Principles of Sustainable Tourism Development

perfect life on earth".

Although there are still many debates surrounding the concept of sustainable development from different perspectives, it can be seen that until now the concept proposed by the World Commission on Environment and Development WCED in 1987 has been widely used as a standard for comparing responsible development activities towards the human environment.

According to the viewpoint of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1980, "Sustainable development must consider the current state of exploitation of renewable and non-renewable resources, the favorable conditions as well as the difficulties in organizing short-term and long-term action plans intertwined". This affirms that the socio-economic development goals of most countries in the world must be determined in a sustainable relationship.

At the Global Environment Conference RIO – 92 and RIO – 92+5, the concept of sustainable development was supplemented by scientists, according to which: "Sustainable development is formed in the integration, interweaving and compromise of 3 interactive systems: natural system, economic system and cultural-social system".

Under this sustainable development perspective, Jacobs and Sadler (1992) argued that sustainable development is the result of the interaction and interdependence of the three systems mentioned above, and at the same time determined that sustainable development does not allow humans to prioritize the development of one system and cause degradation and destruction to another system, or more specifically, sustainable development is the reconciliation of interactions and compromises between the three systems mentioned above to set narrower goals for sustainable development including:

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- Enhance effective community participation in political decisions in the development process of society.

- Create possibilities to promote economic growth without degrading resources through the application of new achievements in science and technology.

- Resolve social conflicts caused by unfair development.

In Vietnam, the theory of sustainable development has also been studied by scientists and theorists recently on the basis of absorbing research results on international theory and experience on sustainable development, comparing with specific circumstances in Vietnam.

Directive No. 36/CT of the Politburo of the Party Central Committee dated June 25, 1998 identified the goals and basic viewpoints for sustainable development based mainly on environmental protection activities.

environment. At the same time, the "political report" at the 8th Party Congress (1996) also officially mentioned the aspect of protecting the ecological environment and rationally using resources as an inseparable component of sustainable development. [5]

1.1.7. Sustainable tourism development

Concepts of sustainable tourism

The concept of sustainable tourism has emerged on the basis of improving and upgrading the concept of soft tourism in the 90s and has really attracted widespread attention in recent years. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), 1996:

“Sustainable tourism is tourism that meets the needs of present tourists and tourist areas while ensuring the ability to meet the needs of future generations”.

Sustainable tourism requires management of all resources in such a way that we can fulfill economic, social and aesthetic needs while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems. ( Hens L., 1998)

The goals of Sustainable Tourism are:

- Sustainable economic development: Tourism is an economic sector, so sustainable tourism development must be economically sustainable, income must be greater than costs, must achieve high and stable growth over a long period of time, optimize the contribution of the tourism sector to national income, and contribute to promoting the development of other economic sectors.

- Sustainable environmental development: Must use and protect tourism resources and environment in an economical and sustainable manner, ensure the regeneration and restoration of resources, improve the quality of resources and environment, attract communities and tourists to participate in activities to preserve and enhance resources.

- Sustainable social development: Attracting the community to participate in tourism activities, creating many jobs, contributing to improving the quality of life of local communities, improving social equity, diversifying and improving the quality of tourism products, highly meeting the needs of tourists.

Thus, planners in the tourism planning process need to consider meeting the sustainable tourism development goals of the planned territorial systems.

To achieve sustainable tourism development, the process of tourism development and tourism planning must be carried out with principles.

1.1.8. Principles of sustainable tourism development

- Using resources sustainably: The conservation and sustainable use of natural, cultural and social resources is essential, it helps businesses develop in the long term. Tourism is an economic sector with a clear resource orientation. Tourism resources are considered the most important tourism product, the purpose of the tourist's trip. However, many types of tourism resources cannot be renewed, recycled or replaced. Tourism activities have brought about efficiency in many aspects, but also caused many negative impacts such as: depletion, degradation of resources and environment...

Therefore, in the process of planning tourism development projects, it is necessary to develop methods and strategies to preserve, restore and exploit tourism resources in an economical and reasonable manner to leave for future generations a resource that the current generation enjoys.

- Maintaining diversity: Maintaining and enhancing the diversity of nature, culture and society is extremely important for sustainable, long-term tourism; it is the basis for the existence and development of the tourism industry.

- Reduce overconsumption and waste: Overconsumption of natural resources and other resources not only leads to environmental destruction and resource depletion, but also fails to ensure resources for the long-term development of the tourism industry. Therefore, proper tourism development planning right from the project establishment must assess the impact of tourism activities on environmental resources, thereby planning effective preventive measures to reduce overconsumption of resources and reduce waste into the environment is necessary.

