Sustainable Island Tourism

Competitiveness and Quality of Life

Patrizia Modica, Muzaffer Uysal

• Publisher: CAB International
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781786391308
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Tourism continues to grow, and as the industry develops, it is important for researchers and practitioners to fully understand and examine issues such as sustainability, competiveness, and stakeholder quality of life in tourism centres around the world. Focusing on the unique perspective of island tourism destinations, this book outlines impacts on, and potential strategies for protecting, the natural environment, local economy, and local culture. Presenting an interdisciplinary integrated approach, this important collection of new research: - Is the first book to provide coverage on sustainable tourism best practice in island destinations;- Focuses on the unique perspective of islands as destinations, exploring the interplays of competitiveness and quality of life;- Includes a portfolio of conceptual, empirical, and case-based studies written by international experts to give a balanced and comprehensive view. A timely and important read for researchers, students and practitioners of tourism, this book also provides a valuable resource for researchers of sustainability and environmental science.

Part I Sustainable Island Tourism

1
Sustainability and Tourism Development in Island Territories

PATRIZIA MODICA^1* AND MUZAFFER UYSAL²

¹University of Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy; ²University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA

1.1 Introduction

This chapter analyses the concept of sustainability and island development, related problems and constraints in tension between heritage and landscape conservation and economic development. What type of tourism in island destinations is more suitable? Either mass or elite tourism, both need a solid base of sustainable principles and management practices. Islands are very peculiar, due to several circumstances, e.g. cultural and political. Moreover, the condition of isolation makes these destinations unique places in the world, with regard to the natural environment and related ecosystem, which deserves attention to guarantee a balance between the need for both conservation and development. Specifically, tourism development has been considered a viable green economic growth for decades, since the WBGU (1996) declared mass tourism as one of our planet’s seven syndromes. The unique and fragile equilibrium in the natural, social, cultural and economic domains that characterizes island destinations devoted or developing tourism activities, constitutes the reason to undertake the current study.

What does equilibrium for island destinations mean and how can it be measured? The notion of equilibrium has been referred, in literature, to complex systems in tourism (Faulkner and Russell, 2001; Baggio, 2008; Yang and Sun, 2013) and destination networks (Scott et al., 2008; Beaumont and Dredge, 2010) but, with reference to island destinations, it is relatively little studied (Pechlaner et al., 2003). Considering the three pillars in which sustainable tourism is usually regarded (UNWTO, 2004; UNEP and UNWTO, 2005; ILO, 2010), it seems that the environmental, social and economic aspects are all essential to discuss about equilibriums in island destinations. These aspects of sustainability are substantially meaningless if the managerial aspect in sustainable tourism (Miller and Twining-Ward, 2005) is not addressed (Modica, 2015). The branch of literature addressing sustainability in complex systems, such as destinations, has been developed in the last decades in terms of adaptive management (Schianetz et al., 2007; Plummer and Fennell, 2009; Karatzoglou and Spilanis, 2010; McCook et al., 2010; Larson and Poudyal, 2012). In general, a place shows its natural, historical, cultural and basic elements to attract visitors, none the less the management of tourism in destinations can have positive or negative effects upon the environment to be preserved, or developed, in the perspective of future existence and prosperity in the medium to long term. In this regard, McMahon (1999) affirms ‘no place will retain its special appeal by accident’. Tourism can be either the engine of floridity or degradation, depending on the way in which it is managed at the different levels, supra-national, national or sub-national (UNWTO, 2004; Hall et al., 2015).

The concept of equilibrium, and its opposing situation – disequilibrium – in island destinations can be expressed considering two prevalent tourism theories: the Carrying Capacity (K) and the related theorization of the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) for a punctual framework on the balance of the previous mentioned opposing situations (Ahn et al., 2002; Lusseau, 2008) and the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) theorized in 1980 by Butler. TALC in this chapter becomes functional to relate the key variable of destination equilibrium to the specific phases that tourism areas can pass through from the initial stage of exploration, when visitors start to explore an area, to the possible final stage of decline, when a resort area has constantly been abandoned by tourists and tourism services (Hall, 2006; Lagiewski, 2006).

