Responsible Tourism = Sustainable Tourism

(Old wine (Sustainable Tourism) in new bottle (Responsible Tourism)

If the question asked by William Shakespeare “what is in a name?” in Romeo and Juliet is repeated, you may be confused at some instances. This is the case of two terms “Sustainable Tourism and Responsible Tourism”.  Both are same, but still we try to spot difference. Though questions pose, a big mantra of survival lies in it. Tourism is all about exploration and needs novelty and innovation to spin revenue. The same is applicable to individual and corporation associated with this industry as well. Here is the truth behind the re-making of sustainable tourism.

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Responsible Tourism is relatively very new and a meaningful term introduced recently to catalyze sustainable tourism destination management. It is promising to see that some States have introduced special programmes under the banner of Responsible Tourism. There is no dual opinion in the fact that the term ‘Responsible Tourism” is more meaningful and quiet familiar to the common parlor, hence became popular. However, the theoretical underpinnings of the concept and its origin are hardly discussed.

Department for Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) Africa and a team led by Spenceley consist of Relly, Keyser, Warmeant, McKenzie, and Mataboge have the credit of developing, designing, and discussing the concept responsible tourism initially. Responsible Tourism Manual for South Africa published in 2002 is likely the first credible document available in this context. At the same year Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism also released. Jost Krippendorf (1987), Harrison & Husbands, (1996), and (responsibletravel.com, 2004) were also hinted it in various contexts. The Kerala declaration on Responsible Tourism came out in 2008. Factually, the Kerala initiative was modeled after the successful women empowerment scheme of the state of Kerala ‘Kerala Sate Poverty Eradication Mission’ widely known as “Kudumbasree”. The concept of sustainable tourism coined during 1980s after the Brundtland Report[a] specifically began in the early 1990s with Edward Inskeep (1991) who defined five main criteria for sustainable tourism, which later accepted by UNWTO. To call a spade a spade, Responsible Tourism initiatives of Kerala is the single initiative in this line among a very few in some corners of the globe.

Theoretically, Responsible Tourism and Sustainable Tourism are same and are founded on the triple bottom-line principle.[1] (2), means bringing positive social environmental, and economic impacts to destination.  The similarity is seen while comparing the official criteria developed both for Responsible Tourism [3),  and Sustainable Tourism [4) . Specifically,

1. The edifice of sustainable tourism built on social, environment and economic dimensions. Similarly Responsible Tourism aims at social and economic development and is emphasizing on minimizing negative impacts.
2. Community is at the Centre of both concepts and grass root level intervention is also envisaged
3. Local ownership especially local government is at the steering role to drive the initiative
4. Theoretically, environment, society, and economy have equal importance. Practically, sustainable tourism is projected as an environmental conservation initiative and responsible tourism as a community development scheme through strategic interventions at economic front. The argument cannot be summarily rejected that responsible tourism couldn’t progress in the environmental dimension at destinations.
5. Even the concept of ‘Green’ cannot be limited at the environmental dimension as the term has wide meaning these days. Hence, ‘Green Tourism’ also has great resemblance to other concepts in this direction.  

“The concept of sustainable tourism has been discussed in Kerala since its origin. However, its implementation is termed as 'Responsible Tourism Initiative'. There is no difference between Responsible Tourism and Sustainable Tourism” says Dr. K. Ravi, academic expert of Kerala Tourism and a member of State Level Responsible Tourism Committee (Former Consultant, Common Wealth Secretariat, London). Dr. Ravi is a lead figure in the development of sustainable tourism policies of Kerala.  Interestingly, Thekkady - a leading sustainable tourism destination from 80s bagged first rank in the Responsible Tourism Scoring done by an agency Green Life India Innovations.

A study conducted among 493 local residents of three responsible tourism destinations in Kerala namely Kovalam, Kumarakom and Thekkedy invariably proved that theoretical underpinnings of both the concepts are same. While correlated the indicator of Responsible Tourism and Sustainable Tourism, it was found more than 80% similarity or 0.8< Variance Explained. The indicator were subsumed under Social, economic, cultural and environmental dimensions after a through literature survey and expert consultations (academic, practice and filed animators).

This may be the reason responsible tourism has only a very few takers and why researches in the area of responsible tourism is very limited. For the sake of interest we may call Sustainable Tourism is theory and Responsible Tourism is practice though quite unreal. In a way, it’s a debate of difference pertaining to concept, theory or practice. However, very interestingly a recent study coined a new term “responsustable tourism” - is suggested to join two existing terms and demonstrate that the current understanding of responsible tourism behavior is based on the concept of sustainable tourism. “Charter for Sustainable and Responsible Tourism” (TSG, 2012) is also established to debate further.

Let's continue the discourse so that more can get leverage. May this marketing exercise help many to build their own kingdom of legacy.

 (The writer is a Ph.D in Management and an independent researcher).