Assessing the sustainability of tourism-related livelihoods in an urban World Heritage Site

The relationship between UNESCO World Heritage Sites and tourism has been described as a double-edged sword, with the benefits of tourism countered by its adverse impacts. To the extent that tourism-related livelihoods are dependent on World Heritage status, the loss of that status may have significant adverse effects, especially for poor people. The Sustainable Livelihood Framework has been used to analyse the development, or otherwise, of rural communities in poor regions of the world. This paper uses this approach to examine the urban poor of a World Heritage Site in Thailand, The Historic City of Ayutthaya. As a consequence of tourism and urban industrial development, not only has there been conflict between the urban poor and the Thai government within the designated heritage area, there is also conflict with the neighbouring industrial zones. This has resulted in fears that World Heritage status may be lost. Viewed within DFID’s Sustainable Livelihood Framework, lack of capital and little community participation are factors which contribute significantly to an unsustainable livelihood. However, this research concludes that using self-reliance as a measurement of people’s livelihood to determine ‘sustainability’ is inappropriate in an urban-tourism context because people living in urban areas rely heavily on external sources.     

Conceptualising overtourism: A sustainability approach

This paper conceptualises a new tourism phenomenon: overtourism. Conceptualisation is based on relevant tourism knowledge on sustainability and related responsibility. The proposed model, presented in concise pictorial form, brings together the tourism capacities of the ‘sustainability pillars’ as well as the novel ‘socio-psychological’ and ‘socio-political’ capacities. Ultimately, the model may assist in monitoring, diagnosing and influencing the risks of any unsustainable tourism situation. The proposed novel capacities add to growing academic call to revisit the contemporary academic and practical approaches to tourism and sustainability, based on its low efficacy in practice. Paper suggests to extend and update the existing sustainable tourism paradigm to encourage more sustainable tourism strategies, policies and their more effective implementation.     

Sustainability approaches and nature tourism development

This article shows how combinations of different sustainability approaches of tourism entrepreneurs and other actors restrict nature tourism development in a nature park context. Drawing on the literature on nature tourism and sustainable entrepreneurship and a case study of a Danish nature park, we show how different actors' sustainability orientations cannot clearly be assigned specific theoretical sustainability approaches. Instead, they express different degrees of focus on various parameters of sustainability, thereby shaping the actors' ‘sustainability DNA’. The analysis shows how different DNAs are incommensurable and that this limits nature tourism development. The incommensurability arises from underlying ontological beliefs about sustainability, including the reasons for which sustainability is included in organisational strategies. We suggest a root-cause model to help solve conflicts arising from the incommensurability.     

城市旅游再造——一种文化可持续发展的新思维

城市旅游研究有长期的历史.文章从新的角度较为系统地综述了城市旅游这个并不新颖、但却值得深入探索的问题,在西方文献的基础上提出了一些关于城市旅游发展创新性的思想和理论构架,并指出了未来几个重要的研究方向,如城市中旅游集聚造成的拥挤问题、城市遗产类旅游资源空间格局研究(包括非物质文化遗产的空间分布对城市发展的影响)、城市旅游规划中广泛存在的“复制与粘贴”问题对城市旅游竞争力的损害以及城市舞台化旅游发展中存在的种种问题等.在此基础上,文章结合中国城市旅游发展的研究现状,提出中国城市旅游发展可以借鉴的一些国际先进经验,以及在借鉴这些经验过程中需要注意的问题.     

An ecologically and socially inclusive model of agritourism to support smallholder livelihoods in the South Pacific

The neglect and marginalisation of smallholders in economic and development policy contributes to increasing vulnerability of rural communities. Underinvestment in agriculture, climate change impacts and growing competition for land and water places further pressure on smallholders. In this context, this paper examines the current focus in the South Pacific on strengthening the linkages between tourism and agriculture through agritourism. The paper seeks to merge multiple discourses, by firstly reviewing the development model that is driving tourism and linkages to agriculture in the South Pacific. Secondly, agritourism as it is conceptualised in the tourism literature and thirdly sustainable tourism discourse, to identify economic activities within agritourism that contribute to enhancing smallholders’ livelihoods in the South Pacific. An ecologically and socially inclusive model of agritourism is put forward based on principles of sustainable tourism and agroecology – referred to as agroecological tourism. Agroecological tourism strengthens the linkages between tourism and agriculture while fostering sustainability principles.     

