Sustainable tourism development in the Republic of Cyprus

Tourism & Cyprus

Tourism and Cyprus

Tourism-Towards Sustainability: Case of Cyprus

Tourism-Towards Sustainability: Case of Cyprus

Republic of Cyprus

Sustainable Tourism Development

Tourism-Towards Sustainability: Case of Cyprus

The current paper is an exploration of the concept of tourism as a contributor of sustainability and sustainable growth and for this purpose the author has selected the Republic of Cyprus as a case study. Cyprus has been because tourism here is the most significant economic activity. In addition, besides the economic point-of-view, the casino industry and tourism have their contribution in the social development of the community

Tourism now has become an industry which has a significant role in the economic growth of any country. Visitors coming to a destination spend money on shopping, hotel accommodation, eatables, and transportation as well as on entertainment and thus contribute to increase the gross domestic product (GDP). Tourism also helps to create employment and provide socio-economic development. The data show that during the year 2008 almost 80 countries were able to earn 1 billion USD from international tourism (UNWTO, 2009). Figure 1 represents the international arrivals during the period 1999-2008.

The current research paper is aimed at exploring the concept of shopping tourism. Particularly the researcher will focus on exploring the scope of Hong Kong for being a shopping place for tourists. For this purpose the researcher conducted survey with 70 tourists at Honk Kong to know whether Hong Kong is a good place for shopping or not.

Sustainable Tourism Development

The term "sustainable tourism" has been originated from the theory of "sustainable development." This theory has been adopted and applied on tourism. Academicians have a tendency to correlate the "sustainable development" with the report of World Commission on Environment and Development which was carried out in 1987, and this indicated the core task of the term: "bringing together the concepts of the environmental protection and economic development."

The concept of sustainable tourism development emerged in the 1990s in consequence to the rapidly increasing awareness of environmental impacts being causes by tourism industry. Altinay and Hussain (2005) discussed that the industry is impacting environment as there tourism demands wide creation of general infrastructure such as "construction of roads, airports, and tourism facilities which can destroy environmental resources gradually. The World Summit on Sustainable Development" (2002) has also provided support to this argument by offering different instances of unsustainable outcomes of tourism. These consequences identified by World Summit were that; culture and labor are exploited, people are displaced from their land, local communities are not consulted, and tourism planning is no appropriate and high leakage of foreign exchange which decreases benefits of local communities. Yet in the case of Cyprus, consequences mentioned above can be reduced as here tourism facilities have already been developed and can lodged the supplementary incursion of tourists and this has been initiated with the casino introduction.

Similarly, Altinay and Hussain (2005) have considered both the bilateral impacts stating that through tourism awareness can be created about environmental values, and can support financially to the environment protection. The authors have stated that the procedures of sustainable tourism development have become a well-liked approach and it is considered an economically satisfactory in the continuing of economic growth and social development as well as support environment protection. In brief through the concept of sustainable tourism development environmental impact of this industry can be minimized at the same time accentuating socio-economic benefits to the community engaged in the tourism industry.

Conclusion

The current essay discussed the tourism for sustainability in the Republic of Cyprus. The country is known for its climate conditions, location, culture and other facilities and attracts tourists who come to spend holidays. Tourism plays an important role in the economy of the country. The term sustainable tourism emerged as a consequence of the environmental issues from this industry. Tourism can be used to create awareness about environmental issues as well for the protection of environment through financial support. The Republic of Cyprus has already adopted sustainable tourism development and is further adopting this.