Comparison of Indonesian – Singapore's Tourism Sustainable Development

“Tourism In International Relations”
Lecture : Drs Usmar Salam MIS

Student's Identity
Name : A. Anjar W. P.
NIM : 06/195773/SP/21634
Grade/Cont. : SI / State Administration Program at Department of
Political Science, Gadjah Mada University
Class No. : 6
Absent No. : 35

Comparison of Indonesian – Singapore's Tourism Sustainable Development


Background
Indonesia

Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago. After the New Order Era has ended in 1998, the face of Indonesia has been changed. The whole nation has to face the economic turbulence and crisis everywhere. On the order hand, freedom of the press and freedom of speech are developing. People are more aware and critical about social, economical and political situation. This is a part of a learning curve about democratization. Indonesia’s archipelago with a tropical climate and very humid, has a richness and diversity of natural resources (beaches, volcanoes, tropical forests, and wildlife) that is unique in the world. As well as the natural beauty of Indonesia, visitors are able to see and appreciate Indonesia’s cultural and social legacies. They will know how Buddhism, Hinduism Islam, and Christianity have all contributed to Indonesia’s built heritage and its living culture.

Indonesia’s position is between Asia and Australia and this country is as wide as the European continent. The sea, with the major islands of Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua, occupies fourth-fifths of the area. Even Papua and Kalimantan rank as the second and third largest island in the world after Greenland. This country is the world’s 14th largest nation with cultural and nature diversity. For culture diversity can be seen from more than 200 million people with 250-300 ethnic groups live in and scattered over 17,000 islands spread across 5,120 km of the tropical ocean. Most of them have their own language and dialects, but Bahasa Indonesia is the national language and is spoken throughout the archipelago. For natural diversity can be seen from some areas such as Java and Bali have the most fertile islands and rice plantations are concentrated in these two regions. Whereas Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua are the place of the tropical rain forest, and open savannah grassland is in the Nusa Tenggara. Moreover various animal species comes from three different sources. Asian mammals are from the west, Australian marsupial species and birds are from the east and the endemic species are in the middle of archipelago. Orangutan, tigers, one homed rhinos, elephants, dugongs, anoas, komodo dragons are the proud of Indonesia. Besides on land, deep down the sea, there are more than hundred marine species as a part of the archipelago’s treasure.

Tourism in Indonesia is an important component of the Indonesian economy as well as a significant source of foreign exchange revenues. With a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, the second longest shoreline in the world, 300 different ethnic groups and 250 distinct languages, and tropical climate throughout the year, nature and culture are two major components of Indonesian tourism.

Tourism in Indonesia is currently overseen by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. International tourist campaigns have been focusing largely on tropical destination with white sand beaches and blue sky imagery. Beach resorts and hotels were developed in some Indonesia islands, with Bali island as the primary destination. Cultural tourism is also an important part of Indonesia tourism industry. Toraja, Prambanan and Borobudur temples, Yogyakarta and Minangkabau are popular destinations for cultural tourism, apart from many Hindu festivities in Bali. About 5 million foreign tourists have visited Indonesia annually since 2000.

However, tourism development had sometimes clashed with local people, that has created criticism over Indonesia's tourism industry. Most of the disputes were related over land possession, local traditions (adat) and the impact of tourism development to the local people. In another area, tourism industry in Indonesia faces major threats. Since 2002, several warnings have been issued by some countries over terrorist threats and ethnic/religious conflicts in some areas, which significantly reduces the number of foreign visitors.

As with most countries, domestic tourists are by far the largest market segment. The biggest movement of domestic tourists is during the annual Eid ul-Fitr, locally known as "lebaran". During this period, which is a 2 week holiday after the month of Ramadan fasting, many city-dwelling Muslim Indonesians visit relatives in their home towns. Intercity traffic is at its peak and often an additional surcharge is applied during this time.

Over the 5 years up to 2006, attention has been focused on generating more domestic tourism. Competition amongst budget airlines has increased the number of domestic air travelers throughout the country. Recently, the Ministry of Labor legislated to create long weekends by combining public holidays that fall close to weekends, except in the case of important religious holidays. During these long weekends, most hotels in popular destinations are fully booked.

Since 2000, there have been, on average, 5 million foreign tourists each year, who spend an average of US$ 100 per day. With an average visit duration of 9-12 days, Indonesia gains US$ 4.6 billion of foreign exchange income annually. This makes tourism Indonesia's third most important non-oil/gas source of foreign revenue, after timber and textile products.

