What is sustainable development
Sustainable development is a kind of development that meets the present needs with out compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their needs.
Looking around we can unfortunately see that:
- Either the word Sustainable development is some thing so new that we have not had a clue about and have just realized its meaning now :)
- Or our ego, ignorance and love for money and power has hidden sustainable development from us for some years now :)
On a more serious side, sustainability is mainly related to three interconnected aspects. These are
environmental sustainability,
social sustainability and
economical sustainability which in a sense aims to bring sustainability to the environment, the society, and the economy.
Even though sustainable development concerns all aspects of life, our main objective in defining sustainable development mainly in relation to tourism (What we call ecotourism, sustainable tourism or responsible tourism).
Therefore in short, the sustainable development in relation to tourism is a kind of development that meets the requirement of the environment and the societies we visit in a sense that it does not compromise the requirements of our future generations as well (when they visit these places).
If a small resort at the edges of forest/wildlife in India utilizes some of its resources in order to revive the forest and its wildlife so the future generations can also enjoy its benefits, then this small resort practices in the domain of sustainable development.
What do you think? please comment on your thoughts on sustainable development in relation to tourism.