Thursday, March 15, 2018
In the past decade, the debate concerning tourism has seen a shift beyond the recognition of the sector as an engine of growth and development and for creating job opportunities.
Global warming, reducing habitat cover for wildlife and other species, increasing population as well as excess exposure of destinations have brought a raging debate on ‘Sustainability’ in tourism in the spotlight. The UNWTO had declared 2017 as “The Year of Sustainable Tourism Development.”
Being a leading tourism stakeholder in India, the recently concluded SATTE Conference put the focus on ‘Sustainability’ so that the larger industry and stakeholders understand the issue in a more logical manner.
Tourism is no doubt one of the biggest engines of growth and development as well as job creators in the world; for some destinations and countries it’s more than others. The tourism industry contributes about 10 per cent to the global GDP as well as employment. However, in the absence of sustainability concerns, tourism can do more harm than good in the long run.
Growing population, climate change, rampant industrialisation, emissions, deforestation, depleting glaciers, rising sea levels, fast depleting marine biodiversity, wildlife and water bodies, are all destroyers for sustainability and more so for the tourism sector that earns out of environment, wildlife and biodiversity etc.
Tags: sustainable tourism
