QUESTION 1

According to Cooper (2009), tourism is not an industry that sits easily within the concept of sustainability. The author postulates that tourism involves major transport components, cultural mixes and fierce resource competition so that examining each aspect of sustainability with respect to tourism activity and development paints a depressing picture

(a) With an appreciation of the comment posted by the above author, outline and explain how the three main components of sustainability work against sustainable tourism. Support your answer with examples

(b) Tourism activity impacts on the social, cultural, environmental and economic aspects of a destination and this carries certain thresholds implications so that exceeding these, is likely to affect every facet of tourism development. Whilst again appreciating this observation from the same author, discuss how each threshold affects tourism

(c) Using examples, examine the main difficulties in finding the level of thresholds beyond which tourism should not venture

QUESTION 2

The PEST framework which prompts companies to consider Political, Economic, Social and Technological factors, a rather broad bush form of analysis, is scarcely adequate for tourism providers (Peattie and Moutinho, 2000). A more comprehensive approach which seriously touches sustainability issues is the SCEPTICAL analysis. Using any destination of your choice, critically discuss each of these factors

QUESTION 3

Carlsen (1999) observes that conflicts in island tourism arises because the natural resource is a factor of production, a source of attraction to tourists, but more important, the living environment of residents. However, the author postulates that these are resolved, as opportunities generated from the tourism industry prevail over the costs. In contrast, Jafari (2000) argues that tourism has always been a double-edged sword for islanders

(a) With an appreciation of the differing opinions of both authors, describe the four characteristics of island tourism

(b) Using examples, discuss any three challenges that a land-locked country might face in developing its tourism destination as compared to an island

QUESTION 4

Goeldner et al, (2000) opine that to be able to translate the idealism of ecotourism into reality, a number of core indicators need to be identified so as to seek specific cause-effect relationship between tourism and its environment

(a) As tourism planners, critically discuss the core indicators that underpin sustainable tourism whilst illustrating your answers with relevant examples

(b) Explain how those indicators may help tourism planners achieve sustainable tourism development targets