Barriers To Sustainable Tourism Developments Tourism Essay

Barriers To Sustainable touristry Developments Tourism EssayIntroductionTourism is highly cognise as one of the worlds fastest growing industries and become the major(ip) contributor to the countrys economical growth in terms foreign exchange earnings and creates job opportunities in both large and small communities. Hence, the increasing economic importance of tourism has captured the attention and interest in some conveying countries. However, people shoot not been thinking about the range of impacts resulted from tourism which is long and could even negatively impact on the term community. The un constraintled rapid growth of tourism can poses a significant threat towards the environment and tender community in other words tourism can result serious environmental and social-cultural problems. Therefore, in a way to controlled and minimize the negative impacts of tourism, sustainable tourism maturement need to be achieved.Sustainable tourism today become highly important in the tourism industry and it is important to come on more people to travel green and to ensure that the tourism is environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. Many destinations pick out also recognized the importance of achieving sustainable tourism development. However, for umteen developing countries worldwide sustainable tourism has not correctly been translated into wide practice and there can be economic, social, and physical roadblocks that tend to pose large hindrances to sustainable development. In order to determine how the tourism industry can move towards sustainability, it is important to examine the barriers that hinder sustainable tourism, and then develop strategies to bring down the barriers. Thus, aim of this paper is to analyze and evaluate the barriers of implementing sustainability initiatives and achieving sustainable tourism development particularly in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia.2.0 Literature Review on Sustainable TourismTourism is a signi ficant global industry with a huge impact towards the environment. Tourism is also the worlds largest industry, with total receipts from the international tourism equaling US $682 meg (WTO, 2006). The tourism industry also employs an estimated of 10 percent of the global workforce and capital formation. Due to this significance of this industry and that environmental degradation has impacted around tourism destinations the need to implement more sustainable practices has come to forefront of global issues (Graci, 2004). The need to plan for tourism in a sustainable elan is evident through the developments that have occurred worldwide since the United Nations Conference on Environment Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. In the conference, tourism was identified as one of the five main industries in need for achieving sustainable development (Theobald 1998, Budeanu 1999, Pryce 2001). The World Tourism Organization, World Travel and Tourism Council, and the Earth Council published agendum 21 for the travel and tourism industry in 1995, which this document aimed to establish systems and procedure to in corporeal sustainable development considerations into the decision making process of tourism activities. It also highly emphasized the importance of partnership between tourism industry and government and demonstrated the benefits of making the whole industry sustainable, not scarcely just the niche ecotourism sector (Pryce, 2001).The idea of sustainable tourism has its roots in the concept of sustainable development, defined by the Brundtland Commission as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future extensions to meet their own needs (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987). Other effective acceptance or concept of ecologically sustainable tourism, defined by the World Tourism Organization (2002) isSustainable tourism development meets the needs of present generation tourists and host co mmunities while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future. It is highly emphasizes the management of all resources in such as a way that economic, social, and aesthetic needs argon carry out while maintaining the cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity, and life support systems.(WTO, 2002)This clearly means that sustainable tourism activities is aim to ensure that development entrust maximize enjoyment and create positive experience for tourists and communities, at the same time minimizing the negative impacts upon the destination site the environment, community and local population. Therefore the sustainable executing of sustainable development requires the duties of the tourism industry, environmental supporters and community or the trine cycles which need to be interrelated. The latter should be based on three main principles of sustainable development (WTO 1993, Mowforth and Munt 1998)Ecological sustainability which demonstrates t hat development is compatible with the maintenance of essential ecological processes, biological diversity and resources.Social and cultural sustainability suggests that development increases peoples control over their lives and it is compatible with the culture and values of people affected by it which maintains and strengthens the community identity.Economic sustainability ensures that development is economically efficient and that resources are existence managed properly in order to support the future generations.Further explanations by World Tourism Organization (2002) the need for achieving several objectives for ensuring sustainable tourism, which are involve the auspices and conservation of resource admit natural, historical, and cultural for future generations, whilst at the same time ensuring long term economic viability for line of reasoninges, and providing socio-cultural benefits to the wider society. Tourism development is also being planned and managed so that it d oes not negatively impact on the environment and cultural society, the overall environmental quality of tourism is maintained and improved as well.3.0 Sustainable Tourism in Gili Trawangan, IndonesiaGili Trawangan is known as the largest island located amongst the Gili Islands off the coast of Lombok in Indonesia. The island is also known as a sun, sand and sea destination. It is approximately three by two kilometers and low-lying with a small hill to the south, rising to 72 meters above sea level (Hampton 1998). Gili Trawangan is considered as the most developed of all three Gili islands, which the other two islands Gili Air and Gili Meno are being the newly developed. There are several expatriates lives and work on the island as well and the majority of land on the island is used for tourism and the rest is coconut plantation and some small field of agricultural crops and livestock. Tourism is regarded as the major economic activity on the island with more than 80 percent of fami lies is employed by tourism. However, Gili Trawangan is not highly developed tourism destination in terms of mass tourism, infrastructure, and services, and the island has limited resources of fresh water.In terms of sustainable tourism, there have been some initiatives for developing sustainable tourism in Gili Trawangan. However, the