Sustainable and Responsible Tourism Management Report - Soca Valley

This report provides an in-depth analysis of sustainable and responsible tourism management, focusing on the Soca Valley region in Slovenia. It begins by defining the concepts of sustainable and responsible tourism, highlighting their evolution and interconnectedness. The report then examines the roles and functions of global organizations like UNWTO and ABTA in promoting sustainable tourism practices. It identifies challenges and problems associated with tourism development, such as lack of funding and resistance from local residents, and discusses the purpose and principles of tourism development aimed at minimizing adverse effects. Furthermore, it assesses the economic, social, cultural, and environmental impacts of tourism, emphasizing the importance of stakeholder requirements. Finally, the report explores the development of sustainability in various destinations and concludes with recommendations for promoting responsible tourism practices in Soca Valley and similar locations.

SUSTAINABLE AND
RESPONSIBLE TOURISM
MANAGEMENT

Executive Summary
Tourism manage is the management approach in which management of international
tourism is done in such a way that tourist experience can be improved. Evaluation of purpose and
principles of tourism development planning has been done in this report. With that evaluation of
sustanibility tourism development has also been done in this report and steps taken to reduce
impact upon environment has also be done in the report.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................5
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................5
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................5
Concept of sustainable and responsible tourism evolved............................................................5
Role, function and mission of global organizations which are involved in the promotion of
sustainable tourism.......................................................................................................................6
LO2..................................................................................................................................................8
Challenges and problem associated with the tourism development............................................8
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................9
Purpose and principle of tourism development and reduce adverse effects of tourism...............9
Impact of tourism on economy, social, culture and environment..............................................10
Substantiality implemented on stakeholders requirements in tourism business........................11
LO4................................................................................................................................................12
Developments of sustainability in various destinations. ...........................................................12
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Tourist management is the field of management which consist of managing tourism
activities within the hospitality and travel industry through which it tend to achieve high level of
customer satisfaction. Soca Valley, Slovenia is the chosen location for the analysis in this report.
Soca is a 138 kilo-meter long river which flows from Slovenia and north-eastern Italy.
Evaluation of roles and function of global business organizations responsible for tourism is done
in this report. With that evaluation of purpose and principles for the tourism development and
developing planning for minimizing the adverse impact of tourism is also done in the report.
Analysis of adverse impact of tourism on the local market and lifestyle is also evaluated in the
report.
MAIN BODY
LO 1
Concept of sustainable and responsible tourism evolved.
Sustainability has emerged and considered important when doing tourism planning and
development. The demand for sustainable tourism is increasing with the passing time. Since
1980 there is increment in the global tourism which has impact on the tourism system (Camilleri,
2018). There are negative impact also which initiate the need for guide and also at many places
limit the tourism. Now the focus has shifted towards environmental concerns and global
inequalities and in the starting of 1990 the idea of sustainability has evolved a lot in the tourism
development. Now people are aware about environment and also towards responsible tourism.
Now the tourism sustainability has linked with the ethical consumption whose objective is to
decrease the global poverty.
So the tourism industry has taken responsibility on the impact tourism is causing at global and
local level. Responsible tourism means tourism practice should develop in such a manner which
make the place good to visit and live. The concept of sustainable tourism and responsible tourism
go hand in hand as it cannot be separated. To manage tourism is the responsibility of society,

government, industry, agencies etc. sustainable tourism help locals to increase their living
standards and also cause no harm to the nature as it is said that the unique quality of place should
remain same within generations. Responsible tourism is different with different individual, if
refers that in what manner visitor interact with destination. When one choose to travel with
responsibility then there is automatically positive interaction between tourist industry and
destination.
Soca valley, Slovenia wants to encourage positive tourism, so they are supporting sustainable
tourism and development. The destination is devoted themselves to handle the issue related to
sustainability and systematically solved it (Shen, Sotiriadis and Zhou, 2020). Slovenia is the
green land which is attracting large tourism and which is helping the destination in increasing
revenue in tourism sector. Tour guides are trained regarding sustainable and responsible tourism
with the aim encourage practice of responsible tourism. The development in Slovenia is based on
their past experiences, they had made development by considering nature and also focus on
attaining competitive advantage. Now they are promoting the strategy which they had given
name as global green boutique destination. The government are spreading awareness about
sustainability in tourism sector and why it is important.
Role, function and mission of global organizations which are involved in the promotion of
sustainable tourism.
UNWTO:
Mission:
Tourism taking account of current and future impact related to economic, environmental
and social also identifying the needs of visitors, industry and host communities.
Role:
This global organization in into forming sustainable management practice which can be applied
in every form of tourism and destinations and type can be niche tourism or mass tourism. They
believe in complete use of environmental resources which can be helpful in the tourism
development. Under this the ecology is maintained and also focus on conserving nature and
biodiversity (SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT., 2021). Respect for culture of host communities
and not hurting their traditional or cultural values. They also focus on providing benefits to the
stakeholders also providing earning source through tourism to the host communities.
Functions:

