By Jonathan Benaiah (The Ugandan Tourist)
Today is World Tourism Day, a globally recognized calendar date set aside by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and now celebrated for at least 37 years. World Tourism Day is that day on which the entire world comes together to speak a single uniform language – TOURISM.
Each year comes with a theme with a core message to highlight. This year’s message is Sustainable Tourism – A Tool For Development, and the global tourism community comes together today to advocate for RESPONSIBLE TOURISM – a task for all players including tourists, tourism business owners, the public sector, and everyone along the extraordinary tourism value chain to play their role.
UNWTO labeled 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism, which i reminisce jokingly abbreviating as STD at the University; not to mean Sexually Transmitted Diseases, but to describe all tourism development that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.
In other words Sustainable Tourism Development is a holistic approach with special interest to the Economics, Social fabric of a country; the ability of it’s environment to benefit all current stakeholders including the tourist, the tourism industry, the host communities (some times referred to as the local communities) without compromising the ability of future generations to equally benefit from the same . Economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable tourism development must include the interests of all stakeholders including the indigenous people, local communities, visitors, the tourism industry and the government.
A special and very important component of sustainable tourism development is its ability to aptly meet the needs of the current generation without compromising the possible necessary benefits derived from the same tourism resources by the future generations.
A few quick FACTS:
– International tourist arrivals have increased from 25 million globally in 1950, to 278 million in 1980, 527 million in 1995, and now to 1.18 billion in 2016. They are expected to reach 1.8 billion by the year 2030.
– The average international tourist receipt is over US$700 per person and the combined spend of all travelers is much above and over $1.4 trillion.
– Global Travel and tourism represented about 10% of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016. In Uganda, Tourism contributes slightly above 10% to the country’s GDP.
– The global travel and tourism industry is a leading employer creating approximately 11% of the world’s employment measured in terms of both direct & indirect employment (2016).
Tourism and the environment – the FACTS:
– As a result of various factors, principally human activity, a given species of animal or plant life disappears at a rate of one every three minutes
– The total record of cars on the road surpassed the number 1 billion in 2010 and is today at about 1.2 billion expected to increase to about 2 billion by 2035. Think of the carbon emissions generated.
– Every year man dumps at least 40 million tons of carbon pollution into the atmosphere in the guise of this endeared movement called “Industrialization” and commonly fronted by many governments around the world.
– The world’s environment continues to succumb to pressures of climate change and global warming is no longer a mere theory. 2015 was the warmest year by margin on record. It is actually recorded that by 2050 climate change could have directly led to the extinction of 30% of species, and the loss of half the Amazon rainforest.
The challenges are blankly visible and enormous, and the dream of guaranteeing benefits to the future generations from the same tourism resources we have today seems impossible and unattainable. Shouldn’t the continued silent but consistent reduction in fauna and flora species around the world like elephants, rhinos, giraffes, lions, polar bears and tigers trigger a loathed feeling of guilt amongst mankind? Is man short of conscientious shame at this continued saddening course, or is he “pants down unashamed” that generations to come may merely listen to stories and sadly only refer to photos of some of the creator’s invaluable pieces of art like we do read about unicorns and dinosaurs.
1- Cooked figures and percentages aside, tourism development must be felt to make a recognizable and tangible positive contribution to any country’s economy. It should be reflective of developments as a result of receipts collected from visitors and the citizens of that particular country should feel the tangibility of these benefits.
2- The negative impacts of tourism development on the society, their ways of life (traditions, arts cultures etc.) must be minimized. Unique authentic traditional practices are continuously lost to acculturation to the cultures of visitors. These local cultures and practices should be protected and reserved.
3- Environmental damage must be seriously mitigated. Bodies mandated to protect the environment should learn to understand the severity of the challenges at hand and the impacts of not playing their role. Conservation is a necessary war. All developments be it directly in tourism or generated by government policy should follow a necessary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), and all tourism activities MUST be conducted within the principle limits of carrying capacity. Many East African countries have nature-based or environment reliant tourism sectors.
4- Tourists must be briefed about environmental protection (e.g. not littering in undesignated garbage zones) and they must be instructed to respect the cultures of the people in the tourism destination.
5- The host communities living in and around tourism hotspots MUST feel the benefits of tourism. This political rhetoric of “Tourism has reduced poverty and improved the livelihoods of people blah blah blah” must stop if yearly reports relentlessly continue to single out host communities living around tourism resources as some of the poorest people in any country. Projects should be designed to ACTUALLY help the communities improve on their livelihoods, market for products from the community should be readily available and absorbable within the multifaceted tourism value chain and tourism developments that have a real impact on community advancement should be awarded.
Conclusively, with the aim of promoting responsible travel, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) launched a travellers’ competition ahead of World Tourism Day. The initiative is part of the ‘Travel.Enjoy.Respect’ campaign taking place within the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017. A one-month trip across the world visiting sustainable tourism initiatives is the prize that will be awarded to the winner of the competition. Competition entrants are invited to share their travel experiences at http://www.travelenjoyrespect.org and explain why they should be selected to represent the global “responsible traveller”.
Sustainable tourism is a combined role of all mankind. Of course we all fall short, we all forget that we have a role to play. But as we celebrate this day today, can we realize the urgency of playing ours and pushing other stakeholders to diligently play their own. Perhaps then, the concept of Sustainable Tourism Development will not simply be a theory of university scholars and a dream of the men in suits at the United Nations World Tourism Organization, but a winning approach steered by combined efforts of us all.
“Happy World Tourism Day From US!”