Town walls,walled towns and tourism: paradoxes and paradigms

The paradoxical relationship between tourists and town walls is examined in the wider context of the walled town tourism. Such towns may be paradigm cases for historic towns as attractions for heritage, urban and cultural tourism among the ‘flows and scapes’ of delocated global tourism. Widely distributed across the ‘old’ world and extant even in the ‘new’, town walls can be seen as the grim barriers between contested identities or as the emblems of the peaceful security of the town within. The paper draws on material gathered as part of a European Interreg IIIc network project – ‘ARCHWAY’. Walled towns and related monuments represent nearly 20% of the 890-strong 2009 world heritage list and half the ‘ARCHWAY’ towns have world heritage status or aspirations. To meet the economic and urban planning challenges, walled towns have developed a range of options for success in, or for surviving, tourism. Examples from across Europe and beyond are critically appraised in the light of the literature of historic and heritage town tourism. As historic towns with obvious signs of past conflict, walled towns point the way to examining urban heritage tourism with de-romanticised vision.     

Current issues in tourism: Mitigating climate change in sustainable tourism research

This paper adopts a problematising review approach to examine the extent of mitigating climate change research in the sustainable tourism literature. As climate change has developed into an existential global environmental crisis and while tourism's emissions are still increasing, one would expect it to be at the heart of sustainable tourism research. However, from a corpus of 2573 journal articles featuring ‘sustainable tourism’ in their title, abstract, or keywords, only 6.5% covered climate change mitigation. Our critical content analysis of 35 of the most influential papers found that the current methods, scope and traditions of tourism research hamper effective and in-depth research into climate change. Transport, the greatest contributor to tourism's emissions, was mostly overlooked, and weak definitions of sustainability were common. Tight system boundaries, lack of common definitions and incomplete data within tourism studies appear to hamper assessing ways to mitigate tourism's contribution to climate change.     

The influence of the political environment and destination governance on sustainable tourism development: a study of Bled,Slovenia

In the context of sustainable tourism development, there are many studies about the exchange process between residents and tourism, yet this issue is practically unexplored with respect to the political environment of tourism. Therefore, this paper introduces and posits that the political environment is a necessary enabler for implementing sustainable tourism. The authors extend the established three-pillar sustainability concept by adding in the political dimension. Then they surveyed how residents' positive and negative perceptions of tourism impacts determine their satisfaction with life in the tourism destination and thus their support for tourism in their community. The model was empirically tested within the context of the long-established Alpine destination of Bled in Slovenia. The findings confirm the importance of the political environment and question the sustainability of Bled's tourism development. It is suggested that the community has relatively weak destination governance due to the underdeveloped political environment. The survey expands and deepens the tourism sustainability debate by adding in the political environment and how it relates to the emerging growth of research on destination governance. The proposed model can be adapted and applied to any destination in order to improve its governance, including the implementation of sustainable tourism development.     

A triple lens measurement of host–guest perceptions for sustainable gaze in tourism

This paper investigates perception of self and others by hosts and guests, which may be critical for sustainability of a destination receiving tourists with different cultural backgrounds. Specifically, the study investigates self-perception of hosts and reciprocal perception between hosts and guests on several service personnel characteristics using importance and performance analysis. Thus, a triple lens of hosts’ evaluation of self, hosts’ evaluation of the guests, and hosts’ evaluation by the guests is involved in a multi-cultural tourism experience context. Results report differences between the lenses, hosts’ self-evaluation being harsher than guests’ evaluation of hosts. Suggestions are provided for destination marketing and management organizations to design effective tourism experiences for both hosts and guests for a more sustainable gaze between hosts and guests.     

Sustainable rural tourism in Iran: A perspective from Hawraman Village

This paper discusses issues of sustainability and rural tourism within the context of Iran. Using a qualitative research approach, it investigates the experiences of one particular village which is already popular with visitors and has featured in official tourism development plans. The focus is on the reactions of residents and their perceptions of tourism impacts and formal policies. Findings indicate that villagers are concerned about the use of local natural and cultural resources for tourism purposes, recognising negative consequences which seem to them to outweigh positive effects. Participation has been very limited in government rural tourism initiatives which are felt to yield few benefits for village inhabitants. Current policies thus appear ineffective and reforms are necessary if the potential for sustainable rural tourism, embracing community engagement, is to be realised.     

Tourism,Urban Governance and Public Space

Abstract

This paper considers the relationship between tourism development, urban governance and urban public space. It focuses on the way that ‘new urban governance’ mediates the activities and interests of mobile capital and consumption on the one hand, and the spaces of everyday life on the other which are increasingly subject to ‘urban renaissance’ strategies and spectacularizations as tourist attractions. By drawing on research undertaken in York, England, the paper illustrates the socio‐spatial issues at stake for urban centres that have used tourism and culture as major drivers of economic development. Finally, it challenges the axiomatic status of the local/tourist dualism in various tourism management discourses as being inadequate for understanding how tourism articulates with socio‐spatial mobility generally, and how this raises difficult issues in relation to urban citizenship and the governance of urban public space.     

