SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AND MONITORING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF ARMENIA Hasmik Amiryan i Hasmik Amiryan SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AND MONITORING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF ARMENIA Master In Innovative Tourism Development The Dissertation was performed under the guidance of Professor Goretti Silva May 2013 ii To my beloved parents, Hovik and Azniv, who supported me in each and every stage of my life And to my sisters, Arevik and Armieh, who were always there for me… Նվիրվում է իմ սիրելի ծնողներին՝ Հովիկին եւ Ազնիվին, որոնք միշտ աջակցել են ինձ կյանքիս յուրաքանչյուր փուլում, եւ իմ քույրերին ՝ Արեւիկին եւ Արմինեին, որոնք միշտ կողքիս են եղել ... iii The Jury Phd Olga Maria Pinto de Matos President Associate Professor and Coordinator of MTID of Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo Phd Carlos de Oliveira Fernandes (Examiner) Associate Professor of Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Vowels Castelo PhD Goretti Silva (Supervisor) Associate Professor of Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo iv Acknowledgments I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all those who provided me the possibility to complete this dissertation. Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Goretti Silva for the continuous support of my research, for her patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. Her guidance helped me in all the darkest times of my research. Besides my supervisor, I’d like to thank the rest of the academic staff of IPVC I had pleasure to work with during these two years with special references to Prof. Olga Matos who was always very demanding and supportive in any matter and Prof. Carlos Fernandes for his encouragement and insightful comments. My sincere thanks also goes to Prof. Vardan Sargsyan for offering me opportunities to study in this wonderful country. And last but not least, I’d like to thank two of my best friends, Levon Gazaryan and Hugo Gonsalves, for their unconditional support and encouragement. v ABSTRACT In the last two decades sustainability has become a central matter in tourism, giving rise to more proactive development strategies from destination management organizations, to more responsible attitudes from the tourism industry, and increased awareness and concerns from consumers. Particularly in developed countries a great emphasis has been placed on the identification of indicators that enable to understand sustainable tourism development processes and its implications. However, in developing countries, sustainability with regard to tourism is still an emerging issue. This research addresses the process of the sustainable tourism assessment in developing countries, with particular reference to Armenia, namely which indicators can be put into practice in order to help tourism organizations and tourism businesses to meet sustainability requirements and to gain the confidence of tourism markets. Secondary data analysis was conducted, both to identify the theoretical background and conceptual framework as well as to identify available data on the practical assessments carried out throughout the world with regards to tourism sustainability assessment. This research concludes by proposing the set of indicators that best fit the specific context of Armenia. Key Words: Sustainable development, sustainable tourism, sustainability metrics, tourism in Armenia vi Table of Contents List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... xi List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... xii Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................ xiv CHAPTER ONE: Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 1.2. Motivations for conducting this research ............................................................... 2 1.3. Theoretical background ........................................................................................... 3 1.3.1. Sustainable development ................................................................................ 3 1.3.2. Sustainability in tourism .................................................................................. 3 1.3.3. Sustainability assessment and metrics ............................................................ 4 1.4. The goal and the objectives of the research ........................................................... 5 1.5. Research methodology ............................................................................................ 5 1.6. Structure of the dissertation ................................................................................... 6 1.7. Summary .................................................................................................................. 8 CHAPTER TWO: Sustainable development and sustainability in tourism ................................... 9 2.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 9 2.2. Sustainable development ........................................................................................ 9 2.3. Sustainable tourism development ........................................................................ 21 2.3.1. Conceptual framework .................................................................................. 21 2.3.2. The evolution of the paradigm of tourism sustainability ............................. 26 2.4. Summary ................................................................................................................ 28 vii CHAPTER THREE: Sustainability assessment and metrics ......................................................... 29 3.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 29 3.2. Conceptual framework .......................................................................................... 29 3.3. A Framework for developing sustainable tourism indicators .............................. 37 3.4. Indicators as tools for assessing sustainability ...................................................... 43 3.5. Indicators for assessing sustainability in tourism .................................................. 49 3.6. Summary ................................................................................................................ 54 CHAPTER FOUR: The development of tourism in developing countries ................................... 55 4.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 55 4.2. Defining the “developing countries” ..................................................................... 55 4.3. Tourism as a tool towards development in developing countries: Myth or reality? . 58 4.4. Summary ................................................................................................................ 66 CHAPTER FIVE: Tourism development in Armenia .................................................................... 68 5.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 68 5.2. Geographic and socio-demographic profile .......................................................... 68 5.3. Economic profile .................................................................................................... 71 5.4. Armenia: Institutional framework for tourism development ............................... 74 5.5. Armenia: State of the arts of the tourism industry ............................................... 77 5.6. The Travel & tourism competitiveness report and Armenia’s stance................... 82 5.7. Summary ................................................................................................................ 86 CHAPTER SIX: Methodology ...................................................................................................... 88 6.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 88 6.2. Research questions ..................................................................................................... 89 viii 6.3. Methods of data collection ........................................................................................ 90 6.4. Summary ..................................................................................................................... 93 CHAPTER SEVEN: Analysis of tourism sustainability assessment cases .................................... 94 7.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 94 7.2. Assessment of tourism sustainability in france ..................................................... 95 7.3. Tourism sustainability assessment practices in Spain ........................................... 95 7.4. Tourism sustainability assessment practices in the United Kingdom (UK) ........... 98 7.5. Assessment of Tourism Sustainability in Douglas Shire Council, North Queensland, Australia ......................................................................................................