Sustainability In Tourism

SUSTAINABILITY IN TOURISM After World War II, Mass Tourism became the next big thing in the world of tourism and caused major changes to the environment. This form of tourism prioritizes visitor satisfaction and maximum profits. In the following decades, the practice of Mass Tourism became the subject of criticism for various studies and research conducted around tourism. Negative aspects such as changes in landforms and excessive land consumption, piling up rubbish, increasing waste, and loss of traditional values due to cultural homogenization encourage the tourism industry to form new ways of doing tourism. At the WTO seminar in 1989, a new model for conducting tourism and managing destinations was created, namely Sustainable Tourism. • Definition and values of sustainable tourism Sustainable tourism is a type of tourism that is carried out to fulfill economic aspects but does not damage/destroy the resources that will be used by the tourism industry in the future, especially the environment and social structure of local communities in the destination (Swarbrooke, 1999). The aim of sustainable tourism is to preserve resources that will later be utilized by future generations. Sachs (2004) encourages the development of sustainable tourism into eight dimensions or principles including ecological, natural, social, cultural, territorial, economic, national politics and international politics. One of the values most emphasized in sustainable tourism is minimal intrusion or disturbance to the environment, therefore a destination must be formed/developed according to natural limitations and the surrounding environment, not the other way around. To overcome these obstacles, the tourism industry created and uses techniques to evaluate the impact of tourism on the environment, namely VIM (Visitor Impact Management) which describes the physical, biological and social effects of tourism on a destination. • Community participation in sustainable tourism To achieve good social, cultural and territorial dimensions of sustainable tourism, the role of local communities is needed. Participation in planning and management, involvement in the decisionmaking process, and conveying the aspirations of local communities are the keys that need to be held in developing sustainable tourism. These steps are needed to reduce conflicts between local communities and visitors in order to achieve responsible tourism. If the role of local communities is significant enough in tourism activities, then the CBT (Community Based Tourism) model can also be applied in sustainable tourism, meaning that communities can provide local products to tourists, can work and develop destinations, and earn income from this work. =Environment Sustainability has another aspect that focuses on changing tourists into tourists who are more responsible for their visiting experience. Techniques by explaining to optimize this activity include forms of communication regarding the environment. This communication is direct contact with the environment, giving individuals the opportunity to develop environmental awareness and combined knowledge. (Tilden, 2007, p. 33). Tilden (2007) identified five basic principles as a basis for developing environmental interpretation programs 1. The relationship between what is shown or described and something from the visitor's personality or experience 2. Information about the environment 3. Interpretation is an art combined with other arts, regardless of whether the material presented is scientific, historical or architectural. 4. The purpose of interpretation, arouses curiosity, and emphasizes what seems unimportant. 5. Interpretation must aim to present information as a whole, meaning clearly and definitely. Economy Returning to the dimensions of sustainability expressed by Sachs (2004) above, it is necessary to address one of the most controversial dimensions: economics One of the controversial dimensions that needs to be addressed is economics. Ecological Economics, according to Constanza (1989) and Proops and Safonov (2004), reveals the economy as a subsystem of a larger whole, namely the environment. Apart from the impact on nature, it also has an impact on local culture and must be considered. Thus, external aspirations, natural resources and local communities must be understood. Public This is one of the advantages of community-based tourism (Mielke, 2012; Pookaiyaudom, 2013). According to Silva et al. (2009, pp. 363–364), community-based tourism should consider the following actions: • Contribute to creating local jobs and income. • Strengthening local governance together with other actors involved in tourism. • Reduce revenue leakage and encourage local market densification. • Structuring the tourism segment considering the increasing demand for tourism at national and international levels. • Add value to tourism destinations by diversifying the segments that will be offered. • Promote quality and safety standards for tourism experiences, both for host communities and for visitors.