Sustainable Tourism

The aim of the course is to acquaint students with the principles of action of subjects and participants in the tourism market with regard to the preservation and development of the resources of this market with the possibility of developing the natural, social and economic environment in which tourism activities occur.

Study literature – required:

Study literature – recommended:

  • Weaver, D. (2005). Sustainable Tourism. Taylor and Francis.
  • Journal of Sustainable Tourism
  • Tourism Management
  • Journal of Heritage Tourism

Themes

  1. Background and definitions
  2. “Natural” Environment
  3. Implementation of sustainable tourism
  4. Sustainable destination
  5. Sustainability in hospitality and transportation
  6. Sustainability and attractions
  7. Food, waste management, energy and water in the tourism industry
  8. Tourism in protected areas
  9. Tourism and heritage sites
  10. Future prospects of sustainable tourism

Lectures

Lecture 01: Background and definitions

STUDY LITERATURE

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  1. An introduction to the fundamentals of the tourism industry.
  2. The importance of sustainable development in tourism.
  3. The link between tourism and consumerism and consumption.
  4. A focus on human nature and how this knowledge is viewed as essential in better
    understanding tourists on an atomistic scale, as well as the tourism industry, when it
    comes to sustainable tourism.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • How did the term sustainable development originate, and which organizations were
    central to its development?
  • Identify the weak and strong categories of sustainability.
  • What is alternative tourism, and how does it link to sustainability?
  • What is the Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit, and how could it be
    applied in a tourism context?
  • Why is innovation so important to the future of sustainable tourism?
  • What is reciprocal altruism, and how does it inform tourism theory and practice?
    o Podklady pro cvičení a další studium
    Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit

ASSIGMENT 01

How to improve innovation in sustainable tourism? Five lessons learned from the Austrian Alps

Lecture 02: “Natural” Environment

STUDY LITERATURE

LEARNING OUTCOMES

This part:

  1. Provides an in-depth discussion on natural capital and ecosystem services.
  2. Explores the intricacies of biodiversity and biodiversity conservation, including the
    primary causes of biodiversity loss.
  3. Discusses climate change at an introductory level with a connection to tourism.
  4. Looks at water and the conditions that contribute to water scarcity.
  5. Shows how energy is used and the implications for energy consumption in tourism,
    while in the process underscoring the importance of gaining a handle on waste
    management.
  6. Discusses the biophilia hypothesis as an explanation as to why humans have an innate
    (evolutionary) reverence for the natural world, and thus opens the door as to why it is in
    our best interests to conserve nature.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • Define biodiversity and list the various main contributing factors (HIPPO) to biodiversity
    loss.
  • What is an ecosystem service, and why are ecosystem services so important to our
    economy and wellbeing?
  • Compare and contrast personal values with non-use values.
  • What is climate change and how is tourism a contributing factor?
  • What is water security? List examples of places where water security is problematic.
  • Why is waste management a problem in the airline industry?
  • What is biophilia?

ASSIGMENT 02

Tourism in sub-global assessments of ecosystem services

Lecture 03: Implementation of sustainable tourism

STUDY LITERATURE

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • An understanding of how we can defi ne destinations.
  • The ability to identify the key components of a sustainable destination.
  • An awareness of the key features of a destination that promote or inhibit sustainability.
  • A disciplined approach to the analysis of destinations as networks and complex
    adaptive systems.
  • An understanding of how the tourism area life cycle helps us to understand sustainable
    destinations.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • Discuss some of the challenges to the implementation of sustainable tourism.
  • How are commons issues related to the concept of carrying capacity?
  • What is the difference between regulation and voluntary codes of ethics?
  • How can ecotourism and alternative tourism be used to inform sustainable tourism?
  • What is corporate social responsibility? Illustrate how it is linked to reporting.
  • Taking one organization from each of the public, private sector and pressure groups,
    evaluate their effectiveness in promoting sustainable tourism.
  • What should be the actions of a true ‘sustainable citizen’ when travelling?
  • Examining the educational course that you are currently pursuing, evaluate its
    sustainable tourism content.

ASSIGMENT 03

Sustainable tourism policies: From crisis-related awareness to agendas towards measures

Lecture 04: Sustainable destination

STUDY LITERATURE

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • An understanding of how we can defi ne destinations.
  • The ability to identify the key components of a sustainable destination.
  • An awareness of the key features of a destination that promote or inhibit sustainability.
  • A disciplined approach to the analysis of destinations as networks and complex
    adaptive systems.
  • An understanding of how the tourism area life cycle helps us to understand sustainable
    destinations.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • Identify the key components needed to assemble the defi nition of a sustainable
    destination.
  • What do you see as the main management approaches to solving the problem of
    overtourism?
  • How does a network approach help us to understand the functioning of sustainable
    destinations?
  • Taking a destination that you know well, map the key stakeholder groups and identify
    their objectives. How can differences be reconciled?
  • How can resilience be built into a destination system?