Sustainable hospitality: a meaningful notion?

This paper explores the concept of sustainable hospitality. The relevance and status of this area of enquiry are assessed by discussing the current status of the concepts involved. These discussions are then linked to progress made in sustainable hospitality both in research and practical applications in the hospitality industry. At least six principal schools of thought within hospitality are noted: hospitality science, hospitality management, hospitality studies, the “three domain school”, the systems thinking school and the pragmatic tradition. This complexity and lack of clear definition are problems. The differences between sustainability and sustainable development, and between weak and strong sustainability add further complexities. This paper shows that progress in both sustainable hospitality and tourism has been limited by these problems. A series of technical, ethical and commercial problems are discussed. However, while sustainable hospitality as a research area is still in its infancy, it is concluded that it is very relevant within the wider context of sustainable tourism research, based on its impact and its specific position within the social–ecological–economic systems under investigation. Key areas of future work are suggested, notably to better understand the impacts of hospitality on the triple bottom line, and to explore systems approaches towards implementation.     

Going for gold as a leisure tourism continuum: clustering motivations for gold panning revisit intention

The way in which people use their spare time differs. Leisure activities and tourism are among the most common of these. Gold panning is a rather unusual niche leisure and tourism activity. Despite some differences, leisure and tourism are generally interrelated in many ways, thus gold panning, is a good example of the leisure tourism continuum. In this study, gold panning is considered as a set of leisure activities within the context of tourism. The aim of the paper is to determine the profile of a gold panner based on their motivations. Therefore, respondents are clustered by means of motivation into two homogenous groups defined as ‘nature seekers’ and ‘true gold panners’. The results suggest that the clusters differ significantly with regards to age, education and marital status, but also in terms of the degree of interest in gold and revisit intention. The originality of the research lies in the fact that gold panning as a leisure activity has seldom been explored under the guise of a leisure and tourist context within existing literature, especially through the means of quantitative research.     

Tourism in Small Island States: From Vulnerability to Strengths

This article argues that the narrow and frequently negative conceptualisations of small island states as environmentally vulnerable and economically dependent are problematic for sustainable tourism development and for economic development, generally. Scenarios presented to date are often incomplete. Narratives suggesting that island peoples are unskilled and lack resources, and that their islands are ‘tiny’ and ‘fragile’, can undermine their pride and stifle their initiative, reducing their ability to act with autonomy to determine and achieve their own developmental goals. A range of more positive conceptualisations is given, demonstrating the strong social dimensions of sustainability in small island states and the resilience and adaptability of island states. Examples describe a number of positive development paths to sustainable tourism in small island states.     

Using multiple indicators to evaluate the sustainability of dolphin-based wildlife tourism in rural India

Abstract

Assessing wildlife tourism sustainability in developing countries is crucial, but few studies analyse the sustainability of dolphin-based wildlife tourism in this context. We measure multiple indicators within the human dimensions of wildlife tourism, including tourist visitation numbers, satisfaction, preferences, perceptions, background and specialisation, to ascertain the extent to which the dolphin-watching industry at Chilika Lagoon, in rural India might be considered sustainable. Our methods included participant observation, tourist surveys, and the use of secondary data on visitation over 10 years. We found that the growth rate of tourist visitation over 10 years was beginning to decline. Tourists were mostly inexperienced, and dissatisfied with their dolphin-watching experience. Tourist preferences and perceptions showed useful insights and shortcomings in the way in which the industry was being conducted and managed, and reflected the expectations of non-specialist visitors. Our study highlights drawbacks in the way that wildlife tourism is managed in a rural, developing world context, which draws the sustainability of the dolphin-watching industry in Chilika into question. Future development of an early warning system that addresses combined governance or managerial, social, economic and ecological indicators, and an integrated management plan for conservation and wildlife tourism could contribute to the sustainable management of such industries.     

Sustainable forest management: heritage tourism,biodiversity, and upland communities in the Philippines

This paper discusses sustainable forest management in the context of forest-based tourism in the Philippines. Integrating heritage tourism in the implementation of forest management is paramount because the quality and sustainability of nature tourism depend on the ecological integrity of forests. The role of tourism in achieving the goals of sustainable forest management is crucial especially in countries such as the Philippines where the demands for forest resources for tourism and other purposes have been increasing. The tourism management strategies to achieve sustainable forest management in the Philippines include establishing recreational zones within protected forests; using different native fruit-bearing trees in reforestation to attract diverse wildlife, which is a drawcard in tourism; prohibiting illegal collections of threatened forest species for souvenirs; enhancing the tourism and conservation values of botanic gardens within forest reserves; providing supplementary livelihoods to upland dwellers via agroforestry projects; and respecting the culture and practices of indigenous upland people while supporting their economic and traditional subsistence.     

