Resilience and Sustainable Development in Tourism

 

In this course, tourism professionals in management positions will explore the challenges and benefits of resilience in tourism with a specific focus on the relation of resilience and sustainability.

Who is this course for? 

The course is intended for tourism professionals in management positions, and anyone interested in the topic.

What will you learn? 

• You will get an overview of tourism’s role in sustainable development with focus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)   
• You will learn about different types of resilience
• You will get to explore how resilience is linked to the context of a destination or business impacting its resilience
• You will get an overview of the concept of resilience and sustainability

Keywords: Sustainability, tourism, management, resilience

Introduction to Resilience and Sustainable Development

Lesson 1: Introduction to Resilience and Sustainable Development

Description

Hello and welcome to the first learning unit on Resilience and Sustainable Development. This learning unit is part of the overall online course Resilience in Tourism. 

My name is Julia and I’ve been working on the topic of resilience in the tourism sector for some time. It’s a very important issue, especially for those working in management. In this learning unit, and over the course of the next 4 units, I’ll be clarifying the most important questions to do with resilience and offering you some practical approaches for it.
 In addition to a couple of explanatory videos, a very interesting documentary and some interviews with experts, I’ll also provide you with some episodes from my podcast on Resilience in Tourism.

Tourism is the world’s third largest industry, providing one in ten of all global jobs. Its strong economic growth, potential for job creation and source of foreign exchange make it a highly attractive sector for governments. Tourism is also known for its low barriers to entry. This means that startup costs are relatively low and there are few obstacles in the way of those wanting to start a tourism or hospitality related business.
 It’s therefore not surprising that tourism was adopted as a vehicle for development back in 1980, and it also partly explains why there are tourism businesses all around the world, including in developing countries, and particularly in places such as small islands, where there may be limited opportunities for other industries to develop. Regardless of where those tourism companies are located and their size, they all share a need to develop resilience sustainably in order to be able to cope with crises.

 In this first learning unit, we’ll discuss the Foundations for Resilience in Tourism. We’ll look at key influencing factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, as well as how resilience relates to sustainability.

 Let’s get started

Sustainable Development

Lesson 1: Tourism’s role in sustainable development

Sustainable tourism: 

Tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.

World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

Tourism has been identified and is promoted as an important tool to achieve sustainable development, and more recently the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals.

Agenda for Sustainable Development 

In 2015, world leaders at the United Nations agreed on a universal 2030 Agenda for sustainable Development. All countries committed to pursue a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 corresponding SDG targets that will lead to a better future for all. The agenda sets out a global framework to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and reduce the risk of climate change until 2030. 

Tourism can and must play a significant role in delivering sustainable solutions for people, the planet, prosperity and peace.

The UNWTO claims that tourism has the potential to contribute both directly and indirectly to all of the goals. In particular, it has been included as targets in Goals 8, 12 and 14 on inclusive and sustainable economic growth, sustainable consumption and production (SCP) and the sustainable use of oceans and marine resources, respectively.

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Tourism is one of the driving forces of global economic growth. It is currently responsible for 1 in 10 jobs worldwide. By giving access to decent work opportunities in the tourism sector –particularly to youth and women – it can provide livelihoods to vulnerable members of the community. 

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

A tourism sector that adopts sustainable consumption and production practices can play a significant role in accelerating the global shift towards sustainability. To do so, it is imperative to “develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism which creates jobs, promotes local culture and products” (see Target 12.b of Goal 12).

There are many initiatives that support the development of sustainable consumption and production practices, and businesses that display best practices in implementing resource efficient initiatives that result in enhanced economic, social and environmental outcomes. Customer expectation and consumer choices also play an important role in making businesses apply more sustainable practices.

Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Coastal and maritime tourism, tourism’s biggest segments, particularly for Small Island Developing States’ (SIDS) and other coastal regions, rely on healthy marine ecosystems. Tourism development must be a part of Integrated Coastal Zone Management, meaning it needs to be integrated in coastal management policies and plans and vice versa, in order to help conserve and preserve fragile marine ecosystems.

