Sustainable Tourism in Developing Countries: Study Case in Indonesia and Thailand

"Tourism In International Relations"
Lecture : Drs Usmar Salam MIS
Name : Dana Hasibuan
Number : 07/253975/SP/22148
Major : Sociology

The word ‘Sustainable’ seems to be the new beacon of development paradigm for the last couples of decades. No wonder, this word can be find in almost every aspects of a sovereign country’s policy. Starting from economy, up to industrial aspect, almost every country in the world intends to reach a new development that could survive for a length period of time (mostly up to 20 years ahead). Not forget to mention is also tourism. As one of potential aspect that could donate big income, tourism this day, has begin receive more and more attention. And the word sustainable became one of the most powerful strategic to maximize the potential of one’s tourism. This new paradigm becomes known as Sustainable Tourism. According to the resource, Sustainable Tourism means 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. This would include actions at all levels to:

(a) Enhance international cooperation, foreign direct investment and partnerships with both private and public sectors, at all levels;

(b) Develop programmes, including education and training programmes, that encourage people to participate in eco-tourism, enable indigenous and local communities to develop and benefit from eco-tourism, and enhance stakeholder cooperation in tourism development and heritage preservation, in order to improve the protection of the environment, natural resources and cultural heritage;

(c) Provide technical assistance to developing countries and countries with economies in transition to support sustainable tourism business development and investment and tourism awareness programmes, to improve domestic tourism, and to stimulate entrepreneurial development;

(d) Assist host communities in managing visits to their tourism attractions for their maximum benefit, while ensuring the least negative impacts on and risks for their traditions, culture and environment, with the support of the World Tourism Organization and other relevant organizations;

(e) Promote the diversification of economic activities, including through the facilitation of access to markets and commercial information, and participation of emerging local enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises.

Even though Sustainable Tourism has been defining explicitly, it does not mean every country has succeeded implementing sustainable tourism due to obstacles that blocks its path. Let’s see in these two countries.

Since UU no 29 year 1999 has been approved in Indonesia by the House of Representatives (DPR), provinces in Indonesia have bigger authority on controlling their own economy and law. For example, at the economy aspect, province government now days has authority to arrange their own income and expenditure based on APBD. In law aspect, the provincial government can issued state constitution, and it has power to rule every single individual who live within in the territory. Including Bali, which is one of the province in Indonesia. It has been well known for its beautiful beach, rich of tradition ceremony, outstanding view of rice field and hills, and many more for years if it has not been one century. This circumstance endorses Bali to become as one of the best site to visit for holiday. And so, tourism became the tip of spear of Bali’s existence.

Recently, the government of Bali has succeeded in achieving the word consensus for tourism development , which I believe share a common belief with the spirit of Sustainable Tourism. This new plan is called the plan of restructuring space and territorial, which will become the new policy of development in Bali for the next 20 years. The plan of restructuring space and territorial or called RTRW was urged as a counter act towards development that has been applied in Bali for the last couple of years. In the past, development has no attention for the sustainability of local indigenous of Bali. It only concern on how to invite investors (local and foreign) as many as possible. This regulation brought several severe impacts such as: the declining of water supply for the irrigation because some of it goes to buildings (hotel and resort most likely), land for rice field became more less as data shows that every year it decrease 800-1000 hectares. It also had bad influence for the locals as money changer, salon and spa, boutique, restaurant, supermarket, and other modernity material was built all the way up in to villages, disturbing their peaceful life and spiritual composure of the villagers which has become the way of life of the natives for many years. This type of regulation need to be evaluate and re-define, otherwise Bali will loss its cultural values and tradition which has been one of the main reason why people visit Bali. Receiving critics subsequently from many sides, the provincial government begun to formulate RTRW. Its first focus is on mapping its own zone and regulation. From here, territory in Bali will be divided into protection zone dan cultivation zone. Protection zone is high surveillance area, which preserve sacred places, protected forest, etc. Cultivation zone is area that allowed invest such as residence and tourist sites. The second focus was based on the consensus on development strategic plan for 2010, where Bali decided to push environmental as their priority, next to issue such as reducing numbers of poor people, wealth, health access, and education. This decision lead to an action, where, permit to build hotel, resort, villa, homestay that has commercial purpose most likely would not be recognized. The reason is because at the moment, there are too many rooms (hotels) compare to ideal amount for Bali’s scope. The ideal rooms that are needed for a land as big as Bali is 25.000 rooms, at the present, approximately there are 50.000 rooms. This surfeited of rooms at the present has big impact on disturbing the persistence of ecosystem, as I mentioned above. Not forget to mention that there are still many illegal villas operating which cost detriment tax for the government. Thus, we can conclude that RTRW is a concrete and practical solution from provincial government to preserve Bali’s rich cultural and environment heritage from being extinguish, so our grandchildren may still experience the joy from of their own treasure.

There are plenty of tourism resources in Thailand. Some are natural tourist attractions while others are historical or cultural. Most of them are becoming more famous among tourist. Consequently, the number of tourists is increasing every year. This results in 2 challenges for the sustainability of Thailand’s tourism. First, The deterioration of the environment due to a lack of preservation measures. The Tourism Authority of Thailand and other relevant departments have thus drawn up the Sustainable Tourism regulations in order to preserve tourist attractions in their original condition. One of the practical solution is by creating a zoning which basically means you might send one kind of tourist to an area where they might do drinking, beaches, theme parks, and another sort of tourist such as bird watchers or cultural tourists somewhere else, and never mix the two. This can increase the great ability to profit from both sides of the market as long as what happens at each place is carefully controlled. The second challenge is how to endorse local community to step up and take more roles in guide lining tourism development and decision-making by conducting focus group discussions. This action is prior to one of Thailand’s goals, which is introducing villages as tourist site where people can visit and see the everyday life of the indigenous. Based on several interviews, the community itself identified tourism as a potential source of economic development. Production of souvenirs, such as handicrafts by women and elders, and the organization of tours and exhibitions on traditional village lifestyles by younger people, allowed the development of new skills and knowledge as well as earning additional income. To stimulate community involvement in the cooperative and its working groups, active members receive a 75% dividend from monthly generated profits. 15% of the profits go to a fund providing loans to co-operative members and assistance for medical expenses or funeral ceremonies. Those who are not actively involved receive 10% revenue annually. Even though some critics argue that this type of tourism distorted and exploited the value of the village lifestyle as money become the new social bound and tourist from busloads are encouraged to come and view without being respectful towards the local norms that implies within the village sometimes. But beneath all, the main reason Thailand decided locality as tourist site is so it would not scraped and drown by the pop culture brought by globalization. And its right has been protected by the Changes to the Thai constitution of 1997, where the communities themselves has the opportunity and be encouraged to develop capacities that enable local communities to become an effective part of planning and development processes. It means that they would not be left behind and only became a passive object of Sustainable Tourism. Strong sense of project ownership among community members, and continuous development of community skills for sustainable tourism management through consultative processes and practical experiences are critical to ensure sustainability of activities in Thailand tourism.