Three quarters of Indonesia's visitors come from the Asia Pacific region, with Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Japan and South Korea among the top five markets. The United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Netherlands are the largest sources of European visitors. Although Dutch visitors are at least in part keen to explore the historical relationships, many European visitors are seeking the tropical weather at the beaches in Bali.


Singapore

Singapore is an island city-state located at the southern tip of Malay Peninsula, lying 137 kilometers north of the Indonesia's Rial Islands. Truly, Singapore's Island was a part of Indonesia's archipelagos before European settlement. Singapore is a micro state and the smallest nation in Southeast Asia, is by orders of magnitude larger than Monaco and Vatican City, the only surviving sovereign city states. Before European settlement, the island now known as Singapore was the site of a Malay fishing village at the mouth of the Singapore River. Several hundred indigenous Orang Laut people also lived along the nearby coast, rivers and on smaller islands. In 1819, the British East India Company, led by Sir Stamford Raffles, established a trading post on the island, which was used as a port along the spice route. Singapore became one of the most important commercial and military centers of the British Empire, and the hub of British power in Southeast Asia.1

Tourism in Singapore is a major industry and attracts millions of tourists each year. Its cultural attraction can be attributed to its cultural diversity that reflects its colonial history and Chinese, Malay, Indian and Arab ethnicities. It is also environmentally friendly, and maintains natural and heritage conservation programs. As English is one of its numerous official languages, it is generally easier for tourists to understand when speaking to the local population of the country, for example, when shopping. Transport in Singapore exhaustively covers most, if not all public venues in Singapore, which increases convenience for tourists. This includes the well-known Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system.2

The Orchard Road district, which is dominated by multi-story shopping centers and hotels, can be considered the center of tourism in Singapore. Other popular tourist attractions include the Singapore Zoo and its Night Safari, which allows people to explore Asian, African and American habitats at night without any visible barriers between guests and the wild animals. The Singapore Zoo has embraced the 'open zoo' concept whereby animals are kept in enclosures, separated from visitors by hidden dry or wet moats, instead of caging the animals. Jurong Bird Park is another zoological garden centered around birds, which is dedicated towards exposing the public to as much species and varieties of birds from around the world as possible, including a flock of one thousand flamingos. The tourist island of Sentosa, which attracts more than 5 million visitors a year, is located in the south of Singapore, consists of about 20-30 landmarks, such as Fort Siloso, which was built as a fortress to defend against the Japanese during World War II. Guns from the World War II era can be seen at Fort Siloso, from a mini-sized to a 16 pound (7 kg) gun. Recently, the island has built the Tiger Sky Tower, which allows visitors to view the whole of Sentosa, as well as the Sentosa Luge, a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleighs supine and feet-first. Steering is done by shifting the weight or pulling straps attached to the sled's runners. Singapore will have two integrated resorts with casinos in 2010, one at Marina Bay and the other at Sentosa which the government announced during a parliament session on April 18, 2005.3

In 2006, the number of tourists visiting Singapore reached a record number of 9.7 million as compared to 8.9 million in 2005, beating expectations. Visitors spent an estimated S$12.4 billion compared to 10.8 billion in Year 2005, resulting in a 14% increase last year compared to the 2005. Visitors stayed for an average of 4.2 days in 2006, and Indonesia was the main source of tourists with more than 1.8 million visitors in 2006, followed by China with 1.0 million. Malaysians also made up 996,000 of the visitors. For hotels, the average occupancy rate between for the whole year was 86% compared to 84% in 2005, resulting in a 1.4% growth. Room rates broke 10 year records to reach a high of S$164 last year as compared to $137 in 2005, resulting in a 19.6% growth last year as compared to 2005. In 2006, total room revenue, visitor day and revenue per available room was $1.5 billion, $32.9 million and $140 respectively. All three sectors had achieved substantial growth as compared to Year 2005. In 2007, the state achieved 10.3 million visitor arrivals. By 2015 the ambitious Tourism 2015 blueprint aims to increase visitors arrivals to 17 million and raise tourism receipts to S$30 billion4.


