Image credit: clipartsheep

Image credit: clipartsheep

While the global efforts are commendable and set clear guidelines for businesses to abide by, global organizations alone will be ineffective without a joint effort with the governments of each country to ensure that the GSTC are met. It is mutually understood that governments have the most potential to shape tourism in dictating how it is promoted, planned, managed and regulated.  They are the only body that can ensure long-term planning and management through legislative protection of nature reserves for the benefit of future generations.

In order to encourage businesses to meet the GSTC, the government needs to incorporate these criteria into laws, regulations and incentives regarding usage of protected areas, involvement of local communities in ecotourism operations and other such sustainable practices. These laws and incentives should be formulated such that sustainable practices are in line with the most important business outcome– to make profits. For a business to be maintained it need to make sufficient profits, this drive to earn more is what causes small-scale ecotourism operations, that start off supply driven, to explode into large-scale, demand-driven mass tourism ventures. However, this is not an inevitable outcome. If the government is able to align sustainable practices with increasing profits while lowering cost of operations, the owners of ecotourism businesses will be more inclined to abide by the GSTC. For example, if the government issued a tax rebate incentive for ecotourism businesses that are able to keep within a certain level of freshwater consumption per month, it would compel more businesses to lower their freshwater consumption by taking on fewer tourists at a time. This would result in both a lower-impact business and a reduction in overuse of water resources which is one of the adverse impacts of mass tourism.

The government also plays an important role in facilitating these sustainable practices by funding infrastructure development projects, providing training for guides to be equipped with the appropriate knowledge of the natural areas and generally making it more convenient for ecotourism operators to carry out their a environmentally sustainable business.

Unfortunately, in reality most governments, especially those of developing countries, are economically-driven and place little emphasis on sustainable practices in formulating their tourism laws and incentives. This is because developing countries generally lack the financial resources to support these practices and rely heavily on mass tourism to feed their economic growth. Additionally, many of these developing countries have political instability which often hinders the development of a long-term vision and planning for tourism and ecotourism. Hence, the protection of the environment or local cultures is not as important a priority for them.

Photo credit: Ecotourism Laos website

Photo credit: Ecotourism Laos website

Having said this, the government-led initiative in Laos shows strong promise of future governmental intervention in Southeast Asian countries. The Laos system of 20 National Protected Areas covers almost 14% of the country and consists of large tracts of tropical monsoon forest, diverse wildlife populations, unique limestone formations and many ethnic minority groups. These protected areas have an abundance of ecotourism attractions. The Laos National Tourism Administration, related government agencies and the private sector are working hard to brand Laos as a premier ecotourism destination. They have proposed the country’s National Ecotourism Strategy and Action Plan coupled with various mechanism and partnerships to realize this vision (Laos National Tourism Administration, 2008).