What comes to mind when one thinks of sustainable mobility? Is it electric and hydrogen cars, light rail systems and bicycles? If you thought of these things essentially you would be right, but is that everything? Does the whole issue of transportation on the journey of sustainable development boil down to just our dependency on oil and its impacts?
If we are to achieve sustainability in tourism then the environment and the issue of climate change are just pieces of the puzzle. I will attempt to look a little bit on the social and economic aspects of this issue of mobility. Taking the issue of the environmental damage out of the picture I will examine two aspects of sustainable mobility often overlooked.First I would look at mobility within destinations and then between destinations.
In tourism there is a term called 'multiply effect', which in essence, is how money is circulated through the local economy without any leakages (e.g. money leaving the destination). Having a high multiply effect is imperative for true economic development and for the multiply effect of a destination to be high, locals and tourists need to purchase from local shops and vendors. This helps the local economy by promoting linkages throughout the economy and encouraging entrepreneurship. Because of this the act of patronizing these shops should be easy and convenient. This is where the issue of walk-able cities and destinations come into play. In destinations not conducive to walking and cycling, especially cities, there is vehicular traffic and parking is always at a premium. This has a direct impact on the likelihood of someone randomly going into a store and purchasing an product or service. For this reason, destinations in the Caribbean should try to become as walkable as possible so tourists allowing them to explore the area with ease. In doing so, contribute to the development of the local economy. Someone who is walking along the street is more likely to stop and support local business than someone who is stuck in traffic or searching for a park.
Another hindrance to sustainable mobility is that of vertical integration. Vertical integration in tourism refers to when international tour companies have links with international airlines and hotel chains. These tour companies then promote their linkages and most times only recommend their partners to their customers. How does this affect the sustainability of island states? The answer is that these island states are then not in control of their own destiny. Neither do they reap all of the economic benefits of the vacations they facilitate. In other words, a tourist attraction or hotel in the Caribbean may be at the pinnacle of sustainability charts, yet how its guest arrives at the site may not be sustainable. Research done by the United Nations Economic Council of Latin America shows that the host nation only gets 40-45% of the retail cost of the organized holiday tours. Even if they used local hotels and visit locally own sites. The 55%-60% is lost with the use of foreign airlines. This percentage drops even further when the tourist utilizes foreign owned hotels and other foreign owned attractions.
With foreign airlines taking that much money, it forces us to look as sustainable mobility beyond just its environmental impacts. The use of foreign airlines to get to a vacation destination can deny the country of approximately half of the money they help generate. With this in mind, no matter how clean air fuel gets, can it really be considered sustainable? The answer is no. The dependence on international airlines can in some cases can ruin a country’s tourism product, by deeming that route 'unprofitable'. However it is impossible for all island states to have their own national carrier as they are a drain on national funds. We have seen a perfect example in the case of Air Jamaica.
I’m not quite sure how we are going to deal with this issue but I do know that the current system is not doing small island developing states any justice. Hopefully though, we can begin to look at this issue from a wider perspective and help us achieve sustainable tourism.
What are your thoughts?
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