Sustainable Tourism Development in Qatar: A Comprehensive Analysis

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SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
DEVELOPMENT
UNIT 7
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
CASE STUDY OVERVIEW......................................................................................................3
TASK 2 REPORT............................................................................................................................5
2.1 FEATURES OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT PLANNING AT DIFFERENT LEVELS
WITH REFERENCE TO THE QATAR.....................................................................................5
2.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERACTIVE PLANNING SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES IN
TOURISM DEVELOPMENT WITH REFERENCE TO QATAR............................................7
2.3 METHODS TO MEASURE TOURIST IMPACT WITH REFERENCE TO QATAR.......7
TASK 3 LEAFLET..........................................................................................................................9
3.1 THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABILITY IN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT WITH
REFERENCE QATAR................................................................................................................9
3.2 ANALYSING FACTORS THAT MAY PREVENT/HINDER SUSTAINABLE
TOURISM DEVELOPMENT WITH REFERENCE TO QATAR..........................................10
3.3 ANALYSING DIFFERENT STAGES IN PLANNING FOR SUSTAINABILITY WITH
REFERENCE QATAR..............................................................................................................11
TASK 4 ARTICLE........................................................................................................................13
4.1 EVALUATING METHODS OF RESOLVING A CONFLICT OF INTERESTS TO
ENSURE THE FUTURE WELLBEING OF A DEVELOPING TOURISM DESTINATION
SUCH AS QATAR....................................................................................................................13
4.2 ANALYSING THE IMPLICATIONS OF BALANCING SUPPLY AND DEMAND
WITH REFERENCE TO QATAR............................................................................................14
4.3 EVALUATING THE MORAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES OF ENCLAVE TOURISM IN
QATAR......................................................................................................................................15
TASK 5 REPORT..........................................................................................................................16
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5.1 - CURRENT ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN A
DEVELOPING COUNTRY AND AN EMERGING DESTINATION WHERE THE
IMPACTS OF TOURISM ARE DIFFERENT.........................................................................16
5.2 – EVALUATING WITH RECOMMENDATIONS, THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF
TOURISM IN THESE CHOSEN DESTINATIONS................................................................17
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19
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INTRODUCTION
Seeking a sustainable lifestyle, being environmentally sound, go green, embarking on eco-
tourism is what people call sustainable tourism. In most of the tourism discussions nowadays,
sustainability is one of the most common concepts on which people are working (Weaver, 2007
and 2011). Many of the travel agents and operators are working on their travel projects that
involve sustainable and those activities which can help in delivering a positive impact to the
communities which are travelled and visited. At the same time, the study by Sharpley (2009) has
described that the analytical framework or model of sustainability is quite broad since it involves
the environment, socio-cultural and even economic concepts. He also said that sustainable
tourism and its development is a primary agenda for nations, travel agents and other sectors of
the hospitality and tourism industry. So, with the aim to focus on this subject, this particular unit
aims at presenting and giving an understanding of the rationale for the diverse range of
approaches and practices in planning and development of the tourism, its sustainability and its
effects.
The study will help the learners to gain a deep insight about the concept and importance of
sustainable planning in tourism at different levels of markets; local, national as well as
international accordingly. The different stages within the planning process of tourism will be
identified with some theoretical models and case studies. The perceptions, philosophies and
principles will be introduced to show an in-depth understanding of the concerns, environmental
impacts, relationships within, carrying capacities, different initiatives etc. in the different
subsections of this assignment.
CASE STUDY OVERVIEW
Qatar a Middle Eastern popular tourism destination organising almost 80 sports events annually,
going to host 2019 World Athletics Championships, 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 FINA
World Swimming Championships has been the apple of eyes for global organizers and tourism
industry. The development of Qatar has been increased tremendously to facilitate the best
services to the people came to visit with the best hotels, food and beverage, locations etc. Qatar
National Vision 2030 is the plan to focus on the sustainable tourism activities and for the long
term development and economic diversification of the country (Akkawi, 2010). Qatar Tourism
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Authority (QTA) is working precisely on finding the best catalysts for sustainable tourism
development and even the UNWTO supported their idea, financially as well as in other aspects
of development. In past few years, the rate of the travellers who visit Qatar has been increased
and stats depict that in last year, there are more than 1.235 billion travellers to the country and
they are expecting 1.8 billion till 2030 with their sustainable planning initiatives. Hence, it can be
said that the QTA is planning for great development and sustainability with its partners and
people and all the stakeholders in future (UNESCO, 2019).
