Sustainable tourism should be developed for tackling the environmental problems, which emerge during the development of tourism industry and prevent its further development, said Sir Frank Moore, chairman of Green Globe Asia Pacific and chairman of Sustainable Tourism Co-operative Research Centre (STCRC) in Australia, in an exclusive interview with the Environment China Supplement.

He made the remark at the first Jiuzhai Paradise International Environment Forum, held on October 28 and 29 in Jiuzhaigou, a famous scenic spot in Aba Tibet and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Tourism is a large global industry which has enjoyed strong growth over the past 50 years.

In 2002 there were almost 715 million international tourist arrivals worldwide, 22 million more than 2001 and 690 million more than 1950.

The World Tourism Organization forecasts that the number of international arrivals worldwide will increase to nearly 1.6 billion by 2020.

With only around 3.5 per cent of the world's population presently taking an international holiday or trip, there is good growth potential, especially from the expanding middle classes of Asia, he said.

However, the world is faced with a number of significant environmental problems including climate change, habitat destruction, soil loss, species extinctions air, water and land pollution, and lack of availability of potable water.

Tourism is impacted by many of these issues and must play a part in finding solutions.

As the Rio Earth Summit gave effect to the concept of sustainable development through Agenda 21, the concept of sustainable tourism has been formed and recognized worldwide.

It means developing the tourism products in such a way that it contributes to the economic, social and environmental growth of a region or local community, rather than destroying or degrading the resource on which it is based, he said.

In response to the outcome of the Rio Earth Summit, the world's tourism industry, through the World Travel and Tourism Organization (WTTO) and the Earth Council, joined together to apply the principles of Agenda 21 to the tourism industry and to develop a programme of action.

The result was an Agenda 21 for the Travel and Tourism Industry: Towards Environmentally Sustainable Development - the first sectoral application of the principles of Agenda 21, according to Moore.

Since the launch of Agenda 21 for the Travel and Tourism Industry, the seventh meeting of the United Nations Convention on Sustainable Development (UNCSD-7), focused on sustainable tourism.

The outcomes of UNCSD-7 found that self-regulation was critical to achieve and maintain sustainable tourism.

Many countries, regions and industry sectors have developed self-regulatory mechanisms for best environmental practice and accreditation schemes. Green Globe 21 has been the most notable self-regulatory accreditation scheme for the travel and tourism industry.

Tourism will require careful planning in the future to avoid further negative impact on biodiversity.

Many of the factors associated with biodiversity loss, land conversion, climate change and pollution are also linked to tourism development.

At the same time, an increasing number of examples have shown that tourism development guided by the principles associated with ecotourism, such as environmental sustainability, protection of nature and supporting the well-being of local peoples, can have a positive impact on biodiversity conservation.

Through the STCRC, great strides have been made in improving the link between research and tourism operations as a basis for a more sustainable industry, Moore said.

This has been very effective with some 60 PhD researchers working on tourism industry related research problems as an investment for the future. An outcome of this research work is a revolutionary quantified environmental performance reporting system known as Earthcheck TM.

This system is used for the International Ecotourism Standard and by Green Globe 21 for their tourism environmental benchmarking and certification schemes.

It requires annual monitoring of quantified environmental performance against indicators such as energy and water consumption. It provides the basis for triple bottom line reporting by a company.

The STCRC has also developed design and construction standards for new tourism infrastructure, Moore added.

Most recently, through an agreement between STCRC, Green Globe Asia Pacific and AAA Tourism (the organization responsible for the star rating of accommodation in Australia), a new Green STARS rating system has been established. This has proven to be a success in the mainstream accommodations sector, he said.

A number of broad policy strategies exist for environment conservation, including:

Government regulation, such as emission standards;

Use of environmental economic instruments such as emission trading; and

Industry self-regulation, including codes of conduct, best management practice and accreditation schemes.

China Daily