Browsing by Subject "Sustainable tourism"

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    A Progress Evaluation of National Geographic’s Geotourism Program
    (2012-04-25) Nystrom, Joel; Brouwer, Susannah; Torres, Hannah; Stern, Tamar
    National Geographic’s Geotourism Program is a sustainable tourism initiative designed to ease the negative impacts of mass tourism through a branding opportunity and grassroots structure that empowers local stakeholders to showcase regional and cultural identity. While previous studies on National Geographic’s Geotourism Program have investigated the potential and achieved successes from certain perspectives, the Geotourism charter mandates that program evaluation should consider all stakeholder interests (Boley 2009, Leonard 2011). This study contributes to a comprehensive evaluation by analyzing progress from a previously unexplored perspective: that of the participating sites in two regions: Sierra Nevada and Crown of the Continent (COTC) region. Quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments gather information from participating sites that then is evaluated by indicators in three categories: social, environmental and economic. Social impact proves to be the strongest success of the project as participants are encouraged to learn about the assets of their region, and share regional information with visitors. The study also reveals that participants who buy into the Geotourism Project by educating visitors and incorporating it into their business planning documents recognize the greatest degree of project impact. Analysis of the results yields recommendations for how stakeholder education and involvement, impact measurement, and project positioning can be more effectively integrated into each destination’s strategic plan.
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    Community-Based Tourism as a Sustainable Development Strategy - With a Focus on the Caribbean Region
    (2020-04-24) Maggio, Caitlin
    The travel and tourism industry continues to steadily grow and is one of the largest industries globally based on GDP contributions. Tourism is a significant part of the Caribbean region’s economy and has many socio-economic and environmental benefits. However, without proper management, risks associated with climate change and inequity persist and may increase. Balancing the necessity of attracting tourists to sustain and improve livelihoods while protecting biodiversity and managing environmental assets is challenging. This study focuses on how Community-Based Tourism (CBT) can be a viable development and conservation strategy within the tourism value chain by mitigating some of the associated risks. The methods utilized during this study include interviews with travel industry experts, a market survey, and a supplemental literature review. The results of this project include a market strategy focused on five categories to attract more visitors to the region and an evaluation of existing barriers associated with sustainable environmental measurement systems used by tourism operators or destinations. The results reveal the challenges and mitigation strategies associated with data collection, incentives for community participation, and the need for prioritization of indicators based on the volume of tourists and environmental impacts. For Community-Based Tourism locations to be successful, there needs to be both a strong marketing strategy to attract tourists and a prioritization of environmental indicators that evolve. Balancing the promotion and protection of assets is essential to obtaining long-term sustainable development.
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    Developing a Sustainable Tourism Framework for the Outer Banks National Scenic Byway
    (2016-04-23) Hooper, Patricia; Dykman, Alyssa; Shervanick, Kara
    The Outer Banks National Scenic Byway (OBNSB) is a 142.5-mile driving route located along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, one of the state’s most profitable and popular tourist destinations. Spanning across three coastal counties—Carteret, Dare, and Hyde— the OBNSB region supports a growing tourism industry, with a spectrum of impacts that need to be assessed. To address this, we present a framework to measure the current and potential economic, environmental, and social impacts of increasing coastal and marine tourism along the OBNSB. The framework is centered on the utilization of sustainability indicators, informed by an extensive literature review, interviews with select stakeholders in coastal communities, and an analysis of socio-economic and ecological data. The final report provides North Carolina Sea Grant (NCSG), as well as local communities and organizations, with planning information to improve regional economic and environmental conditions and optimize local goals for sustainable tourism development.
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    Setting Standards for Sustainable Tourism: An analysis of US tourism certification programs
    (2009-04-24T14:50:19Z) Poser, Elizabeth
    As one of the biggest industries in the world, tourism has huge positive and negative socioeconomic, cultural and environmental impacts. Over the past fifteen years, a plethora of tourism certification programs have sprung up worldwide in an effort to recognize tourism businesses who truly work to reduce negative impacts by using sustainable practices. This worldwide proliferation of tourism certification programs, however, has led to consumer confusion, lack of brand recognition and widely varying standards. With a global accreditation body looming on the horizon that aims to create a single recognizable sustainable tourism brand, tourism certification programs will soon have the opportunity to become accredited by complying with minimum standards that will be determined by the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council. Accreditation will provide certification programs with the legitimacy and credibility they need to differentiate their programs, and thus the certified tourism businesses, from others with weaker standards, and may eventually lead to a shift of the tourism industry towards more sustainable practices. Here I use the best practice standards for tourism certification programs as laid out in the Mohonk Agreement, and the recently released Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria, envisioned to serve as the common set of baseline criteria by which to accredit certification programs, to evaluate four state-level tourism certification programs as case studies in the United States. In assuming that these standards and criteria are the minimum requirements that need to be met for a certification program to become accredited, I find that none of these four programs, and presumably none of the US state-level programs as they currently stand, will meet accreditation requirements. I discuss the challenges these programs have in complying with best practice standards and in fulfilling the triple bottom line principles of environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural sustainability as specified by the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. I also conjecture what the future may look like for these programs and US tourism certification in general.