Green tourism – the key to sustainable development

Vietnam’s island ecosystem has been degrading because of the spontaneous development of tourism with more and more accommodations rising which discharge untreated waste water into the environment.
The development strategy which aims for fewer tourists?
The number of tourists to South East Asia in the last 20 years has been increasing steadily by 10 percent per annum. In 2001, the region received 40 million travelers, while the figure rose to 81.2 million in 2011.
The strong development of the tourism sector has made a great contribution to the development of the regional economies. In 2010, the turnover from tourism of ASEAN countries was 62.5 billion dollars, or 10 billion dollars higher than in 2009.
The tourism development has helped South East Asian nations escape from poverty. However, there are always two sides of a coin.
The cash flow has been always associated by the high risks, including the environment pollution, the landscape devastation and the cultural changes.
The pristine beaches, the old forests, the windswept passes in Southeast Asian countries all have been imprinted with the footprints of investors, travel agents and travelers. Resorts, hotels have been springing up everywhere, from beaches to hills, from the cities to the mountains, which has led to deforestation, smoke and dust.
“Few-traveler strategy” is what tourism managers in South East Asia are thinking about. Thai agencies, for example, have said that one should not strive to attract as many travelers as possible. Instead, they should think of the measures to persuade the travelers to stay longer and spend more money.
The increase in the number of travelers would bring a latent risk that this would generate negative impacts on the environment.
Green tourism – the key to sustainable development
Experts now all agree that green tourism is the key to the sustainable economic development.
Developing green tourism, however, does not mean designing green tours based on the existing natural resources, but the greenery can be generated by humans.
Singapore is considered the typical example for creating artificial green tourism. The country is not rich in natural resources, but it still can create the greenery by growing plants everywhere, including artificial trees.
The Garden By the Bay in Singapore, for example, has been generated by the super-trees with the height of 22-50 meters which can synthesize solar energy, receive rainwater, filter the air and convert the solar light into power.
Green tourism should be the story for discussion right now
While experts urge to develop green tourism, travel firms still keep indifferent to the idea.
It seems that only western travelers are interested in green tours. However, western travelers just account for 20 percent of the total travelers. The travelers from the Asian region accounts for 50 percent, but they are not really interested in green tourism.
One of the best-known green tours in Vietnam is the one to the Vam Sat – Can Gio mangrove swamp, which is recognized as the world’s biosphere reserve. However, travel firms said only Japanese and Australian travelers like the tour, while it cannot catch the attention from Vietnamese.
Some groups of Vietnamese travelers once arrived here, but they found nothing interesting to discover. And they decided to drink wine while waiting for their children watching the bats.
Experts have called on building up a strategy on sustainable tourism development right now. Especially, it’s necessary to heighten the people’s awareness of the importance of the green tourism. Other Asian countries all have had their tourism development strategies by 2015 with the focus on green tourism, and this should be followed by Vietnam.