What is the impact of sustainable tourism on the development of specialist T.O and the type of product and?
type of products activities they offer?
Sustainable tourism is based on the principles of a sustainable development in general. In the case of specialised tour operators it concerns three main areas:
- Sustainable management at home level: managing the office sustainably, using printing materials as little as possible or offsetting CO2 emissions are examples of this;
- On destination level: the services offered should be as sustainable as possible and on this basis tour operators should select their services. In this respect there seems to exist a widespread agreement that just labelling services as being sustainably sound is not enough and may even turn away potential tourists; a type of choice editing towards the tourist seems to be more suitable. Specialised tour operators have the advantage of their in-depth knowledge of specific services offered;
- On tourists’ level: tourists should be made aware of sustainability issues and foot prints they may leave; there is no sustainable tourism without “sustainable” tourists and the tour operator should play an important role to achieve this goal – little tangible as it may seem at times. The use of social media may be important and again this may be to the advantage of the smaller specialised tour operators.
Sustainable tourism is based on the principles of a sustainable development in general. In the case of specialised tour operators it concerns three main areas:
- Sustainable management at home level: managing the office sustainably, using printing materials as little as possible or offsetting CO2 emissions are examples of this;
- On destination level: the services offered should be as sustainable as possible and on this basis tour operators should select their services. In this respect there seems to exist a widespread agreement that just labelling services as being sustainably sound is not enough and may even turn away potential tourists; a type of choice editing towards the tourist seems to be more suitable. Specialised tour operators have the advantage of their in-depth knowledge of specific services offered;
- On tourists’ level: tourists should be made aware of sustainability issues and foot prints they may leave; there is no sustainable tourism without “sustainable” tourists and the tour operator should play an important role to achieve this goal – little tangible as it may seem at times. The use of social media may be important and again this may be to the advantage of the smaller specialised tour operators.
References :
http://www.tourismtheories.org