- Integrating tourism planning into the socio-economic development planning process: Tourism is an interdisciplinary economic sector, it has a close relationship with many socio-economic sectors. The tourism sector brings direct and indirect effects to socio-economic sectors. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate tourism development into the strategic planning framework of the locality and the country. Tourism development planning is a part of socio-economic planning, it increases the ability to survive and develop long-term of the tourism sector.

- Support local economy: Resources used by the tourism industry that belong to local people such as roads, electricity, water, waste treatment systems, communications, etc. may not only serve the tourism industry but also promote tourism development. Tourism activities on the one hand bring positive effects to the local socio-economy. Therefore, the tourism industry has the responsibility to contribute a part of the income to

local and national economic development.

- Attracting the participation of local communities: The participation of local communities in tourism not only benefits them and the environment; but also contributes to maintaining and developing tourism, diversifying and improving the quality of tourism products, creating attractiveness for tourists.

- Consulting the public and relevant stakeholders: This is a necessary step to raise awareness of stakeholders in planning projects, and jointly resolve potential conflicts of interest. At the same time, this helps stakeholders support the implementation of planning projects.

- Staff training: Tourism human resources are the most important productive force, it determines the sustainable development of tourism. To achieve sustainable development goals, planning projects need to plan strategies and solutions from the beginning to train and improve the quality of human resource training.

- Responsible tourism marketing: To achieve sustainable tourism development goals, tourism planning projects need to plan strategies, market, and promote to tourists full information and responsibly enhance tourists' respect for the natural, cultural and social environment at the destination, while increasing tourist satisfaction.

- Conduct research: Information and data for project development and even when the project is implemented are not readily available. For planning projects to be effective, from the pre-project stage to project implementation, it is necessary to invest heavily in investigation, monitoring, statistics, analysis, and comparison and synthesis to be able to develop appropriate project goals, directions, and solutions. Research also helps to clearly recognize the shortcomings and limitations of planning projects so that timely adjustment and supplementary planning solutions can be found. At the same time, the results of investigation, statistics, and evaluation also provide information as a basis for project planning in the following stages.

1.1.9. Criteria for evaluating sustainable tourism development

Sustainable tourism development is a new category in the tourism development strategy in our country, so it is very important to study and identify signs to recognize the state of this development process. Based on these signs, managers can have appropriate and timely solutions to adjust activities to achieve a more sustainable state for the development process.

- Economic criteria:

Sustainable tourism development must ensure continuous and long-term stable growth of tourism economic indicators (indicators of tourists, income, GDP, technical facilities, labor, etc.). According to the current development trend in the country and in the world, economic indicators that are continuously developed for many years (usually over or under 10 years) at an average rate of about 7-10% per year are considered sustainable development. However, depending on the level of development and the starting point of economic indicators in each country and each locality, different growth rates will be selected to assess sustainability. With this criterion, it is necessary to mention the following specific indicators:

+ Tourist index: This is the most important index for the tourism development process. Tourist index determines the success or failure; determines the sustainable or unsustainable development of the tourism industry. In the tourist index, in addition to the absolute number of visitors, other indexes that need to be taken into account in the sustainable development process are the average number of days of stay, the number of returning visitors, the ability to pay, the level of customer satisfaction...

+ Tourism income and gross domestic product (tourism GDP) indicators: . Tourism income indicators are closely related to tourist indicators, the continuous growth of tourists will lead to income growth and will make an important contribution to the sustainable development of tourism.

Thus, tourism income and gross domestic product are important criteria to ensure sustainable economic development of tourism.

+ Tourism infrastructure system indicators: The tourism infrastructure system (including accommodation, dining, entertainment, transportation, tourist areas, travel agencies, other additional service facilities, etc.) is a measure reflecting the level of development of the tourism industry. The development in both quantity, type and quality of the tourism infrastructure system, on the one hand, meets all the needs of all types of visitors, on the other hand, contributes significantly to attracting visitors, ensuring the sustainable development of the industry.

- Tourism human resource indicators: The quality of the workforce will directly affect the quality of tourism products, service quality and ultimately affect business efficiency and the growth of other tourism indicators.

+ Responsibility in tourism promotion activities: Promotion activities

Tourism promotion is of particular importance in attracting tourists. Responsibility in promotion activities through providing complete and honest information about routes and tourism products will create trust for tourists and directly affect the ability to attract tourists. The increase in the number of tourists means economic growth through tourism activities.

- Criteria on resources and environment:

Sustainable tourism development requires the rational and effective exploitation and use of resource potentials and environmental conditions. The exploitation and use of resources for tourism development need to be managed and monitored to meet current needs on the one hand, and to ensure future tourism development needs on the other hand. With this goal in mind, in the development process, the tourism industry needs to make positive contributions to the restoration of resources and environmental protection... to minimize the impacts of tourism activities on environmental resources.

