Sustainability in tourism

1
Sustainability in tourism

• Shirley Eber
• Sustainability in Education
• London Metropolitan University
• Business Service Sector Management
• Tourism Concern
• www.tourismconcern.org.uk

2
Presentation outline

• The work of Tourism Concern
• Sustainability in tourism education project
• Module outlines
• Supporting sustainability integration

3
Tourism Concern

• Bringing industry and communities together
• Tourism and human rights campaign
• Getting holiday-makers on board
• Unique information source
• In the media
• Linking into education

4
Sustainability in tourism education

• Aim to integrate sustainability into the tourism
  curriculum
• Partnership Tourism Concern University of
  North London, Business School
• Funding Department of Environment, Food and
  Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
• Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN)
• Support Association for Tourism in Higher
  Education (ATHE)

5
Sustainability in tourism education

• Methodology
• Consulting with staff at all levels
• Mapping existing sustainability content
• Identifying opportunities for sustainability
• Identifying obstacles to sustainability
• Recommending integration measures
• Disseminating outcomes to others

6
Sustainability in tourism education

• Project recommendations
• Three new modules
• First year Business in Society
• Second year Tourism Business in Society
• Third year Sustainability tools and solutions
  for tourism

7
Level One Business in Society

• Module aims
• introduce students to context and principles of
  sustainable development
• examine how these relate to todays world
  (leisure tourism)
• introduce concepts of development, growth and
  change within global context
• explore issues of politics, power and
  responsibility (leisure tourism)

8
Level One Business in Society

• Teaching and learning methods
• 150 student learning hours
• - weekly lectures (1.5hrs) group seminars
  (1.5hrs)
• Assessment
• Coursework - submission of Portfolio

9
Business in Society - Portfolio

• Aims of portfolio
• show how module topics are relevant to current
  events
• ensure students keep up with topics on weekly
  basis
• to highlight topics of interest to students
• to encourage creativity, open debate, critical
  analysis and thinking outside the box

10
Portfolio outline

• buy a large scrapbook
• buy and read daily broadsheet newspapers
• cut out articles (news, editorials, reviews etc.)
  relevant to module topics
• paste into scrapbook include source ref.
• at least nine items required

11
Portfolio outline continued

• write commentary (200-250 words)
• - include summary of article
• - how it relates to module topic
• - refer to academic resources
• write introduction/executive summary (250-300
  words)

12
Portfolio assessment criteria

• Portfolio should demonstrate
• reading and engagement
• effective written communication
• ability to seek, handle, analyse information
• understanding of sustainable development
• understanding of environmental, economic, social
  dimensions of business

13
Level OneBusiness in Society

• Twelve sessions
• 1 - Problems of being unsustainable
• 2 - Global and local business
• 3 - Introduction to sustainable development
• 4 - Sustainability and the public sector
• 5 - Sustainability and the private sector
• 6 - Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

14
Business in Society continued

• 7 - Citizenship, responsibility and ethics
• 8 - Social justice and human rights
• 9 - Environmental dimensions
• 10 - Diversity, culture and heritage
• 11 - Power, the media and the future
• 12 - Overview

15
Level Two Tourism Business in Society

• Applies topics to tourism
• 1 - Why tourism is unsustainable
• 2 - Global local dimensions of tourism
• 3 - Sustainable development of tourism
• 4 - Tourism sustainability public sector
• 5 - Tourism sustainability private sector
• 6 - Corporate social responsibility tourism

16
Tourism Business cont.

• 7 - Responsibility ethics in tourism
• 8 - Social justice human rights in tourism
• 9 - Environmental dimensions in tourism
• 10 - Diversity, culture heritage in tourism
• 11 - Moving forward
• 12 - Overview

17
Level Three Sustainability Tools and Solutions
for Tourism

• Builds on first two modules
• 1 - Life-cycle/carrying capacity analysis
• 2 - Environmental auditing, analysis reporting
• 3 - Social auditing, analysis reporting
• 4 - Cultural auditing, analysis reporting
• 5 - Stakeholder analysis conflict resolution
• 6 - Product stewardship responsibility

18
Solutions cont.

• 7 - Local knowledge participation
• 8 - Legislation control mechanisms
• 9 - Administration enforcement issues
• 10 - National policies instruments
• 11 - International policies instruments
• 12 - Monitoring assessment

19
Supporting sustainability integration

• Consultation
• Teaching and learning resources
• Staff training workshops
• Student career opportunities
• Information technology
• Dissemination

20
Project workshop

• Tourism academics practitioners to
• explore skills, capabilities expectations of
• Sustainability-Competent Graduate (SCG)
• intellectual - personal - practical
• explore possibilities for on-going dialogue