Tourism has emerged as a rapidly flourishing industry in the world as a premise for economic growth, employment and business generation. Travel & Tourism is one of the world’s largest economic sectors, supporting one in 10 jobs (330 million) worldwide, and generating a total of 10.3% of global GDP. The direct and total contribution of travel and tourism to the worldwide GDP in 2019 was US$2892.94B and US$9258.29B respectively.
The inclination is more outstanding betwixt the developing nation. The status of tourism in the South-Pacific-Asian countries in general and India, by and large, can be considered as a classic example.
Travel & Tourism role in India’s growth
In India, Travel and Tourism directly generated US$1.3B and 27,404 jobs in 2019. Taking its wider indirect and induced impacts into account, as of 2019, 4.2M jobs were generated in the tourism sector which was 8.1 per cent of total employment in the country and total contribution US$268.29B in 2019.
According to the WTTC report, India ranked at 3rd position among 185 countries in terms of travel & tourism’s total contribution to GDP in 2018. International Tourists arrival is expected to reach 30.5M by 2028. Total contribution by the travel and tourism sector to India’s GDP is expected to surge from US$ 234.03B in 2017 to US$ 492.21B in 2028. Total income from the sector in India stood at US$ 28.6B in 2018 and is targeted to reach US$ 50B by 2022.
Tourism and rising concerns
However, with the explosive growth of the sector, the long-term sustainability of tourism as a factor of development is frequently being framed to be questioned, particularly because of its significant adverse effects on the environment, fast consumption of natural resources, socio-cultural etc. The massive growth of the sector over the last decade has become increasingly concerning subject.
As a result, there is now a soaring interest to promote sustainable tourism to maximise its ecological impact and to maximise socio-economic, in general, privileges at tourist destinations. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) developed the concept of sustainable tourism, in the context of the United Nations sustainable development process, refers to tourist activities “leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems”.
What is sustainable tourism?
A central idiosyncrasy of sustainable tourism is its ability to associate environmental integrity, social equity and economic prosperity, commonly referred to as the triple bottom line, attributes of sustainability and to function as an incentive for their joint reinforcement.
Sustainable Tourism can provide the comprehensive potential of the tourism sector because it can benefit to design more effective policies and meticulously planned strategies to realize the full social and economic potential of the tourism sector.
Sustainability policies pertaining to the ecological, economic, and socio-cultural regards of sustainable tourism development, and a seemly equipoise must be set up within these three domains to ensure its abiding sustainability.
Steps towards sustainability
– Follow a systematic approach to make optimal use of natural resources, maintaining essential ecological processes and focus on conservation of natural heritage and biodiversity.
– Honour and be kind to the host communities socio-cultural traditional values, abstain the exploitation of their resources and heritage site, impart to inter-cultural beliefs and focus on giving back to the community through the volunteer work.
– Enact economic sustainability, aiming for both long-term and immediate profitability goals, fairly disseminate socio-economic gain among the various stakeholders in the supply chain, including the opportunities of employment for the host communities following poverty reduction strategies.
Reasons for sustainable tourism
Sustainable is not sufficient but necessary requirement for the flourishing environment and tourism in the long run. As we have observed, the demand for sustainable tourism is increasing up.
Making eco-friendly choices in tourist accommodation are beneficial for reasons:
- Creating an added value for the travel places to guests more interested in this issue.
- Reduction in the costs and consumptions (energy, water and waste in general), the GHG emission.
- Help to Generate employment in the supply chain and produce skilled labours.
- Improve the performance and profitability of local tourism businesses.
- To encourage extensive local participation in community-based tourism.
- Increase the number of women entrepreneurs in the sector.
- Offers authenticate experiences.
- Contribute to poverty alleviation.
and the list of benefits of sustainability goes on.
