“Tourism that fully accounts for its current and future economic, social, and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment, and host communities.”
Sustainable tourism development guidelines and management practices apply to all forms of tourism in all destinations, including mass tourism and the various niche tourism segments. Sustainability principles refer to tourism development’s environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability.
Thus, sustainable tourism should:
- Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a crucial element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity.
- Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to intercultural understanding and tolerance.
- Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities and social services to host communities and contributing to poverty alleviation.
Sustainable tourism development requires the informed participation of all relevant stakeholders and strong political leadership to ensure broad participation and consensus building. Furthermore, achieving sustainable tourism is a continuous process that requires constant monitoring of impacts and introducing the necessary preventive and corrective measures whenever necessary.
Sustainable tourism should also maintain a high level of tourist satisfaction and ensure a meaningful experience, raising awareness about sustainability issues and promoting sustainable tourism practices.
Reference: Making Tourism More Sustainable – A Guide for Policy Makers, UNEP, and UNWTO.
BIODIVERSITY
UNWTO strives to promote tourism development that supports, in equal measure, the conservation of biodiversity, the social welfare, and the economic security of the host countries and communities.
UNWTO provided expertise and advisory support to national and local governments of the countries hit by the tsunamis in 2004 and 2006 to assist in redeveloping their tourist infrastructure. Through the UNWTO Consulting Unit on Biodiversity and Tourism, a unit funded by the Federal Government of Germany, one of the initial programs was in the district of Phang Nga, on the Andaman coast in Thailand, which was heavily hit by the 2004 tsunami. The other project site was in Pangandaran (West Java) in Indonesia, which was devastated by another tsunami in 2006. In addition, the UNWTO Consulting Unit also provided inputs for cross-cutting issues such as energy efficiency, tourism security, and climate change. These sectors have a direct impact on tourism and vice versa.
CLIMATE ACTION
The tourism sector is highly vulnerable to climate change and, at the same time, contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), which cause global warming. Therefore, accelerating climate action in tourism is of utmost importance for the sector’s resilience. Climate action is the efforts to measure and reduce GHG emissions and strengthen adaptive capacity to climate-induced impacts.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a 7% reduction of GHG emissions globally in 2020, providing a tangible reference to the magnitude of the effort still ahead to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, which will require around a 7% reduction of emissions on an annual basis throughout the next decade.
According to UNWTO/ITF’s latest research, released in December 2019 at UNFCCC COP25, CO2 emissions from tourism are forecasted to increase by 25% by 2030 from 2016 levels, against the current ambition scenario. Therefore, the need to scale up climate action in tourism remains urgent, as emissions could rapidly rebound once operations restart. Ultimately, in the long run, the cost of inaction about climate will be higher than the cost of any other crisis.
UNWTO is committed to accelerating progress towards low-carbon tourism development and the contribution of the sector to international climate goals, in line with the recommendations of the One Planet Vision for a Responsible Recovery of the Tourism Sector from COVID-19 to:
- Strengthen the measurement and disclosure of CO2 emissions in tourism.
- Accelerate the decarbonization of tourism operations.
- Engage the tourism sector in carbon removal.
GLOBAL TOURISM PLASTICS INITIATIVE
The problem of plastic pollution in tourism is too big for any organization to fix. To match the scale of the problem, changes need to occur across the tourism value chain.
Can we continue tackling plastic pollution in times of COVID-19?
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased demand for disposable plastic items making it more complex to use plastics sustainably. It is nevertheless possible to continue tackling plastic pollution while preserving health, as plastic items are not sanitization measures in themselves.
The recommendations for the tourism sector to continue taking action on plastic pollution during COVID-19 recovery illustrate how reducing the plastic footprint, increasing the engagement of suppliers, working closer with waste service providers, and ensuring transparency of the actions taken can significantly contribute to a responsible and sustainable recovery of the tourism sector.
How does the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative operate?
The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative requires tourism organizations to make a set of concrete and actionable commitments by 2025:
- Eliminate problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging and items.
- Take action to move from single-use to reuse models or reusable alternatives.
- Engage the value chain to make 100% plastic packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
- Take action to increase the amount of recycled content across all plastic packaging and items used.
- Collaborate and invest in increasing the recycling and composting rates of plastics.
- Report publicly and annually on progress made towards these targets.
UNWTO and UNEP are leading the initiative’s implementation in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and with support from an Advisory Group. The Initiative is developed within the framework of the One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme.
Who can become a signatory of the Initiative?
Destinations (national and local governments), businesses (accommodation providers, tour operators, suppliers, etc.), and supporting organizations (NGOs, business associations, academia, etc.) can become signatories of the Initiative.
ONE PLANET
When responsibly planned and managed, tourism has demonstrated its capacity to support job creation, promote inclusive social integration, protect natural and cultural heritage, conserve biodiversity, generate sustainable livelihoods, and improve human wellbeing. As the sector is experiencing tremendous growth, collective efforts to ensure its long-term sustainability are essential.
The One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme aims to accelerate sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in tourism policies and practices to address the challenges of pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change. Furthermore, it supports the transition towards a circular economy as a pathway for the sustainable development of tourism.
Through its work, the One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme sets the SCP agenda in the tourism sector to advance the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12. Also, it delivers progress under connected goals such as SDG13, SDG14, and SDG15, respectively, on climate action and protecting marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
The program operates as a multi-stakeholder partnership that promotes knowledge sharing and networking to define collective priorities and identify solutions.
The One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme is one of the six programs of the One Planet network and started operating in February 2015.
