Critical Analysis of a Case Study of Sustainable Tourism Development

This case study critically analyzes the Community Benefit Tourism Initiative (CBTI) model within the context of sustainable tourism development, focusing on a case study in Manali, India. The analysis identifies both positive and negative impacts of tourism on community well-being capitals, including financial, social, and human capital. It examines factors such as economic development, cultural integration, and job creation, while also addressing challenges like congestion and skill gaps. The study explores the links between tourism activities and their effects on destination community well-being. The analysis also considers factors, conditions, and processes contributing to these impacts, drawing on relevant academic literature. It proposes short-term policy recommendations for destination managers to improve the sustainability of tourism activities, emphasizing the role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and coordination between various stakeholders. The study highlights the importance of local involvement, cultural preservation, and strategic planning to optimize the benefits of tourism while mitigating its negative effects.

Running head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A CASE STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A CASE STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A CASE STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
1. Identification of the Impacts
This section analyses the case study of the tourism activity and provide a list of the positive and
negative impacts that it is having on each of the destination community well-being capitals that
have been defined and described in class and in the required weekly readings. The links between the
impacts and the relevant well-being capital are clearly and explicitly presented in this context. This
section gives an overview of the key findings in the case.
The authors hence presents an alternative model for sustainable tourism development that considers
economic, social and environmental aspects for enhancing community benefits which is often not
considered in commercial and industrial tourism development. In this context the key impact of the
Community Benefit Tourism Initiative (CBTI) model has been identified and summarized in the
following table:
Table 1: The Community Benefit Tourism Initiative (CBTI) Positive and Negative Impacts
on Community Well-being Capitals
Type of Capital
(keywords from Batta,
2014, definitions)
Positive Impacts
(mentioned in the case
study)
Negative Impacts
(listed in the other
literature)
Financial Capital
(income, jobs, revenue for
businesses, taxes,
investment)
Provide revenue to local
hotel enterprises
Costs of managing hotel
business specially for the
SMES outweigh the benefits
Social Capital
(cultural, bonds between
community members)
Social engagement and
cultural integration due to
tourism builds intra-
community networks and
provides opportunity to
showcase and promote local
cultural values and cultural
importance
Crowding and congestion
due to tourism affects health
of the locals
Human Capital
(productivity)
Increase productivity and
provide income opportunity
Lack of skill and proper
development opportunity
often leads to lack of
employment for the local

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A CASE STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
community
Table 1 summarises the overview of the case study that represents the positive as well as negative
impacts that these authors have described related to different capitals which consist of community
well-being. Decisions about a particular capital and how the different impacts were linked with the
definitions associated with the different capitals are properly analysed in Batta (2014). These
definitions are properly summarised into some key words to form a clear overview about those
definitions, and these definitions are described with reference to the target capitals in Table 1. The
emphasis of the case study which is reviewed here is to demonstrate the positive aspects of the new
CBTI model of sustainable tourism and hence it only describes positive impacts. However it should
be noted that in order to set the context the authors have described drawbacks of tourism
development with reference to the sustainable economic, social and environmental development.
The second column includes potential negative impacts described by Mihalic (2016) against those
positive impacts that the authors of the case study have described in this context.

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A CASE STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
2. Analysis of the factors and processes that contribute to these impacts
This section explains the factors, conditions and processes that are credited with contributing to
both the positive and negative impacts as identified by the authors and described in the previous
section. The use of diagrams is considered as well in this section for in-depth and enhanced
explanation. Explanations are based on the relevant academic literature including refereed journals
and edited academic research books considered in this context. This section provides an
explanation of why and how the identified impacts are occurring.
Critical Analysis of the Case Study of Tourism and Destination Sustainability, along with review of
the available literature on how tourism can and does contribute to destination community wellbeing
describes various aspects that connect tourism activities to positive and negative impacts on
destination community wellbeing. It builds on the concepts and readings presented in class in weeks
1 through 4, and critical analysis and synthesis of additional relevant published materials.
The cased study clearly describes that tourism and the destination sustainability has integrated
relationship and there are various positive as well as negative impact that tourism has on the
destination sustainability. Tourism promotes economic development, cultural diversity, and social
integration. However there are some diverse aspect as well which has negative impact on the
community as well (Weaver & Jin, 2016). It affects the local community as development of tourism
industry is responsible for the degradation of the environmental resources, commercialization of
landscape, and congestion which is why economic development of the tourism industry is less
sustainable (Din, 2018).
The case study selected in this context provide an improved as well as a completely new approach
for tourism development that is focused on sustainable development. The authors in this case study
through the CBTI model has suggested increased community involvement, promotion of local
resources in the tourism event with protection of the natural resources, increase of coordination
between the local enterprises serving in the tourism industry and the government, skill and
development opportunity for the locals for increase in employment for developing an enhanced and
sustainable tourism industry in Manali, a popular tourism destination in the Himachal Pradesh. All
of these factors are closely related to the factors that are described in the lecture provided in the
week (Moscardo, 2019a) and contributes to the complexity of the sustainable tourism development.
These factors are dominance of external agents, limited local leadership, limited local involvement,
poor or no planning and a lack of awareness of negative impacts which needs proper analysis and
strategic planning for optimizing the context for tourism activities especially when sustainable
aspects are taken into consideration. The authors in the case study has discussed about various

