What this lesson teaches
I can explain how responsible production and consumption can keep tourism sustainable in the future.
Syllabus K226, Topic 2.3, Key Question 4. How might tourism continue to develop sustainably?
Make a guess
A popular island has too small a sewage system for its visitors. Every tourist is polite and picks up their litter. Is the problem solved?
- Yes, because litter was the main problem.
- No. The sewage system still cannot cope.
- Yes, because the visitors behave well.
- No, because tourists should not visit small islands.
Show the answer
No. The sewage system still cannot cope.
Responsible visitors help, but behaviour cannot make up for a sewage system that is too small. Production and consumption both need managing.
Manage both how businesses provide tourism and how visitors use a place, putting residents' needs first and staying within local limits.
Responsible production is about how tourism services are provided. Businesses need to keep their use of water, materials and ecosystem services within what the area can sustain. Suitable locations, efficient systems, wastewater treatment and habitat protection need a coordinated long-term plan among stakeholders. Short-term profit can tempt firms to ignore costs that come later or fall on others.
Responsible consumption is about what visitors use and how they behave. Destinations can manage when, where and how many people visit, using bookings, limits, information or alternative routes. Visitors can respect boundaries, cut waste and choose activities with genuine environmental and social practices.
The two sides work together. Visitors need practical choices and adequate facilities. Polite behaviour cannot make up for a sewage system that is too small for the number of users.
Give residents' basic needs and daily lives first priority, while also considering visitors. Water supplied to tourists affects the water available to homes. Redirecting crowds may push the problem into a neighbourhood with less power to object.
Before acting, find out where and when pressure peaks, how the ecosystem is coping and what the community needs. Then monitor the results and adjust the plan if it creates new problems.
- Responsible production
- Businesses stay within local resource limits.
- Responsible consumption
- Managing visitor numbers, timing and behaviour.
- Priority
- Residents' basic needs come first.
Step by step
Improve services
Match facilities to what the place can sustain.
Manage visits
Numbers, timing, places and behaviour.
Protect residents
Check water, services and shared space.
Worked example: Spread arrivals, then check
UNESCO's guidance suggests measuring where and when crowding peaks. Timed tickets may reduce crowds, but only if queues do not just move elsewhere. Check what changes.
Watch out for this
Polite tourists make an overloaded sewage system sustainable.
Behaviour helps, but the system must also be big enough for the demand.
Check your understanding
Which plan tackles both production and consumption?
- Move visitors to a quiet habitat nearby that has not been assessed.
- Upgrade wastewater systems and keep visitor numbers within limits.
- Ask visitors to behave well while allowing unlimited numbers.
Show the answer
Upgrade wastewater systems and keep visitor numbers within limits.
Yes. It improves services and manages demand.