initiatives have been faced with a slow slaying and have not been completely adopted in practice. The main of the initiatives developed by the dive operators on the island is known as the Gili Trawangan Eco-trust. This Gili Eco-trust was being set up in order to protect and conserve the coral reefs around the island against destructive seek practices. While the main think of this organization is to manage the collection of a dive tax which guest are charged about US$3 per diver and US$1 per snorkeler. The dive tax is then used to pay the local fisherman to stop damaging the reefs and the funds are also used for beach cleaning, scrap management and monitoring (Lombok Network 2009).4.0 Barriers to sustainable tourism in Gili TrawanganThe Eco-trust is one of the initiatives developed by the dive operators on the Gili Trawangan Island for developing sustainable tourism. However they have encountered various barriers to sustainable tourism development in the area that has led to frustration on the island. Based on the research study which was conducted by Sonya Graci in the article, Accomodating Green Examining Barriers to Sustainable Tourism Development (2004), number of barriers was documented in this research consisting of five main barriers to implementing and achieving sustainable tourism initiatives in the destination. The first barrier is the inadequate resources associated with high cost, lack of information, skills, knowledge, expertise, time and the reluctance to get assistance from outside consultants. The numerous ideas for initiatives such giving payments to fisherman to stop their illegal fishing can be a problem for the Island since they dont have enough resources and many of these plans could fail. Another example such as that the Gili Trawangan Eco-trust also attempted to implement a waste management collection system by building of a landfill with areas to separate and organize recyclables. Yet, again with lack of resources the landfill development would failed. Besides, a number of business owners and the local government also have indentified that the inadequate of resources was the biggest barrier as it is realized on the island without any proper systems in place, the environment impart unload even further and this will eventually affect the tourism on Gili Trawangan. Thus, the destination needs the ability to implement those systems with the necessary funds and knowledge to develop feasible systems.The second barrier being emphasized is the lack of momentum to take action concerning to the sustainability initiatives by business owners restaurants, accommodations, dive operators, and bars. There was a article of faith by a number of business owners that current practices were lack, yet, there was a lack of momentum to move forward and implement sustainable initiatives. There are several business owners who did not want to take responsibility in managing the implementation of the initiatives especially involving time and money, and they also had complaints about the management of the environment, such yet one business owner in conjunction with the local government to manage the eco tax funds to pay the fisherman. Thus, this is a practice that was not aim upon favorably as a sustainable solution by many of the business owners and no other solutions were put forward.The third barrier is related to the corporate culture of the island which comprised of the attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and values of the organization. The isolation of environmental issues from other aspects of the organization or destination, and the bureaucracy that exists within each of organ ization are barriers that have affected the implementation of sustainable tourism initiatives in the island. The corporate culture in the Island is one of the employees and local which are resistant to change though they realized the benefits associated with sustainable tourism initiatives such as reducing health problems in the community which arises from the lack of garbage collection. Generally this is because of the lack of education that the local people discouraged to accede in the sustainable tourism development. Another barrier to sustainable tourism development in the destination is related to government bureaucracy and corruption which commonly arises in many developing countries. The provincial and national governments have consistently collected taxes from the Island without any investment in infrastructure or development of indemnity in the area. Moreover, in 1998 the provincial government of Western Nusa Dua developed the Gili Mantra Marine National Park strategy. H owever the marine park strategies were never implemented, but then it was the Gili Trawangan Eco-trust who implemented initiatives to stop illegal fishing to protect the reefs.Lastly, infrastructure or physical attributes such location and age of facilities are another barriers faced in the destination at the same time this closely related to the problem of having lack of resources on the Island to purchase new technologies. Despite if initiatives such as solar power or a sewage treatment plant were installed, it would be difficult to fix or adapt to the technologies due to the isolation of the Island. The Island also whitethorn have an issue on having no enough space or room for businesses to install composters to dispose organic waste.5.0 RecommendationAfter indentifying the various barriers of implementing and achieving sustainable tourism in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, there could be some strategies or solutions to overcome the stated barriers which contribute to the development of sustainable tourism in Island of Gili Trawangan. The strategies can include the alternatives of composting, employing pecuniary mechanism such as tourist taxes and developing a multi-stakeholder island committee to manage the development and implementation of sustainable tourism initiatives in the destination. elongated consultation with the locals and all stakeholders on the Island who involves could be performed as well which this allows to motivate and support the implementation of sustainable initiatives in the area. Whereas, the inadequate of resources on the island particularly for financial resources should likely be obtained from outside or non-local interests since it might be difficult for local people in the destination to play a leading design as entrepreneurs in the tourism industry. Local government should also support for educational programs and tourism training on the island to improve the knowledge and skills of the people and hence it will encourage them to participate in the development of sustainable tourism.6.0 ConclusionAchieving sustainable tourism development is highly important to the island of Gili Trawangan in Indonesia, in which it will help in protecting and conserving the local resources while minimizing the negative impacts of tourism and benefiting the island communities. However, despite the efforts from a number of local businesses, various barriers exist and affect the implementation of achieving sustainability initiatives in the tourism industry in the destination. Yet, a cohesive and inclusive strategy still can be developed to move this tourist destination towards sustainability.