UNWTO is promoting tourism development which is helpful in conserving the biodiversity and
can give security to the host countries. They have also taken initiative regarding global tourism
plastic as the issue relating to plastic in tourism is increasing and it cannot be solved by one
organization, so changes have to be made on world level. The organization has also come up
with the hotel energy solution project, which will help in saving energy and promoting
renewable energy. UNWTO organize programme for sustainable tourism under which the
members will be given knowledge to reduce risk related to tourism.
ABTA:
Mission:
The mission of this organization is to set the respond on the sustainability of travel and
tourism. Its aim is to help the travel industry to manage the sustainable tourism.
Role:
Their main role is protecting the environment and increase the well-being of host countries and
also provide good holiday experience to the visitors (Rasdi and et.al., 2019). As holidays had
become important part of the life this global organization focus on getting special holiday feel
and organization also know that holiday can also affect negative if not taken care about
environment by the tourist, so by taking sustainable practice can reduce the negative effects of
tourism.
Functions:
The major function of this global organization is to provide necessary information to the public
through website which can be related to travel advice, taking protection when doing booking for
vacation etc. it also gives option that one can make complaint regarding travel agents or
operators.
LO2
This is important for increasing the revenue generation but also at the same time tourism has
significant impact upon the surroundings because of which it is necessary to make concentrated
approach for the improvement of the adverse effects of tourism (Chili and Ngxongo, 2017).
Following are the adverse impacts of the tourism.
Additional stress on the streets is a common adverse effect of the tourism and because of which
problems like increased traffic on the local street can be seen. With that one of the main impact

of tourism is overutilization of resources, this increment in resource consumption will generate
addition stress on the resource development and also lead to storage of large amount of
resources.
Challenges and problem associated with the tourism development
Tourism is one of the highly profitable business sector because the travelling of people
between different places generates revenue because of the expenditures made by them and thus
several actions are being taken so that large amount of tourists can be attracted through which
high revenue can be generated. However this is not as easy as it is said because there are several
challenges which are associated with the process of development of a tourist location (Drius and
et.al, 2019). The challenges which are associated with the tourist attraction is consist of
following.
Lack of fund for the development, is one of the main reason which is often faced for the
tourist development process and due to which the development process is often affected because
of which inconsistency at the desired work process can be seen. In order to avoid this lack of
funding several fund raising measure have to be taken so that consistency in the development
process can be maintained.
Resistance by the local residents, is a common problems which is faced during the
process of development of a tourist location. This happens because the local have a fear of loss
of their privacy and also increased amount of noise disturbance which will be raised. Due to this
the process of tourism development is often affected.
Inappropriate infrastructure, this is a saviour problem for the process of tourism
development at Soca Valley because the development are made according to the local
requirements so that the basic requirements can be fulfilled but with that it also develops a
inconsistency for the tourists because with the increment in tourist count more space have to be
done. Due to this improvisations loss of local heritage can be seen (Job, Becken and Lane, 2017).
Unawareness regarding the facilities, the tourism planning are being made in such a way
that tourists are allowed to travel effective between different places by which high revenue
sources can be developed. Due to which the planning has to be done in such a way that high
interlinkage can be seen among different geographic locations through which efficient travelling
can be established.

Lack of local help, is also another factor which is making negative impact upon the engagement
of local help towards to the tourist welfare because of which tourist mostly have to rely upon the
information provided at the beginning and thus due to which simply fall in the wrong
information provided. Due to which several actions have to be taken through which correct
information must be easily provided to the tourist due to which it can achieve the information
which is required for a effort less travelling experience.
LO 3
Purpose and principle of tourism development and reduce adverse effects of tourism.
Tourism planning:
Tourism planning is the approach which shed light on the needs of people when they are
planning for holiday and determining factors for trip which include resources, activities etc. This
is important for increasing the revenue generation but also at the same time tourism has
significant impact upon the surroundings because of which it is necessary to make concentrated
approach for the improvement of the adverse effects of tourism (Chili and Ngxongo, 2017).
Following are the adverse impacts of the tourism.
Additional stress on the streets is a common adverse effect of the tourism and because of
which problems like increased traffic on the local street can be seen. With that one of the main
impact of tourism is overutilization of resources, this increment in resource consumption will
generate addition stress on the resource development and also lead to storage of large amount of
resources.
Purpose of tourism development:
Tourism planning and development is important as helps in reaching towards sustainable
tourism. It helps in increasing income of host communities and also create jobs for local people.
Helping in conserve the cultural heritage of the destination for tourists and locals. Tourism sector
is also important and helpful in the economic growth of the country. Through tourism locals earn
and this earning is helpful for them in improving their living standards (George, 2017). Through
tourism the development of the country occur in terms of infrastructure which is beneficial for
domestic people as they are getting exposure with the advancement. Through this tourists also
get chance to interact with the locals and to know their culture and also they help locals in
spreading awareness for their culture. Tourism helps in attracting many investments in the host

