MEDITERRANEAN ACTION PLAN

Rapport de l’Atelier sur le tourisme et le développement durable en Méditerranée
Antaly (Turquie), 17, 18 & 19 septembre 1998
Travel and Tourism industry. (199S. p.134). They are:
Recognise Refuse
Replace Reduce
Re-Use Recycle
Re-engineer Retrain
Reward Re-educate
At the present time the barriers to achieving greater sustainability among tourism
businesses are lack of awareness on the one hand, and the structural domination of
SMEs within the tourism industry inhibiting action, on the other hand. This
author believes the problems for sustainability in both demand and supply,
however, are capable of resolution by supporting and developing existing initiatives
and programmes. The main problems do not lie with demand and supply.
S EGMENTING TOURISM DEMAND TO ACHIEVE MORE SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT - TWO GUIDING PRINCIPLES
We can be absolutely certain that attempts to manage tourism as a broadly
homogeneous total market will fail (Middleton and Hawkins 1998: p.55).
If it is accepted that there are clear directions for greater sustainability between
buyers and sellers, attention should concentrate on the management of local
destinations in which demand and supply meet. This is the logical strategic focus
for the sustainability debate over the next decade.
As noted in the WTO definition, modern tourism at local destinations invariably
comprises a mix of market segments. The first guiding principle for more
sustainable development is, therefore, that segments must be identified and
measured locally in terms of the key variables which define them as individuals,
and the patterns of their behaviour as it affects the environment. For example,
young people on minimum economy budgets walking mountain paths in summer or
skiing in winter will have far greater negative impacts on physical, economic and
cultural environments of destinations than older people visiting a music or other
cultural festival and staying in hotels.
The second guiding principle is that tackling the impact of tourism on the
environment and achieving more sustainable development are always matters for
specific visitor management techniques at any given destination. Such techniques,
including planning procedures, fiscal incentives and controls, licensing of tourism
operations, promotion and the provision of information to influence visitors, have
been well developed over the last quarter of a century. To be effective, however,
they have to be discriminated and adjusted to targeted segments.
Continuous measurement of segments and of the ways in which visitor
management techniques influence visitor behaviour lies at the heart of more
sustainable development for tourist destinations. Failure to undertake such
research on a systematic and regular basis emerges as a major factor inhibiting
environmental progress in tourism destinations in all parts of the world. Absence
of adequate information is the cause of much of the current difficulty in dealing
with tourism. Research is required for setting goals and specific targets, for
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Plan Bleu