Destinations

How can we link this to tourism?

Very simply by analysing in what way tourism adds to global and local sustainability problems at the global and local level. Once we have identified tourisms role in these issues , we can take measures to reduce this impact and to enhance any positive contribution tourism may be able to make to sustainability.

It should be clear that we cannot denote any tourism-related process as inherently sustainable - since sustainability always refers to a community, nation, or the whole globe. Tourism is only one factor among many which are effective within a specified territory. It may contribute positively or negatively to the sustainability of that territory. To facilitate our communication we should rather talk of more or less sustainable tourism.

The role of indicators

What is required for implementing sustainability policies in tourism is, on the one hand, knowledge about the impact of tourism on global and local sustainability and, on the other hand, policies and measures designed to respond to this impact. There is no lack of theoretical systems for the purpose of describing the relationship between human society, economy and the environment. One such method has been developed by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) and is called the DPSIR concept, which consists of a chain of causal relations stringing out from Driving forces (economic sector, human activities) via Pressures (emissions, waste, etc.) to States (physical, chemical, biological, etc.) and Impact (on eco-systems, human health, etc.) and possible political Responses (political, economical, institutional, etc.). Such a comprehensive approach would allow us to systematically analyse sustainability, to identify trends and to develop forecasting models. Tourism is one of the driving forces and we want to know which pressures and impacts it brings to bear on our environment and on societal and economic living conditions and how we can respond to it.

The VISIT approach in combination with the European Eco-label for Tourism Accommodation Services is a major step forward to create a reliable framework for the further development of sustainable tourism. It will help destinations in their engagement to create a long-term sustainable vision for their tourism activities.
We will promote the VISIT standards through our tourism activities and network of tourism destinations. We also support the further development of indicators and management systems for sustainable tourism destinations in relation to the Thematic Strategy for the Urban Environment in the European Union.
(source: ICLEI)

Another important task is to make these processes visible to all citizens. In the case of tourism it would mean to make them visible to tourists, local residents, those politically responsible, owners of businesses, etc. The only way of implementing sustainability policies is by getting all the “stakeholders” to interact. The stakeholders have to understand, how their daily actions are linked to sustainable development. They need to recognise where they stand at the moment and what are the goals to achieve in future.

For the description of these relations we need to find indicators which are acceptable and convey a clear message to all stakeholders concerned in order to change the practice.

Indicators are a method of establishing a simple figure to represent a more complex relationship (between a number of conflicting forces or divergent factors). Indicators are used to provide a coherent and headline result as a summary for a larger audience. The next step is to analyse the process of tourism and to find indicators which show how this process is affecting sustainability within a specified area in a positive or negative way. With the help of these indicators we can

compare the future performance of tourism within a specified area (for example, by evaluating measures to influence it);
compare similar tourism processes within different territories (for example, mountain tourism in different mountain ranges, beach tourism in different beach destinations);
introduce a best-practice benchmarking system;
evaluate whether the political measures and instruments with which we respond to different problems have led to the intended results or how they have failed.

A major problem is posed by the fact that there is no consistent system of data collection for tourism and the environment at the community level in Europe. Local communities very often do not have the capacity to collect new data, so that we are bound to prioritise and concentrate on those cases where tourism is highly dependent on or where tourism plays a major – positive or negative – role in sustainable development.

What is a destination?
A destination within this project is any kind of territory which brands itself as a tourism brand and is perceived as such by the general public. Usually a destination is defined by geographic or topographic criteria. To facilitate statistical analysis we propose that boundaries of destinations should always follow the boundaries of municipalities, so that a destination can consist of one or more municipalities.