engleski

The future of tourism in economic environment

Tourist activities have direct impact on their surroundings. It begins with the construction of the new object and continuous during the every-day management and operations. Tourism facilities are related to natural sources: they are large consumers of both water and energy, and produce considerable amounts of solid waste, emission and wastewater. It is often not realized they also consume and emit substances which deplete the ozone layer. However, the tourism industry is much more interested in protecting the global environment than many other industries. Tourist destinations depend on clear and healthy environment for the long-term quality sustainability of their product life. Without such environmental quality the significant part of tourism would not be possible. The goal of the paper is therefore to admonish the tourism industry to become aware of healthy environment which means prosperity not only for tourism as a single economic sector, but for the whole economic surroundings. Many hotels and holiday centers offer programs in environmental economy and benefit from them. Therefore effective management of tourist destinations, from national down to the local levels, will determine the fate and the future of both Croatian and the global tourism. This includes their ability to manage the development of tourism by meeting the needs of the destination based on understanding of factors associated with tourism. Joint planning and co-operation represent the only possible way to manage the development of the destination in order to achieve the desired state and thereby reduce the undesirable effects. The paper proposes supporting measures which can be recommended in hotels, i.e. tourist destinations, to act in accordance with environmental principles, but at the same time not neglecting the economic principles. The author points out three basic groups of measuring instruments in environmental protection: legislative, economic, and institutional. In market economies, various economic and particularly financial instruments, more efficient than the regulatory ones, are increasingly being applied. They affect producers' prices by increasing or decreasing tax liabilities, providing financial support, approval of environmental certification, etc. Economic instruments encourage environmentally friendly development, they can be used to internalize the ecological costs and are more efficient than regulatory provisions, enable the implementation of the “polluter pays” principle, increase funding for environmental protection, allow the transfer of part of labour costs to environmental costs, have beneficial effect on innovations and on strengthening of competitiveness, etc. Consequently, more and more hotel companies and tourist facilities try to express care of their guests and consumers with innovative solutions of environmental protection, and by provision of additional values expected by environmentally-conscious consumers they try to rise above their competitors and find the best possible position in the market. The environmental management aspect is becoming more interesting even to those operators who wish to manage responsibly the wider social environment and becomes an indispensable component of good corporate governance at the micro level, and an integral part of the concept of social environment governance on the macro level. We could conclude that unless steps are undertaken to maintain and improve environmental quality, the future of tourism in economic environment is in danger.

tourism in economic environment; economic and institutional measures; environmental protection

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