Sustainable Tourism Sustainable Development Theory5

Sustainable tourism is one approach to development of the tourism industry designed to provide a context that can guide choices, bring together stakeholders so they act in the common interest and help decision-makers see more clearly how to balance the positive and negative impacts at present and in the future. When decided to develop the tourism industry, there are many different forms of tourism that vary according to the location, the interests of the tourists and the tourism resources that are available. However, there are certain positive impacts of tourism that are expected to contribute to development. For example, economy support of a community, new employment is created, community stability can be maintained, amenities in the area are enhanced and the community can build a sense of pride and local identity. At the same time, planners and stakeholders have to take into account possible negative impacts from tourism.

One definition of sustainable tourism states that it is tourism developed and maintained in an area (community, environment) based on the main principles include the following:
1.Residents must maintain control over tourism development and planning requires broad-based community input.
2.Quality employment must be provided for the community along with education and training program.
3.Distribution of the benefits must be broad-based and cooperation among local stakeholders is essential.
4.Intergenerational equity must be provided and tourism businesses and other tourism agencies must adopt long-term planning horizons.
5.Tourism strategies and plans must be linked to broader initiatives reflected in economic development plans of the community, region or nation and move away from the traditional growth-oriented model.
6.Harmony is required between the needs of the visitor, the place and the community in order to promote appropriate uses and activities.
7.The scale and type of tourism facilities must reflect limits of acceptable use, and this means guidelines are needed for tourism operations and impact assessments must be required.
8.The community heritage and natural resources must be maintained and enhanced using internationally acceptable criteria and standards.
9.Marketing for sustainable tourism must provide for a high quality tourist experience.

Moreover, the practice of sustainable tourism development is based on management of capacities and sites, namely carrying capacity that will measure the level of use that is sustainable. However in the management of tourism, carrying capacity approach becomes more important to be implemented by focusing a number of issues to be addressed. Say that every environment serves multiple purposes and sensitivity to different use levels depends on the values of all users in terms of any different types of use has different impacts. Carrying capacity can be useful because it draws attention to limits and thresholds beyond which a site should not be developed. There are a number of ways to measure carrying capacity, including tangible resource limits, tolerance by the host population, visitor satisfaction, rates of growth, and other quantifiable indicators. One important aspect on carrying capacity that should be concerned is site management. This management involves managing visitors, educating visitors and having a visitor use plan. There are a variety of means that can be used to manage visitors by controlling or restricting access. Visitors can be educated through interpretation of local cultural values, by providing cultural guidelines, having discussions and briefings on arrival about appropriate behavior and by using advertising and promotion campaigns. A visitor use plan can be prepared to indicate and control the physical access to sites.

While there are a set of principles and practices to help guide sustainable
tourism development, stakeholders still face a number of challenges are
as follows:
1.Getting the public sector, including governments at all levels,
2.To get involve actively in the process of conserving and developing cultural heritage sites;
3.Obtaining the funds needed to develop products and getting the government to serve as a joint venture partner where appropriate;
4.Ensuring that tourism strategies and plans are integrated and linked to broader development plans, especially at the community level; encouraging local businesses, tourism operators and other stakeholders to cooperate;
5.Requiring impact assessments, including monitoring and indicators, where tourism development involves heritage resources and communities;
6.Making interpretation an essential part of the development process;
7.Finding creative financing appropriate to developing countries and areas of Asia and the Pacific where financial resources might be limited.

The most important challenge for sustainable tourism development concerns the perspective and expectations that all stakeholders, particularly government policy-makers, have about tourism’s contribution at the local, regional and national levels. Indonesian government view tourism as a vehicle for economic development, given its potential to earn foreign exchange, create employment, reduce income and employment disparities, strengthen linkages among economic sectors and help to alleviate poverty. In order to sustain tourism, it is necessary for government to address various issues arising from tourism’s contribution to development in a comprehensive, systematic way. Issues of policy-making, planning, management and the participation of the private sector and other stakeholders must be addressed in terms of opportunities for action and possible constraints that need to be overcome by concerted efforts. The challenge facing by government as policy-makers is to have a broader perspective and better understanding that there can be both positive and negative effects from tourism development. Moreover, a broader perspective challenges all stakeholders involved with tourism from the community level to the national level to find the means to work together in more proactive ways that will increase the positive effects and minimize the possible negative effects of tourism development. Some creations that we can get from sustainable tourism development are as follows:
1.Sustainable tourism development provides the opportunity to take proactive approaches based on broad participation by stakeholders, which would contribute to more effective policies and plans. This would increase the opportunities to realize the full social and economic potential of the tourism industry.
2.Sustainable tourism development creates the opportunity for governments and all stakeholders in the tourism sector to aim at ensuring long-term prosperity and quality of life for future generations.
3.Sustainable tourism development also creates opportunities to preserve natural and cultural heritages for tourists and local people in ways that address development problems and reduce risks to the environment and ways of life.