1.2 Theoretical Approach of the Study

Tourism areas as islands encounter major or minor difficulties in the development of tourism activities, compared to mainland territories, depending on the aspects of sustainability to be managed. The geographical and morphological peculiarity of a land facing the sea all over its boundaries can be both a strength for the preservation of the natural and cultural heritage and a weakness for island economic development due to the restrictions in the attribute of destination accessibility. Accessibility in a broad sense can be defined as the possibility for a population to access a destination ‘via road, air passenger services, rail or cruise ships’ (UNWTO, 2007, p. 2). In general, the more or less 50,000 islands in the world are not accessible via road or railway; this allows us to regard the island as a world on its own, either sustainable for impediments to reach it – and the consequent low human pressure on the environment – or not sustainable due to the objective limitation in its accessibility. The preservation of a destination as an island and the natural development of visitor services in the different stages of a TALC highlight the compromise between two opposite situations and their management in the perspective of equilibrium of territories, people and organizations. The theory of Carrying Capacity appears suitable to investigate the application of the theme equilibrium (Holden, 2008; Lusseau, 2008) in islands as tourism destinations (Kersetter and Bricker, 2012). Another theory in literature seems strictly related to the discussion on island tourism and its relationship with the key aspects of sustainability, competitiveness and quality of life developed in this chapter, the Limit of Acceptable Change theorization (Frauman and Banks, 2011), considered in literature as the operationalization (Ahn et al., 2002) of the more speculative theory of the Carrying Capacity. The TALC has the potential in this book to contextualize islands, which are analysed through case studies on prevalently small island destinations, depending on the phase of their life cycle of development. With TALC, Butler (1980) develops a pattern based upon the product cycle concept. Sales are initially slow, progress rapidly, then become stable and eventually decline. A similar process can be observed in tourism areas. At first, places encounter restrictions related to access, facilities, information and knowledge, and visitor numbers are not significant. After this stage, facilities will become available and knowledge of the area will spread, resulting in increased visitor numbers. The popularity of the destination will develop quickly through marketing campaigns and further investments supporting the provision of hospitality services to tourists. None the less, if destinations reach levels of resource use exceeding their carrying capacity, they can enter a phase of decline and experience a decrease in visitor numbers. From less developed to developed island areas, the challenge of sustainability can be declined in diverse ways, with different categories of stakeholders involved and tourism segments attracted in that area, as it is represented in the case studies the contributors to this book on islands and tourism have analysed and deepened.

In the following pages, a critical analysis of the literature is conducted, and linkages to the main themes of the book are correspondingly discussed.

Carrying Capacity theorization follows the spread of the environmental consciousness worldwide in the second half of the 20th century. The conservation of the environment for benefiting also next generations is regarded in the aspects of economy, society, tourist satisfaction and the natural environment as well (UNWTO, 2004). Environmental concern in sustainable development characterizes the period of the late 1980s (Ahn et al., 2002), since the World Commission on Economic Development (WCED) stated the most recognized definition that associates sustainability and development that ‘seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future’ (WCED, 1987, p. 34). Known as the Brundtland Report, it disseminated the popularity of the concept highlighting major concerns for global agendas, and still having the power to influence the debate (Telfer, 2012) on long-term viability of good development for the quality of natural and human resources. Tourism discussion adopted, then, the sustainable development paradigm. Ecotourism, responsible tourism, accessible tourism, community-based tourism and the like, were considered suitable forms of developing tourism in a sustainable way. Growth of evolution of viable strategies and managerial practices in the perspective of sustainable development gave the stage to public planning and governmental regulations, corporate social responsibility adoption, environmental certifications and codes of conduct (Telfer, 2012). A holistic vision of a tourism area includes all the components of tourism sustainability referred also to the various stakeholders, including host communities and visitors, and the management of natural and social resources.

While the diffusion of the Brundtland Report can be regarded as a milestone in the development of sustainable concerns about the environment, it also represents the affirmation of a human-centred approach to sustainable development (Butler, 1999; Fennel, 2006; Telfer, 2012). Limits to economic growth are determined by the combination of both the natural sphere and human activities. In this perspective the capacity of a tourism area to carry on a managed and monitored growth in tourism flows and services, i.e. Carrying Capacity, and the limitation accepted by primary stakeholders in the development of an area, i.e. Limits of Acceptable Change or Use, appears strictly related to the stage of development in which a geographic area can be classified, from involvement to decline, i.e. TALC. The ability of public and private managers to planning and monitoring a destination system through managerial practices such as K and LAC, and the approach of stakeholders, that are also citizens and visitors, can influence the direction of the tourism area curve of life, towards floridity or degradation. Respectively, in the first hypothesis the curve will see an increase of tourism flows during time; in the second hypothesis the curve of life of a tourism resort will see a gradual decrease of tourism flows and related tourism services over time.

Sustainable tourism management in destinations can include different tools and good practices, with the involvement of public and private interests to the environment, and international organizations involved in the preservation of the natural, cultural and historical heritage. The possible positive effects and impacts of the management of tourism in a sustainable perspective can be shown through a summarized graphic representation in Fig. 1.1. Besides the environmental advantages, also the economic and social benefit that can affect the level of employment of human resources and profitability of businesses (McCool et al., 2001; Choi and Sirakaya, 2006; Zuzana and Zuzana, 2015) is highlighted; in other words the wealth of a community in a managed and monitored environment.

