The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is an international organization created in 1975 that aims to promote tourism. Formally linked to the United Nations since 1976 when it became an executive agency of the United Nations Development Program. In 1978, UNWTO established a first environmental plan. Since then, UNWTO, together with The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), has made recommendations and has taken steps towards a tourism industry that is more aware of its impacts.
The UNWTO defines sustainable tourism as: “Tourism that takes full account of current and future economic, social and environmental impacts to meet the needs of visitors, industry, the environment, and host communities.”
Sustainable tourism is a form of tourism that follows the principles of sustainability. Sustainable tourism is an industry committed to making a low impact on the local environment and culture while contributing to generate income and employment for the local population.
Solidarity tourism is understood as a way of traveling that is based on the respect of the travelers towards the people and places visited by a deeper approach to the reality of the country and a positive cultural exchange between both parties. Contributing to the economic development of an area is choosing accommodation in places managed by the community, consuming fair trade products and visiting and collaborating in solidarity projects that are carried out there. Finally, it is a way of traveling that has a positive impact in both, the communities visited and the traveler itself.
It refers to the ability to maintain biological aspects of productivity and diversity over time. Hence, to take care of the preservation of natural resources by promoting a conscious responsibility for the ecological aspects and, at the same time, taking care of the environment where it lives.
It refers to the ability to generate wealth in sufficient quantity and equality among different social spheres for the population to be capable and responsible for its own economy. This in order to strengthen production and consumption in the sectors of monetary production. In a few words, the economic sustainability is a balance between Humans and nature where both work together so they don’t sacrifice future generations.
Political Sustainability is a distribution of political and economic power. Making sure there are consistent rules in the country, a safe government and establishing a legal framework that guarantees respect for people and the environment. In this way, harmony between communities and regions will be increased and will improve the inhabitants’ quality of life. Also, this will make the communities more independent thanks to democratic structures.
The aim here is to adopt values that generate behavior that respects nature, essentially by maintaining a harmonious and satisfactory balance between education, training, and awareness. The aim is to ensure that the population can surpass itself. Social sustainability also means maintaining a good quality of life among the population of a country through the development of new things that would benefit the community.\
According to UNWTO, the principles that define sustainable tourism are:
This is about respecting the ecosystems, the preservation of biodiversity, and the compatibility of social and economic activities. This highlights the need to change consumption patterns to:
It establishes that the needs of a society are education, health, food, clothing, housing, public services, safety and work. The concept of sustainable development requires, as a condition, to attach great importance to the dimensions associated with quality of life, such as access to education, employment, health, social security, and housing. The following values are also part of the social aspect:
As a measure of welfare, it takes the quantity of material good and useful services produced by a country, divided by the number of its inhabitants (what is known as GDP per capita) or some measure directly related to it.
Tika Travel is committed to a sustainable tourism through a sustainability policy
