Sustainable tourism

All 193 member states of the United Nations have just adopted a new global standard to measure the sustainability of tourism.

The Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism is now the internationally agreed reference framework for measuring the economic, social and environmental aspects of tourism.

Its adoption by the UN Statistical Commission at its 15th session marks a historical milestone toward harnessing the full potential of the sector, providing a solution to the pressing need for a harmonized methodology to effectively assess the sustainability of tourism.

According to UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, the adoption of this groundbreaking statistical framework also marks a paradigm shift, going beyond GDP by enabling the measurement of what matters most to people and planet, even as he emphasized that tourism is a powerful force for positive change when managed responsibly and sustainably.

Sustainable tourism, as defined by the UN World Tourism Organization, is the 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 systems.

But in order to achieve this, key players including tourists, local communities, government agencies and the tourism industry which includes travel agents, tour operators, airline companies, hotels, restaurants and tourism sites all have to work together.

How our major tourist destinations will fare under this new method of measuring sustainability remains to be seen but we are pretty sure that most will fail.

Remember when in 2018, Boracay was temporarily closed to the public for a much-needed rehabilitation and redevelopment. The island had been described as the poster child for over tourism. Then president Rodrigo Duterte described Boracay as a cesspool, with many businesses discharging untreated sewer waste into the sea.

According to a study, Boracay can accommodate 54,945 people at a time but its existing population of more than 70,700 already exceeded its carrying capacity by almost 30 percent. In 2018, 195 businesses and almost four thousand households were not connected to the sewage network. About 400 hotels and restaurants were ordered closed for violating local environmental laws while establishments built within the 30-meter shoreline easement were demolished.

Following Boracay’s six-month closure, the Department of Tourism issued a warning to local government units in five major tourist destinations, namely El Nido in Palawan, Panglao in Bohol, Oslob in Cebu, La Union and Baguio to follow environmental laws.

A national task force created to oversee the island imposed a limit on the number of visitors.

An article in the New York Times pointed out that few spots across the globe have implemented caps on the number of visitors long-term, so that it is an open question as to whether Boracay which is about an hour south of Manila by plane can find a real and lasting solution to over tourism. And since the national task force was dissolved in June 2022, oversight was returned to local government officials; some of them want to lift some of the restrictions.

The same article noted that many islands are especially susceptible to over tourism because of their fixed space and limited options for economic development. It cited a 2022 report titled “Overcoming Overtourism: A Review of Failure” that looked at dozens of destinations around the world including Boracay and which said that one of the key issues facing destinations is that almost everyone making money out of tourists wants more, and is not prepared to limit, let alone reduce numbers.

The report concluded that “wishful thinking about a smaller, greener tourism industry operating on a non capitalistic framework is likely to remain just that – misplaced optimism.” It said that tourism is in a similar situation to climate change, with a lot of people agreeing that there are problems, but few have realistic and acceptable solutions, and so a major change in general attitudes is needed.”

After Boracay, Baguio City undoubtedly comes close in terms of unsustainability when it comes to tourism and economic development.

In 2018, the NEDA research and development division commissioned a group of researchers to determine the carrying capacity of Baguio. The group concluded that Baguio has long exceeded its carrying capacity and if nothing is done to reverse it, the summer capital of the Philippines will no longer be livable in the next 20 to 25 years.

According to the study, Baguio is one of the most densely populated cities in the country with around 2,400 individuals per square kilometer. Ideally, it said that each person would need 1.9 hectares for sustainable living and that at least 122 Baguio cities are needed to meet this ideal balance between people and the environment.

Meanwhile, another study by the DENR revealed that Baguio residents are experiencing tourism fatigue because of the overcrowding they experience every time there is a surge of tourist arrivals especially during peak tourism season. Tourism fatigue is due to the fact that residents need to share limited resources and facilities in the city such as space, roads and domestic water.

Maybe we should follow Bhutan’s principle of “high value, low volume” tourism.

Bhutan not only caps tourist numbers to protect its natural resources and fight climate change, it also charges each tourist a daily fee of $200, down from $250 previously, to be used to fund conservation and development projects.

Sustainability experts are saying that the traditional approach of evaluating tourism through visitor numbers alone is outdated and damaging to the sector, so that governments should consider ways of welcoming people for longer and more considered stays.

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