TOURISM MANAGEMENT

1st Semester
A.Y. 2024 - 2025

Course Title: SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

Course Code: SUSTOU

Course Description: Students will have a broad understanding of environmental

issues and their impact upon the tourism industry, therefore subject areas such as
pollution, waste management and biodiversity will be primary focus. Awareness and
understanding of the implications of tourism impacts, especially on socio-cultural
and environmental aspects, are critical to properly guided sustainable tourism
planning and development. The natural and cultural environments of communities
and global destinations will be explored to enable students to critically interpret
tourism interdependency, and the changes and development of domestic and
international tourism policy. This course critically examines tourism planning as a
process and as a set of techniques for sustainable tourism development. It focuses
on the physical environment of tourism planning, and the social, cultural, and
political realities of planning and policy making.

Coverage: PRELIM / Week 1 and Week 2

Topic/s:
 The Concept of Sustainable Tourism

Learning Objectives:
 Enumerate the goals of sustainable tourism;
 Discuss the principles of sustainable tourism;
 Explain the requisites to achieve sustainable tourism
 Discuss the evolution of tourism development paradigm in the Philippines.

To do list/Activities:
1. Reading and Discussion:
 The Concept of Sustainable Tourism

2. Perform the set of activities;

3. Case Study Analysis

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Topic 1: Introduction

United Nations World Tourism Organization (2005) defines sustainable tourism as

"lone that meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting
and enhancing opportunity for the future”. It is envisaged as 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 system." [WTO 1998: 19]
Sustainable tourism follows the definition of its mother concept of sustainable
development which was defined by the World Commission on Environment and
Development (1987) as "development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Sustainable tourism adopts a triple-bottom-line approach that takes into account
tourism's economic, environmental, and social dimensions. This triple bottom-line is
sometimes known as the three P's-people, planet, and profit or the three E's-equity,
environment, and economy.

Sustainable tourism aims to achieve the following goals:

1. economic prosperity;
2. social equity; and
3. environmental conservation

PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

(n.d.) the principles of sustainable tourism are the following:
1. enhances the well-being of communities in which tourism takes place;
[Link] the protection and enhancement of the natural and cultural resources of
the destination;
[Link] the importance of product quality (physical products, hospitality, and
services) and tourist satisfaction as key factors for the economic success of tourism;
and

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4. adopts adequate management and monitoring measures.
Tourism should be an instrument for uplifting the quality of life of local
communities. According to The Economist (2012), quality of life is an overarching
concept that covers the following:

• material well-being;
• life expectancy at birth;
• family life based primarily on divorce rates;
• political freedoms;
• job security;
• climate (monthly temperatures and rainfall);
• personal physical security ratings (homicide rates and risk from crime and
terrorism);
• quality of community life (membership in social organizations);
• governance (ratings for corruption); and
• gender equality (share of females holding seats in national houses of assembly).

REQUISITES FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

Sustainability simply means being able to continue, for an indefinite period of time.
Many tourism projects suffer from the "Ninga’s cogon" syndrome wherein they
tend to experience a rapid boom and bust cycle. They become hot destinations for a
few years, then decline rapidly for lack of maintenance, funding, or demand from
the target market. To increase the chances of success of tourism sites, a few
questions need to be addressed first (DOT et al. 2014):

1. Is the area safe?

2. Are the attractions unique?
3. Do the attractions have social and cultural value?
4. Is it accessible?
5. Is there political support?
6. Is the community supportive of the project?
7. Are there sources of funds for the project?
8. Are there available utilities and infrastructure?
9. Are there onsite facilities?
10. Is the area open for tourism development?
11. Is the quality of the area conducive for tourism development?

Safety and security are of paramount importance to potential visitors. If an area

where an attraction is beset by man-made and natural hazards, which could not be
avoided or where mitigation costs are high, it would be best to abandon the project.

Man-made hazards- are disruptions of a massive scale over a short or long period
of time, caused by human action or inaction.
Examples: crime, insurgency, war, and terrorism, as well as diseases and epidemics.
Natural hazards- environmental phenomena that potentially harm human
societies and the surrounding environment.
Examples: earthquakes, landslides, erosion, storm surge, tsunami, and flooding.

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Attractions also need to be evaluated in terms of their uniqueness and sociocultural
value. They should offer outstanding appeal to be able to draw tourists to the area.
An indicator of their importance and uniqueness is if the attraction is a UNESCO
World heritage site or if it occupies an important place in the country's history.

Professor Felipe de Leon, Jr. suggests exploiting the following aspects in order to
make attractions stand out:
(1) excellence,
(2) superlative characteristics;
(3) authenticity;
(4) endemicity; and
(5) originality:

Tourist facilities and infrastructure could only be built in a certain class of land.
Tourism development is restricted in ecotourism sites, natural parks, and marine
sanctuaries, for example. Ancestral domains and contested lands are also off limits
for investments.
It is also important that the place to be develop is free from foul odors and unsightly
garbage. Landfill areas and garbage dumps diminish the value of a potential tourist
attraction.

TOURISM AND SUSTAINABILITY PARADIGM IN THE PHILIPPINES

Tourism development in the Philippines has been evolving in the past 40 years. In
the 1970s, the focus had been on undifferentiated mass tourism. The main strategy
was to boost tourist arrivals in order to maximize tourism revenues for both the
government and private business. This has led to socio-cultural issues, such as child
prostitution and drugs and concomitant disillusionment by the general public. By
the late 1980s, the motivation was still economic but with tourism being managed
like a corporation. The Department of Tourism staff complement was trimmed
down, and a master plan was formulated. The plan embodied the strategies of
creating tourism clusters with supporting international airports, regional dispersal of
accommodation facilities, deregulation of the transportation industry, and
diversification of markets and tourism offerings. The 1990s saw the advent of
sustainable development as a tourism development paradigm. Its key principles
have slowly been integrated in tourism-relevant planning and development. At the
turn of the millennium, the environmental dimension was given more prominence,
culminating in the passage of the National Ecotourism Strategy. The DOT also paid
attention to the development of the rural areas through agritourism initiatives.
Since then, tourism has solidified its position as an anchor of the Philippine
economic development. In recent years, sustainable development principles have
been embodied in the landmark legislation. In the Tourism Act of 2009 (Republic Act
9593), the [State]declare tourism as an indispensable element of the national
economy and an industry of national interest and importance, which must be
harnessed as an engine of socio-economic growth and cultural affirmation to
generate investment, foreign exchange and employment, and to continue to mold
an enhanced sense of national pride for all Filipinos (Chapter 1, Section 2).
To achieve the above goals, the State recognized "sustainable tourism development
as integral to the national socio- economic development efforts to improve the
quality of life of the Filipino people..., promote ... tourism ... that is ecologically

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sustainable, responsible, participative, culturally sensitive, economically viable, and
ethically and socially equitable for local communities." The National Tourism
Development Plan of 2011-2016 includes action plans, such as provision of water
treatment and solid waste management; safeguarding natural and cultural heritage
and vulnerable groups; and adopting a participatory policy-making process.

ASSIGNMENT

1. What is sustainable tourism?

2. Explain the 3 sustainable goals of tourism the economic prosperity, social
equity, and environmental conservation.

ACTIVITY

1. Group Activity about the Goals of Sustainable Tourism

Reference:

A. Books:

Reil G. Cruz, Ph.D., Sustainable Tourism, Wiseman’s Books Trading, Inc., 2020

B. Internet:

[Link]

[Link]

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