Tourism, Climate Change and Sustainable Tourism: The Comparison between Indonesia and Thailand

"Tourism in International Relations"
Lecture: Drs Usmar Salam MIS
James Keiyo
International Relations
06/195908/SP/21686

Tourism is travel activity for pleasure, professional and many other tourist motives. The World Tourism Organization defines tourist as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited". International tourism developed very well in the late of 20th century as an impact from developing of supporting tourism factor such as communication, transportation, world economy, and etcetera, then tourism became one of the biggest industries that ever existed in the world.

In 2007, there were over 903 million international tourist arrivals, with a growth of 6.6% as compared to 2006. In that case, we can see that tourism indeed gives a beneficial impact toward tourism destination such as foreign exchange, creating of work field for local society, and making even distribution to development. In the other hand, tourism also brings a significant detrimental effect toward climate change. Davos Declaration stated that tourism to contribute some 5% of global CO2 emissions that causes climate change.

Climate change has been a major concern of most countries in the world. The world's surface air temperature increased an average of 0.6° Celsius (1.1°F) during the last century according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This change may not seem so significant, but it really is. This warmer temperature caused noticeable changes to our planet today. Those effects such as sea level is rising, glacier is melting, Arctic sea ice is melting, sea surface temperature is rising, heavier rainfall, extreme drought is rising, ecosystems are changing and etcetera.

As we can see, tourism is also one factor that causes climate change, but in the other hand, climate is one key source factor of tourism because the quality of environment is essential. That is why many experts try to promote sustainable tourism in the order to give beneficial impact towards tourism and climate as well.

I am going to take two different countries from South East Asia, Indonesia and Thailand, and I am going to compare the concept of Sustainable Tourism and the Implementation of both countries. I took those countries based on some consideration such as both countries are from South East Asia and both countries are developing country.

Indonesia: The Ultimate in Diversity
Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago country. It has thousands of islands and millions of hectares of tropical forests with a highly bio-diversity as a natural tourism potential of tropical regions and hundreds of ethnic groups and their culture as tourism potential; it created a campaign brand: “The Ultimate in Diversity”. The problem that is happening in Indonesia is Indonesia has many of fundamental problems and lacks of funds. With the euphoria of autonomy, these fundamental problems would be even more crucial for any local government because of its various essential limitations such as capital and human resources. Indonesia lacks of funding makes this country hard to develop its tourism destination, in fact Bali became one and only tourism destination that absorbs most tourists compared with other tourism destinations.

Sustainable tourism in Indonesia has some goal to be achieved, those goals are 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. One goal that has something to do with decreasing the effect of climate change is improving the quality of the environment. As we know, as for Indonesia, policy development and strategic sustainable tourism development are the keys success to guide the development of Indonesian tourism industry for generations to come. So Indonesian government is making several regulations in order manage that. A draft of Tourism Law has been made and based on May 21th 2008’s version, at the chapter VII part 2 and 3 we can see a strict regulation about protecting the environment.

The Strategic development for environment management consists of two different parts, which is physical and non-physical environment of a tourism activity. The environmental management’s goal is optimizing beneficial impact and observing the impact of the developing of tourism. Physical environment, such as forest, beach, and etcetera needs to be protected and there are some problems that should be fixed in order to protect it. The implementation multi-function land by using concepts, regulation and building design is needed to be established along with the natural environment.

Apparently, based on World Economy Forum’s report, Indonesia is ranked 81st from 133 countries in Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2009. It is worse than last year, which Indonesia was ranked 80th from 130 countries. When we look each pillars, Indonesia has terrible rank, but it was saved by Price competitiveness in the T&T industry (ranked 3rd) and also Prioritization of Travel & Tourism (ranked 10th). Indonesia lowest rank was Environmental sustainability (ranked 130th). This low rank is caused by very weak enforcement of environmental regulation (ranked 116nd), and stringency of environmental regulation (ranked 122nd). It caused the very bad quality of its natural resources (ranked 132nd).

The Amazing Thailand
Thailand has plenty tourism resources that also consist of two types, physic and non-physic. Along with their tourism campaign “Amazing Thailand”, the number international tourist arrival rapidly increased in couple last years and Bangkok became the 3rd most visited city in 2007. It shows how this campaign successfully attracted international tourist.

Like with Indonesia, Thailand is also developing country, it means Thailand economy isn’t settled yet. But in this case, Thailand can develop its tourism better than Indonesia. It shows from World Economy Forum’s research that ranked Thailand in 39th from 133 countries. This rank is better than previous year that Thailand was ranked 42th from 130 countries.

Thailand's sustainable tourism development plan’s main goal is expand the market, increase the rate of repeat tourists, and enhance Thailand's reputation. This concept will be done by emphasizing more on quality over quantity, and slowly move away from quantity, this policy will gain importance as ecological interest rather than economic.

Just like another countries, Thailand also made several regulation to protect their environment to create a sustainable environment. This regulation is also made in order to preserve tourist attraction. Those regulations, as written in Thaiway magazine, such as:

For tour operator:

• Avoid overuse and reduce waste when consuming tourism resources.
• Maintain and promote social, cultural, and natural diversity.
• Integrate the tourism operation with strategic plans and activities at both the natural and local levels.
• Promote local business by using locally made products.
• Ensure that local people have opportunities to develop tourism operations.
• Consult all stakeholders to determine positive and negative outcomes from the operation.
• Manage the operation to enhance positive and minimize negative outcomes.
• Provide appropriate staff training to improve the quality of personnel and enhance tourism services and standards.
• Prepare marketing material that promotes your operation as contributing to sustainable tourism.
• Research and mitigate impacts of your operation on the destination. This will improve knowledge about sustainable tourism and conserve the destination.
• Know how to conserve and manage tourism resources, so that they provide long-term benefits.

For tourist:

• Gather relevant information about the destination before setting out. For example, find out the best way to get to the destination and check the weather forecast so you can prepare appropriate clothing and equipment. Book all travel and accommodation in advance.
• Study the history and background of the destination to enhance your experience and understanding of the local culture and tradition.
• When you arrive at the destination, you should respect all local culture, traditions, and environmental values. Always follow local rules and regulations.
• If traveling in a group, you should follow the group conventions, be on time, and listen to the leader or tourist guide.
• For your own safety, be careful and follow the local rules and regulations. Do not believe strangers who try to accommodate or help you without checking their sincerity.
• Choose tourism operations that are environmentally and socially responsible by reading company policies and looking for certificates of environmental awareness issued by recognized organizations.
• Do not support illegal businesses by buying endangered species of plants or animals. Adhering to these principles of sustainable tourism will enhance local economies, minimize environmental impacts, improve the quality of life, and strengthen communities. We believe tourism in Thailand can be sustainable if we follow these principles.

But based on World Economy Forum’s report, it stated that Thailand should prioritize environmental sustainability (ranked 99th). Along with Indonesia, Stringency of environmental regulation (ranked 54th) and Enforcement of environmental regulation (ranked 53th) are graded as bad. Those ranks are graded low, but it’s away better than what happen in Indonesia.

Conclusion
We can see that even though Indonesia and Thailand are in the same area and both of them are developing country, it’s not necessarily that they will be the same. The differences between Thailand and Indonesia are how the government treats their own tourism industry. If the treat is better, the tourism industry will be more sustainable and attract more tourists.