There are other SDGs that are linked to resilience (the ability to react to unexpected or unpredictable shocks and changes):

Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

“It should be noted that people have questioned tourism’s ability to contribute to truly sustainable development. To ensure tourism delivers benefits, it needs to be carefully planned and managed to avoid creating dependencies or increasing vulnerabilities. In a world with high uncertainty, this needs to include resilience considerations” Julia

Further resources 

If you are interested in how you, as a tourism organization, business or traveler can contribute to the SDGs, or want to learn what others are doing, visit this website for further resources:

Lesson 2: Drivers of change impacting tourism

Change is not an exception but the norm.

Scientists and business managers agree that we live in a time of high uncertainty where change is not an exception but the norm. Changes can bring with them a wealth of opportunities but also pose risk to tourism and tourism’s ability to deliver positive outcomes identified through the Sustainable Development Goals.

Interview with Dr. Johanna Loehr 

Dr. Johanna Loehr is an expert on sustainable tourism, climate change and system change and is speaking today on the topic of “Drivers of change impacting tourism”.

Lesson Scenario

Question: What are examples of changes impacting the tourism sector, and what impacts can we expect?

Answer: There are slow changes to the markets in form of shifting consumer preferences, trends and expectations. With COVID-19, we’re expected to see some impacts, for example, how and where tourists can travel, a change in consumer expectations around the standard of health and safety and hygiene. And also, the type of experiences sought will likely change with nature and outdoor experiences becoming more popular.

There’s also a change to the demographic of tourists, such as where customers are coming from as travel becomes more affordable and the middle classes of developed countries continue to grow. There’s also change in technology, which is opening up new ways to track potential customers, but also how experiences are designed and offered.

Question: What role does climate change play in this, and are thre other types of changes?

Answer: Global warming is also a slow change whereby the effects of it can result in fast change and shocks, such as an increase in the severity of floods, cyclones or heat waves.
Here we have the advantage because through science we actually have a fairly good understanding what some of those changes might look like in the near-term future, which means there’s really no excuse not to prepare for them.

Other examples of fast shocks or change impacting tourism include natural hazards such as tsunamis, earthquakes, and man-made hazards such as terror attacks.

Question: Why is it so important that tourism businesses are aware of the change?

Answer: Change varies from destination to destination and may result in physical, financial or reputational damage. How badly change affects your business and whether it also poses an opportunity really depends on how we adapt and manage such change, but also on the context and the nature of the destination and business.

Context here by refers to any biophysical, geographical, political, cultural and social factors that distinguish a particular tourism destination. So that means to remain viable in the future, businesses, including tourism organisations, really need to be aware of the implications of such change on the business. So to summarise, these changes can be slow or fast shocks, whereby slow changes may take years or decades to have an obvious and widespread Impact, whereas shocks and events have a sudden and immediate impact

What are the drivers of change in the tourism business?

Write down important considerations you have taken away from the interview and your own thoughts on them.

Resilience

Lesson 1: Drivers of change impacting tourism

Change is not an exception but the norm.

Scientists and business managers agree that we live in a time of high uncertainty where change is not an exception but the norm. Changes can bring with them a wealth of opportunities but also pose risk to tourism and tourism’s ability to deliver positive outcomes identified through the Sustainable Development Goals.

Interview with Dr. Johanna Loehr 

Dr. Johanna Loehr is an expert on sustainable tourism, climate change and system change and is speaking today on the topic of “Drivers of change impacting tourism”.

What are the drivers of change in the tourism business?

Write down important considerations you have taken away from the interview and your own thoughts on them.

Lesson 2: What is resilience?

Resilience: The ability to react to unexpected or unpredictable shocks and changes.

