Responsible Tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Responsible Tourism - Essay Example As a result, the situations is several destinations including Africa is characterized by deteriorating infra-structure, political and economic instability, increasing external control and weak backward and forward linkage with other economic sectors. Besides, tourism benefits do not filter down to poor communities (Booyens, 2010). With changes in consumer lifestyle and higher disposable incomes, more people desire to travel and experience pleasure. The World Travel Organization (WTO) predicts that by 2020 international arrivals would exceed 15 million (UNEP, 2005). Growth in tourism would take place across the world but it would be concentrated in the developing countries. In South Africa alone international arrivals are set to grow at an average of 5.5 per year. This can have profound impact on the local economies and the destination because human systems and the environment are strongly coupled and jointly determined systems. For sustainable development the social and the ecological systems cannot be analysed separately (Modvar & Gallopin, 2005). In fact, the perspectives and concerns of the major stakeholders need to be incorporated for an effective decision making. This is because there is a relationship between tourist behavior and their attitude towards the environment (Andereck, 2009). The purpose of this report is to evaluate the concepts of sustainable and responsible tourism, and the similarities and difference between these two concepts. Based on an understanding of responsible tourism, this report presents a responsible tourism strategy for Masai Mara game Reserve. The problems at Mara are identified and then objectives have been set followed by the strategy to achieve the SMART objectives. The concept of sustainability first came into discussions in1987 with the release of the Brundtland Commission’s â€Å"Our Common Future† sponsored by the UN