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TASK 2 REPORT
With the notion to develop sustainable tourism, the different approaches have to be determined
and practices in order to get the best possible results. In addition to this, since there are different
features that have to be involved at different levels of planning and hence analysing the features
of planning systems should be done with the methods and development measurement techniques.
In terms of Qatar, the development process is performed at all the levels of the markets; local,
national and international so that everyone can be satisfied with the high class and effective
hospitality services that visits them and is shown here.
2.1 FEATURES OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT PLANNING AT DIFFERENT
LEVELS WITH REFERENCE TO THE QATAR
According to the research by Giampiccoli and Mtapuri (2015), tourism development in the oil-
dependent countries is still infancy as it is a new sector to work. In terms of Qatar, tourism is a
new field but a growing sector which is absent before the last decade. According to The Qatar
Tourism Authority 2013 and the Tourism Statistics report, tourism is growing and with the
increase in economic growth, visitors, etc., there is a need to make some better plans with respect
to the demographics and levels. The present features of the tourism development plan are:
Local
In terms of local tourism in Qatar, has taken some solid steps in the quest to become a leading
and a popular tourist destination with signing an agreement with UNWTO to meet international
standards at local services. Qatar is trying to enhance the offerings in tourism with expanding the
levels, diversity, quality etc. Overall, Qatar is trying to lower the number of carbon footprints in
order to protect natural habitats, energy and water consumption (Henderson, 2014). This local
plan involves local products diversification (as shown in fig below) creative policy framework,
codes of conduct, assessment of environmental impacts, etc. for the regional growth of local
service providers. In addition to this, they have also improvised the desert safaris and camping,
guiding, event management, inbound and outbound activities etc.
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Figure 1: Framework of offerings exemplifying the level of tourist products diversification
in Qatar
Source: [Giampiccoli and Mtapuri, 2015]
National
According to the article on The Peninsula (2017), Qatar has introduced a diverse and new
strategic tourism development plan with its National Tourism Council for the next 5 years. It
involves the tourism blueprint of the country and outlined 6 geographic zones in the country and
is announced by H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, Prime Minister and
Minister of Interior, at the UNWTO’s official celebration of World Tourism Day. All the sectors
are focused rather, public, private or voluntary in the tourism sector and get the support of the
government schemes for their as well as the nation's growth. Qatar’s government is placing the
visitor’s experience at the heart of the tourism activities and will try to improvise on the
shortcomings. New governance will be elected for creating an efficient integration and
development in the sector to achieve greater results. This will also focus on expanding the
functions like product development, promotion of tourism in Qatar at the international stage etc.
with new policies. This current strategy also aims at increasing the share of tourism in GDP from
QAR 19.8 billion in 2016 to QAR 41.3 billion which is 3.8% of the GDP.
International
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Recently, Qatar's government has implemented strategic development plans for its tourism
industry with the deals and support from UNWTO and UNESCO (Sustainable Tourism, 2019).
In addition to this, the tourism development features at international level involve the facilities
like transportation, relationship management with the other nations, etc. Moreover, the role of
the Qatar tourism department is also enhanced with diverse level operations and decision making
for future sustainability.
2.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF INTERACTIVE PLANNING SYSTEMS AND
PROCESSES IN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT WITH REFERENCE TO QATAR
There are several types of planning approach discussed above. Interactive planning is one of
them which include effective participation of all the communities to take any decision on the
development plan. In terms of the Qatar country, the goal of interactive planning is to create a
better nation by involving the effective participation of all and it helps in creating good
infrastructure, facilities and system (Fletcher, et al. 2017). As per the case study of the
Philippines, The interactive planning played a better role by involving all the stakeholders in the
decision making. It also limits the negative impact of the tourist on destination places by
formulating various policies for them. Interactive planning between QTA and its all stakeholders
of the public and private sector will help in to make coordination, collaboration and participation
in all the decision making regarding sustainable tourism development (Sfandla and Björk, 2013).