WWOOFing in Australia: ideas and lessons for a de-commodified sustainability tourism

This paper considers Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOFing) as a form of sustainable tourism with particular focus on its social and cultural dimensions and the means by which deep engagement in these appear to lead participants to a better awareness or understanding of ecological sustainability issues. It draws upon a grounded theory-based exploration of the perspectives and interactions of WWOOFers and WWOOF hosts in Australia, using 323 formal written surveys of hosts and 188 surveys of WWOOFers, together with 16 in-depth unstructured WWOOFer interviews, which collectively enhances understanding of WWOOFing as an emerging, unique and valuable form of sustainable tourism. By virtue of the highly engaged and symbiotic basis of the exchange involved, WWOOFing is commonly perceived to facilitate a transcendence of the role of tourist. The research indicates this is the product of a unique relationship forged in the WWOOFing context, which differs markedly to relationships forged in more typical fee-for-service tourism contexts in which there is a different relationship at play between power, authenticity and sustainability. This relationship is outlined in order to articulate the notion that WWOOFing represents a type of “sustainability tourism” that is unexplored in the sustainable tourism literature.     

The thorny path to sustainable tourism development

A range of interacting issues has promoted calls for sustainable tourism development. This paper defines the subject and discusses in detail some suggestions from the well known Tourism with Insight’ group about how to achieve sustainability. It goes on to examine why sustainable tourism is, however, very difficult to achieve in practice, noting the plethora of theoretical statements, the shortage of implementation skills, demand pressures, hedonism, and the impact of extended discussions — ‘hectic continuity’. A number of ways forward are suggested, including new forms of taxation, open discussion of conflicts and environmental audits: it concludes that a search for a complex perfect formula may be counterproductive, and that simple solutions may be best.     

The environment‐community symbiosis: A case for collaborative tourism planning

This article advances the proposition that sustainable tourism can be achieved through recognition that the public and private sector, the host communities and the natural environment are interdependent stakeholders in a complex tourism ‘domain’, where no single individual, agency or group can resolve strategic tourism issues by acting alone. The planning and management of this domain for the purpose of achieving sustainability requires moving away from traditional approaches towards dynamic collaboration among the stakeholders of the tourism development and planning domain. Collaboration provides a flexible process which evolves over time, enabling stakeholders to disseminate and manage problems or issues on an interactive basis. It offers an attractive alternative to adversarial problem solving methods in tourism planning and management, when inter or multi‐sectoral participation is required. The paper commences with a discussion of the shortfalls of traditional tourism planning processes and models, followed by an overview of collaboration ‘theory’. Examples are given which illustrate collaborative approaches in several mountain resort areas. An exploratory case study of tourism development and planning issues in the mountain community of Canmore, Alberta (Canada) is then presented, leading to a discussion and conclusion regarding the theoretical and practical applications of collaboration toward achieving sustainable tourism.     

城市特征对城市游客满意度的影响——基于Probit模型的定量分析

游客满意度是衡量城市旅游发展的重要指标之一,掌握和控制游客满意度的影响因素对城市旅游发展和管理越来越关键。国内外研究综述表明,城市旅游的游客满意度影响因素及其关系的定量研究尚不多见,尤其对城市特征因素的研究。城市特征是城市旅游的必要组成,作为客观因素对游客满意度的影响不言而喻。文章运用文献分析法、问卷调查法和二元Probit离散选择模型计量法,以长沙市477名游客的现场调查数据为基础,对城市特征、个人特征和旅游动机三大变量下10个影响因素与游客满意度之间的假设关系进行检验。研究结果显示,修正后的游客满意度影响因素Probit模型具有统计学意义,6个研究假设得到验证;研究结论表明,城市社会发展水平、城市绿化水平、环境保护水平、旅游资源丰富程度、游客月收入、游客是否主动到访等因素对城市旅游的游客满意度产生显著的正面影响,其中,游客主动到访因素对游客满意度的影响作用最大,城市社会发展水平影响作用最小。研究结论一定程度上有利于促使城市管理者更多关注城市发展与旅游质量,最后,从满意度改善系统、城市要素建设、城市旅游资源开发和游客营销引导等方面提出政策建议。