What is the Difference Between Sustainable and Responsible Tourism

The main difference between sustainable and responsible tourism is that sustainable tourism focuses on long term change, while responsible tourism focuses on short term change.

Sustainable tourism and responsible tourism are two types of tourism that focus on maximizing the positive impacts of tourism on the society, environment and economy. This type of tourism is not only focused on generating income, unlike mass tourism.

Key Areas Covered

1. What is Sustainable Tourism
     – Definition, Goals, Features
2. What is Responsible Tourism
     – Definition, Goals, Features
3. What is the Difference Between Sustainable and Responsible Tourism
     – Comparison of Key Differences

Key Terms

Sustainable Tourism, Responsible Tourism, Mass Tourism

What is Sustainable Tourism

Sustainable tourism is basically the concept of traveling and exploring a destination as a tourist while respecting the culture, environment and people of that destination. In brief, sustainable tourism involves tourism that has positive impacts on the society, environment and economy. UNWTO, the World Tourism Organization (a United Nations specialized agency), defines sustainable tourism as “tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.”

Before understanding the concept of sustainable tourism, it’s important to know about the concept of mass tourism. This is the type of tourism that average travelers participate in; this includes things like hotel tour packages, cruises, and huge beach parties. Mass tourism is mainly focused on generating income. It does not give any importance to local residents, traditions or natural resources. In fact, most of the income generated from mass tourism goes to large companies and does not support the country or location you visit. Sustainable tourism is a better alternative to mass tourism. Unlike mass tourism, sustainable tourism is not only focused on generating income. It also focuses on interacting authentically with the local culture. In fact, sustainable tourism involves:

• Making the best possible use of environmental resources in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to protect biodiversity and natural resources.
• Respecting the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, protecting their living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contributing to inter-cultural understanding and tolerance
• Guaranteeing feasible, long-term economic operations, fair provision and distribution of socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities, and social services to host communities, while contributing to poverty alleviation.

What is Responsible Tourism

Responsible Tourism is about creating “better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit.” In other words, it is about using tourism, instead of being used by it. It minimizes adverse social, economic and environmental impacts of tourism and generates greater economic benefits for local people.

Unlike sustainable tourism, which is concerned with global issues and tries changing the tourism industry as a whole, responsible tourism focuses more on individual actions and individual destinations. Therefore, responsible tourism involves identifying economic, social and environmental issues which are locally significant. It also involves bringing the stakeholders together to exercise responsibility for these issues and take actions. In brief, responsible tourism focuses on how people, businesses and governments contribute to maximizing the positive economic, social and environmental impacts of tourism.

Difference Between Sustainable and Responsible Tourism

Definition

Sustainable tourism is basically the concept of traveling and exploring a destination as a tourist while respecting the culture, environment and people of that destination. Responsible tourism is the concept of creating better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit.

Type of Change

Moreover, sustainable tourism typically focuses on global issues like climate change and attempts to change the tourism industry as a whole, but responsible travel focuses more on individual actions and individual destinations. Hence, sustainable tourism focuses on long term change, while responsible tourism focuses on short term change.

Conclusion

Sustainable tourism is the concept of traveling and exploring a destination as a tourist while respecting the culture, environment and people of that destination. Responsible tourism is about creating better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit. Sustainable tourism focuses on long term change while responsible tourism focuses on short term change. Thus, this is the main difference between sustainable and responsible tourism. 

Reference:

1. “Sustainable Development .” UNWTO – World Tourism Organization, Available here.
2. “Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism.” Responsible Tourism Partnership, 8 Apr. 2020, Available here.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Aerial Photo of Green Vegetation Covered Island” By Tom Fisk (CC0) via Pexels
2. “5160131” (CC0) via Pixabay