Towards better tourism : development plan for Colors of Zanzibar
Ojala, Kati (2012)
Turun ammattikorkeakoulu
2012
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2012062112936
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2012062112936
Tiivistelmä
Tourism can be seen to be one of the largest service industries in the world. In the globalizing world, distances grow shorter and people are travelling ever further, hoping to find originality and authenticity. The impacts of tourism for the environment and the destination communities are often heavy, and means to lessen these impacts are searched amongst sustainable tourism and ecotourism. There is no universally accepted definition for sustainable tourism, but it can be seen to be linked strongly to the definition of sustainable development: taking into consideration the ecological, economic and sociocultural aspects of the destination country.
The commissioner for this thesis is a small Finnish-Zanzibari travelling company, Colors of Zanzibar. The owner of the company is originally from Zanzibar. The wish of the company is to improve the sustainability of the company by means of product development. The aim of this thesis is to seek methods to lessen the company's negative impacts on the environment and sociocultural sector. The company wishes to receive concrete development suggestions that are possible for them to carry out.
In the theoretical framework of this thesis different definitions for sustainable tourism were explored, as well as sustainable business and development of travel products in the view of sustainable development. Based on the theory, the impacts of the company's activities were reviewed, and possible development targets sought. This was followed by determining measures for the development targets, and discussing their possible benefits or impacts.
Four development tasks were suggested for the company. These are increasing the interaction between locals and the tourists, starting cooperation with a non-governmental organisation, initializing a volunteer tourism programme and creating location-based eco guidelines for tourists. The indicators chosen measure the number of visitors in certain locations, the number of new projects, the number of volunteer tourists and the feedback from locals and the tourists. The results are presented in a visually clear table format.
The commissioner for this thesis is a small Finnish-Zanzibari travelling company, Colors of Zanzibar. The owner of the company is originally from Zanzibar. The wish of the company is to improve the sustainability of the company by means of product development. The aim of this thesis is to seek methods to lessen the company's negative impacts on the environment and sociocultural sector. The company wishes to receive concrete development suggestions that are possible for them to carry out.
In the theoretical framework of this thesis different definitions for sustainable tourism were explored, as well as sustainable business and development of travel products in the view of sustainable development. Based on the theory, the impacts of the company's activities were reviewed, and possible development targets sought. This was followed by determining measures for the development targets, and discussing their possible benefits or impacts.
Four development tasks were suggested for the company. These are increasing the interaction between locals and the tourists, starting cooperation with a non-governmental organisation, initializing a volunteer tourism programme and creating location-based eco guidelines for tourists. The indicators chosen measure the number of visitors in certain locations, the number of new projects, the number of volunteer tourists and the feedback from locals and the tourists. The results are presented in a visually clear table format.