2.3 METHODS TO MEASURE TOURIST IMPACT WITH REFERENCE TO
QATAR
The need for measuring tourism impact
It will enable local authorities of Qatar to measure the changing volume and value of
tourism locally on the accurate basis and also assess the positive and negative impact on
the tourist along with this policies are getting implemented or not could be determined
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Measurement techniques
 Commissioning visiting survey
 Occasional, ad hoc local surveys
 Disaggregating national data on volume and value into regional and local
estimates
Measurement using models
Economic model measure – it helps in estimating the volume and value of the tourism industry
including day visitors in a particular area. It also helps in knowing income generated and
employment supported
Cambridge economic impact model
It is an affordable method to calculate the values of tourism to local communities of Qatar. It
uses readily available data to generate statistics. It is popular with local authorities because it is a
cost-saving method
Steam model (The Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor)
It helps in monitoring the economic activity and provides a base of the local economic impact of
tourism for monitoring trends (Torres-Delgado and Palomeque, 2014)
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TASK 3 LEAFLET
3.1 THE CONCEPT OF
SUSTAINABILITY IN TOURISM
DEVELOPMENT WITH
REFERENCE QATAR
Sustainability concept in tourism
development reveals the sustainability of the
local culture and environment and also helps
in the development of the economy of Qatar.
It stresses the benefits of preserving cultural
and natural resources and creates awareness
among all the stakeholders (Mowforth and
Munt, 2015). It also emphasises on the
conversion of the resources to be available
for the future generation. Sustainability
tourism is economically viable and does not
destroy the resources of the environment
Sustainable development key moments
 Qatar National Vision 2030 was
launched in 2011 for sustaining long
term development of tourism
 QTA launched Qatar national
tourism sector strategy
 UNWTO and QTA organised world
tourism day in 2017 for sustainable
development
 QTA and its partners organizing
training programs for all the
stakeholders to create awareness of
the impact of the tourism
Sustainable tourism includes the following
things
 Ecotourism
 Nature tourism
 Rural tourism
 Adventure tourism
 Wildlife tourism
 High volume/ mass tourism
Sustainable tourism should make optimum
use of environmental resources that became
a key element in tourism development,
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maintaining essential ecological processes
and helping to conserve natural heritage and
biodiversity.it should also ensure long term
economic operation and that is providing
benefits to all the shareholders in the form of
stable employment, income-earning
opportunities and social services to host
communities, and contributing to poverty
alleviation. (UNWTO, 2004)
Sustainability in tourism depending upon
three principles these principles are
responsible for long term sustainable
tourism.
Ecological sustainability- for economic
sustainability there should green tourism,
and eco-tourism and the Establishment of
waste reduction programs by QTO
(Mowforth and Munt, 2015).
Cultural sustainability- for cultural
sustainability focus should be given on
education and treat cultural differences with
acceptance
Economic sustainability- this can be
achieved through increasing income rate and
increasing employment
3.2 ANALYSING FACTORS THAT
MAY PREVENT/HINDER
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
DEVELOPMENT WITH
REFERENCE TO QATAR
There are many destinations and different
traveller are there around the world and their
experiences are different due to this reason
there are many factors which affects
sustainable development like ecological
factors that include
 Marine dumping wastage of cruise ship
 Only little public information available
on the environment
 Social impact of long distance travel
 Soil quality into the various sector and
degradation of the local water (Page and
Connell, 2006)
 High attitude emissions from long
distance air travel
 Lack of amenities
Cultural factors - there are many cultural
factors which are related to the lifestyles,
norms and traditions of the Qatar country
and that effects on tourism development
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 The different cultural background may
become a barrier between tourist and
local community
 Decrease in public morale and
increasing the rate of crime and
violence in society
 Cultural properties are getting
physically damaged (Sharpley, 2009)
 Safety of tourist s another important
factor that affects tourism development
Economic factors- these factors are related
to the economy of the Qatar country and
directly impacts on tourism development
(Ritzema, nd.)
 Increase in cost of tourism
 Economic dependence of the local
community on tourism
 Economic crises like the impact of other
industries on tourism
 The changes in local climate condition
 Analyze different stages in planning for
sustainability
3.3 ANALYSING DIFFERENT
STAGES IN PLANNING FOR
SUSTAINABILITY WITH
REFERENCE QATAR
To maintain sustainability in tourism sector
not only coordination or communication
required but it also requires a proper balance
between three dimensions social, economic
and environmental those challenges and
issues which occurs from this dimensions
affects planning and decision making of
tourism development. By effective
sustainability planning, the QTO can reduce
the impact of these issues and challenges
and also protects a system from future
challenges (Heitmann, 2010). The planning
process is comprised of the following steps
Define the goals and objectives
This step includes the objectives of the
tourism development this could be standard
of living, employment levels, and
opportunities for intellectual growth,
enhancement of investment in an area or
Qatar country.
Identify the tourism system
These include a survey on a cultural and
social pattern such as the settlement patterns
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