How to Sustain, Optimize and Protect a Natural Tourist Attraction
A friend tagged me in social media on an issue regarding the removal of a turtle nesting facility to give way to resort development. And I remember that I have been trying to influence local governments whenever I get the chance to contribute to tourism planning and development in their areas. That is they should implement a more holistic rather than resource-centric development. Such hifalutin words, but actually very practical.
Try to imagine a main museum piece.
It could be a painting, a huge piece of diamond or a gilded crown. You don’t do anything to that piece that would damage it, would you? Because thousands of people would make a bee-line to see the item, you will do everything to protect it. Put it in a casing, set up bollards, station guards, build a structure to house it, establish movement routes. Do everything to protect the item but making sure that the people who visit will be satisfied and don’t go home frustrated.
Now, try to imagine a pristine beach that has a very good tourism potential to be like that museum piece. I guess you get it - you would not want any harm done to that piece/attraction.
Unfortunately, most of the destinations started on the wrong foot by having that mindset that the best development site is on the beach that fronts the sea. You could not really blame the private sector who were allowed in the first place to develop the site and whose main motivation is to profit from their resort investment. But what if you’re in a position to formulate and implement the policies on how the site should be developed? And on a more macro scale, make sure that the economic value of the site would be more holistic that would include an entire town or even a province and not constrained to a few hectares along the beach.
Development must not degrade a resource
A rush towards development without careful planning can easily degrade a beach resource and it would come in form of the following:
Not observing the minimum setback area which could lead to erosion and loss of beach material
Pollution
Loss of wildlife habitat (coastal zones are usually the most dynamic or we can say ecologically rich areas compared to many parts of the marine environment).
Crowding of visitors (we have so many examples of this!)
The impacts listed above may seem innocuous in this article or on paper, but if you go on a macro level, you would realize how much opportunity a local government unit may lose by adopting a resource or attraction-centric rather than holistic development.
The value of tourism service area
Most tourist attractions are anchored to tourism service areas. Or in simple terms, the gateway to the attractions such as the provincial or municipal capitals where most of infrastructure and services are situated. Usually, a tourism service area would host the most number of accommodation and dining facilities, transport hubs and services, and other tourism businesses as well as the allied services such as banks, etc.
The tourism service area is also where the majority of social and utilities services as well as local residents are situated. In other words, this site is the most ready and appropriate area for the most number of new tourist facilities that could be introduced. And yes, we can even include high rise hotels, if appropriate. The LGU would not have to constraint their limited resources trying to provide expensive civil and social infrastructure to a far-off area to support tourism development there. By making a more holistic approach to tourism development, the destination can absorb more facilities and visitors thereby increasing many folds the livelihood, jobs and government revenues.
Of course, this argument would not apply to every destinations as many are already beyond mitigation due to the present amount of development. But this can still be applied to emerging and potential beach or island destinations.
You can take a look at the illustration below how this holistic approach could be applied by an LGU. I just hope that the local executives would consider this concept to achieve the full benefits of tourism for their people.
To really achieve sustainable tourism, optimize the economic value of the attraction and protect the core resource, the following can be done
Prevent building permanent structures on the beach (setback) area including the wildlife habitats such as turtle nesting grounds to maintain their tourism and environmental values
Allocate a strip of land for buffer which could also be turned into a landscape which could also serve as a demarcation line.
Built-up areas should be sited where they would not cause any resource degradation.
Make sure that the road linkage is built and transport service is available. Most tourists would not mind staying in the service areas if transport is not an issue.
Consider the tourist service area as the main tourism development zone where more facilities can be built.
If the LGU or other government agencies still own or control a piece of the built-up area, allocate a public beach to ensure access and facilities for day-visitors.
If you appreciated this article, you can also read the article on Urban Mobility
You can also check out my online course on practical carrying capacity
as well as the ebook on Practical Ecotourism
