QUESTION 1

In many developing and least developed countries, tourism is one of the principal, and in some countries, the main source of foreign exchange earnings and, quite often, the most viable and sustainable economic development option, with positive impacts on reducing poverty levels. At the Millennium Summit in 2000, the United Nations identified poverty as one of the biggest global challenges and set forth as one of its Millennium Development Goals to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015. The World Tourism Organization has responded to this challenge and opportunity by launching the ST-EP (Sustainable Tourism - Eliminating Poverty), Initiative. The latter invites UN agencies, governments, donor agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders to unite in a concerted effort to use the socio-economic benefits which derive from tourism in actively combating poverty throughout the world. Konso is the name of a district and an ethnic group located in the far south of Ethiopia. The district is scenically attractive; it is primarily an upland area which is extensively cultivated using a traditional system of stone terracing which is very unusual in Africa. This farmed highland landscape provides part of the visitor appeal but the main draw is the physical structure of the Konso villages, which are densely settled behind a complex of huge stone walls. The villages contain a number of buildings and artefacts which relate to the Konso tribes' unique customs and community governance systems. There is a strong tradition of cloth weaving, which forms the basis of colourful clothing worn by many Konso villagers. The main objective of the Konso community-based tourism project is to enhance local economic impact, and in particular community benefit from sustainable tourism in Konso. The project envisages for Konso to be recognised as a major location for culture-based and rural tourism in Ethiopia, where the local community is engaged in providing a range of experiences presented as a set of offers to visitors. The offers range from a short stay of a few hours to a one to four day programme. Income from this activity is providing significant economic benefit to the village communities and other residents of Konso, and has helped to alleviate poverty and support local services

(a) Discuss 5 ways by which tourism can help in alleviating poverty

(b) Critically discuss the 7 ST-EP mechanisms in relation with the Konso CBT project

QUESTION 2

Define the term Sustainable Development and critically evaluate the threats and opportunities of such a concept within the Mauritian Tourism industry

QUESTION 3

Sustainability in an island setting seeks to preserve a widely shared stream of income by creating an adaptive competitive destination through the ongoing guidance of participatory community planning without unacceptably sacrificing socio-cultural and natural integrity of the asset base (McElroy and Albuquerque, 2002). On the other hand, 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 three main characteristics of island tourism

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

(c) In an attempt to support Jafari's argument, describe

- Any two positive impacts of tourism

- Any two negative impacts of tourism

Support your answer with examples

QUESTION 4

Globally there is a consent about the negative impacts associated to the hospitality industry. There are however numerous international organizations together with a wide range of proposals of how to pursue environmental sustainability of tourism activities and minimize their impact on climate change. The Hospitality sector also has not remained insensitive to this issue and has tried to devise many ways and means of how to deal with such problems if not even eliminate them. More particularly, in some form or the other, information and communication technologies (ICT) have been viewed and accepted as a direct contributor to the reduction of the demand of supplies and energy by the hospitality industry

In relation to the above answer the following-

(a) Evaluate the potential of ICT applications in order to reduce the environmental impact of hospitality and tourism activities

(b) (i) Analyze the level of use and implementation of ICT as part of environmentally sustainable technologies

(ii) Also discuss the difficulties experienced in their implementation as well as the future challenges