Sustainable Tourism in Reykjavik Encho Plamenov Stoyanov
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Sustainable Tourism in Reykjavik Encho Plamenov Stoyanov Líf- og umhverfisvísindadeild Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið Háskóli Íslands 2011 Sustainable tourism in Reykjavik Encho Plamenov Stoyanov 10 eininga ritgerð sem er hluti af Baccalaureus Scientiarum gráðu í Ferðamálafræði Leiðbeinendi Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir Líf- og umhverfisvísindadeild Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið Háskóli Íslands Reykjavik, janúar 2012. Sustainable Tourism in Reykjavik 10 eininga ritgerð sem er hluti af Baccalaureus Scientiarum gráðu í Ferðamálafræði Líf- og umhverfisvísindadeild Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið Háskóli Íslands Sturlugötu 7 101 Reykjavik Sími: 525 4000 Skráningarupplýsingar: Encho Plamenov Stoyanov , 2012, Sustainable Tourism in Reykjavik, BS ritgerð, Líf- og umhverfisvísindadeild, Háskóli Íslands, 34bls. Prentun: Háskólaprent ehf. Reykjavik, janúar 2012. Abstract For the past few years‟ sustainability has become a buzzword in modern societies. Nowadays many people, organizations and companies try to be friendlier to the environment, to live in a more sustainable way and to pollute the environment less. This paper reviews some of the major actors for sustainable tourism analyses. The actors are namely: local tourism enterprises & tour operators, host population (locals) & tourists, tourist authorities (national tourism organizations, governments etc.), non- governmental organisations (NGO‟s), and environmental organisations. The accent of the essay is upon the host population and the tourists for the objective of this essay is to find out whether tourists and citizens of Reykjavik are familiar with the concept of sustainable tourism. The objectives were also to introduce to the reader the concepts of sustainable development and sustainable tourism, to present what has been done in Iceland on the matter, as well as the attitude of local people and tourist towards those topics. A questionnaire survey was created and spread out among tourists and citizens of Reykjavik. The survey was organised in the manner of the structured questionnaire with a few open questions. Primary data was selected by distribution of the semi- structured questionnaires. In total 552 people participated in the research – 452 citizens of Reykjavik and 100 tourists visiting the capital. The main outcome of the research is that the meaning of the word „sustainability‟ and concepts such as „sustainable tourism‟ and „sustainable development‟ are unclear for most people, regardless of their background and place in society. Most of the citizens of Reykjavik do not feel responsibility towards the image of the tourism industry, while most tourists feel that they have responsibility towards the city of Reykjavik, yet the citizens of Reykjavik are for the further developing of the tourism industry and both groups claim that tourism is beneficial for the Icelandic capital. Keywords: sustainability, sustainable development, sustainable tourism, locals, tourists Reykjavik. iv Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................... iv Figures........................................................................................................................... vi Graphs .......................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... viii 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 2 Sustainable development & Sustainable tourism ................................................... 3 2.1 Impacts of tourism ................................................................................................... 3 2.2 Official policy for Sustainable tourism in Iceland and environmentally approved systems ..................................................................................................... 6 2.3 Environmentally approved systems ......................................................................... 7 3 Methods ............................................................................................................... 10 4 Results of the Survey for Citizens of Reykjavik .................................................. 12 4.1 Background information of the participants ................................................................... 12 4.2 Knowledge about sustainable tourism ................................................................... 14 4.3 Contribution of tourism activities to the economic of Reykjavik /according to citizens of Reykjavik/ ........................................................................................ 15 4.4 The connection between tourism activities and preservation of the socio- cultural environment in Reykjavik /according to citizens of Reykjavik/ ............... 16 5 Results of the Survey for Tourists ....................................................................... 20 5.1 Background information of the tourists ................................................................. 20 5.2 Tourists‟ knowledge about sustainable tourism ..................................................... 21 5.3 The attitude of tourists towards the topics of tourism preservation and responsibility for Reykjavik................................................................................... 23 6 Discussions .......................................................................................................... 26 6.1 Sustainable tourism tourists and locals .................................................................. 26 6.2 Sustainable tourism - oversimplifications .............................................................. 26 6.3 Peoples‟ attitude towards the tourism industry? .................................................... 28 6.4 Responsibility ........................................................................................................ 29 6.5 Critique .................................................................................................................. 30 7 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 31 Reference ..................................................................................................................... 32 v Figures Figure: 1 Framework for sustainable tourism analyses. Reference: adopted and modified from Buhalis and Fletcher (1995). ............................................... 2 Figure: 2 Sustainable development model. Reference: adopted form Adams (2006) .......................................................................................................... 3 vi Graphs Graph 1. Age of the participants. ................................................................................. 12 Graph 2. Participants’ education. ................................................................................. 12 Graph 3. Is your job connected to the tourism sector? ................................................ 13 Graph 4. Involvement in the service industries in Reykjavik 2010. ............................ 14 Graph 5. Are you familiar to the concept of Sustainable tourism? .............................. 14 Graph 6. People who claim to be familiar with the term sustainable tourism. ............ 15 Graph 7. Do the tourism activities have a positive contribution to the economic well being of Reykjavik? .......................................................... 17 Graph 8. The connection between tourism and the socio-cultural environment of Reykjavik. ........................................................................ 18 Graph 9. Answers to the statement: “The number of tourists in Reykjavik needs to be increased” .............................................................................. 19 Graph 10. Do you feel responsibility towards the tourism industry / the image of Reykjavik? ........................................................................... 19 Graph 11. Age of participants. ..................................................................................... 21 Graph 12. Participants’ education. ............................................................................... 21 Graph 13. Nationality of foreign participants. ............................................................. 22 Graph 14. Is your job connected to the tourism sector? .............................................. 22 Graph 15. Are you familiar with the term sustainable tourism? .................................. 23 Graph 16. Where did you hear or read about sustainable tourism (ST)? ..................... 24 Graph 17. Do the tourism activity have a positive contribution to the economic well being of Reykjavik? ................................................... 24 Graph 18. Does tourism activity stimulate the protection, conservation and renovation of historical sites, buildings and monuments? ........................ 25 Graph 19. Do you feel responsible for the city of Reykjavik? .................................... 26 vii Acknowledgements This research project would not have been possible without the support of many people. The author wishes to express his gratitude to the helpful supervisor the associate Professor Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir. The co-operation, advices and the supervision are much appreciated. The author would like to acknowledge grateful