Sustainability and Tourism – Challenges faced and Practices followed

With rise in purchasing power of the consumers across nations, consumption patterns

have shown exponential growth, thus stressing the resources in magnitudes as never

witnessed before. The same stands true of tourism industry too. Businesses need to relook

into their marketing strategies as concerns over sustainability and responsible use of

resources has become the need of the hour. Tourism being one of the industries where

close interaction between the consumer and the environment takes place, the need for

acting responsibly is accentuated even more. In contrast to earlier view, now business

models need to incorporate all three, people planet and profit into their strategy,

therefore adopting a holistic approach towards marketing also. Environmental

protection has to be treated as importantly as economic sustainability. Practices need to

be put in place which can help further the cause of tourism while leaving least possible

impact on the environment, the onus of which lies on both the consumer and the

marketer. Sustainable production needs to be paired with sustainable consumption in

order to ensure success of sustainability drive. Only if consumers behave to ensure

sustainability the companies adopting such practices will see a boost in their operations,

thus encouraging others to follow suit. This paper, considering various stakeholders will

make an attempt to understand evolving issues related to ecological marketing of tourism

products. Also, an effort shall be made to examine the innovative practices of tourism

marketing developed while taking into account challenges faced by the industry.