The government realize the aspect on how important to make proper use of local resources, how to develop human resources for community-based tourism and management of cultural and heritage sites and where to find the financial resources to support environmental protection and promote community-based tourism in more remote areas that are less developed. Another aspect relates to what Indonesia need in order develop tourism that would be economically viable, socio-culturally acceptable and environmentally sustainable. This involves process of enhancing national capabilities to take actions to tourism that would bring benefits to wide segments of society, and finding ways to ensure that benefits should be shared equitably among various stakeholders.

Since last view years, government facilitates broad participation of all relevant stakeholders from the national to the community level in the process of tourism development planning and implementation. This is a major program for addressing many issues related to sustainable tourism development. Integrate tourism planning through a new tourism master plan that incorporate principles of environmental management, becomes first priority of Indonesian government to enhance participation capabilities at local levels and community-based tourism of all stakeholders in order to arrive at efficient and effective solutions, plans and projects that are sustainable.

In Indonesian where authority is being decentralized and greater public participation is being encouraged, the government at national and regional level might also evaluate investment policies and regulations to encourage a wide variety of arrangements that could enhance private sector participation in sustainable tourism development. This will involve careful decision-making and planning to balance accessibility with carrying capacity at all levels, especially in communities. Sustainable tourism development should also be responsive to rapid changes and new demands in the international tourist market.

Sustainable Tourism Development Analysis

Indonesia's Sustainable Tourism Development

In Indonesia, at a national, regional or at local levels, the concept of sustainability equipped with the three pillars has to be adopted and implemented in each existing development sector, including the tourism sector. However, it is far from easy to adopt and implement this new tourism concept. There are too many directly or indirectly related factors that the tourism as a multi-sector must also simultaneously adapt and adopt the sustainability concept, without an adequate both process, it will be hard for the tourism sector to be able implement the new paradigm. There are many terms and concepts of sustainable tourism from many experts, but the Borderland concept can probably be seen as one of sustainable development concept, which has been adopted, developed and become in an international parameter in any development of the tourism sector for the last two decades. Although the terms vary, the ideas and concepts behind them are basically similar. The Agenda 21 for Travel and Tourism clearly stated that in order to reach sustainability, Travel and Tourism areas should base their activities on the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. Important guidelines stated in the Agenda 21 for Travel and Tourism are as follows: Travel and tourism should assist people in leading healthy and productive lives in harmony with nature, should contribute to the conservation, protection, and restoration of the Earth’s ecosystem, should be based upon sustainable pattern of production and consumption. Nations should co-operate to promote an open economic system, in which international trade in Travel and Tourism services can take place on sustainable basis. Travel and tourism, peace, development, and environmental protection are independent. For Indonesia, the term sustainable tourism has recently earned to be implemented sectoral in any development activities. Various sustainability ideas of nature (natural and cultural) related tourism have tended to be blended into one term, namely Eco-tourism. On the other hand, sustainability that is intended for various comprehensive aspects and components of tourism has tended to be referred as sustainable tourism.

The target of the sustainable tourism development as identified in the master plan covers he aspects of increasing the number of tourists, improving the quality of the environment, empowering the local community, increasing the Original Regional Income, and developing throughout Indonesian regions. Increasing the number of tourists as the main target, for example, is in line with the high necessity to obtain economic benefit from tourism. This target also includes the efforts to increase the length of stay of each tourist group. The total number of tourists going to visit Indonesia in 2007
reaches 5.5 million tourists. These tourists come through the main gateways, such as Soekarno-Hatta airport, Ngurah Rai airport and Batam.