Resilience is a broad concept and can be described as the ability to react to unexpected or unpredictable shocks and changes or to “absorb disturbance” while maintaining essentially the same function and structure. Resilience is commonly associated with the management of, or response to, change and shocks.

Resilience is necessary for the effective functioning and development of tourism destinations.

Different types of resilience

Other forms of resilience recognise that stable states are difficult to maintain in a world of change and uncertainty. While also concerned with our ability to restore function after a shock, some people argue that resilience needs to focus on flexibility and adaptability, supporting systems to take on new forms without crossing a threshold or collapsing. In this case, resilience is concerned with the degree of change a system can absorb while maintaining system functions. 

Engineered Resilience: Engineered resilience focuses on stability and the speed at which we return to the stable state.

Engineered resilience can easily be applied to increasing the resilience of physical infrastructure, including buildings.

Psychological Resilience: Psychological resilience is the ability to mentally or emotionally cope with a crisis or to return to pre-crisis status quickly.

Psychological resilience exists in people who develop psychological and behavioral capabilities that allow them to remain calm during crises/chaos and to move on from the incident without long-term negative consequences.

“It has been argued that different types of change require different forms of resilience, whereby disaster responses tend to focus on engineered resilience, and responses to slow changes focus on ecological resilience”. Julia

Resilience in the tourism sector 

Resilience can be applied both to infrastructure (e.g. hotels, streets, beaches) as well as to the people living and working in a certain destination. In order to build resilience, both aspects need to be taken into account. Buildings have to be adapted to future risks such as increased rain falls due to climate change and people have to learn how to react to a crisis situation. 

 

Lesson 3: How do pandemics and climate change affect tourism?

The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change in particular have had a major impact on the tourism business and will continue to do so in the future.

Reka Yanti is a resort manager at the Mandapa Ritz-Carlton Reserve. Together with two of her colleagues, she reports on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change and what solutions have been found.

Description

Rekha: Mandapa is a Ritz Carlton reserve property which is located in Ubud, Bali. Bali is well known for being one of the best tourist destinations in the world. Bali is so blessed with beautiful nature, mountains, jungles. My name is Rekha. I’m the resort manager of Mandapa Ritz-Carlton Reserve. My responsibilities are making sure that daily operation runs smoothly and also answering our guest’s satisfaction level together with the team. 

Dama: My name is Dama. I’m the Assistant Director of Human Resources at Mandapa Ritz Carlton Reserve. Meaning that I take care of all our employees and to make sure that they are happy – because happy employees mean happy customers. 

Yossi: My name is Yossi Marsitha. I’m a guest experience executive in Mandapa Ritz Carlton Reserve. 

Dama: We call our employees „ladies and gentlemen“, who are the important resources in our service commitment to our guests.

Rekha: At the moment we were told about the virus spreading strongly in many areas. We inform our ladies and gentlemen to stay healthy and to stay safe. 

Yossi: There were starting to come a lot of questions from the guests. “How about here?”, “How about you?”,  “Do you have any information” or something like that? So, what we tried to do that time is maintain our calm and giving accurate and valid information to our guests. 

Dama: Some countries have closed their border and have their people come back to their home. That’s why there are lots of checkouts.

Yossi: Lots of cancellation for the upcoming bookings. But it was not like everyone tried to leave Bali in a rush. Everything – I can say – runs smoothly. 

Rekha: We actually had lots of discussions on how to handle the situation in a way of making our ladies and gentlemen feeling save.

Dama: The management has established a business contingency plan in order to retain the business. For example like reducing the working hours and temporary layoff of our ladies and gentlemen, energy efficiency.

Rekha: It is required to use face masks and also constantly wash your hands and use hand sanitizers. 

Yossi: This pandemic gave us an upgraded level of the health protocols which – even though this pandemic ends – I think we still can keep doing those protocols because it’s not only for COVID-19.

Dama: So the executive decision that we took during this pandemic was to close the hotel since April 2020. It was a very hard decision.