ASSIGMENT 04

Can overtourism be managed? Destination management factors affecting residents’ irritation and quality of life

Lecture 05: Sustainability in hospitality and transportation

STUDY LITERATURE

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • An awareness of the sustainability issues facing the tourism industry.
  • An analysis of initiatives being taken to address sustainability across the hospitality and
    transportation industries.
  • An understanding of the role of government, the private sector and other stakeholders
    in addressing sustainability in the hospitality and transportation industries.
  • An awareness of the challenges of implementing sustainability initiatives in the
    hospitality and transportation industries.
  • An awareness of the many examples of good practice across the hospitality and
    transportation industries.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • Ddiscuss whether persuading passengers to reduce their annual air miles is a realistic
    option.
  • What communication messages would you use to persuade a small hospitality
    business to adopt sustainability initiatives?
  • Examining cruise company websites, to what extent can their environmental
    statements be accused of ‘greenwashing’?

ASSIGMENT 05

Factors influencing the level of Social Responsibility of marine tourism companies and restaurants: The island of Fuerteventura

Lecture 06: Sustainability and attractions

STUDY LITERATURE

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • An awareness of the sustainability issues.
  • An analysis of initiatives being taken to address sustainability.
  • An understanding of the role of government, the private sector and other stakeholders
    in addressing sustainability.
  • An awareness of the challenges of implementing sustainability initiatives.
  • An awareness of the many examples of good practice across the attraction industry.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • What are the main elements of ‘green’ events?
  • How effective do you feel Disney’s sustainability initiatives are?

ASSIGMENT 06

Cross-leveraging synergistic benefits from across an event portfolio: Empirical evidence from Madeira

Lecture 07: Food, waste management, energy and water in the tourism industry

STUDY LITERATURE

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • Understand the environmental issues that take place from food production.
  • Know what a food system is.
  • Understand water rights as they relate to the fair and equitable use of water.
  • Have an awareness of the challenges that confront restaurants and hotels with the
    handling of waste.
  • Understand the concepts and tools that are presently being used to mitigate problems
    in the area of food, waste, energy and water.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • What are some of the environmental impacts that are derived from the livestock
    industry?
  • Are consumers willing to pay more for ecolabelled products? If so, why?
  • List some of the hazardous and non-hazardous waste products in the hotel industry.
  • How have wind turbines been used to bolster the tourism industry?
  • Why is life cycle assessment such a popular sustainability tool in measuring the carbon
    footprint?
  • Identify some of the rights and justice issues associated with to the use of water.

ASSIGMENT 07

Preference learning for eco-friendly hotels recommendation: A multi-criteria collaborative filtering approach

Lecture 08: Tourism in protected areas

STUDY LITERATURE

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • An understanding of the extent of the terrestrial and marine protected areas systems
    around the planet, as well as some challenges to the management of these areas.
  • Key linkages between protected areas and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
    (SDGs).
  • The IUCN’s categories of protected areas, with World Heritage Sites as an example of
    a category in this system.
  • The defi ning characteristics of ecotourism, including a nature-based connection,
    sustainable development (communities and conservation), education and ethics.
  • How ecotourism relates to other forms of nature-based tourism.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • List some advantages and disadvantages of non-sustainable and sustainable tourism
    in parks and protected areas.
  • How does ecotourism differ from wildlife tourism? How is it the same?
  • Identify the characteristics of an ecotourium.
  • How does ethics force us to live with uncertainty?

ASSIGMENT 08

Utopia or dystopia – deterrents to ecotourism development in Fiji

Lecture 09: Tourism and heritage sites

STUDY LITERATURE

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • The IUCN’s categories of protected areas, with World Heritage Sites as an example of
    a category in this system.
  • Key concepts of woulnerability of heritage sites. 
  • Authenticity.
  • Living heritage.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • List the range of protected areas categories as defi ned by the IUCN.
  • What is a World Heritage Site and what are the differences between cultural and
    natural sites?
  • What is the difference between tangible and intangible heritage?

ASSIGMENT 09

Contradictory or aligned? The nexus between authenticity in heritage conservation and heritage tourism, and its impact on satisfaction

Lecture 10: Future prospects of sustainable tourism

STUDY LITERATURE

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • An awareness of climate change and the fact that tourism is both a vector and a victim
    of climate change.
  • An awareness of gender equity issues in sustainable tourism.
  • An understanding of the issues surrounding Indigenous rights and sustainable tourism.
  • An analysis of the concept of mobility and the challenges facing the less mobile.
  • An awareness of animal rights and tourism.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • Debate the fact that climate action is urgent, but as climate change is invisible the
    tourism sector will be slow to act.
  • Taking a tourism organization of your choice, assess their attempts to instil gender
    equity into their operations.
  • Assess the future of zoos as tourist attractions.
  • Taking a destination that you know well, assess the level of accessibility for the
    disabled.
  • If the ‘new tourist’ were truly concerned about climate change they would not travel at
    all – dispute this statement.
  • Critically review the key drivers of sustainable tourism futures and show how they are
    related.
  • Write a report on how you see artificial intelligence and robotics impacting on human
    resources in tourism in the future. How can companies prepare for this new scenario?

ASSIGMENT 10

Envisioning the futures of cultural tourism