MEDITERRANEAN ACTION PLAN

Rapport de l’Atelier sur le tourisme et le développement durable en Méditerranée
Antaly (Turquie), 17, 18 & 19 septembre 1998
is fine as an aspiration or slogan but it gives no indication as to how it can be
achieved.
More specifically Middleton and Hawkins (1998 p. ix) defined it as « achieving a
particular combination of numbers and types of visitors, the cumulative effect of
whose activities at a given destination, together with the activities of the servicing
businesses, can continue into the foreseeable future without damaging the qualities
of the environment on which the activities are based » . This is a definition capable
of being turned into specific goals and targets that can be researched and
monitored over time.
It is important to note also the current WTO definition of tourism which covers
visits for all purposes, both staying overnight and day visits. The definition
embraces travel for business, social and recreational purposes as well as holiday
travel. It is relevant to towns, cities and rural areas as well as to coastal and
mountain resorts for summer and winter holidays. So-called ecotourism is a minor
part of all tourism and is a wholly misleading focus for sustainability, which has to
be applied to the overall perspective of tourism as it is internationally defined.
As presented in the various definitions, sustainability in its tourism context
appears to be a relatively simple concept. It requires, however, a massively complex
process to achieve it. This is because tourism demand nearly always comprises a
wide range of segments and the tourism industry comprises many different sectors
of supply - primarily SMEs as defined by the European Commission, and mostly
micro-operators with less than 10 employees. Also because tourism activities
involve many branches and agencies of government, such as transport, planning,
culture and economic policy, at national, regional and local level. And it affects the
lives of local communities that tourists visit. Environmental issues generally are
increasingly regulated at European level all the way down to community level and
local Agenda 21 programmes, although specific regulation for tourism is much less
common other than for the operations of airlines.
Sustainable development has implications for the quality of the ecological and
national environment, the quality of the lives of host populations (social
environment) and the prosperity of the economic environment, especially the
creation of jobs and incomes that justifies investment in sustaining the overall
environment of a destination. Of course, it is important to stress that tourism
pressures, however strong they may be in specific destinations, are usually only a
relatively minor part of the total pressure on the overall environment. Greater
pressures come typically from the economic activities of rising populations as they
seek to acquire a better standard of living as measured in late 20 th century
« needs » such as personal transport, heating and air conditioning, waste disposal
and environmentally intensive recreation and sports activities.
M ORE SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ACHIEVE IN PRACTICE
UNLESS CUSTOMERS DEMAND IT - AND ARE PREPARED TO PAY
On the first point, although the available research evidence is never as clear as we
would wish because most consumers do not think in terms of the jargon used by
sustainable pressure groups, green politicians and regulators, I believe there is
overwhelming evidence that a majority of customers are already very well aware of
the importance of environmental values. They expect to find them on holiday but
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Plan Bleu