+ Number (ratio) of tourist areas and spots invested in restoration and conservation: Tourist areas and spots are activities in tourism development, in which tourism resources play a central role. Reality shows that the more abundant and unique the tourism resources are, the higher the attractiveness and effectiveness of tourism activities.

The goal of sustainable development is to minimize the overexploitation and waste of resources, especially non-renewable resources. The more tourist areas and spots are invested in, preserved and restored, the more sustainable the tourism development activities there are.

According to the World Tourism Organization, if this ratio exceeds 50%, tourism activities are considered to be in a state of sustainable development.

+ Number (ratio) of planned tourist areas and spots: Tourism planning is the process of inventorying, analyzing, and evaluating resources and related conditions for tourism development, thereby determining appropriate development options, ensuring effective exploitation of tourism resource potential and proposing solutions to limit the impact of tourism activities on resources and the environment, bringing high economic and social efficiency.

+ Pressure on the environment and resources in tourist areas and spots: The rapid development of tourism activities without paying attention to the assessment and management of environmental impacts in tourist development areas will be the main cause of serious environmental consequences here and the result will be the unsustainable development of tourism.

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+ Intensity of activities at tourist areas and spots: Predicting an increase in the number of

Tourists are an important criterion for sustainable economic development, the increasing number of visitors to a tourist destination will demonstrate the strong development of that tourist destination. However, the strong increase in the number of tourists will mean that tourism resources are overexploited to meet the needs of tourists, leading to the degradation and depletion of resources (some endemic species are used for the production of souvenirs, specialties, precious medicines, etc.). The rapid increase in tourists also causes the phenomenon of waste overload at tourist destinations, making the environment there unsafe and leading to environmental degradation.

Therefore, limiting the number of visitors in a development cycle is an important and necessary issue, which will help maintain and protect biodiversity, ensuring sufficient energy supply to serve the needs of tourists.

+ The level of contribution from tourism income to the conservation, development of resources and environmental protection: The level of contribution of the tourism industry to the conservation and upgrading of resources is shown through the ratio between the contribution and total revenue. The higher the ratio, the higher the level of contribution and ensures the exploitation of resources to serve tourism development in a sustainable direction.

- Social criteria

In sustainable tourism development, the tourism industry must make specific contributions to the development of the whole society: Creating jobs for workers; participating in hunger eradication and poverty reduction; improving the quality of life of people in remote areas - where there are tourism resources; sharing benefits from tourism activities, ensuring fairness in development; contributing to supporting other industries to develop together.

+ The level of development of the system of small and medium tourism enterprises: the development of the system of small and medium tourism enterprises also has great social significance, creating conditions for a part of local workers to have jobs, improve the quality of life, raise people's knowledge... Besides, this is also an environment that attracts huge social resources (human resources, intellectual resources, material resources) for tourism development, suitable for the highly socialized nature of tourism, ensuring sustainable development.

+ Social impacts from tourism activities: To ensure sustainable tourism development in terms of society, the problem is the negative impacts (unavoidable) on society.

The impacts from tourism development activities need to be controlled and managed.

+ The level of satisfaction and cooperation of the local community with tourism activities: To ensure sustainable tourism development, it is necessary to have the support and cooperation of the local community - the owner of tourism resources. Therefore, the level of satisfaction of the local community with tourism activities will reflect the level of sustainability of tourism in the development process.

1.2. Experience in sustainable tourism development

1.2.1. Experience in sustainable tourism development in some countries

- Annapurna Conservation Area (ACAP) – Nepal: In this conservation area, ecotourism development is used as a lever for community development and nature conservation, biodiversity conservation and sustainable community development activities in ACAP.

Within the reserve, programs have been implemented to reduce pressure on forest resources, improve the quality of life of local communities, and make tourism more responsible. Nurseries have been established to provide community tree seedlings and reforestation programs. To address the problem of fuelwood, kerosene, LPG, and small hydroelectric generators have been built under community management. In areas frequented by tourists, livestock, forestry, and agriculture programs have been implemented to increase local incomes and provide food for tourists. In addition, visitor and local education programs and information work have been prioritized. The main activity in ACAP is to build local capacity, and ultimately it is the local people who decide on their own lives. They are the main actors and they are the main beneficiaries. Local communities are trained and empowered to protect the quality of their unique natural and cultural resources; this is a key factor in attracting tourists and is the foundation for sustainable livelihoods.

- Thenmala Tourism – Kerala , India: The objective is to develop Thenmala and its surrounding areas as an attractive tourist destination; promote ecotourism based on sustainable principles; develop tourist destinations in accordance with planning, emphasizing sustainable tourism development, and serve as a model for other tourism development programs.

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