Conclusion

Tourism is big business. But that is not all that it is. We’ve seen in this course that sustainable and responsible tourism can change everything. However, we’ve also seen that tourism does not automatically include within itself aspects that are either sustainable or responsible. Instead, this has to be designed into tourism plans and understood as something that everyone throughout the process of designing, building, carrying out or participating in has to want and has to commit to.

Tourism can be dreadful for the environment. We’ve looked at places like Barcelona and Venice struggling with overtourism. The lack of liveability and the touristification of places is something to try to avoid. But we’ve also seen that tourism done well can be lifechanging. For the Bigodi community and KAFRED and for the Chinese rural community in Jiangsu as well as for those on the indigenous communities we discussed earlier, it has literally changed places for the better and opened up more opportunities, allowed more money to circulate with a multiplier effect and generally made a positive difference not just to the communities but also to the tourists who interact with them. It wasn’t just villages that benefitted from tourism either. When we think of Unseen Tours or other social enterprises, tourism can make a positive difference to individuals too. Growing their confidence and their pride, helping them believe in themselves and providing some great skills are all things we can see.

The key message is to know that we as individuals can make a positive difference too. By asking people in tourism ‘how is this sustainable’ or ‘how do women and youth play a part in this’ or ‘do you use sustainable palm oil’ we become responsible tourists ourselves and we demand others think about these aspects too. In fact, by telling people what matters to us, we encourage others to take their responsibility seriously.

If nothing else, this should make us optimistic about the future. The more people understand responsible and sustainable tourism, and their part in it, the more it will be deliberately sought out to become the normal way of holidaying. I hope this course has played a little part in that too.