In terms of the length of stay, is intended to get increased to 6-9 days. This target implicates the need to provide transportation facilities and services from the some gateways to any tourism destination in Indonesia, and to the development strategies of tourism products and the provision of
tourism supporting facilities and services. In terms of Improvement Environment Quality, the following development goals are targeted by government is intended to be achieved through various management strategies on both natural and cultural environment such as: conservation and preservation of natural areas and features, which are important as tourism attraction, improvement of visual environment quality through landscape management, building design and allocation, conservation and preservation of traces having historic value, and ancient buildings having distinctive characteristics. Furthermore, controlled of possible pollution resulting from the development of tourism supporting facilities, prevention of land destruction as a result of the
development of tourism supporting facilities and services by utilizing them in accordance to the land/areas supports capacities, controlled of the land use to prevent a change of land functions, which may support the tourism development. Finally, Conservation and preservation of ‘karsts’
ecosystems. In terms of Empowering the local community, the target of local community empowerment can be achieved as soon as the local communities are ready to participate in tourism development processes by increasing the quality of the human resources who are or might be involved in tourism development; through formal or informal capacity-building amongst the community. It is then possible to create the Community Based Tourism Development (CBTD).

The strategy to Increase Original Regional Income can be increased through various types of taxes and retributions of the business related to tourism. This is parallel with the expected increase of the number of tourists visiting Indonesia. It can be assumed from this strategy that the more tourists come for a visit, the bigger the income obtained from various tourism retributions and taxes will be. Basically, the tourism development in Indonesia must be able to support the regional development in general in the way that the tourism development plan in any area can be integrated with various other development plans in other sectors. The fulfillment of the need of tourism supporting facilities and services such as electricity network, telephone network, and financial institutions must also become a supporting factor for the developing region either directly or indirectly. In addition the improvement of the transportation facilities and services from one tourism destination to other tourism destination should be directed to provide easy flow and distribution of people and commodities.

To develop sustainable tourism in Indonesia, the government has formed the development orientations as a guidelines which cover tourism spatial structures, tourism products, accommodation, quality improvement of the human resources and related institutions that are involved in tourism development, and environmental management in the context of tourism development. The development of amenities facilities aims at providing easiness to the tourists in fulfilling their specific needs of amenities when they visit Indonesia. Furthermore, this amenities development is directed to support the development of tourism service centers, which will in turn play a role in the regional development in general. The Strategic development for environment management involves two parts, namely physical and non-physical environment (social and cultural) of a tourism activity. The objective of the environment management is to optimize the benefit/positive impact and monitoring the impact of tourism development. In the context of physical environment, there are several tasks need to be done to support the tourism development such as implementing multi-function land use concepts, regulating and designing the building establishment along the corridors having beautiful panorama. In relation to the cultural tourism resources as one of the typical tourism characteristics in Indonesia, it is necessary to generate an ethic guideline for tourism.

The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and The Pacific High Level Intergovernmental Meeting on Sustainable Tourism Development, December 2005, which held in Bali, Indonesia has formulated some policy to ward the sustainable of tourism, are as follow6:
1.The government of Indonesia has formulated national competency standards and established a tourism certification institute. Within Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Indonesia has been working on a long-term project to establish common standards known as APEC Tourism Occupational Skill Standards. Indonesia has acted as the lead country to establish Association of Southeast Asian Nations Common Competency Standards for Tourism Professionals.
2.Indonesia has incorporated sociocultural and environmental management at the national and provincial levels into the National Tourism Master Plan 2003. The Plan provides an overall policy framework for sustainable tourism development and sets guidelines for priority areas, the types of products suitable to each area and control of investment. The Government has adopted the concept of balanced development of tourism through the Tri Hita Karana Tourism Awards Program.
3.Indonesia provides visa-free entry for nationals from 11 countries and visa on arrival for a 30- day stay to nationals from 36 countries. Action to liberalize border formalities, including immigration procedures, has been taken according to established international standards and norms. Cross-sectoral regulations and the administrative framework have been adjusted to better manage tourism flows through designated ports of entry and borders, especially with other ASEAN member countries.
4.Indonesia has strongly supported regional and subregional cooperation to promote tourism. Indonesia has hosted seminars and consultations organized by ESCAP and the World Tourism Organization.


Singapore's Sustainable Tourism Development

7Despite it's popularity as a tourist destination, Singapore exhibits a combination of characteristics that, so far, have kept it from succumbing to the negative effects of mass tourism. Tourism worldwide has experienced phenomenal growth. Lately, though, there have been concerns regarding the rapid growth of Singapore's tourism industry. As a small island city--state at the crossroads of trade and commerce, Singapore occupies only 641 square kilometers and has a population density of 5,186 residents per square kilometer, one of the highest in the world. Singapore averages 75 visitors a day per square kilometer of land, making it much more densely visited than other popular destinations such as the Caribbean Islands (58 daily visitors per square kilometer), Hong Kong (51), France (2), Italy (.8), and Spain (.4). Singapore's popularity with business and leisure travelers presents the potential to compound the problems of an already high population density, such as overcrowding, congestion, pollution, and crime.