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A CASE STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
strategy that needs to be implemented if local control and engagement need strategic improvement.
Involvement of the locals is extremely important when community benefits are considered, not just
in tourism industry, but for other industries as well.
The first positive impact that is mentioned by the authors is the economic development due to
tourism. According to the authors as described in the case study, as tourism industry grows, it
provides economic development and economic benefits. This is because it provides opportunity for
the locals to provide service to the tourists and earn against that service. However, this do not mean
that the development is accessible to all, especially in the local community (Boley, McGehee &
Hammett, 2017). In this context Batta (2016) has described some key issues as well which are
discussed here:
 Most of the tourist visits here are budget tourists and often comes for short trips
 All the grocery items, packed edibles, milk and poultry products, linen, and raw food stuff
are produced the neighbouring states and imported here, while only some vegetables and
milk, that too in a limited quantity is produced locally. Around 80 percent of the
expenditures done by the hotel units, especially the small and medium units, is not part of
the local economy and this is why the economic benefit is not accessible to the locals which
is of major importance in sustainable tourism development.
 only 63 percent of hotels which are in the small size category and 34 percent of hotels which
are in the medium hotels category belongs to the local people which again signifies that the
local economic development opportunity is less
However, according to Carr, Ruhanen, & Whitford (2016), economic development through the
sustainable tourism is possible if following strategies are considered:
 Development of local hotels. Although opportunity should be provided to the investors
outside locality, interest of the local owners should be established and should be prioritized
as well. It will maintain economic balance and enhance community development through
enriched economic structure.
 Promote local goods and locally sourced items which will enrich local economic strength
 Economic assistance to promote tourism through improved infrastructure and improved
resource management
 Development of the coordination board to facilitate coordination between the government
and the business enterprises with increased transparency

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A CASE STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
The second positive impact as mentioned by the author is the improvement of social capital through
cultural integration. Tourism allows different people from different cultural background to come
together and share cultural insights that promote cultural harmony and cultural integration.
However, sometimes lack of proper initiatives and strategic planning often affect this integration
(Budeanu et al., 2016). When, local cultural values are not properly promoted, it does not ensure
cultural integration (Farmaki et al., 2015).
The authors, in the case study has also shown that in Manali, although high numbers of tourists
comes for visit, there are no dedicated cultural programs or theatres for organizing cultural events
for the tourists. The authors also mentioned that Manali has a reach cultural heritage and hence have
a diverse cultural resource, however, as these resources are not properly managed, it lacks the
cultural development, another important aspect of the sustainable tourism development.
Although tourism promotes cultural integration, it leads to congestion and exploitation of the social
resources (Dodds, Ali, & Galaski, 2018). Hence this affects the positive impact of the tourism on
cultural capital. However, it is possible to minimize the negative impacts and increase positive
impact that the tourism has on the social capital through proper strategy (Li, & Hunter, 2015). This
includes:
 Promotion of local culture through the community exclusive festivals and programs and
form proper cultural association to promote cultural value through the tourism development
 Proper logistics and transportation facility through government projects and also promote
projects through the public private relationship so that traffic congestion does not affect
social life and enhance social capital as well
 Provide extensive attention to the quality of the social life and natural resources that is
integrated with the social life in the community
When a place attracts tourist, it is important to note that congestion and traffic issues are often
observed and if it is not properly addressed, it might lead to damage of natural resources, especially
in nature based tourist destination (Mgonja et al., 2015). The same concern has been raised by the
authors in the case study for Manali, a nature based tourist destination.
Another positive impact that the authors have cited for the tourism is that it creates job opportunity
for the locals and thus contributes to the development of the human capital which plays an
important role in the sustainable development. However, it is often seen that, especially in the
developing country, even though there is need for employers, but due to lack of skills there is less