countries and if tourism is more in the country then big companies will get attracted towards the
company.
Impact of tourism on economy, social, culture and environment
Tourism makes a significant impact upon several perspectives and following are different
perspectives which are affected through tourism activities.
Economic- Travelling between different place leads to expenditures for the personal welfare
because of which it provide increment in sales for the local merchandising and thus is highly
beneficial for the growth of the industry which will be highly beneficial for Soca Valley,
Slovenia (Cheng and et.al, 2019). This happens because the tourism activities contribute its
efforts on the hospitality industry and buying and selling of local products gives boost to the
local manufactures because of which high amount of revenue is generated. Also it provide
additional benefits to the local tour and travel rental services which will increase the
effectiveness of travelling.
Social- Social differences are the differences between people from different cultural background
because of which differences in communication style and gesture based communication can be
seen. Thus a proper significance about the difference between individuals have to be identified
through which high work productivity can be achieved (Presenza, Messeni Petruzzelli and
Natalicchio, 2019). With that it is very important to improvise the legal legislations accordingly
because through this a balanced condition can be achieved between people from different
cultural background and personalities.
Culture- People tend to make their travel arrangement due to several reasons like professional
business reasons or personal welfare. Through these travels they often tend to recognize the level
of experience which they achieved through this travelling, which will boost the spread to culture
among people (Tkaczynski and Rundle-Thiele, 2019). However this also has a other side of the
coin and which states that travelling may also result in miss-communication between people and
may also lead to conflicts due to the cultural differences. Thus excessive increase in external
tourists at a local location can also lead to loss of local culture and which can be dissolved within
the excessiveness of tourism.
Environmental- Tourism often tend to make a negative impact upon the environment because
in order to increase the tourism several new tourist attraction points have to be developed which
affects the environmental conditions of the location. Also tourism is often done in places far

away such that tourist can see the local natural beauty and because of which the various changes
can be seen at the locations. With that increment in tourist count will also lead to increase in
pollution and fuel burning while reaching to the desired location.
Substantiality implemented on stakeholders requirements in tourism business
Soca Valley, Slovenia tend to make concentrated efforts through which it can increase the
number of tourist visits by which it can ensure that tourist visits can be increase which will result
in increment in generation of revenue collection (Zhuang, Yao and Li, 2019). With that Soca
Valley has to make sure that the development process is done in such a way that all the
responsible stakeholders are satisfied. This can is important for Soca Valley that it tend to meet
and try to surpass the expectations of the responsible stakeholders because through this it can
increase the effectiveness of developments being made (Janko, 2019). Soca Valley tend to take
several steps for meeting the expectations of the stakeholders and this can be seen during the
present time of COVID-19 in which it has made several improvisations in the usage of its
resources. With that Soca Valley tend to improvise the infrastructure as per the requirements of
efficiently managing the large amount of tourists and makes efforts for improving the experience
achieved.
Plan development as per the required criteria, is one of the key feature because during the
process of plan development all the requirements of the responsible stakeholders are being
identified and then planning is developed accordingly through which all the requirements can be
fulfilled. Thus the principles are concentrated on following principles which are economy,
society and environment (MacNeill and Wozniak, 2018). Therefore by integrating the overall
requirements of these factors within the plan development there are high chances that all the
stakeholders will be satisfied and improvisations can be made effectively.
In order to improvise the overall sustainability of the tourist attraction by meeting the
stakeholders requirement Soca Valley tends to develop work related required infrastructure in
such a way that it manages to achieve high level of work productivity and also at reduces cost.
This will reduce the expenditures made on the maintaing the systematic operations and will also
improvise the current working procedure through which expectations can be met.