In Fig. 1.1, the role of the managerial tools derived by the K theory and LAC to develop strategies of a tourism area is evident. The relationship between planning through a managerial approach, the variegated measures to be adopted, and the two theories considered, are briefly discussed to provide a practical framework of reference.

The management and monitoring of tourism impacts on the social and natural environment can be considered as independent variables and have the potential to maintain the linkages between the multifaceted aspect of the core theme of sustainability and its conjugation in destinations worldwide.

The UN World Tourism Organization defines carrying capacity as ‘the maximum number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time without causing destruction of the physical, economic or socio-cultural environment and an unacceptable decrease in the quality of the tourist satisfaction’ (UNWTO, 1992, p. 23). The well-known ambits of sustainability, which are environment, economy, community and tourist satisfaction (UNWTO, 2004), are highlighted. Typically, K analysis is used for destination tourism planning as an impulse to estimate quantitatively the number of tourists an area can accommodate. This characteristic is appropriate to discuss sustainable tourism development, as well as in the context of island tourism and development perspectives considered in the island case study of the current chapter.

Farrell (1992) and Holden (2008) refer to four typologies of capacity to be managed in tourism planning: economic, psychological, environmental and social. First, the economic capacity of the tourism industry is crucial to the destination equilibrium. It is intended to provide a limitation in the development of tourism services to avoid a disequilibrium determined by a possible dependency of the destination economy upon tourism. This issue is particularly evident in destinations affected by seasonality of tourism and concentration of tourism flows in time and space. Second, the psychological capacity of a destination is linked to the level of satisfaction expressed by visitors, which can diminish in case of disequilibrium in some aspects of capacity the tourism area can carry. Third, environmental capacity is easier to perceive, as damages in this aspect are immediately detectable. Therefore, also destination stakeholders will straightforwardly realize the consequences of disruptive practices. Finally, the social carrying capacity represents an essential feature, as it consists of the reaction of the local community to tourism.

Fig. 1.1. Sustainable tourism management: frameworks and tools (Modica, 2015, p. 40).

A fundamental assumption is that the four different types in which K can be expressed and measured are not simultaneously essential for destination equilibrium in the short-term. An increased number of tourists in a natural area, that needs to be protected, can cause a modification in the natural environment, but the management and monitoring of the changes can direct actions to the preservation of that environment and the renewed equilibrium. In the medium- and long-term perspective, equilibriums are essentials for the conservation of a tourism area as a destination. Conversely, long-term lack of equilibriums in the social, environmental and economic aspects of sustainability can preclude the existence of a territory for tourism activities.

Tourism literature provides operationalization of destination carrying capacity with LAC, through a cooperative approach among different categories of stakeholder that can be involved in destination tourism development and planning decision-making, favouring the conditions for a dynamic equilibrium. Essentially, the LAC framework allows to assess the impacts of activities on tourism destination areas (Mbaiwa, 2015), regarded as complex systems including different dimensions managed using monitoring tools to evaluate policies’ effectiveness in the social, economic and environmental aspects. As McCool highlights (2012), LAC is both a step-based framework (see Table 1.2, incorporating LAC steps adopted in the case study island) to define management planning and actions required, and a destination issue for debate, i.e. a discussion over the suitability and tolerability of varied situations. This second view has been used in the following case study destination.

1.3 A Case Study of the Island of Sant’Antioco, Sardinia, Italy

This case study refers to a typical example of a small island in the Mediterranean Sea with a potential increase in the development rate, including sustainable tourism: the island of Sant’Antioco, located off the south-western coast of the island of Sardinia, Italy. The selection of this island has been also influenced by its morphological feature: an island proximal to another island. Sant’Antioco is situated in the sea surrounding Sardinia and is linked to it, both far from the peninsular territory of Italy, i.e. an island of an island.

The case study focuses on a relevant category of stakeholders in a sustainable destination development: local entrepreneurs, a small group of which, working within the tourism and related sectors, such as hotels, B&B, restaurants, agri-food, fishery and transportation, was involved. A first approach to local entrepreneurs in this area of Sardinia (Sulcis) was facilitated, previously to this study, thanks to the participation of a university consortium research project ‘Beautiful mines’ submitted to the Sardinian regional government for tourism planning in this territory. Currently the research project is being subjected to evaluation. Lack of funding explains a general qualitative approach applied to the in-field activities, together with the difficulty in the retrieval of specific touristic data of the island.

The case study focus...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Editors and Contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• Part I Sustainable Island Tourism
• Part II Competitiveness and Quality of Life
• Part III Sustainability and Alternative Resource Use
• Part IV Challenges and Future Research Directions
• Index