One way to measure a population's pressure on local resources is to look at the country's "ecological footprint" relative to other countries and communities. According to Wackernagel and Rees, the ecological footprint of a nation is estimated by calculating how much land and water is required on a continuous basis to produce all the goods consumed and assimilate all the waste produced. By adding up the world's biologically productive lands, it is estimated that there are only 1.7 hectares per person available. Based on the 52 nations surveyed for the "Footprints of Nations" report by the Earth Council, Singapore has a per-capita ecological footprint of 7.2 hectares, compared to a world average of only 2.8. In other words, to sustain its current rate of consumption and waste production, Singapore needs 7.2 hectares of land per person. Yet with an available capacity of only 0.1 hectare per person, Singapore has an ecological deficit of 7.1, an ecological footprint 72 times larger than its avail able capacity.

Too much CO .Regarding air quality, the 1999 Living Planet Report from the Worldwide Fund for Nature ranked Singapore fourth out of 71 nations surveyed for carbon dioxide emissions. According to Butler, sustainable tourism is defined as, "tourism which is developed and maintained in an area in such a manner and at such a scale that it remains viable over an infinite period and does not degrade or alter the environment, in which it exists to such a degree that it prohibits the successful development and well being of other activities and processes." To that we add the condition that tourism products must be integrated cooperatively into the economy, environment, and society of the host nation.

Butler also explains why tourism almost always becomes unsustainable. Using a life-cycle model he describes how, initially, a small number of adventurous tourists explore a natural attraction, leading to the involvement of local residents and subsequent development of the area as a tourist destination. The number of tourists thereafter grows, eventually consolidating and "maturing" into mass tourism. Unless the tourism products are rejuvenated, the result is stagnation and eventual decline through overuse beyond the destination's carrying capacity (including visitors' adverse impact on the environment). Butler stressed that without control and management, environmental degradation is inevitable once carrying capacity has been reached and then exceeded--making mass tourism unsustainable.

Mass tourism can generate large quantities of waste, a problem particularly compelling in developing countries where systems for sewage treatment and solid-waste disposal are not well developed. Large tourism developments also generate pollution, creating international problems regarding shared air and water sources. Typically they lead to the destruction of fauna and flora as well as the loss of biodiversity. For instance, many tourists flock to Australia's Great Barrier Reef each year, and through ignorance, poor judgment, or selfishness have killed some of the delicate coral there. Additionally, tourists have been known to unintentionally introduce into delicate ecosystems alien forms of plant life (for example, by transferring it from their shoes and clothing). As mass tourism adversely affects the environment, environmental degradation in turn adversely affects tourism demand, leading to its probable decline. Ironically, once the destination is snubbed by tourists, the best source of money to repair the tourists damage dries up as well.

At some point the negative effects of too many tourists cause the permanent residents to resent tourists altogether. Doxey predicts residents' changes in perceptions, attitudes, and responses toward visitors by indexing the progression of feelings from euphoria, enthusiasm, and hope to impersonal apathy and irritation. Negative feelings result from tourists' encroachment, and eventually evolve into overt antagonism when the environment and community life have been damaged beyond repair. As has happened, the transformation from residents' welcoming visitors to despising them can be speeded along when the tourists introduce disease agents or other medical issues that otherwise could have been avoided.

The demonstration effect describes the social changes that take place when residents interact with tourists. Affluent tourists usually exert a strong influence on local residents' speech, behavior, attitude, attire, values, and thinking. Demonstration effects are seen as corruptors of local values in places such as Egypt and Israel, where tourists commonly break social norms by drinking alcohol in public places and dressing skimpily in places of worship. At Kuta Beach, in Bali, the residents have taken to being "Kuta cowboys" as a result of the Australian influence. Even more insidious, in destinations such as Thailand and the Philippines, mass tourism has resulted in increased prostitution, sexually transmitted disease (including AIDS), and drug abuse.

