Sustainability
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Sustainability and growth – What is it all about? It is the ambition of the Scottish tourism industry to grow by 50% in the next ten years, however that growth has to be in a sensible and sustainable manner. If that growth is done in the wrong way it will have an impact on our natural resources, scenery and brand image. If we look abroad there are many examples of how over development or climate change is impacting on tourism. These include Machu Picchu, which attracts 500,000 visitors a year, but their feet are eroding the stone foundations and footpaths away. The Coral Reefs of Florida attract thousands of tourists, but due to popularity of diving the marine environment is beginning to suffer. In order to understand the implications of growth in a sustainable way, the scenario planning group for tourism commissioned the Future Foundation to examine the issues. The report highlights that sustainability depends on economic well being of tourism, as sustainability is about communities, business, the environment and social dimensions – a holistic rather than pure environmental issue, as each dimension is important but dependent upon each other. There is a close match between consumer trends and Scotland which will fuel our ambitions, these include the consumers desire for authenticity, health and well-being and escapism. For all of these trends, Scotland offers a number products and experiences. In fact according to the Tourism Attitudes Survey, the main reasons for visitation are;
In order to manage increased visitation, Scotland needs to use a number of migrating and adaptation strategies. By mitigation we mean the ways to limit damage caused by increasing numbers of visitors and by adaptation we mean the pro-active changes that can be implemented in order to manage visitor flows. The report highlights three case studies of such practices;
Please download the report ..here |
