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Sustainable Tourism Tourism industry is growing from year to year. According to World Tourism Organization statistics (2012), despite the global economic downturn the international tourist arrivals grew by 4.6 percent in 2011 comparing with 2010. Though the growth is not evenly distributed across all regions, the overall trend shows that in the long terms perspective the tourism industry will continue growing and number of tourists will only be increasing. This positive trend can be also expanded to the domestic touristic flows. Taking into account that tourism can (and will if uncontrolled) impact the natural environment of the tourist attraction, those growing figures imply growing pressure on the state of nature at travel destinations. Moreover, not only natural tourist attractions are endangered, many historic sites also require principles of sustainability to be integrated into the site management. Otherwise, a typical tourist desire to take home a piece of history may result in serious damage to any tourist attraction. Tourism is majorly a business. Practically, any type of tourism implies at least some commercialization. Therefore, in order to make tourism sustainable it is important to make sustainability attractive in business terms, i.e. to make sustainable tourism a competitive advantage. If sustainability will become a source of financial loss, the unsustainable (more profitable) practices will thrive. This paper will also show that implementation of the principles sustainable tourism can make tourism businesses more competitive and profitable. At the same time, since sustainable tourist attractions, in general, represent public goods, creating a framework in which sustainable practices will be more profitable is a task for public policy. Variations of Tourism

Prior to discussing the implications and effectiveness of sustainable tourism it is important to understand what sustainable tourism means and other types of tourism. Literature review shows that there are various types of tourism that are acknowledged by different experts. In fact, each particular author has its own categorization and definitions of the tourism. However, all definitions still contain similar terms though with specific peculiarities. Weber (2006, 10-11) quite simply defines sustainable tourism as incorporation of sustainability principles into the tourism industry. In other words, Weber states that tourism is sustainable, if it does not negatively affect the opportunity of future generations to use or visit respective touristic attractions in future. Such definition still leaves some space for discussion. Indeed, it should be acknowledged that this definition measures the state of the environment in terms of its value to humans. Future generations of humans may still enjoy the natural beauty of a particular forest and be completely unaware that an endemic to this forest species of timid birds was extinct due to decreased habitat. At the same time, it should be assumed that nowadays very few places on the Earth (if any) can be considered as unreachable for a tourist. Even one tourist visit of the natural site can have very negative indirect consequences for the environment which means that it is extremely difficult to assess all possible impacts of the tourism (Poser 2011). In other words, in this case one of the goals of sustainable tourism is to maximally mitigate the impact of tourist activities. From this perspective, the Webers definition can be considered sufficient for creating a framework of a sustainable management system of a tourist attraction. At the same time, the impact from several tourists is incomparable with regular flow of the tourist hordes. The notion of mass tourism can help understand the difference between those impacts. According to Hall, mass tourism is basically an increased tourist flows due to increased

opportunity for leisure and growth of middle class (2009, 45). Weber mentions other important factors, without which mass tourism is almost impossible: developed transportation system, existence of accommodation, globalised economic system. All this can be named developed infrastructure. A typical mass tourist will visit a distant tourist attraction by buying a tourist package, which will include air flights, hotel suit, and tours to generic tourist sites. Therefore, mass tourism can be associated with large number of people, international destinations, and high commercialization. However, though dominating, mass tourism is not the single pattern existing in tourism. As a contrary term to mass tourism, there is alternative tourism. Weber (2006) calls alternative tourism just any type of tourism that is not mass tourism. Still, it does not mean that alternative tourist will not use the infrastructure of mass tourism. A typical backpacker is likely to use air transport at least once, hostel, travel checks or other particular attributes of mass tourism (Aramberri 2010, 315). The growing popularity of alternative tourism can even transform it mass tourism. This means that the line between alternative and mass tourism is blurred. Moreover, in terms of environmental impact which is discussed below both types requires regulation and control. Impacts of tourism Tourism has lots of direct and indirect impacts on the environment and condition of the tourist site and life of the local population. Still, different types of tourism have different set and scale of impacts. The existence of touristic infrastructure implies necessity to deal with water pollution, different types of wastes, air pollution, increased power consumption etc. Pollution of various types can be named as direct impact of tourism, while other associated consequences