Acculturation takes place when two or more cultures come into contact for a sustained period and ideas are exchanged. In the case of relatively undeveloped countries, however, the local cultures and customs tend to be overwhelmed by more-developed cultures, especially Western influences. Moreover, some attraction operators will actually modify local standards to suit tourists' expectations. An example of acculturation is the commoditization of heritage, where the residents try to convince tourists that corrupted and shortened cultural presentations are, indeed, authentic. According to Greenwood, in some cases culture is being packaged and sold like fast food. For example, the authentic Balinese dance has been shortened for tourist events, and the dancers' costumes have been made more colorful and attractive than tradition dictates. Thus, tourists end up paying to see what they expect to see, not what they ought to see.

In general, mass tourism has overall negative effects on local economies. Economically sustainable tourism entails retaining a substantial portion of visitors' spending within the local economy. According to the World Bank, however, as much as 55 percent of the developing world's tourism revenues leak back to the developed countries in the form of imports. Thus, when a tourist orders a Singapore Sling at the world-famous Raffles Hotel, the Cherry Heering is imported from Denmark, the Bee feater Gin comes from England, and the fruit juices are brought in from neighboring Malaysia. Also, due to tourism- related increases in resource demand, land, property, produce, and services are priced out of the reach of many local residents.
As an alternative to destructive mass tourism, two common forms of sustainable tourism exist, namely, heritage tourism and Eco tourism.

Heritage tourism. Heritage tourism entails individuals traveling to learn and to enjoy the unadulterated cultural artifacts (i.e., heritage) of the destination, for example, a trip to Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, or Borobudur, in Indonesia, to appreciate ancient civilizations. The cultural and environmental resources are carefully preserved, and historical artifacts are left in their original sites and natural state for authenticity, instead of being dug up and placed in museums-as has occurred with some of the Terra Cotta sites in China. Just as important, heritage tourists consume locally produced goods and services, for example, by visiting markets primarily meant for the residents (Chiang Mai, in Thailand, comes to mind).

Eco tourism. Eco tourism is defined as sustainable nature-based tourism with purposeful travel to natural areas to appreciate the environment, taking care not to alter the ecosystem and leaving only footprints, and producing economic opportunities that make the conservation of natural resources beneficial to the locals. This usually involves environmentally responsible travel to relatively undisturbed locales to appreciate nature consistent with conservation, and with mutually beneficial, low-impact, socio-economic involvement with the residents. An example of Eco tourism is Costa Rica's Rafa Avis nature- based project, which strives to preserve the threatened rain forest while educating visitors and getting Costa Ricans involved in the nations travel economy.

The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and The Pacific High Level Intergovernmental Meeting on Sustainable Tourism Development, December 2005, which held in Bali, Singapore has formulated some policy to ward the sustainable of tourism, are as follow8:
1.Singapore has a National Skills Recognition System to establish work performance standards, identify competency and certify skills in several tourism sectors. In 2003, a competency framework was developed to build an integrated continuing education system to facilitate adult learning, improve access to improved skills and provide clear career pathways. In January 2005, Singapore announced “Tourism 2015” as the future vision.
2.In Singapore, the National Environment Agency was formed under the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources in July 2002. Its primary responsibility has been the implementation of environmental policies on a nationwide basis, which would include the tourism industry.
3.In January 2005, the Government of Singapore announced “Tourism 2015”, a vision to transform the country into the leading convention and exhibition city in Asia, provide visitors with the “Uniquely Singapore” experience and become the service center of Asia. The Cabinet approved S$ 2 billion for a Tourism Development Fund in November 2004 to develop world-class tourism infrastructure and products with a variety of incentives for private sector investment. Significant investment in infrastructure over the past few years has helped to increase air services connecting Singapore to the region as the key regional hub based on air travel. In aviation, Singapore has supported low-cost carriers owing to their positive impact on liberalizing aviation connectivity and increasing market accessibility.
4.Singapore has joined Visa-free ASEAN, which makes travel to other ASEAN member countries easier and promotes regional tourism. Singapore has established a “Visa-for-Visa” program to facilitate visa applications for nationals from China who qualify according to specific criteria. A special Visa Free Transit Facility for nationals from India and China has helped to promote Singapore’s air hub status and global connectivity. A wide range of visa options have been designed to promote Singapore as a transit and tourism destination.
5.Singapore has developed government-to-government relations that promote tourism development. It has participated in regional and international tourism meetings to explore opportunities for regional and subregional cooperation in tourism.