direct management practices which emphasizes
on regulation of behaviour and has high degree of control. Some examples of direct management
practices were provided in the class. These practices are imposing fines, increasing surveillance
area, restriction to use of protected zone overtime, limiting usage via access point, Limiting size
of group and length of stay in protected are. In the lecture of this week, we got a chance to learn
about indirect management practices which emphasize on influencing and modifying behaviour
of tourists and control activities of management is not strong. The examples of indirect
management practices are advertising specific attributes of the area, advertising underused areas,
educating users of basic concepts of ecology, charging consistent entrance fees from users,
charging differential fees from users by trial, zone (Edgell Sr, 2016).
We also learnt about site design and sustainable infrastructure development. There are
certain factors which should be considered while developing a new tourism service site, some of
these factor are natural hazards, transportation access for staff and tourists, traditional activities,
climate, slope, energy and utilities .access to natural and cultural features, to relevant goods and