What is Sustainable Tourism?
Sustainable tourism is a concept that covers the complete tourism experience, including concern for economic, social and environmental issues as well as attention to improving tourists’ experiences and addressing the needs of host communities. Sustainable tourism should embrace concerns for environmental protection, social equity, and the quality of life, cultural diversity, and a dynamic, viable economy delivering jobs and prosperity for all. In other words, sustainable tourism refers to types of travel where the environmental, social and economic impacts of tourism are factored in and where relevant adjustments are made to minimise these negative consequences. It considers the needs of travellers, but also the needs of host communities, local businesses and the natural world. This could mean adopting more sustainable methods of transportation, staying in more environmentally friendly accommodation and eating locally sourced foods.
What is the Goal of Sustainable Tourism?
The goal of sustainable tourism is to make optimal use of resources to avoid over-consumption, helping with the conservation of the natural world and making a conscious effort to respect local traditions and heritage, and contributing to their preservation.
Why is it important?
Sustainable tourism plays an important role in conserving biodiversity. It attempts to minimise its impact on the environment and local culture so that it will be available for future generations, while contributing to generating income, employment, and the conservation of local ecosystems. By doing so, sustainable tourism maximises the positive contribution of tourism to biodiversity conservation and thus to poverty reduction and the achievement of common goals towards sustainable development. Sustainable tourism provides crucial economic incentives for habitat protection. Revenues from visitor spending are often channelled back into nature conservation or capacity building programmes for local communities to manage protected areas. Furthermore, tourism can be a key vehicle in raising awareness and fostering positive behaviour change for biodiversity conservation among the millions of people travelling the globe every year.
What are example Destinations of sustainable tourism?
Lahti Region, Finland. Monte, Isola. Brescia, Italy. Cavtat Konavle Region, Croatia. Mostviertel, Austria. Bordeaux, France. Sheep’s Head, Ireland. Soomaa, Soomaa National Park, Estonia. Ebro Delta, Spain. Cappadocia, Turkey. Nin, Croatia. Bohinj, Slovenia.
We have taken into account all of these matters which are important for Europe and other continents, in the RE-CULTURAL HERITAGE project as well. For more information about our project, please visit the project website. http://www.re-culturalheritage.eu
Sources:
https://luggagehero.com/blog/sustainable-tourism-statistics/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_tourism
https://www.gdrc.org/uem/eco-tour/sustour-define.html
