Designing for Sustainable Tourism

Ashok Khosla

The contribution of tourism to economic development is well known and widely appreciated.
The question we have to now address is whether the tourism sector can be made more
sustainable, to contribute to sustainable national development.
There are many schools of thought on the impacts of tourism. Some people emphasize the
enhanced cultural interaction which leads to better global understanding, national integration
and cross fertilisation of ideas. Policy makers are particularly attracted by the promise of
additional income, foreign exchange and job creation. Others tend to focus on the costs,
particularly inflation, induced scarcity, economic vulnerability, loss of cultural identify, social
disruption and environmental degradation. To all this the first group usually responds that
any development entails making sacrifices.
The question is development for whom? And at what cost? We need a new analytical
framework to understand the costs and benefits of tourism and the distributional aspects of
this sector.

If developoment is to continue into the future in a reasonably systematic way, it must satisfy
four criteria. Firstly, all developmental activities must be efficient. Second, their outputs must
be distributed equitably. Third, any activity must be environmentally sound, to be
sustainable. Second, their outputs must be distributed equitably. Third, any activity must be
environmentally sound, to be sustainable. Finally, to achieve these first three “E”s of
efficiency, equity and environmental soundness, we need a pattern of development that is
endogenous. It must come from within the culture and creative genius of the people
themselves.
Properly designed tourism can certainly be net positive in its impact. But today it is not
properly designed and the costs are high. We are paying too much for the tourist dollar.
A minimum investment of at least two percent of the total tourism revenue should be
allocated for research and building research capacity. Even a one percent commitment
would provide Rs. 40 crore for research and could yield several hundred crores of additional
income.
Tourism can be analysed in many ways. Planners talk about tourism for specific purposes
and functions: recreational, educational, cultural, spiritual, ethnic, sports, scientific,
adventure, wild life and even industrial. Tourism statistics can be broken down by the origin
of tourism - domestic or international, by the ability to spend and by the standards of facilities
required. Looking at the strategies, attention in the tourism sector needs to be given to the
issue of total quality management, and, indeed to total environmental quality management.
We also have to look at the involvement of the major stake-holder, the touree – the local
people – and ensure that the benefits that accrue go to the local communities.

Total quality management forces us to design processes to fulfil functions holistically from the
point of view of the customer. At the moment the tourist is consigned to the kind of fate to
which we consign all others. “It is not our problem”. But in total quality management
everything becomes our problem.
We also have to improve the resilience of the tourism sector. We have paid a huge cost in
our country for the seasonality or other fluctuations in our tourism. The people who work and
should benefit from tourism. The people who work and should benefit from tourism. The
people who work and should benefit from tourism, namely the tourees often work for no more
than four months a year.
Perhaps we now need to set up a Czar for tourism, or an Ombudsman. To take meaningful
corrective action he or she must have quasi- judicial powers and be able to enforce
implementation of better standards. The people in the host communities have to learn to
accept local control and therefore local responsibility for the tourists. The private sectors’ job
is to establish and operate tourist facilities, to comply with the regulations that are set for
them. Independent organisations like NGOs, consumer protection organisations and other
voluntary agencies are crucial but need to be supported by the government to be able to
serve watch-dog functions.
The government’s job is to regulate, not to do. It has the responsibility to protect the
interests of local people, of natural and cultural heritage, of the trees, animals and natural
resources and of tourees. It should also provide training and support for research,
monitoring and evaluation of tourist facilities.