The development of Sustainable Tourism has allowed society to meet their own present needs, without compromising such needs of future generations (Weaver and Lawton, 2010). Much attention in relation to sustainable tourism has been devoted to Alternative Tourism. Alternative Tourism aims to preserve environmental, economical and socio-cultural impacts tourists have on a destination. This paper will explore the benefits and criticisms of sustainability by a means of Alternative Tourism and also the threat regarding Alternative Tourism potentially developing into Mass Tourism.
Tourists visit foreign countries to obtain a sense of paradise, and dabble in a society that has not yet been corrupted (Buchner, 2003). Sustainable Tourism aims to provide such paradise by meeting the needs of tourists, without effecting the economy, environment and society in a detrimental way. Thus far, Sustainable Tourism has had a vast variety of implications, such as ethical considerations and the suggestion that it may just be a marketing ploy (Lansing and Vries, 2007). It also has been confused with Ecotourism, a form of tourism that places emphasis on a sustainable connection with the natural environment (Weaver and Lawton, 2010). However, Ecotourism is actually a form of Alternative Tourism and potentially Mass Tourism (Weaver and Lawton, 2010) thus fitting with a number of other new forms of tourism.
Alternative tourism has emerged and assumed to be effective in developing countries (Britton 1979). Alternative tourism is a substitute to the mass standard tourism, which is tourism that has the implication of culture being co modified and staged for culture consumption (McIntosh and Zahara, 2007), as philosophy and attitudes are dissimilar