My Role in Supporting/Improving Sustainability of Destinations as a Consumer/Industry Practitioner

As a consumer, I have a responsibility to contribute to the efforts of the DMO to increase sustainability

Responsible tourism truly is the future of travel, and Bhutan is ahead of the curve in ensuring that from the start of their tourism programs, they had practices of sustainable tourism. As a traveler, I can do my part to follow those ideas and practices in all destinations that I visit.

“Sustainable tourism development meets the needs of the present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future. It is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social, and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecology processes, biological diversity, and life support systems” (World Tourism Organization's definition as quoted by Byrd, 2007)

This definition essentially establishes four separate groups of stakeholders:

• the present traveler

• the present host community

• the future traveler

• the future host community.

This means that as a traveler, I should be constantly thinking about the way that I can use the resources in a way that meets my needs and desires as a present traveler, as well as being able to preserve those resources for those that use them on a daily basis (the present host community) and will continue to use them for time to come (the future host community), as well as those travelers like myself, who might want to experience the destination in the future (future travelers)

“For any type of stakeholder involvement to be successful, the involvement needs to posses the following five elements; fairness, efficiency, knowledge, wisdom, and stability (Byrd, 2007, pg 8)

As a traveler, I can use these 5 elements to guide my thoughts and actions, and increase my mindfulness as I experience the destination.