Indonesia & Thailand

Tourism in International Relations
Lecture : Drs. Usmar Salam, MIS
Novianto Wibisono
21383

Sustainable Tourism Development in Indonesia and Thailand


SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
Sustainable tourism is an industry committed to making a low impact on the environment and local culture, while helping to generate income and employment for local people. The aim of sustainable tourism is to ensure that development is a positive experience for local people; tourism companies; and tourists themselves. But sustainable tourism is not 'ecotourism'.
Sustainable tourism can affect tourism generally in many ways :
1. informing themselves of the culture, politics, and economy of the communities visited
2. anticipating and respecting local cultures' expectations and assumptions
3. contributing to intercultural understanding and tolerance
4. supporting the integrity of local cultures by favoring businesses which conserve cultural heritage and traditional values
5. supporting local economies by purchasing local goods and participating with small, local businesses
6. conserving resources by seeking out businesses that are environmentally conscious, and by using the least possible amount of non-renewable resources

The paradigm of tourism has changed from mass tourism concept in the last decade with new one whose term and meaning has not really been comprehended by scholars and practitioners. There are various terms used for this various ideas of new tourism. Some ecotourism, soft tourism, nature based tourism, forest tourism, responsible tourism, alternative tourism, green tourism, small scale tourism, sustainable tourism, low impact tourism, low density tourism, ecological tourism, discreet tourism, etc. Despite the various terminologies used, the main ideas of generally involve three pillars of sustainability, namely ecologically and environmentally friendly, socio-culturally friendly, and economically efficient.
The paradigm changes could be recognized by the changes occurred due to a natural shift of trend and a result of political pressure of world wide environmental movement. The paradigm change stemmed from “back to nature” movement that started widely since the declaration of the World Conservation Strategy in 1980. The conservation pillar then not only become unavoidable concepts for any stakeholder but also become better equipped as an important tool for implementing sustainability concept in each development process.
According to the Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism, sustainable tourism will have the following characteristics :
1. minimises negative economic, environmental, and social impacts
2. generates greater economic benefits for local people and enhances the well-being of host communities, improves working conditions and access to the industry
3. involves local people in decisions that affect their lives and life chances
4. makes positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage, to the maintenance of the world’s diversity
5. provides more enjoyable experiences for tourists through more meaningful connections with local people, and a greater understanding of local cultural, social and environmental issues
6. provides access for physically challenged people
7. is culturally sensitive, engenders respect between tourists and hosts, and builds local pride and confidence

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN INDONESIA AND THAILAND
The history of tourism in Indonesia has started in the colonial age. At this age, the tourism regulation were admistrated by the Dutch East Indie. At that time, tourists are traveling in groups, as regulated. The destination is still around Java, Bali, and Sumatera. Still, the tourist mainly come for oceanic cruise. It just latter then, when some European tourist started staying for a longer term in Bali. They are mainly come for the blossoming arts scene at the Ubud area, which was as much a two-way exchange between the Balinese and outsiders as it was an internal phenomenon.
When World War II started, the tourism is ‘disappeared’. More or less, the situation is still the same at the early years of Sukarno era. It was in the late 1950s and early 1960s that tourism started to rise again, indicated by the development of the international standard hotels. But, due to the political and economic instability, the tourism is radically declining again. In the early to mid 1970s high standard hotels and tourist facilities began to appear in Jakarta and Bali, and from this period to the end of the Suharto era, governmental manipulation of the tourism industry included an array of policies and developments to encourage increasing numbers of international tourists to both visit Indonesia and stay longer.
There were a number of years that were declared 'Visit Indonesia Year' - with different themes. In a number of cases, where international events interfered, some years in the "Visit Indonesia" decade were considerable disasters. Considerable cynicism from some poor locals because of government enthusiasm to attract interest to locations with very limited interest to international tourists who tended to tread the well-worn path between the larger, and in some cases, over-promoted "tourism objects" as they were called. Somehow, Visit Indonesia Year 2008 is started, and on works.
The history of tourism in Thailand is different from Indonesia. The tourism industry in Thailand truly took off when US soldiers started to arrive in the 1960s for Rest and Recuperation (R&R) during the Vietnam War period. Coinciding, international mass tourism sharply increased during the same period due to the rising standard of living, more people acquiring more free time and due to improvements in technology making it possible to travel further, faster, cheaper and in greater numbers, epitomised by the Boeing 747 which first flew commercially in 1970. Thailand was one of the major players in Asia to capitalise on this then-new trend.
Asian tourists primarily visit Thailand for Bangkok and the historical, natural and cultural sights in its vicinity. Western tourists not only visit Bangkok and surroundings but in addition many travel down to the southern beaches and islands. The North is the main region for trekking and adventure travel with its diverse ethnic minority groups and forested mountains. The region receiving less tourists is Isan in the north-east. To facilitate foreign visitors, the Thai government established a separate tourism police with offices in the major tourist areas and its own central emergency telephone number.
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 ecotourism. On the other hand, sustainability that is intended for various comprehensive aspects and components of tourism has tended to be referred as sustainable tourism.
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 programme.
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 involved 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.

For Thailand, there are so much the same problem to deal with sustainable tourism. With that, the solution to overcome that problem are almost the same. Except for problems related to the geographic issue, because of the difference between Indonesia and Thailand. We know that Indonesia consists of thousand of island, and Thailand mainly landmass. But, the trouble for developing sustainable is almost the same after all. So, all cold share their own ideas as for developing sustainable tourism.