including influence on power systems, local development, etc. can be grouped as indirect impacts (Singh 2008). The environmental consequences of tourism take place not only at the site of the tourist attraction, but during the entire travel of tourists to their places of destination. The air travel is of particular concern since airplanes are one of the major contributors to human-related green house gas emissions (Becken 2007) and tourists are one of the largest groups of air passengers. Increased number of tourist leads to the increased number of air flights and, thus, increased GHG emissions. The maintenance of tourist-related infrastructure, for instance, theme parks, also implies increased electricity and fresh water consumption (Weber 2006). In turn, the latter usually leads to the increased GHG emissions from electricity generation. Taking all this into account, it cannot be said that there is one solution to integrate sustainable practices in tourism. In fact, the abovementioned impacts show that tourism is a very complex, cross-national and interdisciplinary issue and making mass tourism sustainable will require a whole set of measures, policies and campaigns. Existence of different types of stakeholders and their complex interactions require systematic approach from the regulating bodies which should include country-wide policies and long-term tourism development plans and strategies. There are many ways to make tourism sustainable on many levels. On the state level, the public authorities could encourage domestic travelling, implement sustainable management policy for local tourist attractions, sustainable tourism development plans, which will categorize tourist attractions and regulate visitors flow etc. In other words, the main role of policy makers in the promotion of sustainable tourism consists in planning and management of the national touristic industry (Edgell 2006, 97).

Tourism does not have only negative consequences. There are positive impacts investments, stimulus to preserve natural conditions to attract tourists in future (Poser 2011). Coastal resorts invest lots of money in conservation and maintenance of coastal zone in Southern Britain (Wong 1993). The concept of sustainable tourism implies the maximization of positive impacts of tourism, particularly, on the local communities and environment. Again, the necessity to create a framework in which tourism businesses will be obliged to take account of indigenous people while developing a resort is fully the duty of the national authorities. The latter are responsible for creating rules and regulations for the operation of tourism industry in their countries, while international organization such as World Tourism Organization should encourage them to do so (2012). Moreover, tourism can become a valuable tool in the overall sustainable development of the host country. First of all, tourism can provide serious employment opportunities for local population (Hall and Lew 1998, 50). Taking into account that tourist attractions are more or less decentralized, the development of sustainable tourism could contribute to the regional development of distant (and usually poor) parts of the host country. Sustainable tourism also stress win-win situation when all stakeholders benefit from it. In such situation, tourists can promote establishment of positive international connections between different countries through better understanding and knowledge of their culture, traditions and mentality (Page 2012). Ways to develop sustainability in mass tourism. There are many way of how making even mass tourism more sustainable. In other words, taking into account the abovementioned statement that tourism by default will produce some impact on the environment and local community, there are various instruments to minimize this impact and make sustainable approach in tourism more attractive both for tourism businesses and

for local communities. According to United Nations Environmental Program (2005) these measures can be grouped into five categories: measurement, command and control, economic, voluntary, and supporting. All of them imply interference of national authorities in tourism industry operations. Another option to facilitate implementation of sustainable tourism practices in private sector is to highlight the fact that sustainable tourism is good for health (Bricker, Cottrell and Black 2012). Taking into account the growing public awareness of environmental issues, by incorporating principles of sustainability into their activity tourist operators can considerably increase their client base. Apart from this, companies that employ local population and use local produce at the tourist site have an opportunity to decrease their operational costs (Brebbia, Pineda 2009). Sustainable tourism implies emotional interactions with the local culture and environment. This could help tourism businesses to increase the satisfaction level of their client, successfully position their offering in the highly competitive market of destinations (United Nations Environmental Program 2005). Acknowledgment and integration of local environmental and cultural peculiarities into tourist packages could help to differentiate them from many similar all-inclusive offers. This is likely to add value for such tourism businesses operating in mass tourism market. Recognizing the crucial role of the government in the establishing of the sustainability principles in tourism industry, it should be taken into account that the government should always keep the balance between wellbeing of local community and environment. For instance, development of safari tourism in Kenya has led to the increase of tourism contribution to the country budget. Consequently, the government authorities became interested in further

development of the industry and increase of the profits. However, the principles of sustainability were not taken into account and such activities have led to the increasing habitats for the wildlife, which is the main tourist attraction, while ignoring interest of local population (Swarbrooke 1998, 321). This case again highlights the complexity of the tourism issues and necessity to incorporate the interests of all stakeholders involved. Conclusion Increasing population, growing income and development of transport infrastructure will drive growth of number of tourists in the next decades. The inadequate management or just its total absence is very likely to create environmental and social problems on both local and global levels. The incorporation of the principles of sustainability into the tourism industry is practically the only way to reduce negative impacts of tourism while maximizing the benefits for all stakeholders involved, including local communities, tourism businesses and governments. This paper has shown that government plays central role of integrating sustainability into tourism industry. Governments are responsible for management of the tourism industry and for creating financial and regulatory incentives for stakeholders sustainable behavior. Taking into account that many tourist attractions are located in developing and underdeveloped states, which usually do not posses relevant policy-making capacity, the assistance of global community, international organizations and agencies in developing policy measures is essential. Tourist attractions of historic, cultural and natural importance represent the global heritage and should be protected from negative consequences of the tourism industry.

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