LO4
Developments of sustainability in various destinations.
Here are some destinations that have been developed with various sustainability which
are follows:
Republic of Palau:-
When people arrive in Palau that must be signed up with the stamped with their passport
and declares to their nations children which might be help them in preserving and protect their
island home. In this year only Palau has effected ban to sunscreen that contains more any out of
ten ingredients in environmental pollution and coral reefs in their surrounding (Klarin, 2018).
Before while visiting at that place people have to more thinks about not to destroying their
surrounding because entering in their country they have stamped or signs to passport that do not
damaged to their place.
Agueda, Portugal:-
Agueda take sustainability advantage for saving their environment from the air pollution,
public transportation etc. For their local people they have much air quality which are needed to
be improved to have the best experience for their tourist at their place and make them well-
developed across the world. As they are working with air pollution through using sustainability
mobility and optimizing more public transportation to make use of efficiency. For the tourists as
well local hight, the cities is creating or innovating bicycles lanes, encouraging people to use
public e-bikes, and they are also trying to create their city as car-free zone.
Goeree-Over flakke, Netherlands:-
This island carries excellent reputation in their countries towards working more
sustainability development while taking their city people help, and they are also keeping them to
more supportive. Sustainability are also living in their city and extended naturally to industries
that touch to tourism sector. Previous year, Goeree-Over flakke has become complete energy-
neutral. This destination taking the advantage of natural resources like air, sun, water and wind to
being making more developed in sustainability energy project for supporting their goals. There
are also various sustainability things that needed to be focused by their government and soon
they are working on their recycling rather than organic building material, even they are
generating their own energy resources.
Ljublijana, Slovenia:-

This destination is capital of Slovenia and become eco-friendly as well working in the
sustainability practice for making their countries well-developed with eco-friendly (Silvestre and
Ţîrcă, 2019). Insides, the cities they have make the proper use of traffic free zone that is bike-
friendly. There are many parks and green areas furthermore walking paths for their tourists and
local peoples. Slovenia has worked more on eco-friendly products and give their experience to
local people related to become bike less from which their environment getting harms.
Recommendation:
For their more development they can make the proper use of eco-friendly products and
services for their local people and tourism people. At some destination they must focused on for
avoiding plastic bags and make proper use of paper bags that could help them in becoming more
eco-friendly and keep their city sustainability developments.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it had been concluded that sustainability and tourism sector are
more responsible for leading their globally and make them much developed. Promotion could
also help them for adopting various strategies along with that making more involving in their
leading organization. Attraction from economic, social, cultural and environment might be help
their countries for having more tourists at their places. Tourists play important in making their
organization as well countries more developed.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Camilleri, M.A., 2018. The promotion of responsible tourism management through digital
media. Tourism Planning & Development. 15(6). pp.653-671.
Cheng, T.M. and et.al, 2019. Community Participation as a mediating factor on residents’
attitudes towards sustainable tourism development and their personal environmentally
responsible behaviour. Current Issues in Tourism. 22(14).pp.1764-1782.
Chili, N.S. and Ngxongo, N.A., 2017. Challenges to active community involvement in tourism
development at Didima Resort–a case study of Umhlwazini community in
Bergville. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure. 6(2). pp.1-15.
Drius, M. and et.al, 2019. Tackling challenges for Mediterranean sustainable coastal tourism: An
ecosystem service perspective. Science of the Total Environment. 652. pp.1302-1317.
George, R., 2017. Responsible tourism as a strategic marketing tool for improving the negative
image of South Africa. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes.
Job, H., Becken, S. and Lane, B., 2017. Protected Areas in a neoliberal world and the role of
tourism in supporting conservation and sustainable development: an assessment of
strategic planning, zoning, impact monitoring, and tourism management at natural
World Heritage Sites. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 25(12). pp.1697-1718.
Klarin, T., 2018. The concept of sustainable development: From its beginning to the
contemporary issues. Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business.21(1).
pp.67-94.
MacNeill, T. and Wozniak, D., 2018. The economic, social, and environmental impacts of cruise
tourism. Tourism Management. 66. pp.387-404.
Presenza, A., Messeni Petruzzelli, A. and Natalicchio, A., 2019. Business model innovation for
sustainability. Highlights from the tourism and hospitality industry.
Rasdi, A.L.M. and et.al., 2019. Responsible tourism and quality of life: Perspective of local
community. Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Environment Management. 4(13).
pp.49-56.
Shen, S., Sotiriadis, M. and Zhou, Q., 2020. Could smart tourists be sustainable and responsible
as well? The contribution of social networking sites to improving their sustainable and
responsible behavior. Sustainability. 12(4). p.1470.
Silvestre, B.S. and Ţîrcă, D.M., 2019. Innovations for sustainable development: Moving toward
a sustainable future. Journal of Cleaner Production.208. pp.325-332.
Tkaczynski, A. and Rundle-Thiele, S., 2019. Identifying whale-watching tourist differences to
maximize return on investment. Journal of Vacation Marketing. 25(3). pp.390-402.
Zhuang, X., Yao, Y. and Li, J.J., 2019. Sociocultural impacts of tourism on residents of world
cultural heritage sites in China. Sustainability. 11(3). p.840.
Online
Janko, Sustainability Leaders Project, 2019 [Online]. Available through: <https://sustainability-
leaders.com/soca-valley-slovenia-interview-janko-humar/>
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT., 2021. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.unwto.org/sustainable-development>