Yossi: For example, now we had pandemic hit us, everyone cannot travel. It’s really a disaster for the tourism industry. There is nothing we can do if people cannot travel, right? 

Dama: For me, the hardest part of this pandemic is to lay off some of our ladies and gentlemen. Mainly for contract employees and also some of the expatriates. It’s very emotional for me because we have built a very strong connection with all of them because they are part of the Mandapa family.

One thing that we have learned from this pandemic is the digitalisation.

Rekha: We invited our ladies and gentlemen – all of them – to do virtual meetings with the guidance team.

Yossi: Technology such as WhatsApp groups and Teams meetings were really helpful. 

Dama: We are no longer face to face during meetings, during trainings. 

Yossi: But we with this application or technology we can give or deliver the information faster. Accurate, not from a third person but directly from the leader.

Rekha: With the cross exposure, it is actually an opportunity for all ladies and gentlemen to learn something new.

Dama: We assigned some of our ladies and gentlemen to do lateral service. Meaning that they help other departments like housekeeping, landscaping and also the loss prevention department.

Yossi: Some of us have been helping other department who needed help – such as the loss prevention or landscaping team. Because, even though the hotel is closed, we still need to maintain the property. 

Dama: Our guidance team executive committee conducts monthly meetings and they finally decided to reopen our hotel in December 2020. 

Yossi: Closer to our reopen we also had training that we need to complete which comes from the Commitment to Clean programme. This training takes a lot of time because it’s super new. It was never done before.

Dama: Even before the pandemic, we always tried to keep balance with our nature, with our environment. That’s why we have a lot of initiatives to go green.

Rekha: We reduce the amount of energy usage – especially for the lights when no one‘s in the office or the AC – as much as we can to just take advantage of being in Ubud and in the nature with the cold weather, so we don’t need to use the AC that much in the office. We also reduce the amount of working hours and some people work from home, meaning that there are not so many people working at the same time while we are actually focusing on social distancing.

Dama: A thing that I have learned as a human resources specialist during this pandemic is how important mental health is. Mental health, for me, is the key.  We need to inform our ladies and gentleman to take care of their mental health – to always try to be happy. Even though we know that there is a crisis, though we know that we have financial issues, we need to keep strong and think positive.

Rekha: Since the pandemic, I noticed that there is so much less traffic. And no traffic means no pollution. Also the consumption of plastic reduced and probably this is the first time I have seen or noticed that Kuta beach and Seminyak Beach are so beautiful and garbage free. I hope that in the coming years we continue, or people in Bali continue, to maintain and look after our own home, our own island. To be able to have more tourists and come back to normal tourism or hospitality – maybe stronger than ever?

COVID-19 pandemic 

When the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in border closures, most tourism and hospitality businesses were forced to close down. With government restrictions and social distancing in place, the business model of many hotels was not viable anymore, thus a return to business-as usual was not possible. Instead, hotels innovated, for example by providing their space for quarantine and self-isolation, accommodation for health service professionals or long-term accommodation for workers.

Climate change

In times of climate change, innovation is required in order to reduce the green-house gas emissions associated with tourism activity (climate mitigation). At the same time, innovation is required to find workable solutions to adapt to climate change such as mangrove forestation to safeguard beaches against beach erosion. 

These means resilience activities range from ensuring physical structures are resilient to potential impacts and there are mechanisms and plans in place to respond to disasters (to maintain or recover from the shock as quick as possible), but may also include changes to products, services and activities offered.

Lesson 4: Resilience and scale

How resilient is tourism?

Tourism is known to manage change well and in the past has recovered from shocks quickly, at least at a global scale. Recent events linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, which have led to border closures and global travel restrictions, disrupted the tourism sector significantly.