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employment which affects the process of the human capital development (Trudeau Poskas, &
Messer, 2015). However according to Giampiccali & Saayman (2015), some proper planning is
required in this context to improve this process:
 Provide opportunity for the skill development through skill development initiatives and
provide job opportunities to local people in the community
 Human resource development board needs to be established to promote skill sharing and
skill transfer to create stable job market through tourism
3. Suggested policies for improving the sustainability of this specific tourist activity in this
specific location in the short term
This section provides some detailed suggested policy options that destination managers could use to
improve the sustainability of this case study tourism activity in the short term. These suggestions
provided are specific to the case study tourism activity and destination, and explicitly linked to the
suggested policy instruments covered in class and supported by relevant academic literature. This
sections seeks to provide some immediate actions to improve the sustainability of this tourism
activity in the case study destination.
Small and medium enterprises or the SMEs play an important role in the development of the
tourism industry. As there is a need of providing quality services to the tourists, this presents an
opportunity for the SMEs to participate in this business (Alonso-Almeida et al., 2018). Although the
number of the SMEs are increasing, there is no proper coordination between these enterprises and
hence lot of these SMEs are executing their business in isolation (Medina-Muñoz et al., 2018). Due
to this service quality at these destinations not so proper and one of the reason for this is the lack of
resources such as water, sewage treatment facilities, solid waste management, parking, and roads
due to increased demand for these resources (Alhowaish, 2016). The model presented by the
authors provides way to improve this issue with proper planning and strategic development.
Table 2: Policy Instruments to Enhance the Sustainability of the tourism program
Action Required Policy Instrument Details Type of Policy
Instrument using
Dredge and
Jenkins/Week 3
lecture schemes
Increase Revenue: A marketing/promotion Government action –

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A CASE STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
Increase tourism facilities
Increase the number of locally
owned hotels
Protect and promote locally
produced goods for increased sales
and revenue
campaign to attract tourists
from various part of the
world. This should include
promotions of famous
tourists spots and various
interesting activities that
the tourist place is to offer
Tax incentives especially
designed for the tourism
business to provide
support for the event
Certification scheme
designed for local goods
marketing
Money – tax relief
Law –
regulation/certification
Support from the Local
Association to expand the tourism
program:
Dedicated administrative support
for acquiring resources such as
financial support to the small and
medium enterprises
Setup of cultural board and cultural
theatres to promote cultural values
which is heritage of the host
destination
More resources to support activities
such as proper infrastructure
development and smart transport
planning to avoid congestion and
pollution
Provide a paid
administrative support
office
Provide a grant for
resources
Government action –
coordination
Money – direct
expenditure
job opportunity is provided to the
locals
Setup of skill development
association for increasing
Law - Regulations

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A CASE STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
skill of the locals so that
there is less skill gap
4. An overview of lessons learnt for this case study for other tourism destinations
This section provides a set of policy and planning guidelines for tourism destinations that can
improve the sustainability of this type of tourism in general. Here the main factors linking the case
study tourism activity to destination community well-being is discussed.
Some key lesson are identified after reviewing of the case study which are applicable to other
tourism destination where sustainable tourism initiative needs to be taken while following the
concept of community well-being. Tourism industry has a huge opportunity in terms of community
development through the integration of the economic, social and environmental development.
However these needs to be noted that this process is a complex process and needs proper planning
as well. Hence strategic improvement is required.
One important consideration here is that economic development in sustainable context is not only
concerned about cash inflow, it is also related with the concept of the community access to the
economy and how much of these money is retained in the local market and dedicated to the local
development (Pulido-Fernández et al., 2015). In order to ensure that some strategies are required
such as development of local hotels, production and marketing of local goods, economic assistance
for promoting tourism and increased coordination for increasing economic revenue.
In order to ensure proper cultural and environmental, development and enhancement of the social
capital through the social development is required (Batta, 2016). In order to develop human capital
and enhance it through tourism for enhancing sustainability aspect, training should be provided to
the local people so that they develop skills required for the employment and this will enhance
human capital that is required for the sustainable development of the tourism.

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A CASE STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
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