2020 forecast – international tourist arrivals

“Tourism’s resilience to an event may vary based on the scale of analysis. The figure shows global tourism (international arrivals), and at this scale, SARS (2003) had a relatively small impact. The impact of the global economic crisis in 2009 is already more visible. On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to cause a 20 to 30 percent drop in tourist arrivals. That is 290 to 440 million fewer international arrivals than in the previous year”. Julia

Factors that contribute to resilience in tourism

There is a growing body of research on resilience in tourism and while there may be factors unique to each situation, studies have identified a number of factors that positively contribute to the resilience of tourism businesses.

Basic prerequisites

• Enterprise age and experience, being well established, able to rely on an existing customer base, networks and brand or name.
• Social capital, including support networks.
• Access to technology.
• Aspiration and values.

Financial condition

• Financial condition, including access to finance, including savings or other assets.
• Access to risk transfer mechanisms.
• Diversification and flexibility, for example a second income stream.

Human capacity 

• Human capital, including commitment and willingness to work hard.
• Human capacity including knowledge and awareness.
• Decision making and planning, including access to information.

Context and resilience

While there is a common definition of the concept of resilience, the context of a destination or business impacts its resilience. For example, cultures with strong community values and extensive family ties can rely on those support networks for assistance in times of crisis, enhancing their capacity for resilience.

An example is Samoa where tourism operators are strongly influenced by the Samoan belief system and Samoan way of life emphasizing family values, social networks and reciprocity, all of which can serve as support in times of disruption. In times of crisis and crisis recovery, such as after a cyclone, people in Samoa benefit from those values and networks as they receive support from overseas family members in form of remittances, and take collective decisions and actions (such as relocation of a business to a less vulnerable location).

The unique social structures contribute to the resilience of individuals, communities and also tourism businesses.

“When planning for resilience and risk reduction, understanding the local context is therefore important” Julia

Now that you know that context plays an immense role in planning for resilience, you can think of some concrete responses for your business. To help you get started, here are two tasks for you.

What are some of changes you are observing and how do they impact your business?

Name three things you have done or could be doing to help your business respond to those changes.

 

Resilience vs. Sustainability

Lesson 1: The concept of resilience and sustainability

The concepts of resilience and sustainability both inform development approaches and are important for tourism, but are distinct.

Resilience: Resilience focuses on managing and reacting to change, including what will be adapted/changed into something new.

When managing or responding to change, it is useful to reflect on the current state of the business or a destination, identify whether, or what elements, are desirable and which ones are undesirable and can be improved.

Sustainability: Sustainability refers to conserving what is valued by ourselves and community members and definitions of sustainability often refer to preserving resources for future generations. The SDGs provide a framework which indicates what we as a society value and aim to sustain. 

Sustainability presumes that resources are finite, and should be used conservatively and wisely with a view to long-term priorities and consequences of the ways in which resources are used. In simplest terms, sustainability is about our children and our grandchildren, and the world we will leave them. 

“Faced with a plenitude of challenges and predictable and unpredictable drives of change, both sustainability and resilience are important concepts that guide how we should develop tourism”. Julia

Reflection on sustainability and resilience

The following two questions are useful for communities and businesses to reflect on when developing strategies to address change:

Sustainability

How can we balance environment, equity, and economy to ensure the well-being of current and future generations? 

Resilience

What do we need and what do we want to adapt and change into something new, and maybe better? 

Lesson 2: Sustainability indicators and resilience indicators

There are several tourism indicators of community sustainability and resilience. In the following table you will find an exemplary list:

Category	Sustainability indicators	Resilience Indicators
Local government budgeting	Conserving community resources	Buidling community capacity for change
Environmental knowledge	Maintaining traditional resource uses	Creating new environmental knowledge
Community well-being	Preserving cultural traditions	Improving living conditions and employment
Social support systems	Providing social welfare and equity	Supporting social collaboration

Increase resilience

In summary, to increase resilience, tourism businesses should ask themselves ‘of what’ they want to be resilient for, and ‘to what’. To answer this question:

• Drivers of change and risk need to be identified.
• The context needs to be understood.
• And what is of value to be protected and sustained should be agreed upon.